welcome to the beat. i m ari melber. it s halloween. there s a ton of news. i was in for nicolle last hour. this is a new hour as we re awaiting announcement of state charges against the suspected attacker of speaker pelosi s san francisco home. we ll bring you that live when we get it. charges are hitting after a separate action from the justice department which has already charged david depape with assault and attempted kidnapping. there s new information on what may be the politics of this. i say may be because we have to follow the evidence and what the authorities say and the information is slowly coming into view. the suspect did say that the goal was to, quote, hold nance hostage, viewing her as the leader of the pack of lies told by the democratic party, and said that if nancy were to tell the truth, he would let her go, but if she lied, he was going to break her kneecaps. he said he would show other members of congress there are consequences to actions. the suspect
emerging about the brutal hammer attack on nancy pelosi s husband, paul. the fbi revealing that the suspect planned to kidnap the house speaker herself and potentially break her kneecaps. also tonight, the midterm campaign hits the closing stretch. cnn is on the ground in crucial swing states as both parties make one final push to win over voters. and the death toll rises from a halloween celebration that turned into a crushing crowd surge. we ll go live to south korea where grieving families are demanding answers about how this horror could happen. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. at any moment we expect to learn even more about the attack on paul pelosi when the san francisco district attorney holds a news conference. right now cnn s josh campbell is in san francisco for us with all the chilling new information about the suspect s confessioned plans to target speaker nancy pelosi.
He was trying very hard to get out of this. we also learned from the federal charges earlier today when the police came through the door and they were both holding on to the hammer, david depape told the fbi in the interview according to the complaint that he knew he was getting arrested, he wasn t going to surrender, and he wasn t getting to nancy pelosi. so he, quote, decided that mr. pelosi was going to take the punishment for her. yeah, awful situation indeed. you know, gloria, we also just heard the district attorney say that based on the suspect s own comments, this attack appears to be, quote, politically motivated. so that confirms what we ve all suspected now and it s very significant, isn t it? she couldn t have been clearer about it, wolf. she came out and said this was politically motivated and she also said that we ve got to turn down the volume on our political rhetoric. so for all of those who were saying that this is a result of rampant crime, et cetera, she
reporter: how was he injured and what were his injuries, mr. depape? i cannot comment specifically on his injuries. reporter: this question is for chief scott. why isn t there an mou or some formal agreement between sfpd and the u.s. capitol police? there may be in the future. currently there is not. we have worked with capitol police before. if they have a need and we can help out with that need, we have done that in the past. what i can say is right now we re there to assist and we are there helping our capitol police partners right now. reporter: could you describe how you were helping them in the past? what did that look like? we ve had postings at the pelosi residence in the past. these threats aren t new. let s be very clear. this is the era we re in unfortunately. we ve assisted in the past and
Want the facts. there s a reporter there from the press conference who asked an excellent question. is there a standing security agreement between the capitol police and san francisco police? answer was no. then, okay, why not? what s the level of coordination? this is after the chief of police said there s nothing new about these threats, after the insurrection, after speaker pelosi was put on to a target list by so many of her colleagues in congress and the right wing, what is your response to that as someone with an expertise in prosecution and law enforce? she s high in the line of succession, a public target, lived through the insurrection. does it strike you odd that there isn t an agreement? should there be? your views on that? i think there should be an agreement. i think those conversations are taking place now.