Jeff Beady News Today

Inspired others to act similarly. >> jeff, let me come back to you. who would buffalo police department be conversing with to determine if this is related to this state of mail devices in the last seven days or so? >> well, im glad were talking about the possibility of copy cats. first, we need to see who it was addressed to. thats who they talk to first. see what that persons political leanings are, and i is a tha-- say that, victor, not only because of copy cats but this perpetrator was motiva...

We have got to get some sort of bilateral effort at toning down rhetoric. i hope that we will see joint resolutions from congress that say look, violence, political violence is not acceptable. and the president and leading democratic figures need to support that. >> jeff, thank you so much. lets put up the tweet so people understand what is the impetus for the breaking news. this is from us buffalo police department in the last few minutes here. bpd on the scene after suspicious device discovere...

Is a divisive issue for this president. he is using it to pit democrats against republicans, he is assailing our first amendment rights, we work here at cnn, we were attacked and he blames the media. he is undercutting the law enforcement community by pedaling a conspiracy theory yesterday or the day before whether the bomb threat was in fact real. for all of those reasons, the president looks like the divider in chief rather than using this as unifying moment which signals that the russians wer...

Barack obama, hillary clinton, other top democrats. a frequent tv political analyst alerted twitter to his threats, including one made to her personally, but twitter didnt act on it. >> and now twitter has apologized for mishandling the threat and said it should have taken different action when it was initially reported. here with us to discuss, cnn national security analyst samantha vinograd and counterterrorism officer jeff beady. thank you for being here. let me start pretty broadly here with...

>> well, look. youve got the specific concern of who did this and why. and how do you stop them. weve got to get that done. the larger challenge is ever present, it seems these days, and the media has a role, as well. each of us decides how we do our job. what we decide to empower in covering it and how we decide to do that. calling out lies is important. telling people the truth is even more important. and mr. beady, you were doing that for us today. so i appreciate you doing it. thank you for ...

Thank god, nobody was hurt. but it gives a chance to examine. and sometimes words become things. words become deeds. not that he means this. and actually, i would assume the president doesnt think anybody is going to act on it. he thinks its entertaining. he thinks it works with his base. >> he likes reporters a lot sometimes. >> but today is one of those moments where you got to look and say what you say matters especially in a position of leadership. how you treat each other matters. so now we...

What we were talking about earlier. jim sciutto reporting the anthrax scare we lived through many years ago. he was involved with those investigations. and mr. beady, thank you for joining us. what does your experience inform you to in terms of what theyre going to be doing now? >> well, i would like to share with you the intelligence officer perspective of this, which raises two important questions. but first, just to follow up on something you and brian were saying and something that the gover...

They had that county of thing. if they had it with the mafia, is that something they would want to get to the bottom of? thats good law enforcement practice. we are talking to two guys that did this for a living. >> jeff, is this good law enforcement or surveillance that looks too political for an agency that says it doesnt do politics? >> well, i particular depends on where you are sitting. right now we have limited information. the information that came out today that you just briefed us on do...

That this person had provided in the past, reliable information to the fbi and the cia. were going to see more cia involvement. second, the information in that "new york times" we talk about protecting sources. the information in that "new york times" series of articles is sufficient -- >> might as well give it away. but what its not necessarily sufficient for is if this individual had contact with sub state entities where he was of help to the united states and that may be where the greatest da...

And now the "times" just published a follow up story saying this. allies to the president are not to spy as trump claims. allies to the president are pushing to find out what role the informant may have played in the russian investigation. lets talk about this with bobby shiccone and jeff beady. these guys know what theyre talking about. bobby, let me start with you, this headline from "the new york times," they are saying that the fbi used the informant to investigate russia ties, not to spy on...