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Similarities in Suspicious Packages; Eighth Package Found. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired October 25, 2018 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You have something.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Here's what I'm being told. The package, exactly the same that we've seen in other packages, the six stamps, the return address for Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Most important, this package was addressed to Robert De Niro --

BERMAN: OK.

PROKUPECZ: Tribeca Productions, 375 Greenwich Street. So we now know that -- where this was going.

This is exactly, exactly the same in what we've been seeing. It's in a yellow envelope, a manila kind of envelope, which we've seen. And here it is, it's addressed to Robert De Niro, Tribeca Productions.

BERMAN: And, Jim, obviously --

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEWSROOM": What's the commonality?

BERMAN: Yes, commonality of Robert De Niro.

SCIUTTO: Another vocal critic of the president's and someone who's been a target of the president's ire, and that's the commonality of this whole list, whether it's Obama, Holder, Clinton, CNN, as an organization, and that is relevant information to investigators, right, because it gets to M.O., it gets to motivation of whoever the attacker or attackers is.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: James, thank God none of these have detonated. They haven't gone off. But what does it tell you the fact that none of these have gone off? Can somebody be accidentally wrong this many times or are they just trying to scare people? As an investigator, what do you see?

JAMES GAGLIANO, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Again, it could be somebody that just doesn't -- they're not a -- they're not an experienced bomb maker. They went online to figure out how to do this and they're not experienced. Or it could be somebody just trying to send a message with no intention that they're actually going to explode. So they put together the parts in there, make it look like a bomb, but there -- there's not all four pieces in there. And, again, we've got to remember, what is the definition of terrorism? The definition of terrorism is violence or intimidation or the threat of same in the pursuit of social or political goals. And, look, that is what this appears to be. When you start linking these people together, it doesn't take you too far down the line to think that that's what it is.

BERMAN: No, you don't exactly need to be "Dragnet" here to get what the tie is between all the people who have had these now apparent bombs sent to them.

And the breaking news -- you're looking at live pictures from lower Manhattan. Shimon Prokupecz here reporting moments ago what appears to be an eighth explosive device in the exact same type of packaging from the devices yesterday, sent to the office of the actor, director Robert De Niro in lower Manhattan. The tie between De Niro and the seven other targets yesterday, De Niro has been very critical of the president and the president, of course, has responded in turn.

PROKUPECZ: This is frightening. I mean you have to wonder how many more of these are out there and how are these being delivered. You know, it doesn't seem like there's any postmark on any of this.

CAMEROTA: How is that possible? I'm so confused if there's no postmark.

PROKUPECZ: I'm confused by this as well, and I think someone needs to probably -- needs to explain this to us. How are these being delivered, you know, and why are these being discovered in the way that they're being discovered kind of overnight, early morning hours, you know.

CAMEROTA: Right, 4:30 a.m. is when we've heard -- John Avlon has also been working his sources. He worked in the mayor's office for a long time. So he was saying at 4:30 a.m. I think that was the same time as the one that was discovered -- or the police were called from Hillary Clinton's home in Chappaqua. So there are, yes, eerie similarities that obviously investigators are following all of these threads.

SCIUTTO: And they're able to get into the building, right? I mean the device made it into the CNN building yesterday. It appears this may have made it into the building.

You know, with the presidents, Obama, Clinton, they have Secret Service protection, so they have screening offsite so it doesn't get in, but other targets they do.

And keep in mind, you know, it's not just the target that is at risk, because if this went through the mail system, the handlers, every stop that a letter makes on its way, those people are also at risk as well.

PROKUPECZ: It's on the move. It looks like it's on the move.

BERMAN: Yes, tell us what you're seeing there, Shimon.

PROKUPECZ: Yes, so that's exactly what we saw yesterday. It looks like they've now removed it. The NYPD now dealing with a second -- a second bomb essentially. I mean there's a bomb in that truck at this point --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

PROKUPECZ: The way they're treating it. It's going up to the Bronx, the same thing as the one from yesterday, where they'll pick it apart, preserve it, do what they need to do with it and then it's going to the FBI in Virginia.

GAGLIANO: This is absolutely going to precipitate another need for law enforcement to get out in front of this now that we know that there are potentially -- not potentially, there's another package out there and we have to assume -- we have to presume that there are others, getting out in front of this now because the number one thing is they need to allay the public's fears. Any other new details off of this bomb or this suspicious package need to be put out there as well so that the public can help us out either calling one of the 1-800 tip lines or calling their local FBI office or police department.

