Thats being tested now down stairs so the mail room area is contained while we go through the various steps to test that. On a field test. Package it up safely for removal and decon that area and anybody that came in contact with it. Im going to take just keep in mind it happened a couple of hours ago and still ongoing and going to take some questions and not going too deep into it. Yes . Can you talk about how concerned you are the connection of these targets . People who have been criticized by the president well, take a look at whos being targeted here and thats why were doing it proactively. Reaching out to people in the city. People that do their security and making sure that the mail rooms follow proper protocol and of concern to us and reaching out to the right people. Yes . Hold on. Mayor or governor, earlier
this week, president assaulting a journalist. All sorts of threats to journalists. Do you have a particular message to President Trump in light of what happened at cnn or critics like john brennan and im going to Say Something broad. It Doesnt Make Sense to exacerbate it. To all Public Officials of all 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. 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. Look. This is a this is a political year. Its a political season. We are weeks from an election. And thats obviously in the air. And thats an obvious fact. But weve been through Many Political seasons and we have political differences and thats actually good for democracy. What is not good is overheated rhetoric, extremism that pushes people to violence. And at the end of the day, we may have political differences, but this is one country. Were all americans. Out of many, one. And keeping the debate and the
dialogue civil is very, very important and for elected leaders who in many ways set the tone it is especially important. What should hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Right there. Can you see devibe what the device looks like . Sure. Brian paarmann. So far the devices have been what appeared to be pipe bombs. If i could, id like to make a statement. I know that a lot of the public is scared and concerned and confusion surrounding this. I want to assure you that the reason we are here because the totality of the federal, state and local authorities will investigate this thoroughly and follow every lead and every well turn over every rock, turn every corner and talk to
everybody we have to in order to mitigate this threat. The mission of the new York Joint Terrorism Task force is to protect the American People and uphold the constitution. The utilization of violence in order to further ones own political agenda is unacceptable to us and we will not rest until we find this, stop these hazardous devices from being mailed and bring the individual or individuals to justice. We have no better partners than the nypd, the new York State Police and the entirety of the joint Terrorism Task force. We will be on this until the day that we find this individual and bring him to justice. Id like to thank nypd and our partners on the task force as well as the United StatesSecret Service as well as the u. S. Capitol police and the Westchester County authorities for the cooperation and collaboration we have thus far. With that, ill turn it back over for questions, sir. Hold on. Go ahead. Hold on a second. The as you have heard, there is a a number of devices and theres a pattern apparently to the number of devices. We wouldnt be at all surprised if more devices show up. A device has been sent to my office in manhattan which we were just informed about that and device is also being handled. So again, this is a situation a. Number of devices have been sent. Theyre being handled. We wouldnt be surprised if additional devices are sent. And the device that is been sent to my office has been identified
and is being handled as we speak. Are they related . What do you well, terrorism related, right . Terrorism is an attempt to strike terror, an attempt to strike fear. Obviously, these devices are an attempt to strike fear. Hence terrorism. Are they domestic . Are they international . These are all questions that would have to be handled by the investigation. But yes. It was a terrorist attempt. It was a terrorist attack. And as you said, whats the intent . To strike fear. And when they strike fear, they win. Thats when they are effective. Who controls that . We control that. We control that. This is not the first time we
have been through this. We have been through this many, many times. Literally as i mentioned before it goes back 25 years to the First World Trade Center bombing. This is new york. Its part of who we are and part of our profile. So, we refuse to be intimidated. We refuse to allow them to make us afraid of going to our daily lives. We have the best Law Enforcement agencies. Were all working together. Were all here. And were going to go about our daily lives, enjoying this beautiful city an state. And were not going to let them win. Period. Kate, you had a question . A couple more questions, guys. Was anything written on the packages . Yes. I wont go into what was on the package. Okay . It was consistent with the other
packaging, though. Listen. We have to go back to work so were going to give you updates throughout the day and want to remind everybody here and all new yorkers, any tips, any leads, call 911 or 1888nycsafe. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. Im stephanie ruhle. We start with the breaking news. The act of terror. That is how the mayor of new york city has described what happened today. At this point, across america, my partner and coanchor ali velshi is live in new york outside the Time Warner Center. Of course, ali, you are just outside cnns new york headquarters. Talk to us about where you are and what youve heard as just moments ago we saw the governor of new york andrew cuomo just wrap his Press Conference. Yeah. And he just confirmed a sixth
