Joined on the phone by former assistant director of the fbi tom fuentes, tom, dms still sketchy here, all we know that the store has been evacuated. A walmart there. You see pictures of the s. W. A. T. Team moving in. Give us an idea of how they are assessing any persistent threats at the same time trying to maintain safety particularly for all those who have been evacuated or anyone else who might be remaining in the store. Well, fredricka, this started at 6 10 a. M. Local time. The walmart had om eopened at 6 a. M. And an employee reported there was someone carrying a gun that walked in. And then immediately told management. Management evacuated all the employees and they called the police. So thats whats happening now is the police have arrived. They dont believe that anybody else besides the employees came out of that building. And, you know, as soon as they have enough personnel assembled, theyre beginning the search of the building and, you know, the sweep of the entire facility which is going to take a while. But as far as they know, you know, the person is still inside. If there was a person in the first place. So, now thats all it is. They have to check the building. And how do they go about systematically doing that . Is it a matter of using kind of the surveillance equipment in the store already in place . Or is there another technique that you expect theyd be using . Well, if they have access to the equipment and its not in a place that hasnt been secured yet, you know, that would be important to try to look at. So we dont know if theyve been able to do that, you know, or are doing it right now. They may be. But, again, at the time, you know, the surveillance equipment not going to be everywhere and mostly its going to be in the retail section of that store, so if someone went in, realized that he had been seen and that everybody was evacuated and the personal goes back into the storage area where they keep all of the material thats before its stocked, that could be problematic and they may not have access to that. So, a store that size with large boxes, the shipping docks, the shelving, all of that is going to be very difficult and long take a long time basically to search through all of that. But thats what theyre doing right now. All right. Thank you so much, tom fanel te fuentes, appreciate it. And now to another top story were following. Were talking about politics. The iowa state fair. Republican and democratic hopefuls are descending on the event over the next week, hoping to shore up support in this critical early stage. And this a very important state. Jeb bush among the headliners friday. Hitting the famous soapbox, a tradition where candidates get 20 minutes to speak directly to the crowds there sponsored by the des moines iowa register. But the frontrunners, donald trump and Hillary Clinton, will skip that rite of passage when they visit the fair today. Cnn covering all of this action for you. Sara marie, Hillary Clinton as far as we understand while shes made her appearances and malede joke about the email controversy last night at the wing ding event, donald trump is firing back. What is what has he been saying about what she said . Reporter yeah, well, lets start off with Hillary Clinton. Shes about to arrive here. In roughly an hour. Look, at her big event last night she did make light of this email. Lets take a look at what she had to say. By the way, you may have seen that i recently launched a snapchat account. I love it. I love it. Those messages disappear all by themselves. Reporter now, that was not the only controversy that Hillary Clinton tried to shrug off last night. The other one she took more seriously. She was talking about benghazi. This is an issue where republicans have really hit her hard, and she said, look, im tired of peopling politicizing these attacks. She wants to move beyond it. Lets take a look at what she had to say about that. Now, theyll try to tell you this is about benghazi, but its not. Benghazi was a tragedy, four dedicated Public Servants lost their lives and we have to be focused on how to prevent future tragedies. And do you know what, its not about emails or servers either, its about politics. Ive just provided my server to the Justice Department. But heres what i wont do. I wont get down in the mud with them. I wont play politics with National Security or dishonor the memory of those who we lost. Reporter now, even as Hillary Clinton is trying to move beyond these issues, whether it be benghazi or whether it be the emails, republicans are not keen to let that happen and donald trump is becoming her latest critic. He thinks these controversies could end up being the death knell for her campaign. Take a look at what he said in New Hampshire last may. I think at some point shes perhaps not going to be able to run. Going to have to end her campaign. That seems to be the thinking by so many. General petraeus, his life was destroyed. With a tiny fraction of what shes done. So, its very unfair to him if theyre going to destroy him over doing by comparison nothing. I dont see how she can run. I think shes got much bigger problems than running for office. Reporter so, fred, this is happening before the candidates even arrive at the iowa state fair. Both Hillary Clinton and donald trump will be here today, so it will be interesting to see if there are any more fireworks between the two of them. Sara murray, lets talk more things iowa here with our cnn political director, david, lets talk about the soapbox moment at the state fair. Most candidates embracing it. Jeb bush, in fact, using his 20minute speech to address the crowds and kind of vow to fix what he seays are the countrys broken systems but not Hillary