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Wolf

Manhunt for Serial Bomber as Trump Continues Rhetoric; 3 Additional Packages Sent to Biden & De Niro; Trump Blames News Media for Anger Leading to Bomb Packages; Trump Upset He's Being Linked to Bombs, But No Plans to Tone Down Rhetoric. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired October 25, 2018 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:32:28] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We are back with John Garamendi, of California, a Democrat.

Congressman, the White House says the president won't change his tone as evidenced by his latest comments today, his latest tweet, for example. What do you think the president's responsibility is right now to the American people as far as what happened over the last two or three days?

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI, (D), CALIFORNIA: He has an enormously important responsibility. First, this is a serious attack on the leadership of the Democratic Party. Therefore, an attack on our democracy 15 days or 13 days before a midterm national election. Therefore, the president has the responsibility to calm all of this down, to be absolutely clear in his rhetoric and in his words and his tweets that this kind of activity is out of the norm and cannot continue. In addition, he has to stop attacking the press. He and I both took an oath to protect and uphold the Constitution. The First Amendment is clear, it is freedom of press. He ought to read it. I ought to read it. We all ought to read it. "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion or prohibiting the free exercise there or abridge the freedom of speech and the press." He has a responsibility to not attack the press, not to demonize and call the press the enemy of the people because that then gives opportunity and authority to others to attack the press. And undoubtedly what happened with CNN and the arrival of that bomb at the headquarters in New York City. His responsibility is to lead this nation in the correct direction to a peaceful union. We ought to be talking about things we agreed to. Health care. We have different ways of getting there. But state your position, Mr. President. We'll state our position on the Democratic side. But we've an attack on the top leadership of the Democratic Party and we cannot let that go by and, as president, he cannot.

BLITZER: Do you have any hope that the president will change?

GARAMENDI: I am always hopeful. I'm always hopeful that tomorrow will bring a new day and an opportunity for America to get past this very, very divisive and, obviously, very dangerous election. We need to be -- we all need to be careful about this. And the president has to lead us not in a negative as he did with the tweet, again, attacking the fundamental mechanism that the people, the citizens of the United States have to understand what the government is doing. That's the press. The freedom of the press in doing so. He is taking away the opportunity of Americans to know what is happening. That is just a horrible way in which we could go. We just can't let that happen and he should not let it happen.

[13:35:38] BLITZER: Congressman Garamendi, thanks so much for joining us.

GARAMENDI: Thank you.

BLITZER: A sober warning from the New York mayor, Bill de Blasio: We should be expecting more bombs in the mail. That's what he's suggesting.

Also, so far 10 potentially dangerous packages have been identified and neutralized. Here's a closer look at where they have been found. All being treated by federal agents as acts of domestic terrorism. The latest in New York City at the Actor Robert De Niro's Tribeca Productions in Manhattan, and two more were addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden, in Delaware, where he lives.

Our Ryan Nobles is in Delaware for us.

Ryan, what do we know about the packages addressed to the former vice president?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we know that at least one of them ended up in this post office behind me in downtown Wilmington, Delaware. A second package was collected in a post office nearby in Newcastle, about miles from where we are standing. That package was found by a postal employee and alerted to the local authorities. And the FBI and the ATF and the postal inspection came in early today and evacuated the building and did a sweep of the facility. They took it off site to be investigated and to take it away from this particular location. They did a sweep of this entire building to make sure that there was nothing else that could harm anyone inside. They declared this building safe. The employees went back in a couple of hours or so.

It's important to note, Wolf, about this particular facility, it's not just a mail processing follow, it's a post office. Average people can come in and out of this building to mail packages and to pick up their own mail. This was definitely a hub of activity in Wilmington.

At one point, we saw a robot that they brought out of this facility used in the collection of this package. No one was hurt. This situation is considered closed at this particular facility by the local police and the FBI, but, Wolf, the investigation continues.

BLITZER: That's a serious, serious matter, indeed. If any of these bombs had exploded, postal workers and mailrooms and delivery personnel, they probably would have been the ones injured or killed. Not necessarily the targets and the names on those packages.

Ryan Nobles, in Delaware for us. We will stay in close touch. Up next, catching a serial bomber. Experts explain how investigators

are using the bombs to search for clues. And why two targets receive more than one package.

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[13:42:48] BLITZER: A nationwide manhunt. Law enforcement looking for the person or persons who potentially sent 10 deadly packages to leading Democratic voices, outspoken critics of President Trump. All of them containing an explosive. An explosive was also delivered to CNN's headquarters in New York, addressed to John Brennan, the former CIA director.

The president weighing in, blaming the news media for the anger that led to all of this.

Here with us now, CNN legal analyst, Laura Coates, and CNN national security analyst, Carrie Cordero.

Carrie, let's talk about what the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, is telling us, that there may be more pack annuals still out there. I assume that's what they're fearful of.

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I'm sure they are. There have been so many discovered over a short period that they will investigate whether or not there are more packages. And it may be the investigation which is ongoing, which is a joint, state, local, federal variety of agencies, has revealed they have reason to think there might be more packages out there. I would anticipate there are two sides of this investigation, both trying to back track from the packages and what they know about the forensics of the device, and separately, from an investigative standpoint, looking at existing cases they might have open or other ways that other investigations are indicating what direction they should go to find out who the persons are who are responsible.

