Tabloid story about him complete and utter lies saying it was planted by donald trump and his, quote, henchman. Donald trump firing back claiming innocence but also adding innuendo. What does it say about the state of the gop race . Wolf blitzer is off. Im brianna keilar, and youre in the situation room. Breaking news. Explosions and gunfire echoed today in brussels and there were raids in other european cities as police urgently try to head off more terror attacks, which Officials Say are in the planning stages. There have been multiple arrests in belgium and one man was arrested in the same district where taxi driver picked up the three Brussels Airport bombers and where an earlier raid turned up high explosives and information about isis plots. Police in two german cities have arrested two men allegedly tied to the brussels terror cell. In a paris suburb, Police Seized explosives and arrested a man in whats being called an advanced plot there. Hes been linked to the ring leader of last novembers paris attacks. While isis poses a growing threat in europe, its suffering setbacks in syria. The pentagon says u. S. Forces have killed a top terror figure there, describing him as the isis finance minister. Many analysts call him the terror groups number two overall leader. And a stunning turn of events in the republican president ial race after a feud involving their wives. Ted cruz is now accusing donald trump an his henchmen of smearing him in a sensational and salacious story in the National Enquirer. He calls the tabloid story garbage. Trump said he had nothing to do with it. Im be speaking with a congressman from the Armed Service committedy and our correspondents, analysts and guests have full coverage of the days sttop stories. We begin with the raids, arrests and the plots foiled in europe. There is serious urgency to all of this tonight. Right now counterterror officials in belgium and france are scrambling to roll up anyone in tuesdays bombings but also to prevent the next attack. French president Francois Hollande says the cells behind the attacks are being wiped out but he also says their networks are still very dangerous. Police work to take down alleged isis cells related to tuesdays attacks, arresting at least nine potential terrorists, including this suspect seen shot and wounded as a police robot moves in. Moments later, police drag the man away. A witness says just before the shooting, the suspect had been sitting with a little girl at a bus stop. In one moment, two cars coming very speedily or three cars and shooting. I was watching him. It was very, very fast. And after, the robots come to take the bags. Reporter that man is in custody tonight, shot in the leg. Since the bombs, the city is on edge as Police Continue major operations in the brussels district of schaerbeek. The same neighborhood where a taxi driver picked up three terrorists an brought them to the Brussels Airport on tuesday. Two of them blew themselves up inside the terminal. This video obtained pby cnn shos the apartment where two of the suspects planned the attacks. Inside police found tatp, the unstable explosive believed to have been used in the brussels and paris attacks, as well as chemicals and an isis flag. Meantime overnight in a separate operation outside paris, french officials captured another man suspected of planning his own attack. Translator to foil an attack in france. The individual in question Holding French nationality is suspected of being involved at a high level in this project. Reporter recovered in a related operation, a kalashnikov rifle and more tatp. And tonight German Authorities say they arrested a 28yearold moroccan man. A source briefed by german officials tells cnn the man allegedly received two Text Messages before tuesdays attacks in brussels. One text had the name of Khalid El Bakraoui, the man believed to have blown himself up at the brussels train station. Later the source says there was another text, containing the french word for end. Three minutes after that text, the source says, Khalid El Bakraoui detonated his bomb. Also tonight a u. S. Official tells cnn u. S. Authorities believe they know the identity of this man, the man seen on Surveillance Footage at the Brussels Airport just before the bombings. He is, of course, wearing a hat and lightcolored clothing. He allegedly left the bomb behind and took off. U. S. Officials have shared the information on his identity with belgian authorities, according to our source. His name has not been made public. What about one of these suspects at the train station, the metro station attack that happened after the airport. Do we know anything about him . The man appears in Surveillance Footage standing near the other bombing suspect at that location. That suspect Khalid El Bakraoui. The other suspect is seen holding a large bag but it is also possible that he, like el bakraoui, did not survive that subway explosion. Thanks so much. New arrests in germany are being tied to the brussels attacks. I want to go live to brussels and cnns Senior International correspondent Clarissa Ward. Clarissa, first tell us what else are you telling us about this suspect that is now in germany . Reporter well, as you just heard there from brian, police found these two Text Messages on his phone. One of them mentioning the name of the subway bomber, Khalid El Bakraoui, the other one saying simply end. That was three minutes, three minutes before the metro bombing attack. Now, were learning a little bit more about how police found this man, though. Reportedly this was a random check at a train station in germany. The man aroused some suspicion with his behavior. When they went and looked at his passport, they found that there was a ban for him on traveling freely inside the sort of borderfree area