PROKUPECZ: This is such a big deal now when you think about because you have -- New York City is now being targeted by this person. And, obviously, the NYPD and the FBI all over this, you know, probably putting out the photos that they've put out last night, certainly what we've done by putting out photos of what these envelopes look like, is probably what led to this response.

You're going to see such a response from the NYPD now and the FBI.

SCIUTTO: And, keep in mind, New York City, Washington, D.C. --

PROKUPECZ: That's right.

[06:35:00] SCIUTTO: Los Angeles, upstate New York. And the other thing -- the other point I would make, John, is that this is now an attempted attack over several days. Package sent on Monday, several sent on Wednesday, and we're now into Thursday, another package.

BERMAN: I was just going to ask that question. First of all, you're seeing just an incredible picture right now of city blocks blocked off. You can see all the traffic even at 6:35 a.m., just beyond where the picture is right now.

CAMEROTA: And all of the emergency vehicles in that convoy is such a dramatic picture (ph).

SCIUTTO: Can I say something about that? Because yesterday, in the midst of all of this, you have, as you often have, the conspiracy theorist out, and not just confined to the dark reaches of the corner of the web, but very public voices with very big platforms raising questions about this, about whether it's a false flag, whether it's a fake, et cetera.

My answer to that is, look at how the New York Police Department is treating this, OK. These are serious people who take their job seriously. They do not waste resources like this if this is fake.

CAMEROTA: But we don't know who the culprit is. I mean, let's be fair, we don't know what the culprit's motivation is.

SCIUTTO: we don't know who the culprit is. But these are real explosive devices sent to several addresses around the city. This is not fake news.

CAMEROTA: Oh, for sure.

SCIUTTO: Look at the way the New York Police Department is handling this.

BERMAN: Do we know, and this is one of the mysteries, we're trying to understand the intricacies of mail delivery because that matters. Jim, you said sent over several days.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BERMAN: Do we know that to be true? Is that possible they were all sent at once and only is only now arriving at the office of Robert De Niro?

PROKUPECZ: That is --

SCIUTTO: Received over several days (INAUDIBLE).

PROKUPECZ: Yes. And -- yes, I mean that is a possibly, right, there may be more in the mail system that were -- however these are being sent.

Look, we know that the postal services, the FBI, they're looking -- they're trying to find another package, right, that was sent to former Vice President Joe Biden.

CAMEROTA: And why do they know about this package that they can't find?

PROKUPECZ: I don't -- that's a good question.

CAMEROTA: They think it's just in the system somewhere.

PROKUPECZ: It could have been received at the sorting site and they may have logged it and because it was the wrong address, they may have then sent it back. I -- that's a great question. We don't know.

But there -- you know, what this seems to indicate is certainly that this person -- there's probably -- there's going to be more. And certainly, you know, how they -- how this was sent, I think, is going to be the big focus of the FBI and --

BERMAN: Stand by, guys, for one second, if you will.

PROKUPECZ: Sure.

CAMEROTA: Yes, we have one of our reporters, our CNN reporter, Mark Morales, who is live at the scene for us. He is on the phone.

Mark, can you tell us what you're seeing there? MARK MORALES, CNN REPORTER (via telephone): Well, it's a heavy emergency response presence at the moment. You can hear helicopters in the air. The bomb squad and ESU (ph) is on the scene. They've got about a block from the restaurant taped off. And fire trucks here, ambulances are here. It's a heavy response at the moment.

BERMAN: A heavy response at the moment.

Just so you know, what we're looking at, Mark, we're looking at that truck that is designed to contain explosive devices now driving up the Westside Highway, you know, during the morning commute in lower Manhattan. This is a remarkable image we're seeing right now of that truck. We believe it's headed to the Bronx, which is where you send bombs in the greater New York city area --

MORALES: Right.

BERMAN: To be taken care of.

How close are you to the building itself where this was sent?

MORALES: If I had to eyeball it, I'd probably say about 100, 150 feet or so. Again, like you said, the containment truck has left just a little bit ago --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, buddy.

