Important questions that are not yet answered. Is he alone . Is this person acting alone some is this person the suspected bomber or someone connected to it . We are following all of this as we follow the progress of that van and the developments in this case. Keeping our eyes on the white house as well as President Trump is expected to speak any moment. Thank you so much for joining me. I will hand it off to john king with inside politics. We will continue our coverage. Thank you and welcome to inside politics. As kate noted, we will continue to following the dramatic Breaking News this hour. The Justice Department confirms federal authorities have arrested a man in South Florida in connection to the explosive packages sent across the country. That arrest a bit earlier today and now a dozen packages in total sent to political operatives and opponents of the president and cnn. A News Conference led by theAttorney General here at 2 30 h here eastern time. In new york, tracking this investigation, i want to start with you. We dont have her at the moment. There she is. Sorry about that. Give us the latest on what we know in terms of the arrest, the investigation, and why. What led authorities to this man . The arrest unfolding just before 11 00 as we were getting ready to go on air around 11 00. More like 10 30 or so. The fbi authorities in miami, the joint Terrorism Task force, all of them working this for the last 24 hours. Tracking this individual. They tracked him to this area in plantation outside an auto zone where they took him into custody. We dont know if he was taken into custody without incident. We dont have detail surrounding the arrest. We know there have been significant progress made by authorities in this case. They have been working through the night and all day yesterday. We had some indication that is an arrest was likely soon. Certainly this morning. Both cnns evan perez and i were hearing that something was going to happen. Police and the fbi were sitting on this individual, waiting for a good time and a safe time to take him into custody. Thats how it went down. There will be a Press Conference at the Department Of Justice with the Attorney General in washington, d. C. There will be fbi agents and 90 personn nypd officials will be on their way down. How this person went about shipping and constructing these and what the motives were. Thats the big question here also. As you see there in the video and as you have been reporting,
its not clear why the police and the fbi have chosen to cover up that van. What we believe is the suspects van. There is writings and stickers and decals on that van. That could be why. They dont want the public to see whats on that van. That could help authorities get a sense of this persons frame of mind, maybe motive as to what was behind these series of mailings of what appears to be explosive devices. Shimon, stay with us. I want to go to randi kay. The van was taken from the scene and taken to a Processing Facility. From where you are on the scene, describe what you saw as that this dramatic arrest unfolded. Reporter we were here with a Dramatic Development in plantation, florida. This state road 7 here behind me had been closed. It was very difficult to get
closer to the scene. Now you can see its wide open. The van that we have been talking about all morning that has the blue tarp over it was picked up and hauled away across the state road 7. It came right here as the state road was still closed on to that Processing Facility wherever they are going take it to take a closer look at it. There was heavy Law Enforcement and all of them armed. A big Media Presence. A lot of roads were close and there were Police Helicopters in the air as well. We are about 27 miles in this location, away from aventura where the suspect was reportedly living according to evan perez and we are not far from opa locka where the mail facility is where some of these pipes had been mailed from. As they take this vehicle away with the blue tarp, you mentioned the takers and there is the question of whats
inside. Certainly Law Enforcement thinks there might be more evidence or evidence or mailing labels inside. What kind of fibers from the suspects home could be inside. We can see the care they were taking with this vehicle, covered in the blue tarp as they made their way from that area where they took the gentleman and the vehicle into custody and took it to its next step to the facility to be processed. John . Fantastic reporting from randi kay. If you get more information, come back to us. The fbi Assistant Director, we are waiting for the United States to speak, so i account interrupt at any moment. There were clearly political stickers on it. We will get more on that as we get more information. Why would they cover it like this to take it to a Processing Facility. We were talking about procedures and what the agents are more
