Excessive tape, those are things to key in on. Every bomb maker, theyre 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. Were going to stand by, jim and i here. Were just about a block away from cnn, which is still closed because theyre looking at what that white powder could be. Well 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 hes 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 schultzs 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, im 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 dont 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, theres also going to be Surveillance Video from the cnn building theyll be able to look at. Just so viewers are aware, at the cnn building in new york, theres a separate area where couriers can bring stuff, when youre a messenger to drop off
at the building. Theres the process by which this was delivered, through this Messenger Center by the courier. If you havent been around new york city much, its 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 . Thats the expectation. And also the folks at cnn have that trail, too. When youre a messenger and you come to the building, whoever is receiving that package will have to note it. Thats 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. Thats a big clue that someone perhaps in new york is Walking Around with these devices, thats how theyre being delivered. Were 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 Whats Going On in new york and other locations in these devices, these suspicious devices, these live explosives that have been sent. Reporter good afternoon. Im told the president is going to address this during his remarks. He has been giving briefings here this morning as in the west wing. Hes 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. Well 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. Well 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 were 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 highprofile 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 weve 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 theyre 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 dont 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 weve 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 its in. In this particular case from the photos ive 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 victimactuated 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 its safe to transport, theyll bring it up to rodmans 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. Weve 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 theyre made, where theyre 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, theres a strong case here. But also linking these devices forensically, the type of wire, the type of components and so forth are also important. Thats going to take some time but i think they have a very good handle on it. Im 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. Im going to have you stand by for us as we bring in juliette kayyem. Juliette, thats 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 selfactuated device and could be triggered before it was opened. In the case of a device dropped off at george soros house, we dont know necessarily if there was some sort of protocol. Perhaps there is. But theres a concern as we learn about more devices, im sure, that some of them could go
to an area that doesnt necessarily have a protocol. Right. I think thats exactly right. And to and in transit these devices are vulnerable. Of course were still learning more about how these devices are transited. Theres some suspicion of were they dropped off or through the mail services, depending on which device youre 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 dont want to be so smart that im stupid at this stage, im going to look at this as a totality today and well let the fbi figure out how much these are related but i dont 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
prodemocratic, whether thats 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 expresident is always an expresident. There is no private president obama and public president obama. So what you did see in place was the totality of security, whether its access to mim physic him physically, access to him through cars. We dont 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 president s 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 Trumps. Absolutely. And Maxine Waters is one of his favorites. He actually and this is not my phrasing, its 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, hes 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 hes 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 im sure hell 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 doesnt 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 cant they get it right . Its 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, its an attack on america when you have former president s who are attacked. Hes one of them and they are just like him. I dont think he thinks hes one of them. Thats the issue. And understanding that forgive me for interrupting. This is what were 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. Lets listen. Good afternoon. Please sit down. Before i begin, i want to take a moment to talk about todays 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. Im 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 im proud of our president and the work being done in the white house and ac