BLITZER: There's an enormous manhunt under way looking for the terrorist or terrorists. We don't know if there are multiple. They are looking all over for this person. Do you sense there's only one person or could be multiple?

LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: At this point, we don't know a lot. We know the dragnet has to be wide for a lot of reasons. The places where the bombs are sent are all across the nation. It could be there's one centralized figure or it could be accomplices or people who knew about it beforehand or accessories after the fact who have a hand in trying to hide this information right now. All of these are possibilities it. It doesn't mean that they are looking for one person who may have sent it. It may be everyone who knew about the planning of it or know about the suppression of evidence related to it. You have to cast a wide net.

[13:45:10] BLITZER: What does it say to you, Carrie, that all of the targets and all of those who were addressed in these bombs are severe critics of the president of the United States? CORDERO: It's certainly going to be a critical part of the

investigation to try to identify an individual or individuals who would be motivated to take a violent act or an attempted violent act directed at individuals who have been targeted through rhetoric by the president and his allies. Domestic terrorism investigations are really difficult from a prevention standpoint because there's not a way that federal law enforcement can investigate Americans, people within the United States, without having some reason to think they are violating federal or criminal law. It's different with other national security related investigations because it butts up against the First Amendment line. From a prevention stand point, these investigations that pertain domestically to individuals who is might want to engage in violence because they have a particular political agenda are really the hardest types of cases for investigators to uncover and dismantle.

BLITZER: You are a former federal prosecutor, Laura, and you see it as domestic terror.

COATES: Absolutely. You have someone trying to intimidate or coerce behavior. However, the hook is important that Carrie was talking about. It has to be for a political motivation or to influence policy. Before getting into the semantics of why its terror, definitionally or colloquially, the most important thing to find out is intent. That's why the manhunt has to be comprehensive to ascertain what the motivation is. Looking at it in terms of circumstances, every person that has been targeted are people politically antagonistic to the president of the United States and vice-versa. You have the political rhetoric that seems to be a part of the discussion. The sad thing is, although, it's defined as domestic terrorism, there's not a comprehensive sentencing link or a penalty attached under the statutes. Nobody contemplated anything besides international terrorism in the federal codes. It may be a part of the prosecution's thought to figure out what it will mean to have a domestic terrorist, but what it will mean in the prosecution other than attempted murder, attempted mayhem in some way, or mass casualties, it won't make a big difference in that respect.

BLITZER: Let's not forget the targets of this domestic terror are two former presidents, a former secretary of state, a former attorney general, a former CIA director, a sitting member of Congress, all of them, if god forbid, these bombs had exploded and reached their destination, I dread to think what could have happened.

CORDERO: That's why the FBI director's statement said clearly this is the highest priority for them right now is uncovering and identifying who is responsible and stopping it.

BLITZER: They better find the individual or individuals.

Guys, thank you very much.

New CNN reporting from inside the White House. We are being told the president is upset he is being linked to the attacks. And there are no plans for him to tone down his rhetoric, at least not yet. S.E. Cupp is standing by, live. We will discuss.

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[13:52:52] BLITZER: It started with a condemnation of violence and a call for national unity and ended with this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The media also has a responsibility to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and constant negative and oftentimes false attacks and stories. Have to do it. Have to do it.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's discuss the president's comments. I'm joined by CNN political commentator, S.E. Cupp.

S.E., give us your thoughts on the president's response to these attempted terror attacks.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR & CNN HOST, "S.E. CUPP UNFILTERED": The most alarming part about it was that it was scripted. You could tell he was reading a Teleprompter. So that was intentional. That was not just the president off the cuff doing what he does, stoking fear, criticizing the press. That was written. And so it's very clear now his office, his administration, his press shop has decided that this is not a bug, but a feature. This is something they're going to embrace. This is a strategy they are going to move forward with, even in the face of literal bombs sent to the news media and Democrats.

BLITZER: The president didn't mention the names of the people targeted, whether the former presidents, the former secretary of state, any of the others. You believe, as a courtesy, he should have or even as a bigger courtesy actually made a phone call and called them to reassure them that the government was doing everything possible to find the terrorist or terrorists involved?

CUPP: Sure. Courtesy is not a word, however, I think anyone really associates with President Trump. Look, let's be clear. The president is not responsible for these bombs. He didn't order anyone to send a bomb to CNN or to Joe Biden's house. And even if we had, we are all free to ignore him. The problem is the president has created a culture of comfort for violent rhetoric and actual violence. Attacks like this have been organized against members of the media and against politicians for centuries, but in the past, they would find no refuge, no safe space. When a journalist was attacked for doing his job, that would have been condemned, not congratulated. When a political opponent was sent a bomb, the president would not only denounce this but defend the intended target instead of blaming them. That's what he's doing in fact. He's blaming the targets of those attacks.

[13:55:28] BLITZER: Good point.

S.E. Cupp, thank you very much. "S.E. CUPP UNFILTERED" airs Saturday night, 6:00 p.m. Eastern, right

here on CNN.

Thanks for joining us.

Just moments from now, the president is planning to speak over at the White House.

And then police investigators planning to give a news conference on a massive manhunt under way right now. Stand by.