MORALES: Oh, sorry about that. Sorry, sorry. Sorry about that, guys. (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: OK. Can you -- if you still hear me, Mark, if you can still hear me, and I know it's a chaotic scene and you're probably being moved around there.

MORALES: Yes.

BERMAN: Yesterday when the bomb was sent here to CNN, thousands of people who work in this giant building and city block were evacuated. Are there people all over the streets? Have people been removed from the building or buildings in the area?

MORALES: It's hard to say at the moment. Right now there's people that are sort of walking around, just sort of getting -- getting ready for their morning commute that are avoiding this sort of -- this block. So it's hard to say if anybody's been evacuated right now.

Officially, it's only being called a suspicious devise as far as I've -- or suspicious package, I should say, I'm sorry, they haven't said devise yet. But, obviously, there's a containment truck that's there. So it is obviously a heavy response.

It's still -- we're still trying to -- there's a lot of details that are still trying to be determined (ph) at the moment.

CAMEROTA: Yes. All right, Mark, stand by for us, if you would, because we'll come back to you. Jim, are you seeing a city-wide alert?

SCIUTTO: There was. And we got these yesterday, text alerts citywide in the midst of the events. And we now know that one went out, and I'll just read it, due to police activity, expect a heavy presence of emergency personnel in the area of Greenwich Street, just as we've been seeing there. Consider alternate routes. Allow for additional travel time.

I mean they get that kind of information out as quickly as they can so that the greatest number of people are warned -- warned about the danger there.

BERMAN: I want you to know what's going on, on the set, as we're looking at the screen right here, which is that Jim and Shimon are working their sources on the phone while they are talking to us and while this is going on before our very eyes.

[06:40:00] And, Shimon, you just raised your hand there and said you have more.

PROKUPECZ: Yes. So just some more details on when this was discovered.

I'm told NYPD got a call around 4:45 this morning. And the emergency services unit and obviously the bomb squad immediately responded. Frightening is that this package was up -- was already on the seventh floor of the building. It made its way up to the seventh floor of the building. I don't know what's on the seventh floor, but we know that this was addressed to Robert De Niro, Tribeca Productions.

So this package made its way into the building. Maybe through their mail system. They may not have a sophisticated mail system like we do here. And it made its way up to the seventh floor.

Why was it discovered at 4:45 this morning? That's fascinating.

SCIUTTO: Here's the thing. You know, it's interesting, in the midst of this yesterday, of course former presidents, former secretary of state, they have Secret Service protection. De Niro, CNN do not. Even a former CIA director do not necessarily have that. So you don't have that line of the defense where the mail is screened off site. So this is another case where the bomb, the explosive device, presumed possible, similarities to the packages sent earlier, make it inside the building.

CAMEROTA: And just to be clear, this is Robert De Niro -- not his home, as far as we know. This is his office and the office of the Tribeca Film (INAUDIBLE).

SCIUTTO: And I believe the restaurant owned by him is in the same building.

CAMEROTA: And the restaurant, right, Tribeca Grill.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BERMAN: But it was addressed to him.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

SCIUTTO: His name is on the envelope indicating that he was the target, whether to hurt, kill, threaten, scare, make some kind of a statement. And what is Robert De Niro's connection to the other seven targets of the bombs yesterday? Robert De Niro has been very critical of the president and President Trump.

Jim, it's going where? Tell me where that bomb is going right now, in the Bronx, and what are they going to do with it?

GAGLIANO: It's going to go up north to the Bronx. The first thing is to look at it to see how stable, potentially stable, our unstable it is. If it is deemed to be unstable, John, they will probably conduct a controlled detonation up there where they put a small shape charge on it and try to separate the initiator and the switch from the actual explosives themselves. And if they don't have to do that, the good news is then, again, they have something else that is a treasure trove of not just evidence but forensic intelligence for them to try to link these bombs together.

PROKUPECZ: So just quickly. So it's heading up to Rodman's Neck in the Bronx, which is where the other package was brought yesterday, the other bomb, I should say. There's an NYPD facility there. It's a firearms range. But they also have an area, the bomb squad is generally, that's where they are. And they have this area they can work on it and make it safe. Right now they still, even though it's being transported, they still need to do more work to make it more safe so that they can really start picking it apart and doing the forensic work.

So this is going up to the Bronx, to the NYPD bomb squad facility up there.