worried about. Thats normal procedure. Cover it and protect it and maintain it was take nen a pristine manner. If it went through a window, it could contaminate the crime scene. They want to keep it protected until they get it to an fbi garage where it is secure from the weather and outside eyes and they can take their time and meticulously look inside. They will be looking inside the van for even the Carpeting Fibers in the van. Anything in that van that might match one of the devices to show it was in the van when he went to mail it. On the outside of the van could come to the question of political motivation. Whats most important in terms of proving your case is whats inside the van. Crime scene. Absolutely. Take us through what we know about how police were led to this dramatic arrest this morning. We dont know much. We still dont have all the details because its only about two hours old or so. We know the fbi clearly has been doing surveillance of this individual, of this man, for sometime. It could be for 24 hours or longer. There indications that came in as early as yesterday evening that the police and the fbi made progress in the investigation and getting pretty close to making an arrest. The officials we were talking to would not confirm anything, but it was just appearing that something was going on and they identified someone they were interested in. There was surveillance. There was forensic evidence that account link him to the packages and the things he sent. They recovered so many of these and they are intact. There is black tape and wires and metal casing. If he was sloppy and didnt use gloves or hair fell on it, there could be dna evidence. The other thing is cell phone. His cell phone the authorities were tracking, they were able to track his movement. Then they just went in and made the arrest. Josh campbell, one of our analysts here made the point that one of the reasons they didnt arrest him at home is they fear there could have been explosives and they chose to do it outside the home and they felt it was safe enough to go to the area and they took him into custody. Stay with us. I want to know that we are waiting for the president of the United States. He was a at previously scheduled white house event, but he will address this event as soon as it happens. He was briefed by the Attorney General who was also at the white house and he will have a briefing later today. In the sense that we are watching this van being taken to the Processing Facility and
there is one suspect in custody. Obviously, question number one, did you act alone or are there accomplices. Normally for people who watch police shows, Miranda Rights come into play. You were making the point that nod immediate not immediately in this case because of the gravity. When the suspect is taken into custody, they need to know if they will tell if there are other people involved or packages that havent been delivered. They are in the system now. Because of that, they get a grace president . That period has not been specifically defined but the graver the situation and the bigger the threat, the more latitude. If he makes it clear he is not going to cooperate or talk, at that point they can give a miranda and call the attorneys and that type of thing. In the short run, we have a
tremendous Public Safety issue 50. Public safety first. Forgive me if i have to break off for the president , but the former fbi profiler helped apprehend the unibomber. I dont want to equate these two. That was over years and this was over several days. You are sitting across from somebody who you believe has been responsible for the domestic Terror Attacks and additional investigations. After we lured him out of his cabin, he put up a bit of a fight and brought down to the another cabin that had been prepared to hopefully interrogate him. He was handcuffed behind his back when he sat down at this pine table. A rustic scene. My supervisor said to him, ted, we are concerned about anyone being hurt as mr. Fuentes said. We would like to know, are there any booby traps or anyone that could hurt anyone. He said he thought he said they say its something pretty serious that you shouldnt say anything, so im not saying anything. I want a lawyer. And that was the end of any conversation about the bombings. The end of any conversation about the bombings. To get into the mind set. Shock that the authorities had found him . Yes. Ted kosinski had all the evidence of fei15 years of maki and sending bombing devices and three people killed. It was all right there in his little cabin. Stay with us as well. I want to note our reporting said the truck is headed to
miramar, florida. This is whats being investigated. We have a dozen suspicious packages. Two more found just this morning. One addressed to democratic senator cory booker and to James Clapper who is a contributor here at cnn which was evacuated the other day in new york when a package addressed to the former cia director came to cnn. He is a contributor on another network. Take us through this sense of relief, obviously, in the fbi and the other agencies that they believe they have their suspect. They want to go through the evidence, if you will. What now . There is a sense of relief, but you are moving to an urgent task. Who else might be involve and are there still packages at large . Thats a key part of that and matching more evidence to be able to link every possible device. Another reason for not affecting the rest, you would have 15
agents trampling the inside of a house that is a crime scene and might be booby trapped. That house is a crime scene and its pristine and they can take their time again in the home that will match the packages in custody right now. Thats a good reason. They will continue with that. Continue with the examinations of whether he was on social media or posted threats before the event happened or whether he posted any kind of taking credit for the bombs that went out. All of that will be up for discussion with him at this point. At what point is the question, obviously, all of the targets here were critics of the president. Democratic politicians and people who criticized the president. At what point do you get to the that. You are worried about are there more and where are the materials used to build them and is anybody helping you. When do you get to the question of why . When you are pretty clear that there probably are no more
