excessive tape, those are things to key in on. every bomb maker, they're just like bakers, they have their own special signature, how they crimp the wires, the tool marks, how they tape it up and type out the address. >> thank you for your expertise. we're going to stand by, jim and i here. we're just about a block away from cnn, which is still closed because they're looking at what that white powder could be. we'll go back to the studio in d.c. >> i do want to reset what we know right now. any moment now the president is expected to deliver a speech where he's likely to address these devices that have been sent to public officials and offices today. a pipe bomb appeared to be mailed to the time warner center, which is where cnn is in new york. and there is white powder still being tested in the mail room there. we have an image of a device addressed to former cia director john brenan. however, it was found there at time warner center. also targeted, former president obama, the clintons and former attorney general eric holder, as well as george soros, a liberal billionaire philanthropist. you also had a device going to congressional mail facility in maryland. investigators say several of the packages included democratic congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz's office in florida as the return address. cnn was evacuated out of an abundance of caution, located in the time warner center. the new york police department determined that the device could not be safely defused on site. a containment vessel transported the device not too long ago to the training facility in the bronx. shimon, you have new information. what can you tell us? >> this is going to be a big clue for authorities. as it relates to the device that was sent to cnn, i'm being told by law enforcement officials that that device was not mailed, police believe it was dropped off by a currier to the columbus circle address to cnn. that will be potentially a big clue for authorities. we don't yet know when it was dropped off. but certainly now police have more to work with. they can ask the company, the courier, who dropped this off, how did this come to you. so that is now in full swing. that investigation of trying to determine how the courier got their hands on it, there's also going to be surveillance video from the cnn building they'll be able to look at. just so viewers are aware, at the cnn building in new york, there's a separate area where couriers can bring stuff, when you're a messenger to drop off at the building. there's the process by which this was delivered, through this messenger center by the courier. >> if you haven't been around new york city much, it's pretty amazing when you sigh couree con bicycles, cut through traffic, get through quickly. this is a legitimate courier. this is a courier service. so they should have some sort of trail as to who hired them for that service. is that the expectation? >> that's the expectation. and also the folks at cnn have that trail, too. when you're a messenger and you come to the building, whoever is receiving that package will have to note it. that's how the police know that this was delivered by a courier. they also know because there are no markings on envelope that this went through any kind of mail facility. so clearly however this was delivered to the scene and building, you know, if you read in a little bit to this, it had to be brought to this courier in new york. that's a big clue that someone perhaps in new york is walking around with these devices, that's how they're being delivered. we're told that the device that was delivered to george soros' home was also personally delivered and put in the mailbox. authorities there do not believe that device was mailed. so that could be an immense, immense clue here for authorities as they try to figure out who is behind this. it seems the other device, the one sent to barack obama and hillary clinton were sent through the mail because those were picked up by the secret service at the sorting facility. >> law enforcement are telling us in connection to a lot of these packages. i want to turn to the white house, to our senior correspondent jeff zeleny. this is a previously scheduled event, jeff, can you tell us about, an opioid event that the president is hosting but we would expect to hear from him as well on what's going on in new york and other locations in these devices, these suspicious devices, these live explosives that have been sent. >> reporter: good afternoon. i'm told the president is going to address this during his remarks. he has been giving briefings here this morning as in the west wing. he's been getting briefings from counterterrorism officials and others. some are here in the room. the attorney general is here in the room. the secretary of homeland security is here in the room as well. we are expecting the president to condemn these as egregious acts. the white house press secretary, sarah sanders, said they were a despicable act. we do expect the president, as well as the first lady, who is speaking separately to also condemn these attacks. the question is will he call it an act of domestic terrorism as the mayor of new york city did earlier today, the national counterterrorism center has not gone that far yet. that is the question, whether the president will label it an act of domestic terrorism. we we know covering so many trump press conferences, the rhetoric has gotten so heated. in houston there was the president standing there smiling as many of his supporters are cheering and chanting. the person responsible for this we do not know. butt president is responsible for the rhetoric here. we'll see if he steps back from the rhetoric he has been giving early on. he is still scheduled to go to wisconsin later this evening in central wisconsin to rally support for republicans on the ballot there. that will be an interesting first test to see if any of the rhetoric is changing at all as we reach the midterm election