of europe because he was involved with a string of robberies previously. Now, they also found a medical bill. That medical bill indicating that he had received treatment for injuries to his torso. One german investigator is telling cnn that they believe that he may have sustained these injuries in brussels, in one of the raids that took place last week. All of this really giving our viewers a sense of the difficulty that authorities are dealing with here in trying to contain this situation just within belgium. We sue seen now spreading to france and germany. Even in cases like this one where there was a ban, this man was not allowed to travel freely, because there are not border controls within these countries, it is very easy still for people even who are on the radar to move freely between these Different Countries. So at this stage a manhunt still very much active here in brussels. Nine people arrested in the last 24 hours. It appears that three of them have been released, but six of them still detained. Again, as we said before, seeing this operation now fanning out to neighboring countries, to france, to germany. And authorities across this continent trying to drill down on the different nodes of this network before another attack can take place, brianna. All right, Clarissa Ward, thank you so much. Joining me now to talk a little more about this, we have democratic congressman john garemendi. Sir, thanks for being with us. So many people are looking at these attacks in brussels, the previous ones in november, and theyre concerned about americans being targeted, especially now that we know two americans are dead. Theres a bomb that went off near the delta counter. This was two hours before most flights to america were set to take off. Do you think that americans were targeted . Probably everybody at that airport was targeted and the americans were just part of the crowd that was there. I suspect that maybe Delta Airlines but in all pronlt theyre going after innocent people wherever they may be. We saw the same thing in paris and we saw it years ago in madrid. What is happening now is finally the authorities are going on the offensive, gathering of information which has been slow to gather. The sharing of information even slower. All of that needs to be put together and do exactly what the authorities are doing now, and that is to play offense, no longer defense. Play offense, go get them wherever they may be, round them up. And then from that, find the next step along the way. And probably it will head right back to syria and iraq. We had some good news there today. And i know as well that you were actually just in brussels on congressional business, so i do want to note that because certainly i think you have some insight there. But this man in france, were learning that he was in this advanced stage of planning. Police recovered the same kind of explosives that were used in brussels and paris, this tatp explosives. And you heard clarissas report there. How many more people and how many more countries could be out there plotting these attacks . Well, theyre probably spread throughout europe. They certainly are in the middle east. Theyre certainly in turkey and surrounding regions of the middle east. So this is a network. But the good news is when you find one, usually you get clues to the next one. As you said earlier, theyre beginning to roll them up. Thats what we have to do, we have to be on the offensive. I know when i was at that airport in brussels a little over a month and a half ago, it was just a huge crowd. You know, here we go. So lets play offense. Lets use the tools that are available to us, our various surveillance tools, some of which actually prove to be useful in the subway bombing in brussels as well as in paris. Use those tools, capture one, get the information. It will lead to somebody else, just as is happening now. Weve got to work across the countries. The various countries of the European Union together with the United States and our neighbors here in the western hemisphere, all of us need to be sharing information. Theres no good in Holding Information private. Share it, it will be useful somewhere down the line, and probably well be able to prevent some other attacks, just as is happening in paris today. What kind of information are you talking specifically about . Ive heard about people who have been turned away at the border at one country and because they may be a suspected terrorist and then that isnt communicated to a neighboring country. What else, do you think . Well, certainly that. We do know that turkey gave a heads up to the European Countries about these two of the bombers in brussels a couple of days ago, that they were being returned from turkey. So that was a piece of information that apparent low was not acted upon. So thats one kind of information. The other is were listening. The United States and other countries are listening to various communication thats going back and forth. There was talk of this email or text message that was out there. So use our appropriate listening technologies. Sometimes you have to do that internationally. You dont need a court order. But if its within this country, yes, you do need a court order. Even so, we can use those pieces of information but they are of no value unless they are shared. So this becomes very, very important that the agreements, one just signed about three months ago between the United States and the European Union, to share certain types of information. That is just now going into effect. My guess is it will be ramped up and much more quickly put into effect so that the flow of information from the United States to those countries in europe and back into the United States, thats really one of the things thats very, very important. The other