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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

U.S. Official: Suicide Bombers Were on U.S. Watchlist; Pentagon: U.S. Forces Kill Key ISIS Leader in Syria; Two Americans Dead, Two Missing; Trump vs. Cruz On Tabloid Report; Trump, Cruz Feud Over Tabloid Report; CNN Obtains First Photo of Brussels Terror Suspect; NYPD Deploys Vapor Dogs to Sniff Out Bombs. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired March 25, 2016 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:00:16] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. John Berman here, in for Anderson.

We have breaking news. Officials tell us the two brothers who blew themselves up in Brussels were on a U.S. terror watch list. One was on it even before the attacks in Paris. And that's not the half of it.

In the last 24 hours, we've seen raids and arrests in France, in Germany and Belgium. We've seen explosions, gunfire, police intelligence and counterterror forces working at a fever pitch, trying to prevent attacks that U.S. intelligence indicates are in various stages of planning, including one that French authorities say was in the advanced stages.

We also learned of U.S. raids on a top ISIS leader, a man with a $7 million price on his head, a very risky mission over very dangerous territory, a somewhat mixed outcome. Americans trying to bring him in, ended up taking him out. We learned as well that at least the 31 killed this week in Brussels.

Also this, the broken glass, the trail of blood. CNN exclusive video from inside the Brussels hideout of Paris terror suspect Salah Abdeslam. His arrest on Friday, the first of a chain of events making for a very full week and a very full night of news.

Let's begin with CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown on the terror watchlist story.

And, Pamela, the news that the two brothers, the Belgian suicide bombers, El Bakraoui brothers, they were on a counterterrorism watchlist. What are you learning?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We know at the very least, they were in the TIDE database of known or suspected terrorists, John.

In fact, one of them, Ibrahim El Bakraoui was put on the watchlist even before the Paris attacks. We know, of course, he was sent back from Turkey for his ties to terrorism last summer. And after the Paris attacks his brother Khalid was added to the database. It's believed that he helped provide a safe haven for the terrorists. And in addition to those two, we know that the French bombmaker who

was involved in the Paris attacks and then in the Belgium attacks as well was also in U.S. databases. But a lot of this raises questions, John, about how much the Belgians knew considering all three of them were known for their terrorist ties in the U.S., yet they were able to operate under the radar in Europe and then launch the attacks earlier this week, John.

BERMAN: Pamela, one of the brothers, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, he was on the terror watchlist even before Paris. Do you know why?

BROWN: Well, we know that last summer, Turkey deported him because they believed he was trying to cross the border into Syria. So, they sent him back and apparently he went to the Netherlands before coming to Belgium. So, presumably, John, that's after that, Turkey alerted officials or information was shared by one of the countries with the United States to be put on the TIDE database.

The threshold is pretty low. You just have to be a known or suspected terrorist to get on the other watchlist, there's a higher bar.

But it's worth mentioning, John, that you'll remember, early on, the Belgian prosecutors said they only knew of these two men for their ties to violent crime, not to terrorism. So, again, it appears that there's a disconnect there.

BERMAN: No, indeed. This is more than just petty crime.

All right. Pamela Brown, thank you so much.

Now, the huge series of raids in Brussels, including in the Schaerbeek section where Nick Paton Walsh witnessed some of it firsthand.

Nick, nine suspects arrested since yesterday. You were at one of the scenes today. What did you see?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was a tense moment in Schaerbeek, actually outside a tram stop where a man was sat on a bench, perhaps with a young woman next to him. He was approached by police. He was wearing a backpack.

Clearly police felt some sort of threat. Two shots were fired according to eyewitnesses, one of which hit him in the leg. Eyewitnesses say he heard a third noise, most likely some sort of explosion. Now, the video does show a robot approaching the body of the man injured on the ground. They appear to assess his rucksack.

As no longer being a threat, he's dragged by armed police very quickly further down away from the tram stop and behind the car where they begin to give him medical attention. When we were there, we saw a blood stain still on the pavement. But witnesses too saying how the tram nearby was moved down the track. People evacuated from it.

We don't know who this man is at this stag. We know he's in custody. We know he is one of the nine people arrested in just the last 24 hours. And the mayor says according to state media, he's connected to the Tuesday attacks in the airport and metro here in Brussels.