cycle. but certainly the president is expected to address this shortly here in the east room. >> and we are certainly going to be watching there along with you, jeff zeleny. we see sort of this is the precursor here as people are milling about there in the east room. this was scheduled to start several minutes ago. we'll be bringing it to you live as soon as it does begin. i want to bring in white house correspondent pamela brown. she has been talking to her sources. pam, what can you tell us? >> reporter: we're learning from two sources about another suspicious package that has been intercepted intended for democratic congresswoman maxine waters. this would make the seventh suspicious package now at this point, intended this time for maxine waters, democratic congresswoman. this is being analyzed by law enforcement. yet you have another high-profile democrat, along with the former attorney general eric holder, package was sent to him at the wrong address. there was a package sent to former president obama, hillary clinton and as we've been reporting george soros and the cnn new york bureau. at this point law enforcement believes that all of these are linked. so now we have at least seven suspicious packages, which the fbi has come out and said contained live explosive devices. they believe they're linked based on the timing of when these packages when received, based on the packaging, the outside packaging, the similarities there. we know several of the manny pacquiao -- packages had the return address of debbie wasserman schultz, we don't believe she was behind that but whoever was put that as the return address. all of that is what law enforcement is looking at and then the devices inside the packages. what will happen from here is they will be sent presumably to a lab at quantico or in alabama once everything is rendered safe and then the fbi will look for forensic clues to find who is behind this. it will be interesting to see what the president has to say about this. he is expected to take the podium there in the east room momentarily. all we've heard from him so far essentially is a tweetheartedly vice president said, condemning this act. we are waiting to hear from president trump momentarily. >> thank you. as you were describing what will now happen with some of these device, i want to get to jim maxwell, a retired fbi special agent bomb tech. he has the knowledge to tell us what is going to happen here. jim, describe the process. >> well, initially when the new york city bomb squad arrives on scene, they have to evaluate the device. they use a number of techniques to evaluate the device. then a decision is made how to disrupt the device. keeping in mind that they want to preserve as much evidence as they possibly can. so their assessment of the device, how the device is fired, what type of explosive is being used, what type of vessel it's in. in this particular case from the photos i've seen, it appears to be some sort of pipe bomb, which is a very rudimentary device. but we all have to consider that if it came in the mail, it could be a victim-actuated device, it could be a timer. so all those things are factors on how the bomb squad will render the device safe. once they make that decision, they determine that it's safe to transport, they'll bring it up to rodman's neck where they can have some leeway in introducing a disrupter or remotely take the device apart. so this could go a number of different ways but keeping in mind the forensics here. we've come a long way in the last few years. we can extract dna, get fingerprints, and also the components. the fbi laboratory does a wonderful job of tracing down these components, where they're made, where they're sold. are they unique in any way. and also the commonality of all the devices. are they similarly constructed. i believe one of your experts spoke earlier, bomb makers have a distinct style. they do things successfully the same way over and over again. so linking these devices together, you know, just based on the delivery points, there's a strong case here. but also linking these devices forensically, the type of wire, the type of components and so forth are also important. that's going to take some time but i think they have a very good handle on it. i'm just thankful that none of these devices initiated and there were safeguards in place, if you want to discuss those, in the mail room, with secret service. that system worked in detecting these things before they got into the hands of innocent people. >> that certainly is a concern, jim maxwell. i'm going to have you stand by for us as we bring in juliette kayyem. juliette, that's one of the concerns because in these cases, there were proper protocols in place to make sure, as jim was talking about, the concern is that it could be a self-actuated device and could be triggered before it was opened. in the case of a device dropped off at george soros' house, we don't know necessarily if there was some sort of protocol. perhaps there is. but there's a concern as we learn about more devices, i'm sure, that some of them could go to an area that doesn't necessarily have a protocol. >> right. i think that's exactly right. and to -- and in transit these devices are vulnerable. of course we're still learning more about how these devices are transited. there's some suspicion of were they dropped off or through the mail services, depending on which device you're talking about. so just taking a step back at this stage in the day, this is a concerted attack going on right now. i know each individual piece thank goodness has not gone off, but someone sophisticated enough -- i don't want to be so smart that i'm stupid at this stage, i'm going to look at this as a totality today and we'll let the fbi figure out how much these are related but i don't believe in coincidences, that someone did wake up in the course of the last 48 hours, launch a concerted attack against individuals with ties to the democratic party or institutions