Clinton and not donald trump, they will not be taking to the soapboxes, but, you know, theyre front and center in iowa. So, help us understand why this is. We know clinton last night at the democratic wing ding she did have that snapchat moment, and then later today trump will be, you know, flying in on a helicopter, even giving free rides. So, they are out there and theyre going to be very present, but they say no to the soapbox. Why . Right, well, that wing ding dinner that you mentioned last night was probably the most fiery, the most passionate ive seen Hillary Clinton on the trail. Heres whats happening on the democratic side reet night now. That email controversy, that joke she made, that gave an opening to republicans. You saw donald trump going after her. You will see other republicans will say, hey, this is no joking matter and put her back on defense there. The Iowa Democrats in the room, they chuckled at the joke. I dont think that they felt as concerned about her making light of it in the room and talking to some of the folks there. But what she did do to try to sort of deal with the sanders challenge that is happening with her on the left is to take it very hard to the republicans. She delivered a speech that was all about showing these Iowa Democrats that she can fight and destroy the opposition. Sanders speech was all about these ideoloological aspiration that the democrats want to hear about. To have the ideological candidate in Bernie Sanders and the i can win for you Hillary Clinton. You heard it in her, she tried to turn the tables and you heard the fight in her when she says she will not get in the mud, she will not play politics especially as it pertains to benghazi. Effective . You know, well see. She clearly has many more rounds of this to go. She is going to go testify up on the hill before the benghazi committee. That is going to be a day clearly where she is on defense. She got very good reviews the last time she went up on the hill at the end of her tenure as secretary of state to testify about benghazi but its not like she can put it behind her. This is a controversy that is especially the email part of it, her private server, is of her own doing and this is going to be with her as the emails come out month after month and as we learn to see if theres anything more about benghazi and as she goes up to the hill to testify, none of this is what a president ial candidate wants to be doing. Lets talk about jeb bush and hes really being haunted by other president bushes and it was on the soapbox when he was heckled about the war in iraq and this is what happened and this is how he handled it. What ive heard from the advisers is, firms st of all, t iraqs want our help. Excuse me . You had to get out in 2011. We didnt have to get out in 2011. Your brother signed the deal. It could have been modified, everybody in iraq and everybody in washington knew that this deal could have been expanded and now what we need to do now we need to do something else. So i wonder, david, you know, does he have to craft a lot of his campaign about the response to the ongoing questions about the past presidencies of his brother or even dad, questions about the iraq war, questions about advisers with, you know, his fathers campaign. How can this go ignored . Does he have to craft, you know, his Campaign Around those potential obstacles, hurdles . I think what he has to do is cast his campaign in a completely forwardlooking way. So, you also heard yesterday him talking about his strategy for defeating isis going forward. Thats much steadier ground for him to be on politically. As soon as youre looking back at sort of either the obama administrations full withdrawal from iraq or his brother signing the stat actuaus of forces agre or his brothers decision to initiate the war in iraq. Thats quicksand for jeb bush to be in. Of course, theres a flip side to the bush name. Walking around the state fair with him yesterday, almost every voter here who came up to him one of the first things out of their mouth was hows your dad, i love your dad. So theres a lot of goodwill among Iowa Republicans for the bush family. The bush name and the iraq problem becomes a much bigger problem for him in a general election context than i think it does in the nomination season. All right. David chalian, thanks so much. Good to see you. Have fun in iowa. What kind of snacks are you looking for today . Because its all about the food there. Probably a fried snickers, yeah. Oh, my gosh, that kind of sounds good. I might want to indulge as well. Thank you very much, david. Appreciate it. Dont forget cnn hosts the next republican primary debate on wednesday september 16th. Plus, the first democratic president ial debate will be live right here on cnn. Thats tuesday, october 13th. Dont miss either one. And we will be right back. I brto get us moving. Tein im new ensure active high protein. I help you recharge with Nutritious Energy and strength. Ill take that. Yeeeeeah new ensure active high protein. 