The objective . Apparently to snuff out the leading spokes people for the views of the democratic party. It was an attack on reporters and on democracy itself. People will say you cant blame the president for something a person did. That is true. The president didnt grind up the shards of glass to maim and can kill. But he did something else. You dehumanized those who dare to question his conduct. Based on race and religion and political party. And it has the potential to lead from what we saw happen yesterday and we dont even know if its over. So before we dive sdoo discussion and analysis, we want to set up exactly what went down yesterday. It was a chaotic day yesterday. Former president barack obama, Hillary Clinton, eric holder, former cia director john brennen at cnn, congresswoman Maxine Waters and billionaire philanthropist george soros targeted by bombs. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was listed as a bogus return address. A pipe bomb like the one found in the mailbox of george soros on monday was found tuesday night near the home of bill and Hillary Clinton. It was discovered by screeners reviewing mail sent to the former secretary of state. Yesterday morning, a routine screening of president obamas mail turned out another explosive device. It was intercepted before reaching his washington home. A device was addressed to former attorney general eric holder. That package, according to former law officials was incorrectly addressed and wound up sent back to Wasserman Schultzs address where it was then intercepted by the secret service. The device addressed to brennen, an n bc analyst was sent to cnns time warner building in the heart of new york city. It was discovered in the mail room, the aftermath playing identity live on television. These are no longer projected issues. That sounds like a fire alarm here. Were going to find out what the latest is here at cnn. Were going to be right back. This is cnn breaking news. And can good morning. Im renee marsh in washington, d. C. We are following some developing, breaking news. At this hour, the time warner building in new york city has been evacuated. Jim and poppy harlow who you saw anchoring, they had to the evacuate the studio. So with the fire alarm going off in the background, the anchors continued reporting on the story out on the street until they could not any longer. They were forced out of the building. The anchors kept reporting on the street outside the Time Warner Center. New york city mayor bill de blasio addressing reporters early yesterday afternoon. What we saw here today was an effort to terrorize. This clear is an act of terror attempting to undermine our free presentation and leaders of this country through acts of violence. I want to make very clear that the people of new york in, will not be intimidated. And it was confirmed last night that a second device addressed to Maxine Waters was found. Earlier in the day, it was discovered at a maryland facility. Xrays indicate the devices likely contained shrapnel, shards of glass inside. A senior Law Enforcement official tells nbc news the bomb addressed to john brennen included a parody of as isis flag and the words get er done. The packages are being inspected by top explosive experts and a major federal investigation is now under way. The full weight of our government is being deployed to conduct this investigation and bring those responsible for these despicable acts to justice. We will spare no resources or expense in this effort. And i just want to tell you that in these times, we have to unify. We have to come together and send one very clear, unmistakable message that acts or threats of Political Violence of any kind have no place in the United States of america. With us we have john pedoritz, susan delpercio, john heilman and historian, author, msnbc contributor and rogers professor of the presidency at vanderbilt university, john meechul. John, well start with you. Context, parallels and history, pull back to 20,000 feet. What are we looking at here . Its, i think, the most widespread attempt of lives on american officials since and may, in fact, exceed the scope since the assassination plot against Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Its the potential for disaster was enormous. The scope of it is fascinating. And i think that what it tells us is that in every era of great political strife in this country, there has been some manifestation of that strife in terms of violence. Whether its the attempt on Andrew Jacksons line, the caning of a congressman, the terrible jostlings and protests of adelaid stephenson, the terrible cataclysmic violence of 1968. So this is a last not surprising and i think when you step back, one of the things we have to figure out is is the climate a symptom or a cause of an attack like this. And make no mistake, this was a terrorist attack on america in great scope. Whether it was a Foreign National or domestic, this was an act of terrorism and an attempt to assassinate a number of elected leaders. We have to figure out in moments like this, our greatest leaders have led with a steadying hand and not an incendiary one. Theres the great question. In terms of the climate, we have to look at the timing as we are days away from these midterm elections and you wonder, steady leadership is something john meachum mentioned. Did trumps rally speech show that he understood the gravity of the situation and how does this impact the midterms . Well, i dont know about the ladder question, mika. I dont know how its going to affect the midterms. Its a very volatile situation out here. Its in georgia right now. Its a very volatile time in the country, for sure. And Something Like this, given its not unprecedented nature as john meachum points out, there are precedents, but given the fact that it is as extreme as it is, i think it would be followish to predict what the political consequences of