device that went to his office. This is brand new. A sixth device going to the governors office. This is 58th street. Looking west to the hudson river. Thats 9th avenue behind me. Just behind where that Police Bomb Truck is, thats where the Press Conference is and just beyond thats the entrance to cnn. We have several entrances of this building. We have the shopping plaza. We have got condominiums and then the entrance of cnn. The building is shut down. The bomb has been removed from here. Ive seen a photo of it. It looks very much like a pipe bomb. I dont know much about pipe bombs but an imagination for what one would look like, this is what it looks like. Came in a manila envelope with stamps on it addressed to john brennan with an address not this address but cnn Time Warner Center. That is removed by a device in the garage. Thats gone for inspection. However, there was white powder found with it. And thats why they are still
investigating in the mail room here at cnn what the white powder actually is. Theyre not clear as to whether its just white powder or it might be a chemical substance. Thats the part of the mystery. And then, of course, the concept of these coordinated devices showing up at different places is what has people really, really concerned here. We heard from the police commissioner, the fbi, the atf, the mayor, the governor and the Deputy Police commissioner john miller who was oh. Hang on a second. The Deputy Commissioner who was talking about the fact that they still dont know exactly where these came from but its early investigation. You can see some of the official Police Vehicles leaving now. We have got the mayor as i said here. The governor. The media is now been allowed to that point over there but this building is shut down. Everybody is evacuated from it. The residents, the retailers and the investigation is still ongoing. As for cnn, stephanie, again, as you know, i worked in this building for seven years and cnn
for 12 years. Cnn has inspected all of the bureaus or in the process internationally. Jeff zucker, the boss at cnn, put out an email saying specifically that atlanta which is also a public area, its part of cnns center, theyre putting magnetometers so the public will go through a device. Thats whats part of Whats Going On here and where you are, stephanie, the governor and the mayor did say you will see a Greater Police presence at all Media Outlets around the city. Steph . Without a doubt. We should always remember we are not just media headquarters. These are Tourist Destinations whether its Time Warner Center or Rockefeller Center where i am now. It is not just employees of these News Organizations or retail companies. Think about all of the people that visit these locations every day. Now i want to bring in nbcs
Garrett Haake, just near president obamas house in washington, d. C. Ron allen is live near the clintons home in westchester, chappaqua, new york. Hans nichols live at the white house. Whats the latest there . Reporter well, stephanie, at this point theres still heavy Police Presence here and always security here at the clinton estate. Theyve been here for 18 years. The Secret Service is always here and one thing that Hillary Clinton emphasized in the remarks in florida. They have police protection. They have security. Many of the other people who are who have presumably targeted or some do not have that. But here today, the Secret Service has been emphasizing that the device to mrs. Clinton intercepted along the way at a sorting facility, at a secret Service Screening scenter. And it never got anywhere near the home, anywhere near the
family. We believe that bill clinton, former president , was here at the time when this happened. Sometime in the late last night, Early Morning hours, not sure of the exact timing. We dont know if he is still here and seen comings and goings throughout the day and not them. We have heard from Chelsea Clinton who sent out a tweet saying essentially expressing her Glat Tuesdratitude and than Secret Service. We are about, oh, maybe 15 minutes drive or home from the home of george soros and we know targeted with a bomb yesterday, with a device yesterday. That was a very different situation because that device actually found its way to a mailbox that is on the road in front of soros house, estate, an employee apparently picked the device up or took it out of the mailbox, thought it was suspicious and took it out Into The Woods nearby and called authorities. So a much more troubling, disturbing, serious situation
there in the sense that someone actually came in direct contact with the device, very close to the property of george soros. Who we know is a billionaire, Political Activist whos been a frequent target of conservatives, the right, for his support of Democratic Candidates like mrs. Clinton and bill clinton and president obama, as well. At this point, again, the Secret Service is here. Theyre keeping us at bay. We have not gotten an update about the situation involving the family. But again, emphasizing that the clintons were never directly threatened by the device. Never got near them. Stephanie . Any goodness. As as distressing as this is, theres six targets and good to know no one is injured. Appreciative of the fbi, Law Enforcement. Lets go to Garrett Haake in washington, d. C. Lets have an update where you are. Reporter stephanie, a similar situation here in that
