And into a containment van and ultimately taken care of. But were left with a lot of questions as we close the show this morning. That does it for us for now. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. We begin with that very breaking news. Two more packages found this morning. One addressed to senator cory booker and another to former director of National IntelligenceJames Clapper. Nbcs Investigative Reporter tom winters joins me now via phone. Tom were up to 12 potentially suspicious packages. Walk us through this. Shortly after 8 00 a. M. This morning, we first got word the package that was addressed to cory booker but was found at a Mail Facility in south florida, at that time, we understood it, the package was addressed to booker in camden, new jersey. The package obviously does not appear to have ever made its way there. They were able to get
subsequently, about the same time, a Mail Sorting Facility in New York City. Thats certainly kind of the we were edge of midtown manhattan. At that point, officials immediately believed Bomb Squad Personnel, senior Bomb Squad Personnel immediately believed looking at yet another package that had all the hallmarks of the creepiest ones that had been found and confirmed to be tied to the same group. That package was addressed to James Clapper. Obviously former Intelligence Official in the u. S. Government and somebody who has also been quite critical of the president. So you have right now we believe were up to 12. The big question right now, stephanie, is, you know, from finding some packages yesterday, addressed to former Vice President joe biden, and addressed to Robert De Niro, those packages. Believed to be the same time as the packages sent to sorros, clinton, obama, waters, et cetera. So the question right now is are these new packages or are these packages have been in the mail stream for past several days as well . We know the Postal Service has been on the lookout. I think we just lost tom. I want to take you now to Kerry Sanders who is outside the Mail Sorting Facility in oppalacha, florida, where the attention was focused overnight. What is the latest there . Because the package that was intended for cory booker is in Royal Palm Beach, its not where you are, but your location has been a definition of focus you could say. It has. But let me just sort of clarify something. Royal palm beach, this may be also known as the royal palm Sorting Facility. So were trying to determine whether its the physical
community of Royal Palm Beach or whether its this facility here in opalocka. Bottom line is the fbi is still here. They have three shifts of employee, almost 600, that work here. The fbi is interviewing those employees that work on three different shifts. This is a real tough one because theyre trying to see with about half a millionplus packages that come through here every day whether an employee in that sea of packages maybe remembers seeing something, seeing that rather unique label that weve all seen on camera, and whether they can then determine with an interview, with some information, where the packages started. This is simply a Sorting Facility. So from ft. Pierce, florida, all the way down to key west, anybody who sends a package, the package comes through the facility right here, theres, like, 7 Million People that live in the area. So as they begin to try to
narrow down who may be responsible for this, its still a very, very big area with a huge population. And it doesnt preclude the possibility of Somebody Driving into the area, dropping the packages off and then leaving. But there have been Bomb Sniffing dogs here yesterday. There are federal agents here right now. And theyre trying to get to as much information on the lead that they have, which is at least we know some of the packages made their way through the Sorting Facility here in opa locka, very close to miami. Stephanie. All right, Kerry Sanders down in florida. On the left side of your screen, youre looking al ining at midt manhattan. Where there is a postal facility that received a suspicious package we which believe is potentially the 12th package. This one intended for James Clapper. I want to bring in former u. S. Attorney and msnbc contributor Barbara Mcquaid, retired special
agent Jim Cavanaugh and michael governorman. The two packages found this morning, both in mail facilities, so the positive is we have every Mail Facility on high alert. What are investigators looking for specifically at this point . Well, luckily, they have a lot of evidence because these devices didnt detonate. So they have exactly what to look for as long as these are being mailed at the same time. I mean, now that we have some time between when the first package was delivered and these ones are discovered, its up for grabs whether new devices are being made and put in the mail, different places. Thats going to be the hard part. Because of course i think appropriately the fbi has put out what these packages look like so we can be warned what to look for. But that also alerts whoever is doing this, that they need to change out the way theyve done it to make it harder for them to
