America reacts, this is hardball. Good evening, im chris matthews, in washington. The terrorist who struck brussels, are being answered by west against east, christian against muslim, they may have bargained for their lives what were hearing now. A manhunt underway for one suspect from the bombs. Also today, some of the men behind the attacks. Prosecutors have identified two brothers, there they are, abbra him and khalid bakraoui. One of them blew himself up in the airport and the brother at the subway system an hour later. The brothers are connected to novembers paris attacks as well, which they helped to f
facilitate. Another man in this photo at the airport before the first explosion. The man on the right is thought to have fled the scene and is still at large. Midd middle eastern officials is saying isis is training hundreds of fighters to attack europe. Meanwhile, back home in the United States, theyve shaken up the president ial race. Senator ted cruz has come under fire from president obama, secretary sanders, police at trol patrols, president obama says its contrary to who we are. Hillary clinton delivered a major speech about terrorism in response to the attacks. Starkly contrasted her views on torture, Foreign Policy and immigration against those of donald trump and other republicans. Slogans arent a strategy. Loose cannons tend to misfire. What America Needs is strong, smart, steady leadership to wage and win this struggle. Were going to talk about the latest from the campaign a little later. We begin with the new developments in the brussels vg investigation itself. Chris jansing joins us from the city. Youve been on top of it today. Give us the police story, as it has evolved so far. Well, human developments today, chris. Look, for four months, police have been trying to put together the pieces of what happened in paris. Now, and not in a good way, theyre finding there are all these ties to what happened in brussels a couple of days ago. You mentioned the brothers involved, now we know in both taxes, also Salah Abdeslam, he was the one who managed to hide in plain sight in this city for four months before he was arrested on friday. Now we know, not only was he involved in the paris attacks, which is why police were looking for him, but they also believe and said today that they
would that he would have been part of these taxeattacks, had not been arrested. There was a computer tossed away, by the older brother, what he wrote was a last will and testament indicating they were feeling the pressure, this cell, larger than police thought, knew the pressure was on once Salah Abdeslam was arrested and clearly moved up the attacks. This could not be put together in a couple of days. But they moved it up, knowing that police were breathing down their neck, chris. Chris, lets take a look. Hold the picture we had a moment ago of the three terrorists. On the hard left, im told, the middle is ibrahim bakraoui, of course, he is dead. He blew himself up in the airport terminal. His brother did the same in the subway, khalid did the same in
the metro. The gentleman on the left, if you want to call him a gentleman, do we know if he was the bomb maker . What is his role, the one of the three gentlemen, the one on the left . So there is still a question about the bomb maker. When we say the bomb maker, what police want to know, and will have been reports about this, nbc has not independently confirmed this, that he was a bomber. He was a suicide bomber. That he died at the scene, but he was also the bomb maker for the paris attacks. Thats another piece of this puzzle, chris, that theyve been looking for. Theyve been trying to figure out who made those bombs, and fingerprints and dna have led them to suspect that it might be the person who was involved in these attacks. We have not independently confirmed this. But certainly, its something authorities looking at closely. So still on the loose right now is that guy on the righthand side in the light colored jacket. Do we know anything about him . We dont know who he is. Thats one of the puzzles here. Theyve done closeups of him, looking to see who he might be. Particularly important, because even as theyre questioning Salah Abdeslam, he is the key person, right. If there are more attacks being planned, he is the one they would like to question. Why do they think there might be more attacks. Huge bomb making factory that they found indicating that there was either a much wider plot that was originally planned, but again, if they speeded it up, it turned out to be these two locations, or that they have oon more plots in the works. So there a real urgency here. Theyve been doing raids throughout the day and officials have said today theyre going to continue to do raids. He is priority one, to find that one man on the loose. Big manhunt going on right now. Chris, hold on for one second. I want to play for you while we still have you this translation of belgian prosecutor translating the last wilf testament if you will of one of the terrorists. In the garbage bin, we found the wilf i object brl of the la weighs in a bad situation, he has been sought everywhere. He is no longer safe. And that if he dies, he may he thought he may end up in a prison cell. Ibrahim bakraoui, was he afraid of setting up a safe house . What did he do with regard to paris . Why was he on the run . Well, he is the one who helped set up that safe house for sure. And he rented that apartment that was used as a safe house there. But in addition to that, it does seem to be an indication, he doesnt mention Salah Abdeslam by name. Its really interesting. But authorities do believe when he sid aid he didnt want to be