one of the devices was addressed to the obamas here in the northwest washington, d. C. But likewise never got near the obamas home and intercepted at a mail screening facility. They dont come out and check their mail like we do. Their mail is screened offsite and intercepted. You can see the barricades here. The obama house about four houses back over my Left Shoulder here. Most of this already existed here. This is sort of normal in this neighborhood. This is probably the second most well watched, well guarded neighborhood in all of washington, d. C. After that around the white house. You have the obama family which lives on the block im standing on now. Jared kushner and ivanka trump live a couple of houses that way. A little bit of an increased Police Presence here and likely to remain throughout the day. All right. Garrett, thank you so much. I want to take you back to ali velshi in Columbus Circle. You have more news . Yeah. Pete williams has got it. Lets go to d. C. With pete williams. What do you have got . There might be seven devices that we know of. The soros device, clinton, obama, brennan at cnn, one sent to eric holder. Ill come back to that in a moment. One to andrew cuomo and now told that there appears to be not confirmed yet but appears to be one that was found at the congressional mail sorting facility. We dont yet know any further details about that. To whom it was addressed, we dont know yet and could be a seventh possible one. Now, the device that was addressed to eric holder turns out to have an interesting story according to Law Enforcement officials. So, were told by several officials familiar that one of these devices, one of these
packages, was addressed to former attorney general eric holder whos been mentioned as a possible democratic president ial candidate in 2020. However, it was never delivered to his office. There was apparently some problem with the address and so it was sent back and the Return Address we have been told on all these packages, the Return Address was congressman Debbie Wassermanschultzs office and thats why theyve been searching there in florida because of the Return Address. So to be clear, according to Law Enforcement officials, there was no package addressed to her. She was not the addressee. She was the Return Addressee were told on all of these packages. And the one addressed to eric holder never delivered, not intercepted by Law Enforcement. But was discovered when it came back as the Return Address to the office of Congresswoman DebbDebbie Wassermanschultz. We cant count the one of the office twice. Its not a separate one. Its the one that was addressed to eric holder and waiting to find out whether the one intercepted at the congressional Mail Facility addressed to a member of congress. By now, as you heard in the fbi news conference, john miller saying that a complete description of these devices, the packages, has been sent to all the people who get these advisories from the fbi, people in industry, people in government that normally get these so they know what to look for. Yeah. Its 20,000 agencies, groups, companies that get this information from the joint Terrorism Task force and they have all been informed of this. I have seen the picture of the device and the envelope. The one i saw addressed here to john brennan with an incorrect address did have u. S. Mail stamps on it. So, just to be clear, this congressional Mail Facility, where is that . Is that at congress . No. None of these facilities are near the places where the mail is delivered. The white house facility is at a Military Base some distance from the white house. The facility for looking at congressional mail is several miles away. In washington, d. C. So no. Theyre not nearby at all. And the postal authorities and the Law Enforcement authorities are well on the lookout for these devices now. So i dont think anymore of them are going to be delivered. At cnn, it got ooitsz right in into the mail room and theyre deliberate of taking in mail and packages. In addition, john miller saying that this package, this what appears to be a pipe bomb, also had im not clear in a
package or a different package, white powder associated with it and why the building is not reopened yet because investigators are still trying to figure out what that white powder is and make sure its not dangerous and contagious and not letting people in the building. The far door is cnn. The closer door is condo and the closest door to us is the shopping plaza. The shopping center, Time Warner Center. Stephanie, thank you for that feed. Stephanie, police have done a remarkable job around here. This is one of those areas where nypd has staged for serious events. Like 30 Rockefeller Center, i remember in my days here, you routinely hear lights and centers and 50 to 100 Police Vehicles converging on this area because they know its a tourist area, a corporate headquarters, a media headquarters. They have been doing that and police did a remarkable job here of not only protecting the area but keeping traffic moving. 8th avenue in front of me is
moving. 58th street, 59th is moving. Broadway and Columbus Circle is open. They have people going. The soys are nine below us all working. Just this is closed. 58th street between 8th and 9th. The entrance of cnn and the Parking Garage is closed to pedestrians and traffic. Steph . All right. Ali, please stay safe where you are. Joining us, former nypd commissioner bill bratton, former Homeland Security adviser Michael Balboni and reporter tom winter. Whats the latest you have heard . We have heard from pete williams. Do you have more reporting . Yeah. So i think the best to do is recap Whats Going On and then these gentlemen who have resumes about 20 times longer than i to explain what they might be doing if they were back in their shoes. So what we know is this. On monday a package that was addressed to george soros was found at his home and the packages what have been subsequently found sent to
Hillary Clinton, barack obama, john brennan via cnn, to eric holder and as pete told us the package was returned back to Debbie Wassermanschultz and her name was the name on the Return Address for all of these packages. So thats something that we have been tracking since this morning and that the devices that theres a high level of commonality of every single package. Whether every single component is the same we are not quite sure but theyre pretty much identical and allowed investigators to conclude this is coming from one particular individual or individuals and provides them the key evidence that they can look at to start to figure out whos behind this and Whats Going On. So thats what we know so far. As you heard at the Press Conference, the thing the nypd does, once they transport a suspected explosive device, they