it are. I think its obvious, given the nature of it, and given the fact that for two years now myself, you, others on this program and other programs have been predicting with horror and with dread, i should say, that given the kind of toxic environment in which were in and given the fact that the president has seen for two years not interested in trying to detox about the environment but rather pour gasoline on the fire at every opportunity, weve all, with dread, predicted that Something Like this would happen. And now it has happened. It did not succeed on its terms, but the thing we all feared, Something Like that that we predicted, is at our doorstep. He did not pour gasoline further on the fire yesterday. But if you watched him in his prepared remarks at the white house and his rally in wisconsin, you did not sense, i think, someone who grasped the gravity of it and certainly not someone who was taking extraordinary measures to try to calm the waters. It was someone who was performing in a way that didnt exacerbate the problem, but had a per functiontory appeal to it rather than to rise to the moment and have the passions that are creating this kind of ugly moment in which we now reside. The president right sizes a little bit, do you get a sense hes sticking to a script and then he goes back to his regular games. Yeah. He toned down and didnt attack the people he usually attacks. I think were on a sliding scale that that is viewed as a problem. Lets state again, we dont know who did this. We dont know as we sit here this morning who did this and why. We also are only 16 months removed from an attempted mass political assassination at a baseball game of republican congressmen. Steve scalise is here with us only by the grace of god and because there was a former field medic serving in congress who saved his life. What would you have liked to have heard the president of the United States do the last night to heal the country and to bring up all these examples of how a red rick has brought us to this point . Well, i think its very clear that he should have deepened and made himself more serious. He tried to a little bit in the white house talk yesterday afternoon. He defaulted to kind of jokiness last night. And i think the jokiness is an issue here. Trump came in as a reality show guy talking tough, right . Doing this beat them up, all that stuff. And its a little like i hate to sort of talk about the president like hes a toddler or a 4 yielyearold, b its like its all fun and games until somebody gets hurt. So i doubt that he wishes to provoke violence in the United States. But that said, he thinks this is a game. President s before him tie themselves into knots trying not to use words and say things and make phrases that will be misunderstood not only by their own people, but across the world. So they get briefed by their aids who say dont use this word, dont say that. So last night when he made that perfectly mild joke, its like, everybody should vote. If youre a democrat, dont vote. But nonetheless, it conveys this unseriousness at a serious moment. That is his challenge in the next two weeks, particularly if, god forbid, more bombs emerge, which is if hes going to act like this is just a tv show, then he will be complicit in what follows. I was going to say, hes not going to change the way he is. He doesnt have it in him. What i am particularly frustrated with right now, republicans have been saying who support the president , well, at least his policies are good. I dont like the twitter, i dont like the rhetoric, but his policies are good. Well, this is a reflection of his policies. It is a reflection of his rhetoric, that is correct. And it is something this president has decided to do since he decided to the run for office and that is to dwooits divide us. And the more he seeks to divide us, the more he creates the anger. This president is not directly responsible, but its time to call out and say, hey, the president s words do matter. They matter in turkey, they matter around the world and they matter right here at home, mika. People listen to the president of the United States. They look for leadership and they find hate. And thats the problem. So i want to highlight what you just said. What happened may not be the president s doing, but it is a reflection of his rhetoric. Thats important to note. And note to republicans, this is something you cant let go by any more. You cant. Our country is at risk. We have been attacked. It is no longer okay to say i dont like his tweets but its no longer to say i dont like his bullying, but its no longer okay to say i dont really support that, but. Its no longer okay to not answer questions, to not speak out when it is very clear that we have dangerous rhetoric resinating from the white house every day. I will have a really important call for democrats which is more my call coming up. But i am begging for republicans to step up, do the right thing. Do not turn away and turn your back to it. Please, dont. Please dont. Here is more of President Trump last night at his rally kind of making fun of the fact that for a short time hes going to behave himself. The democrats are for higher taxes, more regulation, and more top down government control. And by the way, do you see how nice im behaving tonight . Have you ever seen this . The were all behaving very well. Hopefully we can keep it that way, right . Were going to keep it that way. Leahs radical far left opponent is tammy baldwin. Who wants a socialist takeover of health care. Im saying to say that very nicely. Im trying to be nice. So when the president was making fun of the fact that he was behaving himself, john kelly, sara sanders, maybe general mattis, whoever was trying to contain this president over the past 24 hours and get him to Say Something, quote, unifying with, that was him making fun of you. That was him laughing at the fact that for a short period of time