Scary morning, at least five suspicious packages picked up, addressed to different politicians and to cnn. Obviously, the intent was to scare. None went off. No one hurt. But a message was certainly sent as the investigation continues, so does our consideration of how to make this better. Jake tapper picks up our coverage now. This is cnn breaking news. Welcome to the lead, im jake tapper. We begin with breaking news in our national lead. The fbi and other Law Enforcement agencies are trying to figure out who sent at least six suspicious packages to a number of highprofile targets, including former President Bill and Hillary Clinton in chappaqua, new york. Former president barack and Michelle Obama in washington, d. C. , former obama Attorney General, eric holder, though it was sent to the wrong address, so it was sent back to the Return Address, which was oddly democratic congresswoman, Debbie Wasserman schultz in sunrise,
florida. Billionaire financier, george soros. Democratic congresswoman, Maxine Waters on capitol hill. And, of course, this device sent to cnns new york headquarters and addressed to former obama cia director, john brennan, care of cnn. Minutes ago, the Time Warner Center where cnn is located was finally cleared by Law Enforcement and reopened. It is early yet in this investigation. No doubt we will learn more details and perhaps assertions made by Law Enforcement at this hour will be ultimately updated. Right now Law Enforcement is describing many of the packages as containing rudimentary but operative Explosive Devices. Or bombs. Meaning the intention appears to be mass murder. And though we do not know the name or motive of any suspect, investigators have no doubt taken note of the fact that all of the targets are people the that President Trump has strongly publicly criticized. The white house said today that President Trump is being
constantly updated. Minutes ago, without mentioning any names of the intended targets, the president addressed the situation publicly. The safety of the American People is my highest and absolute priority. The full weight of our government is being deployed to conduct this investigation and bring those responsible for these despicable acts to just e justice. In these times, we have to unify. We have to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of Political Violence of any kind have no place in the United States of america. We have a team of reporters and Analysts Covering every angle of the story. Theyre in new york and washington and florida, where the package to eric holder turned up. Lets begin with cnns Miguel Marquez outside time warner
center. I think its fair to say Law Enforcement has no idea how many bombs like these are out there. Reporter yeah, thats exactly it. That is the biggest concern right now. Are there more bombs out there . And certainly a National Hunt under way to figure out just who is responsible. This is the device sent to cnns new york offices today, in an incident some are calling an act of terror. Today packages containing Explosive Devices discovered in multiple locations around the country, many addressed to prominent democratic officials and politicians. This clearly is an act of terror. Attempting to undermine our free press and leaders of this country through acts of violence. Reporter the scene played out in part on live television, shortly after 10 00 a. M. , when a fire alarm could be heard going off. They were Explosive Devices, and to have projectiles thats a [ Alarm Sounding ] that sounds like a fire alarm. Well keep you posted on that. Tom fuentes, if youre still hearing us here theyre connected now . Reporter a minute later, poppy harlow and jim sciutto were evacuating cnns new york headquarters, along with hundreds of employees, tourists and new yorkers were neighboring buildings. Theres a fire alarm here. You might have heard it in the background. Were going to find out what the latest is. Well be right back. Reporter authorities responded quickly and en masse. Responding officers identified a device that appeared to be a live Explosive Device. Additionally, there was an envelope containing white powder that was discovered as part of that original packaging. Reporter the package addressed to former cia director, john brennan, who has appeared on cnn air, but is not a cnn contributor, just one of many targets. Multiple other bombs were intercepted by authorities today. One bomb mailed to former president Barack Obamas office in d. C. , where the secret Service Found it during a routine Mail Screening before it