want to get it in the total Containment Facility and get it to the bronx to rodmans neck. If it went off on the highway or goes off at the range, its fine because all the evidence is going to be contained whether that vessel and not losing anything from an evidence standpoint. All the components on screen, all held within there. There wouldnt be any threat or damage to the public so thats really the best procedure and now they can take their time to comb through this, look at what they have and take the next investigative steps hopefully for more clues and evidence and who are the people or the individual thats behind this. Commissioner, what do you make of this . Concern right now is certainly the fear that its creating. Yeah. And the idea of shutting down the time warner building, you have the retail. You have the office. You have the resident shial, th hotel. The fear issue, the multiple devices or packages, concern
going forward, are there more . Secondly, the Copycat Potential which frequently happens in these events that somebody else gets the idea watching the news conference. Why dont i do the same thing . The device at Rodman Ice Neck attempt as much as possible to look at it before exploding it. Understanding where were certain parts purchased. Is this something that is described in the terrorist magazines how to make it . So often its a solo person that most of the bombing incidents a busy one. Usually been a solo. Is this a slow he person . A group . They will be examining social media exhaustively to determine has anybody been making threats against the individuals or collectively . Going forward, theres a lot to be learned that the idea of who, singular or plural in terms of
the characters. Are there more of these devices . Im a member of that 20,000person shield organization and get their notices. Got it while were sitting here describing as you summarized, the summary in the shield notification including pictures of the device and the envelope so those 20,000 Security Directors and Respective Companies can put their entities on notice. So the fear as well as the awareness of this is extraordinarily far reaching at this time. Michael, whats your take . I mean, first as they collect all this evidence, if they are going to take the evidence, these packages to a remote location and detonate them, do they risk losing important evidence, losing the ability to connect them all . Clearly theres a connection. Even who they have been sent to. The key concern is render safely. That takes precedence over Everything Else and stepping
back and looking at the process, theres a lot of questions raised. You want to jump to conclusion since its sent to everybody whos a democrat and this must be partisan motivation. You never start that way. You start with lets take this investigation and let it lead us where it leads us. One of the things thats been kind of confusing to me is if you have any awareness as to how institutions operate, you know that there are remote mail sorting houses. You know that the Secret Service is watching the thing. You send a device, the chances of actually getting through are very, very small. Thats interesting. Second, none of the devices went off. None of them. Seven sent. None of them go . I heard information theres a particular flaw that didnt let it go off. But when you take a look at the components, these are things you can pick up at any hardware store. Looking at i know you have
many times through all of the history about the different devices and how they were designed, this is a Run Of The MillPipe Bomb Device and design. So why didnt it go off . Its not terribly sophisticated didnt have a sophisticated timer tied to a cell phone. We dont see that. The last piece is so we see a lot of similarities on the packages themselves. But theres a question out there as to how they were delivered. We assume that you take someone went to a Mail Facility. Put these in. And then they were sent. We know that the United States post office Doesnt Screen for explosives. They have the ability after the Anthrax Attacks to go after biological or detect biological agents and dont screen for explosive devices. Someone has to take the boxeses and put them in the stream and with the cctv cameras, unless youre incredibly unsophisticated youre not anonymous. Theres Video Surveillances of post offices . Yes, there is. I should note that at 2 00 p. M. At the top of the hour President Trump will be speaking addressing this very issue. What is your take . I mean, the fact that the person who sent this had to have known Hillary Clinton doesnt open her mailbox and get Something Like this. Nor does former president barack obama. It was going to go to another safer location. Certain elements of responding to that question, were these devices capable of exploding . Whether there was a flaw, intentional or not. Secondly, was the motive fear . Without causing physical harm. Soros went to mailbox that was outside the gates of his residence on the road. So theres an exception to the others who would normally go in general george soros, it is unlikely hes checking the mail. In terms of his circumstances, it would be
somebody to pick up the mail and bring it in. Yes. As to whether that person or persons gone to that extent and the thought process. The idea here is that to find out very quickly, are these devices capable of exploding . Your point of none of them went off. Good. Were they capable of going off . If so, why did they not . Quha what was the Detonation Mechanism . A lot to be learned from that identifying who, singular or who plural created them. And then, again, for what purpose . The political issue is one thats certainly raised. There you have all of the people clearly identified as activist democrats. The president is going to be asked that, first question to come off the lips of the reporters down there that do you feel any blame for whens going on here with your attacks on all these people . So thats going to be another element to come into play here. But the fear issue is the one that just many of my clients have been reaching out about what should we be doing . None of them having anything to do with the political people reached out to with these devices but the fear is there. And then has to be responded to. Let it be a moment for all of us to come together and put safety first. Please stay with me. Just a moment ago, washington, d. C. Police chief spoke and lets show that. As you all know, a number of suspicious packages have been recovered on the east coast. The packages appear to contain explosive devices. The devices are currently being analyzed to determine if, in fact, they are inert or explosive. Its believed from a preliminary review they are explosive in nature. Two of those packages were addressed to Secret Service protectees. One addressed to former first lady Hillary Clinton in new