hes going to do what you say, but now ice going to the make vicious fun of it in the face of a terrorist attack on our democracy. Hes not listening to you. He doesnt listen to you. You need to do more and you need to do it publicly and openly. I dont know if you all saw nikki haley finally speaking her mind the other day, but she made it very clear she doesnt support the way this president speaks. She made it very clear that something is very wrong with america right now. And i would love to hear from people inside the white house right now that are trying their best, but as a president , that flau flouts what they say, that laughs at what they say and doesnt do anything that they need him to do in americas time the of need. Hes making fun of all of us. Willie. Joining us now, patrick gasbar. Yesterday the ambassador published a response to representative matt getzs Conspiracy Theory that soros is funding the Migrant Caravan heading to the u. S. This touches you in a lot of different ways. Just your reaction, first of all, to the george soros planting of an explosive device which was the one that set all this off. What was mr. Soros reaction . First, let me thank you for inviting me on into this rather sober conversation. When i have a moment here id like to disagree by the points made by the two johns. Yes, this all did begin with a pipe bomb. George soros came to the United States. George soros regrettably is not surprised today by these attacks. He has been saying for quite some time now that language can be weaponized and that the chief executive of the United States has been spreading shrapnel with his words and with his tone. This is the same president who says before was applauding attacks on the media and who i think it was maybe 48 hours beforehand blamed george soros for the migrants who were making their way through honduras and to mexico and to the u. S. Border, blaming george soros and democrats. That is reprehensible and its proven to be quite dangerous. So as you know, ambassador, the term george soros fundeds has become a buzz word for those who believe hes pulling the strings on a lot of things happen around the world. Lets talk about the caravan. Whats his response to being accused of funding the caravan. George soros and the foundation is playing no role in funding any caravan that is marching towards the United States. This is a foundation that respects and believes in sovereign boarders. But at the same time, honors the long held tradition of republicans and democrats in the United States, of welcoming refugees from violence who have rightful claims to amnesty. We have procedures at our boarders for that and the president , who knows this and knows better, should not just be casting blame without evidence on americans like george soros. John has a question for you. John heilman. Hey, john. Patrick, good to hear you. Im curious. I believe you pointed out that there were recent antecedants where your boss has been invoked in a negative way. I believe it is the case, and id like you to clarify this, i believe its the case the Republican Party ran an ad attacking george soress even yesterday after this ad had taken place. Is that correct . There was an ad run in a Congressional District against a former Government Employee who is running for the house of representatives who happened to work for a Nonprofit Organization that received two grants over the course of their history from the open society foundation. And thats been conflated into another grand right wing Conspiracy Theory. Id also like to add, john, when you talk about ads, one of the closing ads donald trump had in his campaign was against george soros, janet yellen and blankfine. I understand those who disagree with his political opinions, but i applaud republican senators like rand paul who immediately after this attack stepped forward and said this is wrong, this is not who we are. Id like to add, john, that george soros is the american who right after supporting barack obama for the presidency in 2008 against john mccain joined with john mccain in trying to open previously close canned societies in eastern europe. So we just need to pull back the lens, appreciate whats being done here, the lies that are being spread by congressman getz who hail from the same district that your Joe Scarborough used to represent. And john meachum, before we go to break, give us a sense of what a dictator, what a leader with unamerican intentions would do at a moment like this with a story like this in the run up to an election. You would claim that your enemies somehow set you up. You would play the whats called a false flag card which you saw immediately happen in the corners of the make America Great again movement yesterday. One of the things that one would have to say back to those, and i pray its vanishingly small, we know that every person matters because any person can do something irrational. And violent. Is if you think or if you pretend to think that this is somehow a Conspiracy Theory, that this is a false flag operation, ask yourself why would someone think that such an operation would work . Why would someone think that this would be a reasonable thing to launch . And that logic demands that you then realize that a rhetorical climate has been created and exacerbated and maintained that can lead to the worst kinds can of events. Not just to the those who talk but those who believe and want to believe have an extraordinary responsibility. Because we often say this isnt who we are but often it is. But this really cant be who we are. It cant be. We wont survive it. John. I think its important at this moment to point out that in the United States right now, we have solid economic growth, we have low unemployment, we have all kinds of social peace that we havent had in this we didnt have in this country in the post war era. Low crime. Recovery in a lot of places. We have some terrible things, the Opio