16 grams of protein and 23 vitamins and minerals. Ensure. Take life in. The staff at this beautiful resort. Will stay with you forever. Especially if you dont leave. You got it booking right. Booking. Com booking. Yeah at ally bank no branches equals great rates. Its a fact. Kind of like shopping hungry equals overshopping. All right. Plumes of black smoke filled the skies over the port city of tianjin, china, today, creating fears of new explosions. This follows huge blasts wednesday that reportedly killed at least 105 people and injured more than 700, but video today showed cars which had caught fire in a parking lot near the blast zone were causing the thick clouds of smoke. Chinese officials are also walking back early reports that an evacuation had been issued for a twomile radius of the blast site. Joining us right now from the scene where rescue efforts are still under way days later now, will ripley who has his face covered to protect from any fumes that are still in the air, right . So talk to us about what officials are or are not telling residents. Reporter yeah, well, theyre telling people that earlier today people were told there was the potential for exposure to a lethal chemical in the air, sodium cyanide detected at the blast site. So when the new fires reignited and smoke plumes were rising, there was a lot of concern here. Were actually at an Emergency Evacuation Center which at this time yesterday was filled with hundreds of people. Now its empty. A lot of people wearing their face masks and pretty much just volunteers and soldiers guarding this place left right now. The air quality has been going up and down as far as visible smog but its whats invisible that has people really concerned here. Because as weve been reporting theres a long list of toxic chemicals at the site of this blast and not all of them have beenive identified yet. The investigation is showing that the initial firefighters who went to the chemical fire on wednesday night, they didnt realize what they were dealing with when they started spraying water on the fire not knowing that water coming into contact with some of these chemicals could create an explosion and with all the other volatile chemicals sitting next to each other likely stored improperly, damage that stretched out for more than a mile with cars melted and windows blown out. Lost so many people, thousands of people left homeless. This Evacuation Center the people that were here, theyve been bused away to a different area. 40 people have been rescued since the explosion. But there are still, fred, dozens missing. Their families are in anguish, the death toll just jumped up to 104 in the last few hours and that number, sadly, is expected to rise in the coming days, fred . Will ripley, appreciate it. Still ahead, an officer in alabama hems tasitates to use f and the decision backfires and it could have cost him his life. All right. Now to a disturbing attack in birmingham, alabama. A Police Officer pistolwhipped with his own gun as bystanders watched. The sixyear veteran was left bloodied and unconscious while bystanders stood over him and actually took these pictures. A Police Union Representative said the officer secondguessed himself and the hesitation gave his attacker an opening. Here now is cnns nick valencia. Reporter sucker punched and pistolwhipped with his own service weapon. A birmingham, alabama, Police Detective said he chose not to use force against a man attacking him because he didnt want to be another headline. The brutal beating occurred during a routine traffic stop. The detective a sixyear veteran noticed a man driving on the interstate erratically so he pulls the car over. The two end up here at this Shopping Center where the detective calls for backup. During this time according to police that the suspect gets out of his car and gets aggressive with the officer. Instead of following policy to try to get the man back into his vehicle, the detective says he hesitates. Its just enough time, police say, for 34yearold jenard cunningham to sucker punch the officer. He then allegedly grabs the Police Officers gun and uses it to pistolwhip him. Adding insult to injury, witnesses do nothing to help. Instead, some post images of the attack on social media. Bragging about it. Quote, pistolwhipped his ass to sleep one user wrote. Another mockingly offered the officer milk and cookies for his nap time. I believe in god and i think that that is the reason why the detective is with us today. Reporter the head of birminghams Police Union Says fearing media scrutiny, more local Police Officers are secondguessing their actions. Walking on eggshells to make sure we do everything the way that it should be. Not that it should ever be in question, but we want to be treated with respect or kindness just as if anyone else would be. Reporter its a sentiment the injured detective knows all too well. He was unwilling to go on camera on cnn or be named for safety reasons but in an interview with us he said a lot of officers are being too cautious because of whats going on in the media, i hesitated because i didnt want to be in the media like i am right now. Its hard times right now for us. The head of the police union tells cnn the suspect in this attack spontaneously told police that the reasonab he attacked t Police Officer was for retaliation and all the negative coverage that cops are getting across the country right now. Cunningham was apprehended shortly after the incident and charged with attempted murder and weve attempted to reach out to him and his family. Theyve declined comment. Fredricka . We dont know much more about this alleged attacker . We dont. Hes had two Court Appearances charged with attempted murder. Has not been assigned an attorney just yet. All right, nick vavalencia, appreciate it. Big day . Ah, the usual. Moved some new cars. Hauled a bunch of steel. Kept the supermarket shelves stocked. Made sure everyone got their latest gadgets. Whats up for the next shift . Ah, nothing much. Just keeping the lights on. laugh nice. Doing the big things that move an economy. See you tomorrow, mac. See you tomorrow, sam. Just another day at norfolk southern. Across america, people are their type 2 diabetes. With noninsulin victoza. For a while, i took a pill to lower my blood sugar, but it didnt get me to my goal. So i asked my doctor about victoza. 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