york. And one was addressed the former president barack obama. That was intercepted here in the district. The package was found at a Screening Facility Located in washington, d. C. The package was immediately identified during the screening procedure. And it never made it to its intended location. We will obviously be working with our federal partners at the fbi and the Secret Service to find those that are responsible for mailing those packages. I will say and you will hear other Law EnforcementOfficials Say that we will not let this type of terroristic behavior interrupt our lives and we are going to do everything we possibly can to ensure that theres a swift closure in this case. Do you all have any questions . On the as to is there anything that people should be
looking for as far as these packages are concerned . Protectees have advance places it doesnt go to the addresses and something that people when you see this type of a mailing, you want to be particularly vigilant about the mail youre receiving. Seeing something suspicious or somebody you dont know. Beyo be on the side of being extra cautious. Give the police a call. The federal agencies have told us that they intend on releasing images to help people identify similar packages. That should be coming later today. Mr. Taylors arrest Court Documents of two previous men arrested gang dispute of neighborhoods. Is there mr. Taylor part of that neighborhood . I can tell you that he is
soeshtd soesh associated with some of the folks there in the neighborhood. Its still unclear. I think a lot of people wonder if i want to bring my panel back in. Michael, can you speak to or give us a historical comparison of a coordinated issue . 1978, the unabomber mailed a series of devices over time and not caught until 1995 a listening time. When his brother turned him in. He did a similar type of tar getting which unique is a very large number. Seven devices over a short period of time. And the reason why kaczynski did it so long is a little bit at a time. Whoevers doing this is taking a huge chance of mailing them all at once and in a coordinated effort at one time. They could have sat back and said a little bit at a time. Once you do this, now everybodys stood up and concerned. Commissioner bratton said, its a fear play. Trying to instill this fear. So i think that there are parallels to kaczynski in terms of ability to do this so quickly and coordinated but we have to look at also the differentiators. I want to bring hans nichols in live at the white house. Hans, i know the president will be speaking at the top of the hour. But thus far, whats the reaction from the white house . Reporter the president is expected to address the issue at the top of the hour. We have heard from the Press Secretary and mike pence. You saw the President Retweet what mike pence said talking about condemning and his concern for this. We have also heard from former Secretary Of State president ial candidate Hillary Clinton. She really talked about this as an opportunity to bring the country together and try to get past some of divisive rhetoric and curious to see how President Trump addresses this and what sort of tone he really strikes. Does he try to strike healing tone . Throughout the morning i have to
say the white house is very swift, very deft to try to stay out in front of the story and almost immediately said that the president briefed on it, pretty forthcoming with information in the morning and now hearing from the president in just about 25 minutes. Stephanie . Theres often a difference how the white house responds and how the president does. Can you speak to Vice President pences response . Reporter look. Pence did two things. One, first, went to twitter and then at a Campaign Event talking about how the need to condemn all violence and praise Law Enforcement and make sure that the conversation doesnt get too out of hand. And then pence went back into the political speak and talking about the race of a certain congressional race up there. We have heard from lawmakers, as well. Paul ryan, Ska Leacalise of the importance of Secret Service and Law Enforcement and the crucial role like these. Comments also echoed by none
other than Chelsea Clinton. Stephanie . Thank you. Tom . A point that michael was raising before. Not only when you mail all these packages at once, chances are you mail them all from the same location or from within the same area. And that i think is something that investigators key on as far as where these packages may have come from and then to your point, at that point able to know where they were sent from or generally they can use that Close Circuit Television cameras and cameras at the post office to be able to narrow it down and may also be certain information on the packages about when they were mailed and provide them with more detail as far as, okay, generally on such and such a date around such and such time the packages would have had to have been delivered and ent ier into the mail stream. We thought it was one package to Hillary Clintons address, and i said, you know, people dont,