that are viewed as pro-democratic, whether that's right or wrong. so in transit any one of those devices could have harmed anyone, let alone the fact that anyone opening up a package would have been harmed. i just want to say something about those procedures following on the homeland security side, the secret service. you know, there are -- an ex-president is always an ex-president. there is no private president obama and public president obama. so what you did see in place was the totality of security, whether it's access to mim physic -- him physically, access to him through cars. we don't want to say the system work because obviously this a scary day, but those layer defenses were absolutely essential given the threat matrix against former presidents as well as a sitting president. >> juliette, stay with us as we continue with this breaking story. multiple suspicious devices sent to cnn, to the clintons, to the obamas, to former attorney general eric holder. now as i bring in gloria borger to talk about this, we understand one was sent to democratic congresswoman maxine waters. this is significant when you see a pattern of targets here who are coincidentally not so coincidentally rhetorical targets of president trump's. >> absolutely. and maxine waters is one of his favorites. he actually -- and this is not my phrasing, it's his, talks about her as the very low i.q. maxine waters and disparages her publicly, as well as in tweets. i just want to say one thing about this because i was actually in missoula, montana last week when the president praised gian forte for body slamming a journalist. >> something the apologized for. >> apologized for and had to do anger management more. and the president praised him, he's my kind of guy. when you have this kind of rhetoric, calling the media the enemy of the people, cnn fake news constantly, people listen to that. i remember the president's speech after steve scalise got shot. and it was great. it was about sort of bipartisanship and i know he's doing a bipartisan thing today on opioids and there will be democrats in the room and melania trump will be in the room. and so after steve scalise was shot in that baseball game, we heard the president talk about the parties working together and everything else when they had that game at nationals park. and i'm sure he'll do that again today. >> can i just interrupt for a second. i think one of the questions about all this is why is it the white house doesn't get it right initially? >> exactly. >> sarah sanders, the president's spokeswoman, her first reaction to this was to condemn the acts of violence against elected officials, never mentioned cnn. >> she did later. >> that initial mindset makes you wonder why can't they get it right? it's outrageous the same people who attack cnn merceilemercilest get it right. ivanka trump had no problem getting it right. this a way for the president to think bigger than himself. this is an attack on the presidency, it's an attack on america when you have former presidents who are attacked. he's one of them and they are just like him. >> i don't think he thinks he's one of them. that's the issue. >> and understanding that -- forgive me for interrupting. this is what we're setting up here waiting for the president. let me just tell you something, the obvious statement here, the politics around this are going to go nuts here in the next few hours with cable news taking over. >> and we see the president and people in the room standing. let's listen. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ good afternoon. please sit down. before i begin, i want to take a moment to talk about today's news and the attempted attacks on president clinton, president obama, their families, public officials, individual and organizations. we cannot tolerate those cowardly attacks and i strongly condemn all who choose violence opinion i . i'm grateful to the secret service as well as the federal and local law enforcement for all they do on a daily basis to keep us safe and encourage people across the country to choose kindness over hatred. i want to welcome you all to the white house, to reflect on the progress this administration has made in tackling the opioid crisis, and more importantly to look ahead at the work still to be done. we are here to talk about the continued actions we are taking to combat the opioid epidemic, which my husband will talk about in a few minutes. i must say i'm proud of our president and the work being done in the white house and across so many agencies to help those affected by drug abuse and addiction. just last week i visited thomas jefferson university hospital to learn about their maternal addiction treatment, education and research program called matter. this program supports families and babies born with neonatal absence syndrome, providing mothers with the tools they need to help become successful parents. my campaign be best is committed to helping children with the many issues they face as they grow up. and sadly, drug abuse is one of those issues. be best will continue to shine a light on successful programs like matter that demonstrate positive results for children. over the past year i have traveled both nationally and internationally learning about many of the programs offered through private organizations, schools and hospitals which are meant to help children and families as they deal with drug addiction. what i constantly hear is the need for support at all levels. law enforcement needs our support and the resources necessary to stop criminals from putting drugs on the streets. families need the resources to get treatment and follow-up care for loved ones. those who are addicted need the support, resources and guidance to know they are fighting a disease and should not be ashamed. young mothers need the support necessary to not only beat their addiction but get the tools needed to become successful parents. babies born addicted need the resources for treatment but also