But of those nine, three released. They were arrested outside the federal prosecutor's office. That place we saw you last night, John, the house that was being searched by forensic detectives intensely. Well, we understand the men came out of there with their hands up at one point, according to eyewitnesses, there were no arrests resulting from that search.

[20:05:07] But it shows you how wide this dragnet is now becoming, how intensive the investigative focus is and how leads, the searches and the arrest of a man outside of Paris led to another arrest immediately almost here inside of Brussels, this search becoming pan-continental, John.

BERMAN: Nick, have Belgian police been able to figure out how these various arrests piece together, or even if they do piece together? Full level of knowledge they have. But it does appear, if you look at the history of this investigation, merely 72 hours ago, there were four people clearly publicly in their sights. That then became five. And they said there was an accomplice to the metro bomber, and a series of increasing arrests frankly across Brussels.

We don't know if this is just simply following up any leads they're getting. People in phone records, et cetera. The flat they searched last night seems to have coming up with some sense of a zero result.

But, you know, I think it's troubling to people as they approach the weekend here in Brussels. That sense of investigation widening. Is that a sense of police getting on top of their task or finding a much larger void in their knowledge than they previously thought?

BERMAN: Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much. An investigation widening, in some cases well beyond Belgium.

More now on raids in Paris and in Germany, in the line that authorities now say they can draw between a man arrested at a German train station and one of the subway killers in Brussels. Just one of the many threats investigators are pulling together.

Our Clarissa Ward is reporting on all of it tonight, including a plot French authorities thwarted in its advanced stages. Clarissa joins us now.

Let's start with Germany and the arrest there today, Clarissa.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, this is an interesting one. This man was reportedly just in a train station. Police saw him, determined that he was behaving suspiciously. They tried to talk to him. When they looked at his passport, they saw in this passport that he actually had a ban, essentially a ban that would not allow him to travel across the Schengen zone, that's the border-free 26 countries within the European Union.

They then looked at his phone later and found two text messages, both on the day of the Brussels attacks, the first text message reportedly said Khalid El Bakraoui, that, of course, is the name of the metro bomber, and then three minutes before the actual metro bombing took place, we are hearing that he received a text message apparently that said one word in French "fin", that just means "end."

So, they are trying to piece together now exactly what was the connection. What's interesting is they also found on him a medical bill indicating that he received medical treatment for wounds and injuries to his torso. And what they now believe, John, is that he actually may have been here in Belgium in Brussels during some of those raids.

Last week, he may have sustained injuries in those raids and gone back to Germany afterwards to hide out, John.

BERMAN: Well, that's interesting. Gone back to Germany, crossing back and forth across the border, despite the fact there was that ban on travel within the E.U. It didn't seem to stop him.

WARD: Well, that's exactly it. I mean, this is the real problem that officials here are coming up against again and again and again -- the ease with which people can move freely between these various countries that are part of the Schengen zone.

And what's really made difficult as well, we know this man spent time in Syria with almost all of the Paris attackers. They had also spent time in Syria. And often, the authorities are aware that this man have gone to Syria, but what they seem unable to do at this stage is track when they come back, how they come back, because they are obviously not flying back into Belgium if they are Belgian citizens. They are often flying to different countries and making their way covertly back into Belgium, exploiting those open borders.

After Paris, we heard a lot of talk, John, from officials about a need to have an information sharing network, an intelligence sharing network whereby all countries would be made aware when anyone who traveled to Syria or Iraq or taken part in ISIS activity outside of the European Union was coming back into the continent.

But so far, that does not seem to have worked, John.

BERMAN: Let's talk about Paris. You just brought up Paris. There was that man arrested yesterday in France, said to be in the advanced stages of planning an attack.

What do you know about that?

WARD: That's right. So, they arrested him yesterday morning after a tip-off. They said this was part of an investigation they've been working on for weeks. They said this was evidence of European cooperation. Clearly, they really want to strike that note and show there is information sharing here.

After the arrest, that led them to these raids overnight in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil. We heard that lots of explosives were found, that heavy weapons were found, the explosives, by the way, John, TATP, our viewers now very used to hearing that acronym because this appear to be the explosive of choice for ISIS operatives here in Europe.

And so, we're still waiting to find out more about how -- what the nexus was, how these all relate together. But, certainly, this is spreading across the European Union.