a cell next to him, that may be who he was referring to. But its about the urgency, the bottom line that Police Officials read into what you just heard there, is the urgency they felt they wanted to get this pulled off. And so they were going to do it very quickly, and they knew if they didnt, they might go the way of Salah Abdeslam that they might come under arrest. Amazing how it comes together just 48 hours now, less than 48 hours. Chris jansing, thanks so much. President obama said defeating isis is his top priority, ruthlessly going after the networks, but the groups goal was to strike fear in our society, and its important not to let them succeed. Groups like isil can destroy us. They c they cant defeat us. They cant produce anything. Theyre not a threat to us. They are vicious killers. And murders, who have perverted one of the worlds great religions. We defeat them in part by saying you are not strong. You are weak. We send a message to those who might be sin expired by them to say you are not going to change our values. Well, meanwhile, as i mentioned, the Associated Press reports isis has trained hundreds of fighters to carry out attacks in europe. She worked on National Security policy in the obama administration. Anthony roman a counterterrorism analyst. We dont have much time, but youve heard the reporting about the crime. Sort of a detective story. The two brothers, played perhaps leading up this this event. What does it project in your eyes. This shows that isis is clearly moved outside of the
syria iraq territory, and in fact, as we make gains against them there, theyre spreading and trying to a terrible storm of factors. You have relatively open borders, land masses and countries that are close together, but have terrible information sharing mechanismless, for example, these brussels brothers were questioned by police, the paris attackers were questioned by police. Information never shared with the french. You had people who were recently leaving turkey, after having fought in syria, going back to belgium. Again, information not shared across country borders. If you ask anyone in the intelligence community, the sad thing is, theyre not surprised that brussels is the place where the next terror attack happened. They clearly have to pull together there, resources, counterterrorism measures, and deal with the fact that they also have a population that is 40 unemployed, and at risk for a
radicalization. Belgium. Belgium. We went to afghanistan to remove from al qaeda. You see pictures of people climbing along monkey bars trying to get in shape. What does that got to do planting bombs at airports. People could do that with the least physically fit people on the planet. Training somewhere in the middle east and having access to the internet and getting their hooks into people. You know, isis is really a multi pronged organization. Think of organized crime. Theyre money launders, they have different training bases for different purposes. They have intelligence training schools. They have bomb making training schools. Speaking about the bomb making, the bomber, who was involved in this, in terms of he being the bomb maker, if he was, he was a secondary bomb maker. Simply because master bomb makers are critically important to isis, and theyre not going
to risk them by having them commit a suicide bombing. But there is so much going on behind the scenes, chris. There are tactical teams. Hunting these guys down, all of the time. Intelligence operatives, working and developing information. It is not an easy life being in isis. Some of the kids that get involved in it and get recruited are really under a fallacy thinking that theyre going to a wonderful adventure. The europeans are behind the curve on this, especially in brussels, allowing so many refugees to come on to the con tena continent without proper screening, embedded them to do recruiting and training. Lets take a look at how we spontded. President obama said u. S. Has seen fewer attacks, because its Muslim Population isnt
alienated here. Lets listen. One of the great strengths of the United States and part of the reason why we have not seen more attacks in the United States is we have an extraordinarily successful patriotic integrated Muslim American community. They do not feel ghettoized, they do not feel isolated. Any approach that would single them out or target them for discrimination, is not only wrong and unamerican, but also would be counterproductive. I you know, sometimes ted cruz leaves me emptyheaded. The idea of patrolling a neighborhood, as if its a street crime neighborhood. Thats how philadelphia, big city, street crime, muggings, et cetera, dealing of drugs. This isnt about that. So what good would be driving cruisers or squad cars in theUnited States, even if such a concentration of people existed, with the idea of somewhere, some basement, someone is cook something. Patrolling is the worst thing you could do, because it would create a sense of secret keeping. It goes against the entire idea of having integrated communities where people are friendly, open with each other, and the last thing the police in the u. S. Need right now we were talking beforehand, youre from a pakistan background. That word came back, we havent used it for a while, ghetto, separation, alien nation, are those words that generally fit the south asian experience in the United States . I would say at large, the minority experience in the u. S. Is not one of feeling immediately, sorry, the immigrant experience, is not one of feeling alienated, if you come legally, you sign up for the constitution, you believe in certain freedoms, and youre
willing to accept those for other people. You have an american identity. Its not your accent changes in one generation. Its not like for example in france or britain, these are heahe heridiary. Would he need good news in this country. Thank you for some good news. Thank you for agreeing with me, anthony. Still ahead this hours, new developments in the race, another establishment endorsement. By the way, the losers club, the first candidates club, as my producer called it, the first candidates club of losers are getting behind ted cruz, a guy they really dont like. Plus, the attacks in brussels a focal point in the president ial campaign, as the candidates weigh in with their calls against radical is llam and everything else. This is hardball, the place
