no place. reporter: but officials tell cnn, the president does not believe he s complicit in contributing to the red-hot political atmosphere. where an apparent supporter allegedly sent package bombs to more than a dozen trump critics. and cnn has learned, the president is telling allies and advisers that he doesn t believe it s fair to link his rhetoric to the attempted violence. despite the political leanings plastered in stickers on the suspect s van. the president made that point clear, when moments after saying he would do everything in his power to change the tone, he repeated what he s been saying all along. and painted himself as the victim. i call them fake. i can do the greatest thing for our country, and on the networks and on different it will show bad. they will take it back yes, fake news. reporter: this morning, even as authorities in new york discovered another package bomb and were closing in on the 56-year-old suspect in south florida, the president diminish
and as you noted, as we ve noted over the last couple of days, everybody on the target list is somebody donald trump has singled out in a rally or a tweet or what have you as a political target. it is impossible to ignore the nexus and donald trump is doing just that, ignoring the nexus. he is not to blame for what this guy did, but it would be refreshing leadership if he could have an introspective moment. i don t anticipate it. it is not his style and i don t think we should wait for it. dan, i want you to look at this video. this guy posted video of himself at various trump rallies. you can hear him chanting, trump, trump, trump. also at one point chanting, cnn sucks. what do you make of this? look, it is not surprising given what we saw on his van and the not to mention the number of people and the kinds of people he sent these potential deadly bombs to, the package bombs to. sara can speak to this more than
about why he had the word bomb in quotes. we reached out to see what that was a reference to? was it a reference to the experience theories that this was a false flag operation? they didn t get back to us. a lot of people drew conclusions and he said it is very unfortunate going on. not the bomb situation, but the fact that it was slowing down republicans in the early voting and politics was not the main focus of the news coverage. we know that president trump has been frustrated by this coverage because he thinks he is being unfairly linked to whoever this person is who sent these suspected package bombs out and his allies have said the same. we saw his focus turn from when we saw the developments happening when a number of bombs came in calling to a band on the calls and renewing his attacks on the media, saying they are the ones responsible for the division and not president trump and his rhetoric. that was of course a
they didn t respond to it earlier, but how unusual is it, tina, to have these 13 i.e.d.s, these 13 package bombs and not a single one of them, thank goodness, detonated, especially after all the travel. it is very interesting to wonder why they didn t go off. we don t know if it was simply a flaw in the way he did his design? did he wire them incorrectly and perhaps there was a loose connection? the material inside of these devices is sensitive to heat, so they re a little more sensitive than other materials we might encounter in the explosives world. it will be really great to hear from be law enforcement. it is interesting. and they have this treasure trove of evidence, jim, and
have the person responsible for at least a dozen package bombs discovered all across the u.s. each device consisted of roughly six inches of pvc pipe, a small clock, a battery, some wiring and what is known as energetic material, which is essentially potential explosives and material that give off heat and energy through a reaction to heat, shock or friction. reporter: 56-year-old cesar sayoc is in federal custody, arrested in south florida. authorities also impounding this white van, taking every precauti precaution, unaware of what may be inside. we just took him into custody. we want the road shut down and then we ll start evacuating. reporter: that van covered in political stickers with images of president donald trump, targets on president obama and others as well as a sticker saying cnn sucks.