BERMAN: Some common threads there. Clarissa Ward, thank you.

BERMAN: All that happening, we learned a team of U.S. Special Forces has carried out a mission that got the man widely described as the number two in ISIS. Now, they certainly got him.

However, as CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr tells us, the outcome, though welcome, was not exactly as planned.

Barbara, walk us through the raid.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: John, this is a fascinating story that we do not know all the details of. U.S. commandos moved secretly into Syria in the last few days and they were aiming to capture alive this man Qaduli. He's been described as the finance minister of ISIS. Some people, analysts saying he's the number two man in the organization.

A group of commandos known as the expeditionary targeting force, 200 strong, have had their eye on him for some time. They went after him. They were planning to capture him alive and interrogate him.

But when the helicopters moved in, what we do know is something happened. They were not able to capture him alive. They opened fire and killed him in his vehicle on the ground.

So, here's the fascinating question. What exactly happened? Was there a firefight with this secret covert U.S. military group? We do not know the answers.

But at the end of the day, Qaduli, the Pentagon says, is dead and Secretary Ash Carter saying it's another step in dismantling the ISIS organization.

BERMAN: Two things, Barbara. Number one, the plan to catch this guy alive certainly bold in and of itself. Number two, inside Syria, not the friendliest of terrains for a mission like this for U.S. Special Forces.

STARR: This is one of the most dangerous things they could undertake, to go in in helicopters. They would have go on the ground to grab him, to get him alive. You just cannot underestimate, I think, how significant that might be. There are no friendly forces on the ground that would be very hospitable in any measure to U.S. troops if they came across them.

When these guys, these commandos go in, what we also know is overhead, there are fighter jets, there are drones. People are keeping watch on them. A quick reaction force ready to move in and rescue them if they do run into trouble. By all accounts they did not on this mission. They were able to kill

Qaduli and get out of there. But there's an awful lot of firepower to back them up on things like this if they wind up getting into trouble on the ground -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Barbara Starr, thanks so much.

STARR: Sure.

BERMAN: Whether that or the raids or threat of more violence in the wake of the attacks, there's a lot to ask our panel of intelligence, security and counterterror experts. That is next.

And later, presidential politics sinking even lower, if that is humanly possible. Cruz/Trump, lurid tabloid headlines, angry denials, allegations of dirty tricks and more -- or less. Details ahead on 360.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:17:20] BERMAN: The breaking news about the Brussels killers on the terror watchlist, the raids, the dead ISIS functionary and more. There is plenty to discuss with our panel, and they do have plenty of new information for us.

CNN terror analyst Paul Cruickshank, he's editor in chief of the CTC Sentinel, which is part of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point; CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem, who served as U.S. assistant secretary for homeland security and was homeland security adviser for the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Also with us, CNN counterterrorism analyst Philip Mudd who sat at the threat table as a senior official the CIA and FBI.

Paul Cruickshank, I want to start with you. You've been working your sources all day, hearing a lot of things particularly about these German arrests.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Very interesting developments in Germany in the last 48 hours. Two arrests, including in a town of Giessen, which isn't far from the Belgian border. There was an individual there that local police saw loitering around a train station. And they went and sort of checked his identity papers.

When they checked his identity papers, they noticed he wasn't meant to be in Schengen, in the European countries. They then searched through his phone and saw two very interesting text messages. One with the name of the metro bomber in Brussels and one other three minutes before the metro with just one word "ends", and they connected this guy, they feel, to this Brussels attack. They are investigating all of that.

But they also found a hospital bill in Belgium for injuries to his torso. So one of the lines of inquiry tonight is was he a victim of police bullet or something like that during one of these raids in Brussels, perhaps even the raid on Salah Abdeslam's safe house.

BERMAN: And a clear proof that a plot is spreading beyond Belgium.

All right. Juliette, U.S. intelligence officials believe they know the identity of the man wearing the light colored jacket in the airport surveillance photo. And U.S. officials have shared that information with the Belgian authorities.

So, why are the Belgians not releasing his name? Wouldn't that be useful for the public to try to help finding him?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, FORMER U.S. ASST. SECY. FOR HOMELAND SECURITY: It just depends on the circumstances of where the investigation is heading at this moment. Because they have a name, they then know who he's been hanging out with, who his family members are and possibly a final or recent place of residence, place that's he was hanging out.