for politics. No maam. Our at t buy one get one free makes it easier for your staff to send appointment reminders to your customers. And share promotions on social media . You know it now im seeing dollar signs. You should probably get your eyes checked. Good one babe. Optometry humor. Right now get up to 650 in credits to help you switch to at t. Dont let dust and allergies get and lifes beautiful moments. With flonase allergy relief, they wont. When we breathe in allergens, our bodies react by over producing six key inflammatory substances that cause our symptoms. Most allergy pills only control one substance. Flonase controls six. And six is greater than one. Flonase outperforms the 1 nondrowsy allergy pill. So you can seize those moments, wherever you find them. Flonase. Six is greater than one changes everything. Brussels, jeff haufman were at the airport when the bombs went off. They shared their chilling account in an interview with matt lauer. It was like a whirlwind, like tornado going off behind them. It hit me. I felt it before i heard it. I still didnt know what was going on. I didnt understand what was going on. After the seconds explosion, it was dead silence. It was like everyone was gone in a moment. Well be right back. You both have a perfect driving record. Until one of you clips a food truck. Then your rates go through the roof. Perfect. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Liberty mutual insurance. Donald trump continued his march to the republican nomination last night, with a decisive victory in the winner take all state of arizona, where he
captured all 58 delegates. Also a good night for ted cruz, who won utah, taking all of its 40 delegates. Here was cruz earlier today. We had a huge victory last night in utah. We were hoping to break 50 . If we broke 50 , we would get all of the delegates, and we ended up blowing past that, nearly 70 . That is just the latest manifestation of what were seeing across the country, which is were seeing republicans uniting behind this campaign, coming together and joining in unity, because we recognize that if we nominate donald trump, it elects Hillary Clinton. Just to put a little fact check there, jack and the bean stalk could have beaten donald trump in the Mormon Community. Best hope of defeating trump is not much of a hope or preventing
him from clinching the 1,237. Cruz received establishment types, including graham and romney. Jeb bush announced he too is going back on the ship. First time in history, the rats have rejoined the ship. Bush said for the sake of our party and the country, we must move to overcome the devis sieveness, democratic nominee. Any way, the sport from these establishment types is stunning. Given the hostility we all know they share towards cruz across the party itself. As chris writes in the Washington Post, cruz is and was hated by the republican establishment party, grandstander with little interest with any of the niceties of polpolitics, and doesnt play well with others. It seems only donald trump could turn the antiestablishment ted cruz into the new establishment leader. Any way, joining me now, is
henry barber, and national correspondent, joy reed. Joy, i know the Mormon Community, it has views about social behavior, about religion and what a good person should look and behave like. Trump is the opposite of that, a show off, bragart, the Mormon Community is much more humble, prudent and nicer, lets put it that way, nicer. It bawas easy for ted cruz to bt him. I said jack and the bean stalk could beat him. For that guy to beat him drum and said i just did in utah what im doing across the country, try that number in connecticut, new jersey, pennsylvania, it will be of no value where a lot of people like trump. Yeah, and chris, you know, the only surprise for me was the kasich actually didnt do better. He is a very evangelical guy,
but a lot more of the temperament coming out of the lds church. What you saw here is ted cruz evangelical. He worked hard. The biggest statistical indicator of not supporting donald trump is being a mormon, they have the most antipithy. He never stood a chance. How does this race stand now when you have all the losers, executive producer referred to him as the first candidates club, like the first wives club. Theyve gotten together in this odd gang, well, its an odd gang, a motley crew to say the least. They all lost, they all resent the fact that trump beat them and now they think the whole is greater than the sum of their parts. I think its smaller. I think jeb jumping into this odd group of people makes him
look smaller than he was when he left the field. Your thoughts. Zr well, if youre going to say losers, lets Hillary Clinton lost in 2008, and she hasnt come out yet for ted cruz. But i do think, chris, for the most part, endorsements dont matter. It may help a little bit with fundraisi fundraising, but for the most part, ted cruz has a long way to go, but i dont think it will be decided until june 7th, when new york and new jersey, i mean california and new jersey will be voting. Why do you think trump did so well in the deep south . If you look at map now that shows his enormous strength, gulf of mexico, florida, he carried them all. He carried all those states, very lots of baptists down there, he won every single one against this guy. Why is cruz claiming to about
mr. Evangelical. I dont get it. I like the way i tell you my opinion and ask you to challenge it. But thats how i do it. Go ahead. Thats all good. Look, i think that donald trump has done well in the south, because people in the south are sick of whats going on in washington, like most folks in the country, and trump is appealing to them. He is appealing to them, both on national defense, on the border, and theyre just sick and tired of the status quo. Folks, look, my county voted over 50 for trump, which for me, im not proud of, but donald trump is going to have to grow as a candidate, chris, if he wants to close out the nomination, and certainly win the white house. He has got to show he can bring people together and not just divide them. How does he do that . How do you throw out the bath water . How do you keep the baby, keep the part of him thats attractive to many people, exciting, funny to some people. Turns them on, gives them a rise . How do you keep that part and
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