SCIUTTO: Jim, can I just ask a question, as we're following this. If you have a pipe bomb in these packages, but not a letter bomb per se in that it doesn't appear that there was a trigger just by opening it, what's the function of that? Would that be to strike fear as opposed to something else?

GAGLIANO: Yes. Could it be something that -- look what it's done to the city. Look what it did yesterday, just a couple of blocks. And now that we're going into another day or another couple of days of this, that is the purpose of terror, right, it paralyzes us, changes us from doing what we normally do.

Look, the good news about having these devices, whether they were initially inert or whether they just weren't able to function because you had an inexperienced bomb maker is this, they're going to be able to pull off latent fingerprints from this. They're going to be able to pull DNA off of this. There's going to be a lot of things that they're going to be able to tell. Again, going back to the bomb maker, they are like bakers, they have a particular signature. If it's a -- if it's somebody who's done this before whose on the FBI's radar, they'll be able to link it. How are the wires crimped? What type of tool marks on the devise themselves? And those things are going to help law enforcement hopefully point to the right direction who this is.

BERMAN: There hasn't been a controlled detonation yet in any of the other devises, has there?

PROKUPECZ: No, there hasn't been, which is -- which is interesting.

SCIUTTO: Soros?

PROKUPECZ: Soros was, but that was the only one.

SCIUTTO: The Soros one was.

BERMAN: OK, that was the first. That's when it looked like it might be alone.

PROKUPECZ: Yes, that's when it looked like -- but, you know, the FBI never thought this was going to be a one off.

BERMAN: OK.

PROKUPECZ: They knew right away that they were going to be dealing -- they had suspicion that they were going to be dealing with more just because right away they knew what the message here was, it was political in their eyes.

SCIUTTO: And they may be learning, if the device, as this one, as the others who are similar, they're learning how they can handle it, right, that they may not have to do a controlled detonation. They can bring it someplace else and then glean all the intel you can from the devise.

CAMEROTA: I mean if everything follows the script, you know, thus far, the way it has.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Right.

CAMEROTA: But let's just tell people what we're seeing here. So this is the containment vehicle. There has been another suspicious package. It was sent to the actor, Robert De Niro. You may recall that Robert De Niro has been a very vocal critic of President Trump, and, President Trump, in turn, has been a vocal critic of Robert De Niro. And that seems to be the pattern for the target of all of these bombs that have been sent through the mail or possibly delivered. We don't know exactly yet.

[06:45:02] But we know that at 4:30 this morning there was a call to the police, as our reporters have been telling us, and the bomb squad and all of the New York PD takes it very seriously because we have a serial bomber who is currently on the loose. There's a nationwide manhunt. And the evidence is in that truck that you're seeing now on the Westside Highway heading up to be examined.

BERMAN: You know, and the targets have been people who the president has gone after rhetorically before. But the impact, it's on all of us. You can see that right now before your very eyes. You have a truck with a bomb in it driving on the Westside Highway at 6:45 a.m. in one of the busiest cities and the busiest commutes --

PROKUPECZ: It's rush hour.

BERMAN: It's rush hour.

PROKUPECZ: And they're going to shut down parts of the Westside Highway now to get this safely up to the Bronx. So they're closing streets down all around New York now. We can see that that's the Westside Highway now. Parts of it are closed.

CAMEROTA: It looks like the part that they're driving -- it looks like they've already blocked off the exits where you can see the emergency vehicles on the on-ramp there.

PROKUPECZ: Yes. Yes. Yes.

Right, there's --

SCIUTTO: Keep in mind, that's part of the intention of an attack like this, right, because you want to cause -- yesterday we shut down -- the police shut down, out of caution, a major city, in the middle of Manhattan, in the middle of the day, and now you have a bomb truck going up the Westside Highway in rush hour. This reaction, that paralysis, et cetera that follows, is part of the intention of an attack like this. The city -- the city --

CAMEROTA: Yes, but I do need to say, Jim Sciutto, in prompts to you, we were seamless.

SCIUTTO: No, I hear you. And neither did --

CAMEROTA: We did not shut down the news. We didn't skip a beat.

SCIUTTO: And neither did New York.

BERMAN: Right.

SCIUTTO: And New York kept going. But it's the point -- the point being just that terrorism is about attracting fear.