So, we should give them the benefit of the doubt for the next 24, 48 hours. They may know where he is. Just to these lists quickly. Everyone is like they knew this person and that person.

[20:20:00] There are a lot of watchlists for good and for bad. The largest one is the TIDE one, the one that we're talking about today that identified the brothers or had the brothers on the list. There's over a million people worldwide on the TIDE's list.

There are more refined watchlists. Think of it as going towards a bull's-eye. The bull's-eye is the kill list, the drone list, the one the American government feels is justified to go after abroad.

But there's over a million people on the TIDE's list and so there's just, we just think of the quantity of intelligence out number of people. It's not surprising to me that they would have ended up on the TIDE list but not been detained or surveyed in a European country.

BERMAN: Well, what the Belgians said is that they knew they had a history of violent crime but no connection to terror. Wouldn't the fact they were on that TIDE's list, Juliette, if the Belgians were told by the U.S. be at least a minimal connection to terror?

KAYYEM: OK. So, TIDE stands for Terrorist Identification. It does not mean terrorist. It means that may -- and this may sound insane. But just the people put on the TIDE's list are people who may have be, have been on the phone call with a known terrorist, may have been in the same school. May live in the same apartment complex.

There are a lot of people on that list who are definitely not related or planning terrorism. I know after the fact that sounds like sort of crazy, but it's not. It's just a way for the government to be able to identify known associates. But a lot of those known associates are not terrorists.

BERMAN: Phil Mudd, I want to take a look at the video we're seeing. The CNN exclusive video inside Salah Abdeslam's hideout in Brussels. A lot in there. A lot of junk in there.

Pizza boxes and the like. It looks like he had been in while. You can see the blood stains right there from after the shootout. You make anything of this video other than the fact it does look like he'd been hiding out in this one place for some period of time?

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Well, that period of time gives me one clue, and that is during the raids today, we've seen raids in Germany, in France and Belgium. If you look at these apartments, these locations where people have been staying for a while, think not only of the violence that happened there but if they've been there are if a while, think laptops, think cell phones, think documents.

The reason these raids are happening, when you vacuum up all that intelligence overnight there will be people working 24/7 to absorb all that data and do things like cell pho chaining to see if there's another set of raids that should happen tomorrow.

So, every time one of these raids happen, anticipate that new names may crop up, new locations that's result in new activity.

BERMAN: We're going from Brussels now to Syria, Paul Cruickshank, where the second in command. Someone known as the second in command to ISIS was killed in a U.S. raid.

How big of a blow is that to ISIS?

CRUICKSHANK: This is a very significant blow. Thought to be the number two, Qaduli, of ISIS, also its financial chief. This is a veteran jihadi who was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's deputy when the group was called al Qaeda in Iraq.

BERMAN: So, he's been around for a long time.

CRUICKSHANK: He's been around the block for a long time. He was al Qaeda in Iraq's envoy to bin Laden. Bin Laden wanted him to get the top job not Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. But Abu Bakr Baghdadi got the top job, and he became a key deputy.

I think this will be a big message to the top leadership of ISIS. Your impunity is over Abu Bakr al Baghdadi may also now possibly be a target in the next several weeks. This guy may have intelligence on which could lead all the way to Baghdadi. The other guy they really want to get, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, a Syrian who's believed to be supervising all this Western plots.

BERMAN: Interesting they wanted to get the number two alive as well. That did not work here. He is now believed to be dead.

Paul Cruickshank, Philip Mudd, Juliette Kayyem, thank you so much.

MUDD: Thank you.

BERMAN: Just ahead, we're going to remember the fallen and honor their lives and their stories, including, we know, two Americans. That's when 360 continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:27:53] BERMAN: As the stories of victims and survivors emerge from the Brussels attacks, some of them hit very close to home as we've been reporting. Two Americans have now been confirmed dead. Two remain missing.

Brynn Gingras has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A sobering confirmation from Secretary of State John Kerry, Americans among those killed in Tuesday's attacks.

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: The United States, I want you to know, is praying and grieving with you. For the loved ones of those who have been very cruelly taken from us.