need follow-up care for years to come. i was honored to be part of a roundtable comprised of several experts at thomas jefferson university hospital that was convened to help with the design of a new initiative the department of health and human services is working on to measure the long-term health outcomes and needs of infants suffering from neonatal absence syndrome. as a nation we must come together to fight this epidemic by providing as many resources as possible, and i know that is, this will remain a priority. fighting opioid abuse goes across all party lines. thank you all for being here and being part of the fight to end this epidemic. it is now my honor to introduce the president of the united states. [ applause ] i want to thank you very much, melania. i know how hard you've worked on this. that's just one of many languages that you know. it's just amazing the way that you can do it. thank you very much, darling. appreciate it. also i want to thank mrs. pence for being here. you have been just so terrific working alongside of our great vice president and thank you very much, karen. really appreciate it. [ applause ] i'd like to begin today's remarks by providing an update on the suspicious packages and devices mailed to current and former high-ranking government officials. the safety of the american people is my highest and absolute priority. i have just concluded a briefing with the fbi, department of justice, department of home lfo security and u.s. secret service. as we speak, the packages are being inspected by top explosive expert 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. [ applause ] thank you very much. thank you. it's a very bipartisan statement, i can tell you from both sides we both agree on that. this egregious conduct is abhorrent to everything we hold dear and sacred as americans. my administration will provide additional updates as they become available. i just want to thank everybody for their understanding. we're extremely angry, upset, unhappy about what witnessed this morning, and we will get to the bottom of it. we're gathered together today to address america's drug and opioid crisis. >> i want to bring in my panel to talk about this, the president addressing these multiple as he put it suspicious packages and devices, we know at least some of them live explosive devices, including the one sent to cnn, the one with the name of the former director john brenan's name on it. certainly you have seen how many presidents and high-ranking public officials have responded in situations like this. we hear certainly the mayor of new york city, the governor of new york calling this terrorism. what were you expecting? anything that stood out to you from the president here? >> i thought it was the absolute bare minimum that the american people could expect from the president to say given the circumstances of multiple devices being sent to former presidents, prominent people and former administration officials and the news media and cnn. so i thought it was the bare minimum. i thought he should have spoken first. it would have been more appropriate to have him come out first given that the entire morning has been spent watching the cnn news bureau out from their office in new york and reporting from a street corner. i think that would have been more appropriate. but it also is hard to ignore the fact that the president -- everybody knows that the president is the one who has contributed and is the primary proponent behind the american political discourse. so i am glad that he said the limited statement that he said in terms of supporting law enforcement and condemning the acts of political violence that seem to be taking place and coming out over the last couple days and particularly today, but it also matters what he does next, what he does at his rally tonight and what him and his political allies do continuing in terms of their political enga engagement. >> he'll be in wisconsin tonight. i'm hoping, david, you can compare this to what you've seen in the past, other government responses to say the anthrax attacks. how does this initial response differ from what we heard in that case and 9/11. >> i think the president said the right things, condemned acts of political violence, he talked about bipartisan and that response is and should be and we need unity in the country. but what leaves me wanting, like carrie, i just wish he could have said some other things. in the context of cnn being targeted here as well, in the context of so much animus that he himself has against cnn and other news outlets to make a point about the fact that violence directed toward the news media is unacceptable. a high-profile news journalist was just murdered in turkey by the saudis. we've been talking about this, he's been talking about it for the past two weeks. it's imperative he say that. i wish this president could say this is a tough time, we are after each other with very tough things to say about each other and the direction of the country but this is different, this is a level of violence that cannot be tolerated, its attack on all of us. he just doesn't seem to be able to go that far. >> we heard the first lady saying it was obama, clinton -- officials, individuals and organizations -- >> plural. >> maybe there's information we do not know. as far as we know right know with some of our excellent reporters, there's one organization and it is cnn. >> and nobody's mentioning the name. it's as if it can't roll off the tongue unless you're complaining about it. you know, i'm sorry about that, i'm very sorry about that. i know the president watches television, as david was saying. i know he knows and he can call it egregious, abhorrent to everything we hold dear and say that we are extremely angry, upset and unhappy and i'm glad he's promising to get to the bottom of it, but there is this sort of inability to actually talk about who was attacked, and that would be our -- potentially our newsroom and our news