thing is to work with the neighborhoods. Dont wall these neighborhoods off. Dont build a wall, dont bring them into the community so that youre able the police and others are able to work with the community. In most cases, at least in the United States not in my cases, but in many cases in the United States, information that is critical for Law Enforcement comes from members of the community. Yeah, its essential. All right, we have many more questions for you. Well be right back in a moment with congressman John Garamendi on the latest details in this investigation of the brussels terrorist attacks. Understands company the life behind it. Those who have served our nation have earned the very best service in return. Usaa. We know what it means to serve. Get an Auto Insurance quote and see why 92 of our members plan to stay for life. If you have allergy congestion muddling through your morning is nothing new. Introducing rhinocort® allergy spray from the makers of zyrtec®. Powerful relief from nasal allergy symptoms, all day and all night. Try new rhinocort® allergy spray. All day and all night. A 401 k is the most sound way to go. Lets talk asset allocation. Sure. You seem knowledgeable, professional. Im actually a dj. [ dance music plays ] woman [laughs] no way that really is you . If theyre not a cfp pro, you just dont know. Cfp work with the highest standard. This is the allnew 20wow, its nice. Lets check it out. Do any of you have kids . I do yes. This car has a feature built in called teen driver technology, which lets parents see how their teens are driving. Oh, thats smart. It even mutes the radio until the seat belt is fastened. Will it keep track of how many boys get it in the car . laughter cause that could be useful. This is ahead of what my audi has for sure. Wish my beamer had that. I didnt even know that technology existed. Im not in the market for a car but now i may be. And we are theic plays hbug chicks. Ie and im jess. We are a nanobusiness. Windows 10 really helps us get the word out about how awesome bugs are. Kids learn to be brave and curious and all kids speak the language of bug. Hey cortana, find my katydid video oh this is so good. laughs if youre trying to teach a kid about a proboscis just sketch it on the screen. I dont have a touch screen on my mac, im jealous of that. laughs you put a big bug in a kids hands and change their world view. laughs chuck, i know i have a 798 fico score, thanks to experian. Com. Kaboom. Get your credit swagger on. Go to experian. Com. Become a member of experian credit tracker and take charge of your score. Isnt like last saturday. [ indistinct shouting ] bulk from boxed wont only save you money, it will save saturday. [ pop, screech, doorbell rings ] boxed bulksize shopping delivered easy with no membership fees. We are talking with congressman John Garamendi but first we have more breaking news. The pentagon has announced that u. S. Forces have killed one of the worlds most wanted terrorists. The veteran isis leader nope as the finance minister but many view him as the terror groups number two leader. I want to go live to cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr. How big of a deal is this, barbara . From the pentagon point of view, a very big deal. This guys name is qaduli. He had a 7 million price tag on his head from the u. S. Government. Thats how bad they wanted to get him. Now, there was a mission to go after him. What we do know is that u. S. Special Operations Forces secretly moved in to syria. The idea was they were going to capture him, bring him back to iraq, interrogate him for everything he knew about isis, finances, operations, external attack planning, but were not clear, the pentagon not exactly saying why it didnt go as planned. When they moved in by helicopters, the commandos were not able to get to him. He was in a vehicle. Something happened, they werent able to complete the mission, so the next step that appeared was they opened fire on the vehicle, killing him. That is what we now know, that these u. S. Special Operations Forces went into syria, killed this man, not able to capture him, but nonetheless the pentagon today saying a very big get. The secretary of defense, ash carter, talking about dismantling the isis cabinet one by one. Baghdadi, the number one of isis, still remains at large. That would be certainly the most important one. Barbara starr at the pentagon, thanks so much. Were back now with democratic congressman John Garamendi of california. He is a member of the Armed Services committee. Obviously you know this number two isis leader taken out. Right. How significant is this, or does someone else just fill his role . Well, its very significant. First of all, this has been a longterm strategy, frankly a very smart strategy. Go after the head of the snake, snap that head off. There are going to be multiple snakes and multiple heads, but were getting them one at a time. And thats very, very important because it disrupts the operation. Also consider that there are military operations going on simultaneously. And when you knock out the leader, you degrade that military operation and quite possibly you can seriously disrupt it. And so all of this is very important. This fellow probably the financier. Money is critical to them. If you can break that network or slow it down, that gives your military operations a better chance to succeed. Keep in mind that its the kurds, its the iraqis, all of these pressing in on isis, with some success. Weve taken 40 of the territory back. There are major cities that are going to go into play over the next several months. If you can eliminate the leadership, as we are doing successfully, it will make it that much more likely to be a successful military operation when that time comes. I want to ask you qu