GINGRAS: A senior U.S. official confirmed two Americans are among the 31 people who died. Their names have not been released. We do know, though, the identities of three more victims with American ties. Alex and Sascha Pinczowski were checking into their flight headed to New York. Their family confirmed it received a list of survivors at a Brussels hospital, the siblings were not on it.

In a statement the family said, "We received confirmation this morning from Belgian authorities and the Dutch embassy of the positive identification of the remains of Alexander and Sascha. We are grateful to have closure on this tragic situation and are thankful for the thoughts and prayers from all."

Bart Migom was also killed. His family identified the 21-year-old's body at a Brussels hospital. They believe he was checking in for a flight to the U.S. to visit his girlfriend when one of the airport bombs exploded.

EMILY EISENMAN, GIRLFRIEND OF BART MIGOM: I'm going to miss the fact that he was my best friend and I just feel like I could spend the rest of my life with him. And I always told this to him at the end of our phone calls.

(SPEAKING FOREING LANGUAGE)

Which means Bart is always in Emily's heart.

GINGRAS: Two Americans are among those still missing. Justin and Stephanie Shults from Tennessee were dropping off Stephanie's mother Carolyn Moore at the airport. Moore was visiting the couple who live in Brussels. She survived the blast but says she has still not heard from her daughter or son-in-law.

[20:30:03] And an emotional reunion for surviving victim Mason Wells and his parents.

Wells, a missionary from Utah is suffering from severe burns as his fellow church member Fanny Clain. She talked about her faith when talking exclusively with the "New Day's" Alisyn Camerota from her hospital bedside.

FANNY CLAIN, MISSIONARY: Simple, God is with us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Brynn Gingras joins me right now. Brynn, any update, any new information about the two Americans confirmed dead?

GINGRAS: We're still waiting from the State Department to get an official confirmation of those two Americans' names. You can imagine Belgian authorities still on the ground trying to get all the names of the remaining victims confirmed at this point, but still no confirmation from the State Department as of yet.

But I do want to go back to Mason Wells, he's that missionary that I showed in the piece, reuniting with his family. Can you believe this? That is the third terrorist attack that he has been near. He was in Boston, he was in Paris, and now he was here in Brussels and he remembers this one extremely vividly.

BERMAN: Yeah. Oh, really.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MASON WELLS, BRUSSELS BOMBING SURVIVOR: And all of the sudden, a huge blast came from my right. I think my body was actually ticked off the ground for a moment and my left shoe just was blown off and a large part of the right side of my body got really hot and then really cold. And I was covered in a lot of blood. And a lot of that blood wasn't mine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: And as you can imagine, he considers himself a very lucky person at this point.

BERMAN: Well, Brynn, he sounds great, it's was terrific. Brynn Gingras, thanks so much.

Just ahead, we're going to turn to politics. Ted Cruz is denying a salacious tabloid report about him calling it complete and utter lies and blaming Donald Trump for planting it. And of course, Donald Trump has responded.

We'll have the latest on the ever lowering bar in the Republican presidential race. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:35:50] BERMAN: The Republican race for the White House ever more bitter, ever more cruder by the day. Now includes a salacious report about Ted Cruz courtesy of the "National Enquirer".

Now, CNN has no reporting to suggest the tabloids allegations are true and therefore we're not even going to get into the details. But Cruz himself has now addressed it, if only to deny it and blame its existence on, you guessed it, Donald Trump. Sunlen Serfaty reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TED CRUZ, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald is fond of giving people nicknames. With this pattern, he should not be surprised to see people calling him "Sleazy Donald."

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ted Cruz breathing fire at Donald Trump today.

CRUZ: Donald Trump may be a rat, but I have no desire to copulate with him. And this garbage does not belong in politics.

SERFATY: The Texas Senator bringing in up unprovoked a tabloid story about him accusing Donald Trump of being behind it but not offering any proof to back up his assertion.

CRUZ: This "National Enquirer" story is garbage. It is complete and utter lies. It is a tabloid smear. And it is a smear that has come from Donald Trump and his henchman. It's not surprising that Donald Trump's tweet occurs the day before the attack comes out.

SERFATY: Trump today responding in a statement saying, "I had absolutely nothing to do with it. Did not know about it and have not, as yet, read it." Adding, "Unlike Lying Ted Cruz, I do not surround myself with political hacks and henchman and then pretend total innocence."

Cruz today evading the question whether he could still support Trump if he were the GOP nominee.