organization. and, you know, more people were targeted other there and two former presidents, as we know. george soros being one of them, who he was not going to mention, eric holder another. >> who he's mentioned in recent week in negative ways. he's been quick to mention him as a foil in multiple venues. >> exactly. george soros according to some conspiracy theorist, he's funding the caravans. he's funding everything according to conspiracy theorists. these are names, as you point out, that come up all the time in his rallies. he's not particularly kind to barack obama either. i think it would have behoofed h -- behooved him to be a little bit more complete. >> when you think about it, this is a major fbi investigation now across this country. the fbi is taking this seriously and probably adding all sorts of agents from all over the country to this. for the president i think not to more directly address some of this, i think it shows just perhaps maybe how he doesn't realize how serious this investigation is. you have a threat now to this country that the fbi -- that the joint terrorism task force is investigating. they're taking it very seriously. >> i have a slightly different view. i know exactly what you're saying, but this is a president who often says everything on his mind. think about the saudi situation where he said 14 different things in the space of two days. i think it's appropriate to let the investigators do their thing right now. what he had to do in this case is condemn and try to bottle up an out-of-control political response to this, which we're going to have anyway. i think he came up a bit short and did the right thing and said the right thing. >> what do you think he should have said? should it have been to the likes of these are people i've been tough on but -- >> you can certainly -- he just doesn't express himself this way. it's clear to me what he means a lot of times but he doesn't know how to say it. he may go after the "new york times," he loves the "new york times," he wants to be seen as legitimate by the "new york times." he'll never quit maggie haberman of "the new york times" because he wants so much to be embraced by them. but he uses the media as a foil, he knows it so well. you wish he could be more presidential and say i may attack them, i may go after them, this is far different. this is an attack on major institutions of our country, the free press, it's an attack on america, an attack on the institution of the presidency when former presidents are attacked. that cannot happen. law enforcement will do its job. we have to be careful. we don't know the intent of who was at work here, whether there were multiple people, clearly people who wanted attention but i think what shimon's reporting bears out, these are people who are dialed in to what the dialogue is and who the targets are, rhetorically targets, of political figures from maxine waters to -- >> i have to go now -- let's go to the scene outside of cnn of time warner center. that's where our chris cuomo is. give as you sense of what's going on on the ground now, chris, and also how things have been here. >> reporter: well, this has been a long morning. we're told inside the building they're sweeping floor by floor. the package didn't just have a crude explosive device in it, it may have had a substance in it as well. because of how those substances can move through the air, you have to be safe and check floor by floor. that's largely the reason that you're looking at me outside right now. we can't be inside producing the shows. i want to give you a quick update of the reporting at this time and take you back to how we all started and how we got to where we are. just getting off the phone with the authorities, there is very little progress to david gregory's point he was rightly making, very little point in understanding what this was about. it will not be called anything related to terror until the authorities can assess whether or not the person or persons responsible for this were trying to use fear to promote a set of political beliefs or an agenda. i know that that can be a tedious or frustrating definition, but that is the legal definition and you're not going to lehear it called terrorism until they can check those boxes. they don't know if it was foreign or domestic. the signature of the devices lead them to believe it was crude and sophisticated in terms of who do it, but it doesn't tell them where it came from necessarily. the packages were hand delivered. the package sent to the governor who, yes, is my brother, andrew cuomo is my brother, that package, i don't know even know if it's related. based on what i've heard, there was no explosive device, no powder. there are markings on the outside that are not similar to what happened in other instances. i'd go slow on seeing that as related. in terms of who did it and why they did it, they are nowhere as of this hour. the good news is they don't believe there are more devices. there have been no more reports of suspicious packages they believe are actionable. kate bouldan is here, you were here this morning when people couldn't get inside. >> you notice the fire alarm went off in the middle of the 9 a.m., 10 a.m. show when it was live, we knew it was something different. we immediately started evacuating. when we initially first got out, it was a normal level of confusion. there was some nypd. no one really knew where to go. and then you saw layers and layers and layers of law enforcement coming in. they established a perimeter on this block. that's where we were for a portion of the morning. then there was a new sense of urgency of getting us back another half a block. that's when we saw the bomb truck come in. it looks like -- >> it looks like a cement mixer. >> exactly. they pulled it up. it sat in front of the building for quite some tilme. then they pulled it in to what looked like the loading dock of our building and that's when they expanded the perimeter once again. i