ma made it to their home. Another bomb mailed to former President Bill and Hillary Clintons home, also intercepted by the Secret Service. A bomb send to former Attorney General eric holder had the wrong address and was returned to Debbie Wasserman schultzs office in florida, because that was on the return label on the package. Most recently, a suspicious package returned to trump critic congresswoman, Maxine Waters, was discovered at a congressional sorting facility in maryland. And on monday, wealthy democratic donor, george soros, also received a bomb. A Law Enforcement official tells cnn the initial examination of all the devices shows them to be constructed similarly. At least one of the devices appeared to contain projectiles, including shards of glass. The devices are rudimentary, but functional. Now, there is no doubt that one person or persons are responsible for these. In part, because of the Return Addresses. The Return Addresses for the soros bomb, the obamas, the clintons, the one that came to brennan here at cnn, all of them had the same Return Address. That of Debbie Wasserman schultz, former dnc chair. Officials looking at that. Also the makeup of the bombs themselves to figure out and piece together who is responsible. Jake . Miguel marquez in new york, thank you so much. Evan perez joins me now. Evan, many of these suspicious packages had that Return Address of congresswoman Debbie Wasserman schultz, who obviously did not send these packages. Why do Law Enforcement officials think the bomber likely did that . Jake, i think part of what theyre examining right now is that that is part of the message. Now, as you said, they havent identified this is terrorism. But one of the things they will be looking at is whether someone had a political motive. Obviously, the thing weve noticed for the packages that for most of the packages so far have been democrats, People Associated with the democratic
party. Or people who have been criticizing the president and his administration. So thats where theyre beginning their investigation. And so that part of the package, the package, the label that says Debbie Wasserman schultz, is definitely one of the big clues that theyre looking at, jake. And evan, sources telling cnn that the packages delivered to soros and to cnn did not go through the u. S. Mail. What do we know about that . Right. Exactly. And this is potentially a huge clue for investigators. The fact that this was a these were packages, the one that was delivered to the Soros Address Outside of new york city, was handdelivered and put there in their mailbox. It was discovered by an employee of george soros. And thats the reason thats why this morning the new York Police Department was already going, fanning out in new york city, including to the cnn building, to show people what that package looked like. Because they wanted to alert
people what these packages might that might be arriving, what to look for, jake. They already were suspecting that there would be more of this. So thats the reason why i think investigators think that this could be a big clue, which is the idea that someone somewhere would have handdelivered this, means perhaps that person was involved in this. And how sophisticated were these bombs . Were these Explosive Devices . Theyre not very sophisticated. But even an unsophisticated device can kill people. The problem with this is that, you know, these devices could go off in the mail. And, you know, look, the person who is doing this, the people who are doing this, perhaps, are targeting these officials, these democrats, these critics of the president. But the people who are actually going to be handdelivering or handling these packages are mail carriers. Theyre lowlevel employees in the mail room. So anyone could be hurt by one of these packages, jake. Evan perez, thank you so much. Lets discuss with this
supervisory agent James Gallano in the ground in new york. And also with me in studio is phil mudd, who spent years in the cia and fbi. James, what do you think the fbi agents assigned to this case are doing right now . First of all, jake, The Big Question is who has purview for this. Back in 1998, president clinton be signed a president ial decision directive 62 that gives the fbi purview in potential acts of terror. And, again, from our perspective in Law Enforcement, we assume terrorism until proven otherwise. So i was here this morning. I saw the Emergency Services unit or the nypd, because theyre the First Responders and theyre great. They took a device out of the cnn building. Look, the part of trying to figure out who did this is secondary to making sure there are no other devices out there, there is no conspiracy afoot to mail more of these or deliver these, because crisis resolution, keeping people safe, the most important thing and of paramount concern to Law Enforcement. The secondary aspect then is then to go through and try to
pick piece together what happened. Every bombmaker, just like a baker making a particular apple pie, has a particular signature. How they crimp their wires, the tool marks on the device. The taping they use or how they put the Return Address on. So investigators are going to be looking at these. The good news here, jake, is nobody has been hurt. And secondarily, the devices have not been exploded. Unless there is a controlled debt nati detonation later, we now have that as a Treasure Trove of evidence going forward. And phil, what other agencies, other than the fbi and nypd do you think are involved here, and what are they doing right now . Let me give a couple examples. The Secret Service and Postal Service. You look at the questions you would have in this case and the immediate question obviously is what is the device. Are there fingerprints on the package. In the background, there are a lot of agencies involved. On the Secret Service side, one of the questions you have, have there been people in the past who have made threats that look like this threat, talked about these specific individuals, for example. Those people might have been