CRUZ: I don't make a habit out of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my family.

SERFATY: This comes as the GOP rivals have been sparring and sharply personal attacks involving their spouses.

CRUZ: And to Heidi, isn't she going to make an amazing first lady?

SERFATY: Campaigning side by side with his wife today, Cruz calling out Donald Trump directly to the crowd.

CRUZ: You know, in the last few days, Donald Trump has taken to attacking Heidi.

SERFATY: Part of Trump's attacks, a tweet threatening to spill the beans on Heidi Cruz and a retweet of a split screen image of his wife Melania and Heidi Cruz with the caption, the images are worth a thousand words. Cruz looking to frame this as a pattern for Trump.

CRUZ: Donald does seem to have an issue with woman. Donald doesn't like strong women. Strong women scare Donald.

SERFATY: This isn't the first time Trump has stirred up controversy with his comments about women, including Fox News Anchor Megyn Kelly. DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You can see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.

SERFATY: Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

TRUMP: And Hillary who's become very shrill. You know the word shrill? She's become a shrill.

SERFATY: The latest CNN/ORC poll shows that while 59 percent of Republican women have a favorable view of Trump, 39 percent have an unfavorable view. And his unfavorable mark jumps to 73 percent among registered women voters nationwide revealing how much of an uphill climb he could think in a general election if he emerges as the nominee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. Sunlen Serfaty is with us right now. And Sunlen, Ted Cruz is also doing something new to Donald Trump. He's going after him for his lighter schedule this week.

SERFATY: That's right, John. You know, this was largely overshadowed today, but Ted Cruz really brought the heat against Donald Trump for largely being absent from the campaign trail this week. Cruz saying that Trump is hiding out in Trump Tower, essentially picking these Twitter fights from afar. Trump has not been out on the campaign trail since Monday. We know he's been spending some time in his resort in Florida. And as of this time, his next campaign event is not scheduled until Tuesday here in Wisconsin.

BERMAN: If you look at the other way though, how much campaign option he's able to suck up just for 140-character tweets.

[20:45:00] And Sunlen Serfaty, thank you so much.

Let's talk about this more. Joining me, CNN Political Commentator and Conservative Columnist Kayleigh McEnany, who supports Donald Trump and CNN Political Commentator Republican Strategist Margaret Hoover.

Kayleigh, I want to start with you. A lot of times campaigns, they didn't go anywhere near the tabloids. The tabloids report and put out the stuff they're going to put out in campaigns, you know, they just stay focused. As a Trump supporter, would you like to see Donald Trump just leave this be and stay away from it? Can he resist it?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. I'd like to see him stay away from it, likewise I would like to see Cruz stay away from this because here's the thing. We just heard Sunlen, put together that package and what she put together was largely the narrative of what's happening in the Republican Party right now. There's tits for tat, back and forth between candidates sparing about their wives.

Meanwhile, three days ago, we just saw 31 people die in Brussels. This is what Republicans need to be talking about. And right now, Republicans have time to get in these spars and get in these fights and I think they can largely emerge unscathed from this. But if this continues, and certainly if this continues into the general election, Hillary Clinton will walk into the White House.

Republicans need to stop this. One of the candidates needs to say done with the attacks, let's talk about issues. I hope it's Donald Trump because that's who I support. But this is really damaging to the Republican Party.

BERMAN: Margaret, it was Ted Cruz who did bring it up today and not just that, he accused Donald Trump of planting the story in the tabloid. Trump says he had nothing to do with it. So doesn't Ted Cruz needs some proof for this kind of attack?

MARGARET HOOVER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I mean it's sort of boggles the mind why he even mentioned it anyway. I mean it's a tabloid the, "National Enquirer" is not one of the more reputable -- you don't normally need to respond -- article in the national -- baffles me why he even bothered to stoop to the "National Review's'' level and almost dignify the accusations by even acknowledging and responding to them.

But to something Kayleigh just said, I mean not only do people want to be talking about the issues and how to fix the country and how to heal and repair the world. The candidates aren't doing that because Donald Trump has debased the good nature of political discourse. I mean the constant attacks, the, you know, really from the beginning, the personal attacks, the innuendo, the terrible, really negativity that has spewed from Donald Trump from the beginning, is the reason that they're in the gutter right now. And the tone comes from the top on these guys. I mean Donald Trump has set the tone for this campaign. He has set the narrative. He has been the one who has brought everything down, 100 notches.