was on 58th and 9th. they brought it out right in front of us and headed off and took it to the bronx. many things we're struck by when we cover this but when you're part of it, it's something different of courses as you well know. we saw an immense amount of calm, but there was urgency and immediately with what nypd was dealing with. you could tell. >> 100%. there's a lot of randomness. the less sophisticated the device, the more volatile they are. >> it's a great point. >> i think it's been handled well. the authorities seem unimpressed with what they're dealing with, that's a good point. and i was listening about what the president said, was it enough, was it not enough? two things. one, i was overwhelmed with how many people checked in that just wanted to make sure that we were okay. and that even if they don't like what we report all the time, they believe in us and they want us to be okay and something like this is completely unacceptable. i think that's really important for people to remember right now. there's a lot more that unites america than what divides us. >> i think what the president said is what you would expect to hear from any president at this moment. his words, talking about unity, coming together is what you would expect to hear. hearing it from the program when "cnn sucks" was being chanted at the rally on monday, maybe it's different. his word today, what you would want to hear and expect to hear from any president of the united states at a moment where it's scary. you don't know where more devices might be popping up. thank god there haven't been move. i had a chance to speak to your brother, the governor. he had a perfect tone. i asked him do you have a message to the president at this moment? he said i want to dial it back and bring it back from that because every one of us from the white house to congress, every single one of us needs to bring it down, bring down the rhetoric. it's a cliche and we say it, you can disagree but you can disagree civilly. >> we don't know whether what happened here have anything to do with the toxicity in our culture. >> you're exactly right. >> but even if it doesn't, it's an opportunity -- >> that's right, take the opportunity to bring it back. >> former nypd officer, mike, i don't know if you heard the earlier reporter but i'm being told by authorities they're not impressed with the level of sophistication but they're taking all steps to try to discover what goes into these devices and what that tells them about who would have done it. anything you're hearing? >> i would also tell you what else is really important that even if they're made crudely, they can be more dangerous. that's when a devicesensitive. and some of the innocent people along the delivery route could be injured by it. so sometimes a more crude device could be more dangerous. >> that's what i was told, the less sophisticated, the more volatile. in terms of who would have done it, how much can you draw from the targets? they're all specific, all check a box of being oppositional to the president from time to time at least. >> the first thing to look at is what do all these intended victims have in common? it's obvious. there's a political ideology here. if that's the case, it makes it that much worse. this is a very dangerous situation for the country. >> mike, i appreciate it. if you hear anything else, do me a favor. give us a yell and we'll come back to you. we're trying to piece this together in realtime. we have juliette kayyem, she worked in homeland security and understands the protocol very well. one of the concerns is that somebody sees this, they see the attention, it looked like it wasn't that hard, maybe i'll do it, too. >> that's exactly right. what's been concerning me this morning is the present investigation of what's going on but someone following up. the typical copycat scenario. that's what everyone is law enforcement is positioning themselves for. so going back to kate's point about what president trump said, he said enough. he did not mention cnn or george soros. the reason why people are desiring something more forceful is not simply to tone it down but to also deter copycat incidences. that's the first thing that makes me a little bit nervous about the positioning we're in right now. i'd say one other thing on sort of the theory of the case. motivation clearly can be inferred by who the targets are. it doesn't mean it's conclusive, but i think we can use the language safely by saying it's a theory, it's a theory of the case that these people were targeted because of their political beliefs. i think common sense leads us that way but certainly any law enforcement investigator would know that at this stage, just exactly what mr. o'neill was saying. there's a theory of the case right now. they're going to prove it but that would be where you would start. one final thing, the department of homeland security has been quiet. i've been monitoring. but this is a concerted attack right now. we're lucky these were unsophisticated devices, but someone or people were sophisticated enough to plan something against democrats or institutions that are viewed as liberal, and we should probably be sort of, you know, the department should be notifying state and local law enforcement and preparing them what they're on the lookout for but also what could be coming in the days ahead. while president trump said the right stuff, i put in quote, i think that's why you're hearing a lot of people sort of clamoring for more. we don't know this is over, and we certainly know that others may follow suit. >> right. i mean, look, i think a little bit of critiquing of what the president says is a factor of, one, the moment, which is where you expect certain thing, even though this president is obviously compromised in that regard as kate was being more subtle in referring that point, trump right now saying things that are positive about the media kind of falls deaf when you know he's often coming after the