BERMAN: All right, big picture right now of where we are. It's 6:46 a.m. this morning. What we knew when we woke up is that law enforcement was concerned there could be more bombs out there, and what you are looking at is proof that the answer to that is, yes. Yes, there are. That is an eighth explosive device, a bomb, sent via the mail or courier to a target, someone that the president has been critical of in the past.

On your screen right now is everyone else who has received these bombs. The first was George Soros, I believe, up in Katonah, New York. Hillary Clinton received a device at her home in Westchester. The president -- former President Barack Obama did. There was one sent here to CNN, addressed to John Brennan, the former CIA director. Maxine Waters, member of Congress, received two, one designed to get to her office in Washington, D.C., another to her office in California. And then there was a bomb that was attempted to be sent to former Attorney General Eric Holder. It was not delivered to him because it had the wrong address. It was returned to former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, because whoever did this made Debbie Wasserman Schultz the return address on all these bombs.

CAMEROTA: James, I'm with you, I think that they're going to get this guy very soon. I mean I don't think that this is just eternal optimism, though there's a portion of that. There's so many cameras in New York.

GAGLIANO: Yes.

CAMEROTA: There's cameras everywhere in New York. As you and so many people have pointed out, there has to be some DNA on these packages and they're working it around the clock.

GAGLIANO: Just like in a Shakespearean play, the general thing that brings the bad guys down is their own hubris. The brazenness with which this guy is working and these people are doing to this.

Look, I don't think it's -- we're belaboring the point when we say, people have to understand, these devices are dangers. Yes, these are small pipe bombs. They can still do a ton of damage. And, again, bombs are not precision instruments. So anyone who handles them, if you see something like this, it's the old see something say something. Immediately call 911. Immediately call the police. Don't try to handle it. Don't try to get close to it. Evacuate that area and call law enforcement.

CAMEROTA: Look, it helps to have all the eyeballs on CNN because obviously the public is a huge weapon against these guys. And so people do pay attention, people do see things in New York and elsewhere and everywhere these were sent. Their -- if you have any information, call your local authorities and they will get the information to the right people who are handling it.

BERMAN: There is a would-be serial bomber on the loose this morning sending bombs. Eight now have been sent, including this new one. You're looking at live pictures on the screen of a containment vehicle delivering this bomb to a safe area at this moment. We have new, breaking details coming into CNN by the minute. Reporters here on the set working their sources. We'll have new information for you right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:53:37] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAMEROTA: We do have a lot of breaking news at this hour.

We are following a developing situation in Manhattan and it is on your screen right now. Another bomb, mail bomb, package bomb, has been discovered in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City. And you are seeing the police response to it right now.

It is currently in a containment vehicle right there on your screen which is headed up the Westside Highway of New York to the Bronx where it will be examined by investigators.

This after a call at 4:30 in the morning to the New York Police Department from the offices of the actor Robert de Niro. That is who this latest, the eighth package was addressed to.

We wake up this morning and there is a nationwide manhunt for a serial bomber. This person is on the loose. Whoever sent these bombs to the Clintons, the Obamas, George Soros, Maxine Waters, Eric Holder, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and CNN and Robert De Niro now this morning is still on the loose.

BERMAN: Someone clearly with a sense of who the president has targeted. And just culturally speaking, targets from the right. People who have been criticized a lot by the right, and, in turn, have criticized themselves, the president and other folks.

[06:55:00] James Gagliano, let's talk about what is in that containment vehicle. I think you've had a chance, through your sources, to take a look at a picture -- we're not going to put that up on the screen right now, but tell me what you saw.

GAGLIANO: So, first of all, bomb technicians in the 21st century, John, carry around a tablet. I think some of them are called a nano (ph). And they can actually place it over the top of the package itself and they can determine whether or not those four critical components are there, right?

CAMEROTA: They can x-ray it. They can (INAUDIBLE).

GAGLIANO: They can x-ray it with a tablet. So they can determine whether or not there's a power supply there. There's a initiator. There's a switch. And whether or not there's a presence of explosives.

From what I'm hearing from law enforcement, this package was just like the one that was delivered here to CNN. The exact same typed out or computer generated printout address label. The return address was Debbie Wasserman Schultz. And the same six flag-emblazoned Forever stamps. So that's critical.