So to hear, you know, this argument that we should really move on to the subjects, to the subjects that will -- you know, policy solutions that are really going to fix this country, is music to my ears, it's just that those candidate -- the candidates not doing it. Donald Trump is not doing that.

BERMAN: And it was the "National Enquirer", not the "National Review". I know you know that. Kayleigh, what about that?

HOOVER: Oh my God, it was the "National Enquirer".

BERMAN: Exactly. Kayleigh, what about Margaret's point because you support Donald Trump yet he seems to do this a lot. It's not like this type of attitude and these types of comments are incidental to the focus of this campaign. He spends a lot of time on Twitter. He spends a lot of time with these off-hand remarks. He was the one who retweeted those pictures of Heidi Cruz and Melania. It's not like his hands are clean in this episode.

MCENANY: Sure. And he should not have retweeted that picture of Heidi Cruz. Heidi Cruz is a great woman, and that should not have happened. But you know, where I would argue with Margaret is we've seen a lot of people engaged in very dirty politics in this race. We saw Cruz sent out voter violation forms to Iowa voters, basically chastising them and what looked like a legal reprimand for not voting. We saw him saying that Ben Carson exited the race before he did and in an effort to get Ben Carson voters to come to his side. We saw Marco Rubio come out and accused Donald Trump of urinating on a stage. So this is not something that is solely Donald Trump's problem. This is something that someone attacks someone else. He devolved into this mad slinging fight and we need someone to emerge and say ...

HOOVER: No.

MCENANY: It's not just -- say that it's disingenuous.

BERMAN: Margaret, how do you unify ...

HOOVER: No, no.

BERMAN: ... the party? How do you fix this? I mean how can this party get together before the convention in Cleveland or after the Cleveland convention?

HOOVER: John and Kayleigh, would you guys both know, the problem here is there's a bully in the school yard and the bully is Donald Trump. And Donald Trump has been bringing those level of discourse and the way this game is played down to just the most guttural and basic level and it's true. I mean there is dirty politics.

Kayleigh, I'll give you that and it was coming from the Cruz campaign. That is really different than the bullying and like the pictures of Heidi Cruz and every -- sort of every along the way. We know Marco Rubio really had significant missteps, but that was because he was responding to the bully in the school yard.

So again, this is all the tone and tenor here has been set by the big guy in the room who is Donald Trump. So it is on him to change the level of discourse and to unify the party. He's the art of the deal guy.

[20:50:00] He's the dealmaker. He's the one who has the power to really change the tone and start bringing the party together.

BERMAN: Well, we've got holiday weekend, let's hope it's all different on Monday.

Kayleigh Mcenany, Margaret Hoover, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

And be sure to tune in this coming Tuesday when Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Donald Trump, they will take questions at a CNN Republican town hall. That is in Milwaukee, moderated by Anderson. That's Tuesday night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

Now, tonight, we have some breaking news, right after the break. We just got our first look at a picture of one of the Brussels terror suspects, one we believe is on the run. This is a picture we have not seen before. And we also have a new name. Take a look. We'll discuss right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. We have breaking news just in to CNN. A new photo, a new name in the Brussels terror investigation and manhunt.

Our Paul Cruickshank has been working his sources. Just got wired up and sat down right here. Paul, what are you learning?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM CORRESPONDENT: This picture was circulated on the day of the Brussels attacks, wanted by European security agencies. We've been told by a French source briefed on the investigation that he was believed to be operationally involved in the Brussels attacks.

Not clear whether he might have been the third so-called suicide bomber at the airport or the man seen on that CCTV with the suicide bomber in the metro, neither of those places. But they believed that he was operationally involved in the Brussels attacks. They fear that he's armed and dangerous.

Now, according to the Le Monde, his DNA was recovered at the bomb factory in Schaerbeek for the Brussels attacks. It's not clear whether that's his real name or a name that he used to gain entry into Europe. One line of inquiry is he entered Europe through Leros, the Greek island of Leros in September to come into Europe.