high profile public figures dont receive the mail the way we do. They have the facilitys that are able to sort them ahead of time. Most major News Organizations have them. Most major businesses to reflect the comments of commissioner from before have them. So, were talking about here somebody who either did not know and was not aware of more sophisticated ways of getting devices to people or somebody whos just trying to make a point. You know . I think both of you raised a really good point here. Why Didnt The Devices Go Off . And is this somebody trying to make the most elaborate device possible to send a message to get people to really Pay Attention to him . Theres incidents inforvestigat all the time. Probably nothing more than a duffel bag discarded or left behind somewhere and this will go towards motive, to the mindset of whoever the person is because its likely just one
person as you said before, commissioner, that did this. If he was going to do it, just as a message, why have explosive powder . Thats the big reason we think it was probably supposed to go off and was a device. Because the explosive powder takeless it a step further. A dummie. Yeah. A message. Exactly. Commissioner, can you speak to what a difficult situation this is to manage, new York Police Department or fbi or Law Enforcement that sounds like around the country and i want to pull a quote from commissioner james oneill at the Press Conference who said dont encourage attacks on the media. That is contributing the choices people are making. There is no question about it. Can you speak for a moment to how tense these times are . Making the job for Law Enforcement so difficult. Very for those of you in the media, those of us that comment with you. Certainly for Law Enforcement in the sense of trying to maintain
public security. The events today, for example, the fear factor we keep talking about, the device in new york, the powder that was referenced earlier by pete williams, and other reporters was evidently in the same package, of great concern, the white powder, what was that . And the idea of this device intended to go off, was it intended do contaminate what might have been in the socalled pipe bomb that we believe it is. So, in terms of whether that white powder was in the other envelopes around the country is something that the fbi and overall coordination of this effort attempting to determine. That will be a further part of the evidence stream but the idea of what commissioner oneill was referencing is no denying more so than i go back to the vietnam war that i can remember back 50 years for the level of
tenseness, anger, the description of the other side as the enemy, over the last 50 years all of that in my time in Law Enforcement i cannot recall another time when at a National Level the anger, the frustration and this type of issue were discussing today has been at the level its been and it doesnt seem to be getting any calmer. If anything, theres too many people trying to churn the waters even more. Maybe after Something Like that those in leadership positions across government, across the media, can help us turn down the heat. I want to go back to ali velshi outside the Time Warner Center. Give us an update where you are. All right. By did way, ed burns who finished a long series of vietnam shares the view of not this much vitriol in the nation. Because of the white powder, the commissioner was talking about, thats why the people are not back in the building and seeing if its dangerous. Whether it was a ruse. The device has been removed from the building for investigation. Now, lets just bring you up to speed on what happened in the last 24 hours. There are potentially seven devices. They may be bombs. I have seen photographs. They have been sent to Security Facilities around the country. They look like pipe bombs but in this case they were addressed to the one at cnn addressed to john brennan and addressed to cnn. Mislabeled a little bit and got to cnn and into the mail room and six others potentially. The potential one is at the congressional Mail Facility. Thats just been discovered. Theyre trying to determine whether or not thats actually one of these devices and maybe sent from the same person. One to george soros home. Another to the clintons. To the obamas. This one to cnn. One to former attorney general
eric holder and just a little while ago new york governor confirmed he was the recipient of one of these. We are at six or seven of these devices. They had the Return Addresses of congresswoman wassermanschultz. That doesnt mean Anybody Suspects that she sent these things and in one case going to eric holder got returned. Wasnt delivered. Maybe it was misaddressed but returned to her office which is why investigators are there at her office in florida. Not investigating her as a target nor investigating her as the person that sent it and someone perhaps used her name because having the name of a member of congress to make it easier to get through a Mail Facility. In the case of cnn and like others thorough about the way it checks packages, this made it into the mail room and what the concern was and this building evacuated at cnn. The Police Presence is thinning out here because the device has been removed. Theres still an investigation about the powder. And the road is still closed here on 58th street between 8th and 9th. But the investigation continues. John miller, the Deputy Commissioner for intelligence and terrorism did say that theres an increased Police Presence at all Media Organizations around new york because of this very thing but they dont know of any other devices and that theyre early on in the investigation. They dont know where this came from. I want to i think you have Clint Van Zandt there and jim kavanaugh. I want to go to clint. Based on the information we have so far, these officials here were not prepared to say whether this is an individual, a group or different people. Doesnt seem like different organizations because of the tight window in which these things were all delivered. What do we think about who might be behind this based on the early information we have now, clint . Well, you know, one of the things we do, we look at past individuals like this. Of course, we just spoke about the unabomber, ted kaczynski. We could talk about mark anthony, the austin, texas, bomber this last marchment and we know he was sending explosive devices through the mails and, of course, one of the ways he was identified is notwithstanding. The Surveillance Cameras in the various locations where he dispose itted these items. We have so many means for the person who putt them in the mail, the individual to drop this in george soros mailbox, the Surveillance Cameras there. I would be amazed if we didnt have sufficient Background Investigation on at least potential suspects by later this week. Right. So, jim, you and clint and stephanie and i have been together on the Austin Investigation of there and you were saying similar things, patterns that people look for, cameras all over the place, ways of dealing with this. What is the atf and what are investigators looking at with respect to the bomb . The package. The envelope that apparently is shared amongst all of these packages, the fact it has stamps. The Return Address. Maybe fingerprints. The idea of the white powder e here and the fact it likes like a pipe bomb looking at it. Based on the physical evidence what do you think were looking at . Well, its always great for Bomb Investigators to find an intact device. I mean, we train every single agent trained to investigate bombs and bombings and blown up bombs and blown up cars and minute fragments of bombs and fbi, as well. To do that. So when you get an intact device, it answers the questions for you quickly. Like clint said, you have the package. Theres fingerprints there. We were highly successful in the atf lab and certainly the fbi lab and the postal Inspection Lab of getting fingerprints on
the tape. Theyre loaded with tape. We will have fingerprints. Probably dna. Sometimes we find hair in the bomb that the bomber dropped. Think of the bomber. He made seven bombs. We dont exactly know if they function. But lets say they were going to function. He made seven bombs. Thats a Little Assembly line going on. Seven that we know of. Yeah. He caused them to be delivered to the postal service. We have had bombers, you know, that give people money and let the people take the package and drop it at the Mail Facility. So they arent seen. So that happens, too. But this guys not that sophisticated like you say. Who would not know that these political leaders and past president s dont get mail at their house . But this guys following the Conspiracy Theories because all these tar gets are the daily, constant talk of the crackpot Conspiracy Theories all the time. Im not even talking about any
general media. Go off into the crackpot world. These are the constant talk. Secretary clinton. Mr. Soros. All this is constantly. Even Debbie Wassermanschultz all talked about in the crackpot and hate circles. The guy can have a foot in there and not be that sophisticated politically to understand how packages are swept into these Mail Sorting Facilities in d. C. By did Secret Service. Nice to see you. I love it. I dont know. Yeah. All right. Im going to pick up. Clint, excuse me can you hear me . I think you can. I want to bring michael back in. You didnt get to comment on this. Given what your position was, after 9 11, how tense things were, that the Conspiracy Theories that were being tossed around, how much more dangerous
they make times like this. So whenever you have instances as we have talked about before, a School Shooting or any type of weapons or bombing, you have the potential for copycats. So lets start there. In other words, you have a certain segment of the population who have for whatever reason have the desire to get involved and do something thats similar to what the violent act was. And then you take across the broad section of society, ive studied this in the state legislature. That when people see something on tv, they want do react to it. Now, now take that and put it into probably one of the most tense times we have had in the last two years politically. I ran for office 13 times and i have never witnessed the kind of vitriol on both sides that happened here in this country. Is that the reason it happened or something that someone whens
susceptible to that suggestion, the power of that suggestion decides, im going to take steps to get involved here. Which is what a lot of people said when we saw that awful shooting in annapolis, maryland, a few months ago. Exactly correct. And so, thats always the question as to what the motivation is because right now investigators are going down did checklist saying what are the similarities . All as mr. Van zandt i think said, all the folks high profile, democratic targets, spokes people. For now. For now. Right. Exactly. It could change. But so thats what they have together but yet heres an individual who was able to put together a pipe bomb. Nowhere to send it. Do it all at once, coordinated without anyone calling up and saying i saw this guy putting in these pipe bombs into a putting these boxes into a facility and yet not know that theyre going to be stopped . Not have them not have any