Now, the determination we've got to find out is how these packages were delivered. If there's no -- if they're not stamped at the airport -- at the airport -- at the post office, there's no stamp cancelations, they had to be delivered there by hand. And, again, Manhattan and the five burrows, there's not a corner, there's not a square inch that's not covered by cameras. This person is going to be tracked down.

CAMEROTA: By the way, those Forever stamps are self-adhesive. So, you know, the hope that, oh, maybe he licked it and we'll get some DNA, those are self-adhesive now. So that is not necessarily a --

GAGLIANO: Even -- even if -- Alisyn, even if they weren't, and I think back when they first came out there were some that you could -- somebody like this would probably have used a sponge to adhere them on it. Here's the thing, the bad guys always think they're smarter than everybody else. The hubris is what gets them in trouble. And they're like water. As Sunsu (ph) once said, criminals follow the path of least resistance. Whatever's easy to do on the first one, they're going to do on the last one.

BERMAN: It is interesting, Jim, and this is a little bit of politics injected here, but there are critics, people who don't like CNN and others, are going, none of the bombs went off. I'm just reading this (INAUDIBLE), none of the bombs went off. What are you talking about here? But that picture on the screen does tell you something.

SCIUTTO: Well, listen, again, the NYPD is taking this seriously. The NYPD, they're not wilting flowers, right? You saw their response here yesterday outside our offices. You see it again now. And you see how they've handled it in other cities, Los Angeles, Washington, where the other packages have been sent.

There -- there's a reason they've closed off a major city street in Manhattan, in rush hour, and put it in a containment vessel because they're taking this device very seriously. It didn't go off. That's good luck, frankly. It does not reduce the seriousness with which they deal with it or the potential threat.

PROKUPECZ: Well, the NYPD thinks it could go off. They think they're dealing with a very dangerous situation. You don't bring that truck in to remove something if you don't think it has the potential to go off.

CAMEROTA: Even if someone didn't intend for it to go off, let's say, it still could go off.

PROKUPECZ: Right. It doesn't matter. And under the law it doesn't matter. The fact that this is a bomb, it works, it's not inert, it isn't fake, it has explosive material in it.

SCIUTTO: Yes, you catch the guy or the guys or the men or women behind this, they will be charged as this is a deadly device.

BERMAN: Very quickly, we're going to reset in a moment at the top of the hour, but have you guys heard of anyone being warned now? Now that there's a clear pattern of people being targeted here, has law enforcement reached out? I mean I can't imagine who another potential target would be, but are they reaching out to people?

PROKUPECZ: Yes, they are. They are. I think that that's one of the big things that the NY --

SCIUTTO: Certainly the media organizations yesterday.

PROKUPECZ: Yes, and certainly what the NYPD has been doing, since the -- actually since the George Soros thing happened --

SCIUTTO: Right.

PROKUPECZ: They've been going to offices here in New York, they stepped up security around anything that has to do with George Soros. And then immediately when they learned about the Obama and Hillary Clinton package, they stepped up security around the sites associated with them.

CAMEROTA: And didn't they, in fact, think that something might be coming to CNN.

PROKUPECZ: Yes, they were very concerned about the media for some reason. But also what I was told last night was that the reason why they were here, they were just concerned about any large office type buildings that could have potential -- could be potential targets.

Look, we know this because the NYPD has gotten so good at this. They try to get ahead of this. Their intelligence division, which is now run by John Miller, but all these programs that were created there was in anticipation of something like this happening and they always try to get ahead of it. And that's what we saw with them yesterday.

SCIUTTO: And you see -- you see that the governor deploying national guards men and women because they want to have the resources in place. And you can be certain there were warnings going out to a whole host of organizations.

BERMAN: All right, guys, live pictures right now from lower Manhattan where a bomb was sent to the office of actor Robert De Niro. We have all kinds of breaking news developing before our eyes this morning. So let's reset.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: All right, welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world.

We have major breaking news this morning developing before our eyes.

You're looking at the scene in lower Manhattan where a bomb was sent to the office of Robert De Niro, the actor and director, in lower Manhattan, his office there. De Niro is now the eighth recipient of a bomb, or a suspected bomb, sent over the last few days.

[07:00:04] We have seen it develop before our eyes this morning. You're looking at the containment vehicle delivering that bomb to a safe area in the Bronx where it will be examined.