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FBI Director James Comey, Attorney General Loretta Lynch Give a Statement About the Investigation Into San Bernardino, California Mass Shooting. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired December 04, 2015 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[15:32:56] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: All right. Breaking right now, FBI director James Comey and attorney general Loretta Lynch are making a statement right now about the investigation in San Bernardino. CNN cameras were there. We will bring it to you as soon as we get it. But again, just to reiterate from FBI and that news are just last hour, saying they are indeed investigating this as an act of terrorism.

Paul Cruickshank, let me bring you in, our CNN terrorism analyst and editor in-chief of the CTC Sentinel.

On the piece of information that you broke on our air, I want you to reiterate the point to me that ISIS now, as we are hearing, you know, possible self-radicalization specifically on behalf of this wife in this attack. ISIS is referencing this attack. What have they said?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: That's right, Brooke. The (INAUDIBLE) news agency which is jihadi news agency linked to ISIS, which includes exclusive content from ISIS, commenting on this saying that these were two supporters of the Islamic state, but they did not use the word fighters. They used fighters to refer to the Paris attacks, which they did in the same statement saying those were ISIS fighters, but saying these were ISIS supporters in this case.

Now their claim actually was put out two-and-a-half hours after CNN were the first to break the story about this Facebook pledge. So they were reacting to the CNN reporting to the other reporting that then followed after CNN to make this claim. There's no detail that's not in the reporting put out by CNN and other media outlets. So they are reacting to events just like the rest of us.

It does not seem, at this point, that there's any evidence this they had any foreknowledge of this attack. And so, that's a very interesting data point in this investigation, Brooke.

BALDWIN: You mentioned Facebook. Let's be clear for people who are watching who may not know what we're talking about. Here's the other piece of information that has come out. Apparently, this wife of this murderous duo mid-attack on Wednesday jumps on Facebook, pledges allegiance to the head of ISIS Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Here's my question to you. Because when you think of women as let's say terrorists, you generally think of how they are brainwashed by the men, but it's possible, and I imagine this is a threat the FBI is really looking into, that she was leading this.

[15:35:24] CRUICKSHANK: Kind of playing the lady Macbeth role, perhaps, encouraging, instigating, radicalizing. That's certainly a possibility that the FBI field team on the ground in California are leaving very open and are investigating, you know. Could she have been the one who was more gung who about this. Time will tell in the investigation. But I have interviewed female jihadis before who have been wearing the trousers, so to speak, in the relationship, who have sort of sent their husbands off to be quote-unquote "men" and to work with Al-Qaeda or other terrorists groups. So certainly there's some precedent for this. And we have seen a number of husband/wife teams over the years when it comes to Islamists terrorism. We will all remember back in January (INAUDIBLE) and her companion (INAUDIBLE) being involved.

BALDWIN: Paul, let me jump out of this and go to James Comey and Loretta Lynch here, FBI, U.S. attorney speaking on what happened in San Bernardino.

LORETTA LYNCH, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for coming over to join the directors' briefing today. All of this will be his briefing. As many of you know, the news from San Bernardino continues to evolve. And obviously, we now have seen the names and faces of those victims, of those the fallen and the injured. And as always, our hearts go out to them and let's keep them in our prayers. Not just those who did lose their lives, but also those who were injured in this it including our law enforcement officials.

As we have always told you about this matter, it is an evolving investigation. We also told you we would keep you informed about this investigation. Just recently there was a press conference in the local area with the assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles office providing more operational details. The director is going to give you a further briefing as well.

As you saw from that and as we indicated yesterday, the FBI has taken the lead in had this investigation. They continue to work with our local partners who are outstanding partners also along with the ATF and U.S. marshals as well as we continue to investigate this. There's been a lot of new information that has come to light and the director is going to give you more insight. Thank you for being here today.

JAMES COMEY, DIRECTOR, FBI: Thank you, Madame attorney general.

Let me begin by echoing the general attorney's remarks. Our hearts continue to ache for the people lost and wounded in San Bernardino and their families. And I also want to say a word of gratitude and say how impressed we were with the response of local law enforcement in San Bernardino. They were simply amazing. We are all very lucky that really good people become police officers in this country.

And then I want to also say a word of thanks to the folks we don't talk about much, which are the people who rendered emergency care and the aid. The EMTs, the docs, the nurses, the victim specialist. Those are the angels of our business and don't get the thanks they deserve. So thank you to them.

We are here today because we want to make sure you understand that this is now a federal terrorism investigation led by the FBI. And the reason for that is that the investigation so far has developed indications of radicalization by the killers and of potential inspiration by foreign terrorist organizations. And we are spending a tremendous amount of time, as you might imagine, over the last 48 hours trying to understand the motives of these killers and trying to understand every detail of their lives.

We are going through a very large volume of electronic evidence. This is electronic evidence that these killers tried to e destroy and tried to conceal from us that we now have and are exploiting to try to understand them. We are keeping our minds open as we always try to do. I know that there are a lot of good questions that folks want answers for quick, but I hope you know we aspire to do it quickly, but we aspire to do it well and do it carefully.