media. however, that does not in any way excuse the action or choice made by the individuals or individuals who made it. president trump didn't put these bombs here, somebody else did and need to be held accountable for their actions. the idea of critiquing, whether he went far enough or not, at some point you have to choose what's worthy of your attention and your time. i saw people coming up to kate in the street this morning when they were first walking by. she didn't know them but they wanted her to know, hey, i hope you guys are okay. people should probably seize on that more than the critique. >> right. but i'm saying from the law enforcement perspective, the unity is less relevant than the protection of life right now. s so i do think -- sort of push back on you and i apologize for that -- we can't be so focused on the unity to say this doesn't have a motivation behind. nobody is going to look at the totality today and say i have a theory of the case, right. i'm going to prove these are targeted individuals because of their ideology, but it would just be in the same way and just why i'm a little -- imagine if one of these bombs had gone off. we have the luxury of an unsuccessful series of attacks, in particular against president obama or hillary clinton. nobody would be doubting what that meant. it would be a targeted assassination or targeted attempt. >> i'm with you. i'm with you. we're not in conflict about any of that. >> never. >> we disagree, we disagree. that's part of the good thing about the mix and the enterprise. but i'm saying that you are 100% right that they have to have clear and open eyes about what the intentionality is here for a number of reasons. god forbid if you had had success in terms of the debt nati -- detonation and the reaction would be different. i'm saying in response to the moment and mood, you take good where you find it. you see a country that seems to be universally appalled by this kind of action and that's not something you hear that often. what are the next two or three steps that you do on an investigative level to figure out who this is and make sure there's not more of it? >> so this is really important right now because the last part of your question, make sure there's not more. that's your primary motivation is the protection of life in the future. so here's the good news, and we're basing this off cnn reporting. this is not the day and age of the unabomber. we have so much more digital evidence, signal intelligence, video cameras everywhere. i've been to your studio in new york, even though i'm based in boston, the cameras, security guards, you've got a hotel across the street. there's going to be a lot of evidence about how the package got there, who was the courier, how things were dropped off. that will also be true for the clinton home as well as the obama home. i do not know about the soros or what we're hearing about former attorney general eric holder. so there's going to be a lot of information that needs to be pieced together relatively quickly. in some ways the breadth of this series of attacks is actually -- likely means that there are soft points, people who may have encountered this individual or individual, institutions or shops that may have sold stuff, courier services. on each of those points, have i no doubt this is where the fbi is right now to begin to put the pieces together and also ensure that there's not another wave in the next 24 to 48 hours. i know we've been mentioning the unabom aber today. it's for the in digital days, it has made law enforcement able to find this person or people hopefully faster. >> juliette, just on that last point before we move on here, the unabomber, by the standard definition here, he wouldn't have been considered a terrorist. he wasn't advancing a set of political beliefs. >> that's right. the unabomber analogy would just be simply that there was not a suicide bomber or an active shooter. it would be the use of mail or courier services. the reporting suggests we're not sure yet to the extent of the mail and of course multiple victims. stay tuned in how these devices were delivered. each of those moments from the courier to the purchasing to the execution is also a vulnerability that is going to be examined by law enforcement. >> 100%. thank you for that. i'm just drawing a distinction because everybody thinks whenever you see somebody try to do something with an explosion or designed to hurt multiple people, it must be terrorism. now for more of a look at the actual device, let's bring in jim maxwell. thank you for joining me, mr. maxwell. what can you tell us about what you've heard so far and what your perspective is? >> based on the photos i've seen and the descriptions that have been given, don't be lulled into thinking just because this is a rudimentary device that it's not dangerous. when you see a pipe bomb like this, it's indicative of low explosives, which will propel themselves up to 3,300 feet per second. something like that can kill you. perfect evidence of that is what the tsarnaev brothers did in the boston marathon. they kullculled a mixture of fireworks in a closed device. >> i saw that up close. you're 100% right about that. first of all, you are with the fbi, not the fdny. >> that's all right. >> on that level, will they be involved with the investigation or kept local with the nypd? >> the task force would definitely be involved here. have i absolute faith in the new york city bomb squad. they're a wonderful group and cutting edge group as far as bomb groups are domestically. they will have the support of the fbi bomb techs, fbi laborato laboratory, as well as atf bomb text techs. until we determine the origin of these devices, a lot of hands on trying to put this information together. local videotapes of comings and goings in front of the cnn building and all the other victim locations are going to be closely looked at to see what we can develop on how these devices were delivered to these sites. on top