subjects of the Secret Service in the past. Lets look through that vast amount of information. Postal service. They are really good at tracking packages. How do you track these packages . Did they go through the Postal Service . Where did they originate . Can we track it back to origination and figure out, for example, was there a postal clerk who saw the person . If the person went to an actual post office . So you think about the fbi or local police. Theres a ton of people looking at this, jake. And james, i assume the presumption by the fbi and others right now is that all of these incidents are connected. Jake, thats the important piece as we try to piece together who did this or whether or not there was a conspiracy. And whats important here is the link analysis. Again, was there a team of people doing this or one individual in particular . Look, the thing about bombs, bombs are designed to inflict terror. Because youve got the piece where, yes, they can injure you. Three things bombs do. The overpressure, which causes soft tissue damage. The potential shrapnel, if there was a pipe bomb or nails or any other type of metal shards that could impale you. And thirdly, the thermal effect. Bombs when they explode typically set off fires and people can perish that way. Once we establish the device is either inert or this was a crude device that the bombmaker wasnt really skilled and its not lethal, now their determination has got to be who did this, who is behind this or was this a false flag operation or was this somebody literally just trying to send these devices out to cause terror and panic . But before we can call it terrorism, thats got to come from Law Enforcement. So weve got to be very careful in what we call it until Law Enforcement says that definitively. James, let me follow up with what you said. You said one of the things of many theyll be looking into, Law Enforcement, whether or not this is a false flag operation. Explain what you mean by that. Reporter certainly. So we know that some of the labels that were attached, the Return Address was Debbie Wasserman schultz. Was this person sending these
devices out hoping they werent going to get through, there was not enough postage on them, they were going to be rejected ask sent back to that address . Was this somebody trying to suggest or try to fool people into thinking that a democratic politician would be mailing these out . Was this somebody on the other side of the political divide that was trying to stoke fear and make it look like this was coming from somebody on the left . The device, from every Special AgentBomb Technician in the fbi ive spoken to today, and ive spoken to a number of them, has suggested this was rudimentary. This was so basic, its almost like the person that mailed these out, jake, wanted to be caught. Why do i say that . Excessi excessive postage on all of the devices. Too much tape or string. Just the manner in which it was put together. And the device that was found at cnn itself, we still dont know if it had the four Bomb Components in it, meaning a power supply, an initiator, a switch, and then actual explosives themselves. But from the outside, it looks like a crude lie packaged pipe
bomb, which could either be pvc piping or some type of cast iron, some device like that. It just doesnt look like the signature of an experienced bombmaker, somebody that knew what they were doing. A lot of theories afoot. Weve got to be careful. Cant call it terrorism until Law Enforcement comes out and does some link analysis and suggests that somebody mailed these for political or social purpose. And phil, you know former cia director john brennan. The package was sent to him, care of cnn. Of course, he doesnt work for c cnn. He works for a different channel. How do you think hes doing . Have you managed to reach him . I have not talked i can think of a couple things he would be thinking about with some confidence. Hes a tough bird. This is one of the toughest people i saw in 25 years in the business. I dont think he would look at this and say im scared. That said, hes been a prominent critic of the president. A lot of people are coming out today and saying despite what the white house said, the president is responsible for things like going out in the political rally and saying its okay for a politician to body slam a reporter. That environment you create by saying things like that is not appropriate. I wouldnt be surprised if john
comes out, because he is in the political sphere and says, you know, im not worried. Im not scared. But we cannot have an environment where we suggest to people that its okay to commit an Act Of Violence against anybody, including a journalist. Yeah. And, of course, we dont know who did this. We dont know their motive. We have no idea. But it does come at a time that theres a hostile environment, and theres a lot of Political Violence against democrats, against republicans. James gallano, given that these packages were sent all over the country, how are the various Law Enforcement