There's a lot of evidence in this case that doesn't quite make sense. And so, we're trying to be very thoughtful to understand it and to make sense of it so we understand the full extent of what we have here.

Let me offer you, though, a couple specifics on the investigation. First, our investigation to date, and again, it's only two days old, so far we have no indication that these killers are part of an organized larger group or part of a cell. There's no indication that they are part of a network. Again, I quickly add it is early. We are still working very hard to understand. But I want you to know that so far we don't see such indications.

Second, there are nothing in our holdings about these two killers. I have seen reporting where folks have focused on reports that they were in contact - at least one of the killers was in contact with people who had been the subject of FBI investigations. Either investigations that were closed or that were still open. I would urge you not to make too much of that.

There were no contacts between either of the killers and subjects of our investigations that were of such significance that it raised these killers on to our radar screen. We are obviously looking very closely at those contacts, but I would not want to over index on that just yet. It is, as I said, 48 hours old. There is much about this that doesn't make sense to even - for even those of us who do this for a living. That is the reason we have hundreds of people running down leads all over the world on this and spending tremendous amount of time as we sit here trying to understand the electronic record around these two killers.

Let me close by saying something the attorney general and I have said before. And that is we know that this is very unsettling for the people of the United States where we hope you will do is not let fear become disabling, but to instead try to channel it into an awareness of your surroundings, to get you to a place where you are living your life, but if you see something that doesn't make sense, you say something to somebody. When we look back over our cases over the last 10, 15 years, in almost

every case, we find that somebody saw something where there was a family member or friend or a co-worker and didn't say something to law enforcement. Wrote an innocent narrative over facts that were making them feel uncomfortable or the hair stand up on their necks. Please don't do that.

We have worked very, very hard since 9/11 to get ourselves to a place where if you tell a police officer or deputy sheriff or call the FBI and say, you know, I saw something next door that seems off or I saw something online that seems off, it will get to the right people and we will investigate it quickly and responsibly. We investigate in secret so we don't smear innocent people. We don't run over and bang on your neighbor's door. If you say something, we investigate. If there was nothing there, no harm done. If there was something there, great harm may be avoided.

So we would ask you, please channel that sense of fear into something healthy. Just an awareness of your surroundings and let us do the work you pay us to do, which is to investigate and fight terrorism while you live the lives that are so wonderful in this great country of ours. Thank you for this and we'll take your questions.

[15:42:42] BALDWIN: Sorry, that was loud. OK. So that was James Comey, the chief of the FBI. And Paul Cruickshank, I still have you with us, our CNN terrorism analyst here.

To me, the headline there, it doesn't appear - and again, you know, caveat, it is just a two day old investigation and said it appears these two killers in San Bernardino aren't part of any sort of cell or organized network. Your response to that.

CRUICKSHANK: And that's very important indeed. Because if that is really the case, then the immediate danger has now gone away. That was consistent with what the assistant director of the FBI and Los Angeles area was saying just a few hours ago that there's no immediate terrorism threat, specific immediate terrorism threat in the United States that suggests they have some confidence that it was just these two and no more who were involved.

They are also saying they don't believe that part of a wider network or cell. And I think you can read into that. They don't believe that they were recruited physically by a terrorist group overseas by ISIS. They didn't get recruited and get marching orders and meetings in the Middle East. These are self-radicalized is-inspired rather than ISIS directed.

And so far, the message from ISIS land is much the same. These were two supporters of ours. They weren't fully fledged fighters. And so, we are starting to get perhaps a sense of the scope of this, which were two individuals acting autonomously, but on behalf of the Islamic state. Not people who got training necessarily overseas, but perhaps learned how to make these primitive pipe bombs over the Internet. And of course, we all know how easy it is in the United States to buy extraordinarily powerful weapons. BALDWIN: To steal a phrase from our colleague, Bobby Gosh, they were

freelancing. And I think it's just so extraordinary to point out, as he was with me before, and as we have spoken multiple times about this, when you think of Al-Qaeda, it was terrorism 1.0. You have to train in a place like Yemen or other countries and then you would, you know, carry out these very precise specific attacks. And here with this terrorism 2.0 and ISIS, it's just sort of either we're going to give you this direction and you do this or, hey, if you feel inspired by our crazy ideology, go out and kill people, which is precisely what happened in California it sounds like.

[15:34:20] CRUICKSHANK: That's right, Brooke. But don't discount terrorism 1.0 because we just saw that play out in Paris with ISIS taking a chapter out of the Al-Qaeda playbook. There's now real concern that ISIS is aiming to hit the United Kingdom next. Two days ago the United Kingdom took that vote to launch airstrikes against ISIS in Syria. There's specific intelligence that British ISIS operatives have been recruited and tasked with returning to the United Kingdom to launch an attack.