of that, the forensics. once these devices are rendered safe and they get to the laborato laboratory, there's a wealth of information that can be developed. we're hoping these guys are amateurs and they made some mistakes and there's some fingerprints or dna or some sort of device that can be traced on these devices. so there's a lot -- you know, we have to see where the investigation is going to take us. it has nothing to do with politics. law enforcement doesn't have that option. they'll look at the facts and seep where t see where the facts take us and hopefully bring these people to justice. >> john maxwell, thank you for the insight. john maxwell is a bomb tech for the fbi. let's go to brianna. >> this is an ongoing situation right now. we have certain facts that we are aware of, but this is something that law enforcement is still investigating and they're not sure if there are other devices out there. >> that's right. we know there are five doo viev they have definitively learned that there could be six devices linked to maxine waters. they have six devices, bombs essentially, that have been sent all over this country that they're investigating. the fbi's joint terrorism task force, they're moving forward to figure out who is behind this. >> i want to bring in david shipman. you used to be with the atf, the bureau of alcohol tobacco and firearms. we were talking rudimentary bombs. you were talking off air about that does not matter. >> this is the real deal. it's a concern. our country's been attacked. i just want to acknowledge cnn has been attacked. i get it. walking into your studios today, it was different. i talked to the security guards, they are all doing their best and i felt different walking here. our country's been attacked. i know the speed of the story is going quick and we want to say who did it, but we'll find out by doing an investigation and exploiting the evidence that has been recovered. >> with your expertise, at this point in time, these are life explosive devices. thank god nothing has detonated so far. >> right. >> i can't even express how obviously thankful we are. because that has not happened, that doesn't mean there hasn't been an attack. that seems to be the distinction you are making, just because something has not exploded, don't treat this -- >> i feel very comfortable saying this is a terrorist attack. it has an intended purpose to spread fear. i'm a trained atf agent, i felt scared coming to cnn today. i get it. this is a real thing. we're going to check that our law enforcement, atf, fbi, post an inspectors, they've trained for their job today and they're going to catch who did this, whether it was one person or a group of people. but i would caution that -- i was at oklahoma city. i've worked bombings. >> the first world trade center bombing. >> oklahoma city, when i rolled up on that scene, we had investigated the world trade center. i thought this is a foreign attack. well, that's not true. i have no idea what the intentions of this person are now. i believe we will discover that. as an investigator, they're just looking at the evidence. to do otherwise would distract you and probably miss some clues. >> do the intentions matter when there is the effect this has had when it comes to labelling this as terrorism and, if so, why are we not seeing the president labelling it as such. >> well, chris cuomo -- >> apparently that may have not been linked to this. >> we're all professionals. you're going to do your job, investigators are going to do their job. i think we can acknowledge that our country has been attacked. there was an intention and that was at a minimum to freak people out, potentially to kill people. >> but if you're just trying to freak someone out, you wouldn't send a live explosive device, right? >> you wouldn't think so. >> you'd want to send something that would trigger to make sure it was found, those kind of things. these are where we speculate. this is not normal. we do not every day cover a story where multiple devices are sent to every institutions in the media. we have a shooting at a soft ball game, the shooting in maryland against the press, but this is an attack on our country and it's institutions. now we're going to leave it to professionals to find out who did it and why? >> so where do they go from here? what would be your concerns where they believe they have a handle on the devices and -- >> having a handle on devices should not send the message that everything's fine and civilians should start handling their mail if it looks suspicious. this is is an ongoing situation. i think law enforcement wants to let the public know that they're trained for this and we're going to get to the bottom of it. >> what should civilians know, then? >> if there's a suspicious package, you would want to not touch it and get officials to look at it. >> so you don't know where it's from. you're not expecting it. >> it had 80 stamps on it. >> the one in new york, the spelling was all off. to his point about what police are intending to do now as we've seen already in d.c., they're going to be tweeting out photos of what to look for, the envelopes or anything else. we expect nypd to send notices out to businesses, this is what you should look for, if there's any question or suspicions about a package, call us. for the fbi this might as well be a terrorist attack. all the investigators who normally do this kind of work on terrorism cases are involved. >> so that are mobilized as if this is a -- >> oh, yes. absolutely, yes. >> -- whether it's being labeled as such or not. >> yes. >> i want to get back to chris cuomo outside time warner center in new york. it's interesting to hear david shipman, a former certified explosive specialist say that, whether or not this is something that has exploded, this is an attack and that cnn has been attacked. >> 100%. we're just very lucky that nobody was hurt, at least this time. what you need to do is close the circle as quickly as possible,