devices in the mail system and that he may be the only lone actor in this thing or others have been identified and get picked up shortly. When you get to that, you can Start Talking about political motive. Was he on the extreme right trying to take attacks against the left or extreme left wanting to create martyrs or not actually hurt them. We dont know. Thats not the most critical factor. Obviously. Public safety is factor number one. Kaitlan colins is standing by and the president of the United States will speak any moment. He is behind schedule. The president has not praised the fbi for the investigation and he attacked the media for the angry mood in the country. He has been briefed on this now. Any indication of what we will hear from the president moments from now . Reporter the question is, are we going to hear more on who the suspect is and how they
arrested the person and what went down, but the president will make remarks at the young black leadership summit, but he has been briefed on the arrest and also the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions who has been spearheading the investigation is also here at the white house right now. He is likely also speaking with the president about this. John, you have to look at the last sweet that the president sent before he told us he would give us an update. He was raising questions about what has gone on here. Republicans were doing so well in early voting and the polls and this bomb stuff happened. Now the momentum greatly slowed. He was lamenting the idea that the news was not on politics, but instead on this unfolding Terror Incident that shocked the nation in the last few days. We asked the white house, what was the president saying . Is he trying to insinuate this is a false operation as has been
in the Conspiracy Theories . They didnt get back to us. Of course the president has been getting regular Intelligence Briefings and stayed updated on what has been unfolding in the investigation. The question is, had the president been briefed on this impending arrest when he sent that tweet roughly two hours ago and did they know they were about to arrest someone in connection with the Package Bombs. We will hear from President Trump any minute now. He is going to address this. Whether or not he is going to raise any questions or going to let us know they have arrested someone and they are working on this and we will learn more in the Justice Department briefing, we will wait to hear from him, john . We will go to the president as soon as he makes remarks he has scheduled at the white house. Shimon is still with us. Lets go through what we know about the suspect. A man in his 50s and he has ties
to new york and lives in aventura, florida where the Central Postal Facility is at play. What else . John, honestly, thats about all we know. We are obviously digging into his history, his life, trying to figure out more information about him. He has a criminal history. That was certainly an advantage for Law Enforcement and the fbi. They would have been able to pull the records once they identified who he was. Really its a matter for them. They know a lot about him already. His social Media Presence and they have gone through all of that. They have gone through his history, criminal history, what he does and where he works. They know quite a bit about his political leanings which are probably going to be important in this investigation. What he has said about political candidates. They have all that. That lives with the fbi. We will see how much they will talk about at the Press Conference at 2 30. That will be key and its clear that thats key in this investigation as for motive. Really, thats it. I suspect there is no concern about explosives in that van. They would never be moving. There would be bomb squads. Its interesting that they chose to cover it because everything they need for evidence is inside of that van. Thats basically it. It doesnt appear that anyone else was involved at this point. Its only one person that has been arrested. We dont know if he lives with family. There are ties to new york, im told. Perhaps brooklyn. He may have lived in brooklyn at point. We dont know how long he has lived in florida. The fbi has been tracking him for at least 24 hours now,
watching him as he moves around and seeing who he was calling and talking to. What purchases hes made. They have all that information at this point. Its probably going to paint a better picture for us once they speak and release some of this evidence in Court Filings and court proceedings. Shimon with more great reporting. The president and his remarks will come any moment and describe the attacks as terrorizing acts. That would be language the president has not used in recent days. He has not described this as terrorism. He seemed to be skeptical just earlier today saying it was designed to affect the Midterm Elections. We will hear from the president any moment there. We want to take a quick break and have more on the investigation when we come back. No break . My apologies. I thought we were going to break. Lets put this back into
context. We can show you how this played out. George soros received a package on monday. Tuesday a package addressed to the clintons, hillary specifically. They live outside of new york. The former Vice President joe biden. John brennan, James Clapper, Robert De Niro who lives in new york and has been a krom nent critic of the president of the United States. Today a package directed at senator cory booker. A prominent trump critic and had a big role in the Brett Kavanaugh hearing. Maxine waters is a frequent critic. Eric holder and the Return Address List