One other detail we're learning from suspect by German investigators, and this is a big investigation right now, is that it's believed that Salah Abdeslam picked him up in a refugee center in Olm, Germany, on October 3rd and then drove him to Brussels. But this figure, European security agencies believed is possibly played a key role in those Brussels attacks. Finding him is a matter of grave urgency. This man is definitely one of the most wanted men in Europe right now.

BERMAN: Naim al-Hamed. We don't know if that's his real name. We don't know if he was the third figure in the airport photo or if he is the one seen in surveillance at the subway station. It's possible now, there are three fugitives or he could be one of the two they're hunting for right now. And crucially, Paul, if I was following your timeline, a connection to Salah Abdeslam, one of the Paris attackers before the Paris attacks.

CRUICKSHANK: Absolutely right. Before the Paris attacks, more than a month before the Paris attack.

This individual, Naim Al Hamed, believed to have come to a refugee center in the German town of Olm. There were a couple of the -- that the refugees at that center noticed that some of them gone missing. And at a certain point, German police went to that refugee center and showed this picture around and a number of people there recognized that he had been there. So this suggests that he had come through Syria. Le Monde reporting he came through the Greek island of Leros in September.

Another person he was cited in September in Leros was Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the ringleader of the Paris attacks. And there were also two of the stadium attackers that are on October 3, a little bit later than him, came through the Greek islands of Leros. ISIS is sending their operatives through Southern Greece.

BERMAN: You know, there would be a lot of commonality between all of these plots. Now, Paul Cruickshank, you bet that allow the race, we're seeing around Brussels over the last few hours probably searching for this man right here.

Thank you very much for this reporting and our first look at that photo now of one of the most wanted men in Europe. Paul Cruickshank, thank you.

Just ahead, we'll take you to the front lines of the beefed up anti- terror measures here in New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:57:08] BERMAN: I want to recap the news that Paul Cruickshank just broke. A new photo and a new name just obtained by CNN of what authorities are calling an operational member of the team that carried out the Brussels suicide bombings. He is still at large, believed to be very dangerous. We do not know whether this is his real name you're looking at right now or some kind of alias. We do not know whether he's the man in the hat at the airport video or if he's a completely new figure. We're going to update you as we get more information on this as it comes in.

Meantime, here in New York, thousands of extra police officers have been deployed across the city since the Brussels attacks. The reinforcements include some newly minted members of NYPD's K-9 unit, trained to sniff out the faintest trace of the bombs that are becoming harder to detect.

Here's Randi Kaye.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a busy afternoon in New York City's Times Square. A high-profile area long considered a target for terrorism. But if someone was looking to set off a bomb here, these dogs may sound the alarm earlier than ever before. And they're no ordinary bomb-sniffing dogs. They are what's called "Vapor wake dogs.'' Trained not only to sniff out bombs in bags, but to pick up the scent or vapor of a bomb as it walks through the air, something the human nose can't detect.

BILL BRATTON, NYPD COMMISIONER: A very function of these wonderful, wonderful dogs is, in fact, to protect against exactly what happened in Belgium.

KAYE: Even on a busy New York City street, these dogs can pick up the scent of a bomb in the air. The vapor that they recognized could come from a person clothing, perhaps the bomb maker who walks right by them or from a backpack which may contain the bomb.

The dogs were trained at Auburn University. We visited the university after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing to see the training firsthand.

The point of a vapor wake dog is to detect the vapor of the bomb, if you will, before it's actually placed somewhere where it might explode, to catch it before that.

JIM FLOYD, AUBURN UNIVERSITY VETERINARIAN: That's exactly correct. Your standard bomb dog, your explosive detector dog is primed on looking at an object, a backpack that's placed somewhere. A vapor wake dog's ability is to detect the odor coming off of that backpack on the back of someone as they carry it.

KAYE: Amazing.

FLOYD: And to follow that plume of vapor.

KAYE: This video from the university shows a vapor wake dog in action once he catches the odor in the air, watch how he never lets up. There are eight vapor wake dogs now deployed to protect soft targets in the New York City area. They just graduated the NYPD's training this week. And each is named after a fallen NYPD officer.

JAMES WATERS, NYPD BUREAU CHIEF: In a world where suicide bombings continue to be the weapon of choice for terrorists throughout the world, the CRC's capability to deploy these vapor wake dogs is more important than ever before.

[21:00:08] KAYE: These pups are always working. Zigzagging through the crowds, sniffing everyone and everything they come --