There are other countries in Europe ISIS has also threatened. Notably Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, all these countries participating in airstrikes or some form of support in the anti-ISIS coalition, Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK. Paul Cruickshank, as always, your expertise invaluable to us. One of our terrorism analysts, thank you so much, Paul.

A quick break. We will be right become.

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[15:50:42] COMEY: There is nothing in our holdings about these two killers. I have seen reporting where folks have focused on reports that they were in contact -- at least one of the killers was in contact with people who had been the subject of FBI investigations, either investigations that were closed or that were still open. I would urge you not to make too much of that.

There were no contacts between either the killers or the subjects of our investigations. There was such a significance that it raised our killers up onto our radar screen. We are obviously looking closely at those contacts but I would not want you to over index on that just yet. It is as I said --

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BALDWIN: OK. So that was FBI director James Comey, just speaking a moment ago sitting next to Loretta -- speaking next to the attorney general there. And I think it's really important what he said in that, you know, and again, this is two days into the investigation. But he is saying don't read too much in to the fact that perhaps as this two killers, this husband and wife duo had been in contact with someone who had been investigated domestically by the FBI. He's saying don't read a lot into that. Paul Cruickshank, I understand I still have you with me, one of our

CNN terror analysts. I think it's important, though, to for folks just joining us go back through what was said by Comey and that was this.

As they are trying to understand the motives why these two would want to do this and murder 14 people and injured 21 others, he said that this was the biggie we were just discussing, that there was indication they were part of a cell or any other larger organized terrorist network or organization. And then again, you know, it's this notion of if you see something, say something. It's frightening as we were just discussing obviously what's happened, what's continued to happen in these mass shootings, he is saying don't let fear become disabling.

To you, what are some of your questions as you're listening to the FBI here dig into this?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, how were they radicalized is going to be an absolutely key question here whether they get all these materials for the pipe bombs to what degree were they in touch with people who were on the radar screen. I mean, what the FBI is saying these two weren't really on the radar screen but were communicating with people on the radar screen. And after these attacks, they were able it would seem to go back and figure out that they were indeed communicating with people that they knew about.

So they will be looking at all those kind of things. They will be examining the trips that they made overseas to Saudi Arabia, to Pakistan, I think just in 2014. But from what they are saying that they are not part of a wider network or group, that suggests they have quite a lot of confidence at this point that they didn't meet established terrorists outfits while they were in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia or anywhere else or at least they don't have any firm evidence suggesting that to be the case at this point.

This seems more in the ISIS-inspired column. But ISIS is really inspiring these people. And part of the force of inspiration that they have is that they control all of this area in the Middle East in Syria, Iraq and Libya. And in the eyes of their followers gives them a huge amount of religious legitimacy.

And so, you know, one of the things that western governments can do to try to stop horrible days like this is to take away this ISIS safe haven, this pseudo ISIS state, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Right. Right. Hopefully there's a lot that can be done but again, also hearing from the L.A. based FBI agent earlier today saying indeed they're investigating this as an act of terrorism.

Paul Cruickshank, thank you so much.

If in fact it is, this would be the first is-inspired deadly plot carried out on U.S. soil.

Quick break. We will be right back.

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[15:57:41] BALDWIN: I want to leave you with these words from one of the heroes in San Bernardino. A hero whose job it is to protect that community. You are about to hear from one of the first officers who arrived on the scene who had indeed trained for that day. But it is tough to imagine what could have truly prepared him for what he saw.

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LT. MIKE MADDEN, SAN BERNARDINO POLICE: The situation was surreal. It was something I don't think, again, we prepare for and they tried to. An active shooter we talk about sensory overload. They just try to throw everything at you to prepare you for dealing with that. What you're seeing, what you're hearing, what you're smelling. And it was all of that and more. It was unspeakable the carnage that we were seeing, the number of people who were injured. And unfortunately already dead. And the pure panic on the face of those individuals that were still in need and needing to be safe.

The initial 50 people did not want to come to us. They were fearful. And they were in the back hallway area. And that actually heightened my concern that -- and my fear that potentially the suspects were in that hallway holding them hostage and waiting for us to enter into the hallway. We had to tell them several times come to us, come to us, come to us. And ultimately they did. And once that first person took the motions forward, it opened the flood gates and everybody wanted to come and get away from that as quickly as possible.

You know, we have taken a lot of hits lately. Some justified, much of it not justified. And it takes a toll. It takes a toll on all cops because it's hard being labeled and hard being branded as, you know, being rogue or, you know -- and I guarantee you that no cop comes into this job with the mindset that, oh, great, now I have ultimate power to be corrupt and to violate people's rights. There are cops who go astray. But overwhelmingly the vast majority of officers and when I say vast majority I'm talking 99.5 percent of the officers go out and they do the job to protect the public. And yesterday just reminded me of that. And it is just solidified that again in my heart and in my mindset. And for that, I'm thankful.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: And we are thankful for folks like Lieutenant Madden. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me.

"The LEAD" starts now.

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