find it. Or maybe copycats are now doing the same thing to make things even more chaotic. Exactly. Jim this Sorting Facility down in florida, its the size of a football field. So even if were getting more and more information with each subsequent package, how difficult is this . I mean, thousands of packages go through this Processing Facility a day. Yes, steph, i talked with some of my colleagues and atf yesterday and we talked just in general terms about the investigation. You know, what you got there at the facility is a lot of fbi agents, atf agents, Postal Inspectors, detectives from the police there, all can throw in,er there part of the joint Terrorism Task force. Those agencies add in more people. So they can conduct the sweep, conduct the interviews, try to talk to all the postal employees. The Postal Inspectors are great at this, by the way. I worked with them extensively
going back 40 years on mail bombs. Theyre very good. Theyre inside baseball on this. Then you have the fbi and the atf or at least these world class bomb experts. So its like this collective wisdom thats all running around, that can defeat these bombers. You have a lot of personnel there. The ticket on this is going to clearly start moving toward south florida. Where, you know, the fbis joint Terrorism Task force right in south florida, right in miami, is going to have a lot of leads to command. Thats where the joint operations are going to be happening. Deeply happening there. Certainly they have it in new york. Fbi director may decide to move that to washington or florida. But right now the tempo of this case is in florida because they were they were sent from there. All right, i want to bring Pete Williams in. Our senior justice correspondent. Pete what do you know . Well, i apologize i havent heard what youve been talking about the last few minutes. But just to backtrack here,
were up to 12 now. A little bit of confusion on where this 11th package was found that was addressed to senator cory booker at an address in camden, new jersey. Wed been told it was the Mail Processing center in florida, that Mail Distribution Center thats the focus of investigative interest for the past 12 hours or so. The second one was found at the the picture youre looking at there on the left side, the Mail Processing center in midtown, manhattan, that one addressed to James Clapper. Earlier this week there was another package found to another former member of the Intelligence Community, john brennan, the former cia director, so theres some consistency there. The good news here is theyre finding these packages in the mail Distribution System without having to have them discovered at the near the addressee. That shows some progress there. Trying to find them before they get out further toward the addressee. What we dont know, which i think the authorities dont know yet, where in the mail chain were they. In other words were they outbound going toward their destination . Or were they inbound coming back down because of the phony Return Address . We know so far that the packages have gone both ways. The ones, for example, george sorros. The one that was sent to brennan at cnn. Those were all headed towards and got to their addressees or close to them. For example, the one that was sent to eric holder was being returned. The ones sent to senator addressed to joe biden were being returned back down to the Return Address. If they were being returned for a phony Return Address, then where would they be returned to . Well, remember, they were on their way back to the phonyReturn Address, which is debby wasserman shuttlings. The one at eric holder managed to get there. They stopped the ones sent to joe biden. Because they figured out what was going on. So we dont know if these were reject order and on their way back or were outbound and im sure well figure that out shortly. I want to bring Barbara Mcquaid in. From what you have seen, what do you think the motivation is here . Were now up to 12 packages. None of which detonated. So more people are saying the goal here is to sow fear or create chaos, which has been done. I think looking at the recipients you can find some common links among them as people who are prominent in the Democratic Party or outspoken critics of President Trump. I think that one of the things investigators will do is be cautious about not allowing a motive to impact the way they investigate the case. Because sometimes people
deliberately mislead with who gets targeted in an effort to divert the attention of investigators to someone who might be the real target. So i think the investigators are likely to keep an open mind about what to look for and consider everyone to be at risk. Youre right, none of these has gone off, but the reporting suggests that these are live devices that can go off, which is important because it changes the penalties and changes the potential statute you can use in a case like this. So it may than theyre poorly constructed. It may be that there is something about them thats not functional. We dont know whether this is poor bomb making or a deliberate attempt to just be a scare tactic. But the fact they include actually explosive device if the reporting is accurate on that means these are bombs that could go off if theyre not handled properly. Theyve not been mishandled and opened and exposing vick ttim a to harm. I want to bring chris jansing