one of them detonate . Theres something about the fact pattern that just Doesnt Make Sense. Its all this effort and yet none of it gets through . None of it works . Thank god. There is something about the environment that thank god. There is something about the environment were living in that made this individual or this time right for this type of activity. I realize when 9 11 happened it was wasnt a divided kcountry bt what we really saw, especially after that in new york, was a coming together. That was probably the best moment ive ever seen people coming together. For sure. Every one who has commented, theyre right. This is an attack on democracy. Regardless of who did it. It was an act of terror. Its designed, no matter what you believe the motivations are, its designed to impact the elections. Its an attack on our democracy. The fact it didnt go off. The fact they were never really in danger, kind of doesnt matter. The fact they didnt go off, the person would go through this much effort, does it make you believe the goal was not merely to scare but just to scare and not to harm. Yes, until you get to the point of they were functional devices. They actually had gun powder in them. Why not just do dummy devices . All the white powder attacks. They werent actually anthrax but they were meant to instill fear. Why go through making a functional device that Doesnt Go Off where it gets to targets but because of what the targets are isnt cause injuries. Theres a lot of missing information here. I hope they make a fast arrest. This would be terrific for the country and we could find out what the motivation is. Theres something here that says maybe not. I want to bring into the conversation nbc senior Media Reporter and terrorism analyst Malcolm Nance. Dylan, we have been talking about the heated rhetoric, the push back of the president talking about the media being the enemy of the people and there are colleague is standing outside cnn headquarters. What are people telling you . The context you bring up about the president s rhetoric which has been happening across our air, across cable news is hard to ignore. Any time theres Something Like this happens whether its a bombing, whether its suspicious packages or a shooting, theres a quick rush to speculate on what the potential motivations
might be. The fact no one has claimed responsibility for these packages, what you have playing out is a conversation about the rhetoric and the rhetoric coming out of white house, from President Trump. You saw a close aide, long time close aide to Hillary Clinton saying how much responsibility does President Trump air for this . Its a suggestion being made that will anger a lot of Trump Supporters and a lot of folks on the right but theres where the conversation is heading. It reiterates what youve been saying. They are folks who are sort of the icons for the far right in terms of sort of who the great sort of democratic conspiracy is. Its impossible to ignore that context. Just to your second question
what im hearing from folks at cnn, cnn is on top of this. They are the president of the network is releasing statements every half hour, every hour updating staff on Whats Going On. Hes encouraging staff to work from home while they figure this out. I used to work at cnn. I think every one is cognizant how the president has depicted cnn as the enemy of the people. Shes a great unifier. Great. Crooked hillary is a great
unifier. It is incredible the deep state where they dont look at her. They try to cut it. They will go to a Person Holding a sign who gets paid by soros or somebody. President obama along with Bren Nonprobably getting paid by your networks. Nonprobably getti your networks. Probably gettingy your networks. In fact, in many respects, you know they honor president obama. Isis is honoring president obama. Hes the founder of isis. Hes the founder of isis. Okay. Hes the founder. He founded isis. I would say the cofounder would be crooked Hillary Clinton. Cofounder, crooking Hillary Clint clinton. We talk about the constitution and people say the president doesnt have to be a moral leader. Its not required to have a specific code of conduct. Were living in a different world in a different environment in the age of trump. I think about Jamal Khashoggi and when we get into a world where its okay to call the media the enemy of the people, it does free up people who have nothing to do with this say i can attack the media. I want to point out here. Theres a crew over here. This is a cnn crew. Bryan, just give us a wave. That guy there is worked with us at msnbc. Hes my old producer. This is a cnn crew who got out of the building and has been set up and broadcasting all day. We have been through hurricanes together. These are journalists. They are just people who want to get the news out. You may not like a particular stance or position that cnn or cnbc or fox is taking. Theres a lot of folks from fox here. Were all journalists. When you cross that line and allow it to be permissible to attack journalists and this isnt personal because we have a lot of security and try to keep safe. When you go down that road, it becomes a permissible for people to do things. Were doing this on an interNational Level with our failure to condemn saudi arabia for its Press Freedom and were doing it on a daily level at these rallies where we talk about the press being the enemy
of the people. I want to give a big shout out to my former colleague who is are working here. Jeff said dont come into the building until its clear. Theyre out here working. They are standing, on their phones. Cnn will not get shut down because of a threat or a bomb or rhetoric. People can do damage. I think the conversation you were just having there about being Something Interesting about the story and none of the envelopes did anything bad. We dont know whether they are bombs or arent bombs. It looks like a bomb but thats what we need to understand. There are people who have the ability to do things. Thing back to that pizza where somebody thought he was shooting
up a Child Pedophile Ring run by Hillary Clinton. Thats what we have to be careful of. I want to get our colleague Malcolm Nance to weigh in. Speak to us about the environment that were living in. Earlier this week i spoke to a president ial historian who said one thing she can look back in history as bad as times were, we were led by good people. They cared about the country and we cared about each other. I worry right now that on both sides these extremes are unwilling to care about each other. Were viewing our own brothers and sisters and neighbors and colleagues as the enemy and how dangerous the perfective is. You know, let me try to recalibrate this conversation because i think were going too far down that path. What is happening right now that every one needs to understand is the United States is under a National Mail bombing campaign