in, my colleague on the phone with us. You are basically on the scene. Tell us what its like there. I actually just live in that neighborhood which is hells kitchen, and i just wanted to give people sort of a sense of what thats like. Because its a little bit different than we saw yield where you had just a Sorting Facility. This is if this is the post office thats on 52nd street between 8th and 9th avenues in new york, it is both a working post office and a Sorting Facility. The other thing thats different about it is theres actually a residential Condo Development that was built on top of this. So people actually live directly above where this is. There is a series of condominiums there and they are residences on one side of it to the east side of it, residences across the street. So this is also a heavily residential area. Its not something thats separate from here. And its a very busy post office. In fact, i walk this neighborhood all the time. You can see usually, certainly in the morning and then in the afternoon lots of mail trucks lined up there because it is a Sorting Facility. The stuff gets sorted, loaded into the trucks. I think you can see from the picture on the air right now what youre looking a in ing at residential building. That package, number 12, was intended for James Clapper. The one were also speaking about this morning that was discovered in florida intended for cory booker. Jim cavanaugh, yesterday when we were speaking about this and we said, well, since they didnt got off, maybe theyre just there to scare people. You said since the way they were put together, what was inside was making you believe they were intended to go off. Right, steph. Just tilting a little way that way. Based on the facts we know. The nypd early on said all the components were present. That means a container,vised de. So its a bomb. Its components for a bomb. And so we know that. Most hoax bombs we see, and ive seen many over the years, dont have real explosives. They have a pipe filled with sand and a bunch of nails taped on them, an alarm clock taped on them. Theyre meant to scare. So why go to all the trouble to have real explosive improvised detonators and its real components . Thats one point. The shrapnel, the gas, is inside the bomb. Thats not going to scare anybody. So why do that if its just to scare you, a hoax . Why bother . You can tape a bunch of nails to the outside. That will scare you more. Secondly two bomb also to Maxine Waters. Two bombs to joe biden. Why two bombs if were trying to scare you . It goes more to me that im really trying to get you, i really have an ire for you, a hatred, i really want to get you, Maxine Waters or joe biden. So thats just some ways to look at it. Its not absolute. We could very well find out there was no way to trigger the device and thats the way the bomber made it. So we made a real bomb that he didnt tend to go off. I think more likely its his bomb making skills, steph, are lacking, you know, maybe the bottom of the bomb class he graduated in, not too good. Maybe trying to be too clever by half. You have a timer on that picture. A digital timer. Mail bombs normally dont have timers. So this could be a Safe Arm Switch or it could be, you know, a digital type theyre w time r
meant to activate. A bomber activates that when hes carrying the devices. Lumbering these dozen devices in his car, to the post office. So he doesnt want to blow up. If he had an alarm clock with a delay on it, none of this is live. When he mails it two hours into the mail, they become live. So eelhes not in danger. Or it could be the actual mechanism. They sell these things which are digital alarm clocks that work on voice. You have to have a learn level of decibels to make the light digital part function. Youd have to get in there and rewire all that stuff. We dont know. We dont know what hes done. Others can work by light. You have a lot inside your house. When the light hits it, it goes on or off. It may be they tried. The bomber tried and couldnt
quite make the circuits reliable. It may be that none of these bombs are open. These is a salient point in this case. None of these bombs, not one bomb was open via victim, via citizen, via target. Is it patriots, and think we need to say this, 12 american patriots, who have served the country who have been successful in their businesses have received these bombs. Every single one of these people. Business like mr. De niro, successful, highly successful actor. Mr. Sorros, a business man. Then political leaders who have served. Intelligence leaders, mr. Brennan, mr. Clapper. 12 patriots have been attacked by a bomber. We dont quite know every little thing. The fbi lab and the atf cameras and the experts and Postal Inspectors still ferret this out. The danger is the bomber progression. Thats the danger going forward. Is he going to adapt, change the
package, change the bomb, improve the Firing Mechanism and go at this a different way . Canning the place devices . Different attacks . Were finding these, but we dont have him yet. Or them. There may be more than one here as well. I want to mention Robert De Niro just put a statement out, writing, i thank god no one has been hurt and i thank the brave and resourceful security and Law Enforcement people for protecting us. Theres something more powerful than bombs and thats your vote. People must vote. Robert de niro received a package. It was someone from his office that actually alerted the police. It was because that person had seen these packages. Had seen all of the reporting on the news. Were now up to 12 suspicious packages. I want to bring in senator mark warner in this conversation. Senator, you were joining us this morning to talk about a lot of things. This wasnt