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Downtown Nashville Sealed Off After "Intentional" Explosion; U.S. to Require Negative COVID Test from U.K. Travelers. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired December 25, 2020 - 14:00   ET

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

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: The scene showed the explosion's destructive power. Second Avenue now lined with charred trees and shattered glass.

[14:00:03]

The city's mayor says the explosion damaged 20 buildings in the area. The Tennessee governor says he'll commit whatever resources are required to find out who was responsible. Miraculously, only three people were injured and doctors say those injuries are not life- threatening.

Authorities say that as of now, they have no motive and no suspects. The local FBI officials are already taking control of the investigation.

Let's get right to CNN security correspondent Josh Campbell.

Josh, federal law enforcement getting involved very quickly here.

What are your sources telling you about this incident?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Hi, Bianna.

We've talked to so many sources, and at this point, the reason why we're not hearing details is because we're told that in a sense, they're simply baffled. They don't have many leads right now on specifically what transpired, the details at this point is just so bizarre.

As you mentioned, authorities were called just after the 6:00 hour there in downtown Nashville to reports of shots fired, that obviously bringing authorities down to that location and when they got there, they heard this sound coming from this parked RV saying this bomb would detonate in 15 minutes. Authorities working very quickly to move people out of that area.

Obviously, early morning on Christmas day, there weren't a lot of people but there was a residence building nearby as well.

And as you mentioned, about 15 minutes after they heard that, this explosion happened, just a massive explosion. I talked to one law enforcement source who says the amount of explosives that were in that vehicle is something that they haven't seen, at least in modern memory in the United States certainly, even in other places and the world. So, just causing sheer chaos down there and obviously widespread destruction.

Now, what we don't yet know from authorities is whether anyone was inside that vehicle whenever it was detonated, whether the person who may have made this device was a casualty or whether they have a manhunt under way. I just talked to law enforcement source before we came on the air who said they still don't know, processing that scene in order to try to determine whether there was anyone inside the vehicle.

We do know that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is now the lead agency working with their federal partners. We're told that they are surging resources from other offices to try to assist in gathering information. I'm told by a law enforcement source that there were no known credible threats to the Nashville area that would indicate any type of attack on or before Christmas.

So, really, Bianna authorities are just baffled about this event that took place. We do know that based on what transpired, it does not look as though this person who committed this act was trying to cause mass loss of life for the very fact that there was this warning, this voice recording that was going off.

So, very puzzling and a very wide, large investigation under way right now by state, federal and local authorities, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah, so bizarre. I continued to be stunned when I look at those live shots there of the devastation there from the explosion.

And, Josh, what was interesting from the police chief is while he said he's not talking about any leads, he also asked the public for any help, any information that they could provide. What does that tell you as far as where they are in opening this investigation and starting to find who -- for who the perpetrators are?

CAMPBELL: They're trying to gather information from any witnesses. We know also there's a technical investigation under way to try to gather as much CCTV footage in and around that area that may have captured this RV being parked, perhaps the driver, any other key details.

As you mentioned, they're also trying to crowd source, as we see in so many of these investigations where the FBI, the top agent there in the Nashville area was standing in front of a microphone and camera saying to the public, we need your help. If you have any information, we need that to piece things together.

And as we often hear from them, no piece of information is insignificant. Anything that they know that might help in trying to identify the person or persons responsible, they want to know.

What is interesting, Bianna, is that we have seen past investigations were if authorities have the identity of someone, it would either go two ways, either if they think they know where this person is, sometimes they may not release the information, they don't want to tip the person off, they want to amass the amount of federal resources necessary to try to surround and take that person into custody.

But also, we've seen it go the other way, where if they know the identity but they don't have leads, they may start blasting that information out to the public, the name, the face, the identifiers. But what we're told right now is that they're simply so early in this investigation, they don't know whether they have a deceased bomb maker inside this vehicle or whether they have a manhunt that they need to launch. But just a herculean task there headed by investigators, with so many resources surging into Nashville.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah, federal resources there pouring in. The one assuring thing aside from the few casualties and they were not significant injuries is that the police there feel fairly confident that the area is now safe within the next few hours.

[14:05:00]

Josh Campbell, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

CAMPBELL: Thanks, Bianna.

And joining me now to share his insights is CNN senior law enforcement analyst and former acting director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe.

Andrew, merry Christmas to you. Didn't expect to be talking to this Christmas morning, but that's what happens in live television. Thank you for coming on.

Authorities were fairly quick to call this an intentional event. What would give them confidence to do that in the immediate hours after the explosion?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: That was the question we were all really chewing on initially, but I think with the most recent press conference, where they indicated that, of course, they got the call for shots fired, that drew law enforcement to the area. Then as they approached the RV, they said that there was some sort of a mega phone or announcement emanating from the RV that indicated that an explosion might be possible in the next 15 minutes.

So that explains first, of course, why they would -- why they've concluded that this was an intentional act. Secondly, it also explains why the police officers quickly went to the surrounding residences and kind of warned folks to leave the area quickly, to keep people safe.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah, and they, as the police chief said, they no doubt saved lives in doing so in those 15 minutes.

Earlier this morning, and this is before this press conference when we got more information about that recorded message coming out of the RV, warning that the explosion would detonate in 15 minutes. You had called this and said that this had the hallmarks of domestic terrorism.

Do you still feel that way, and when does the classification come into effect if in fact this perpetrator may not have wanted mass casualties?

MCCABE: Yeah. So, to be clear, Bianna, at this point, we don't know if this was an act of domestic terrorism or this may have been conducted by people who are inspired by or followers of international terrorists or foreign terrorist groups. So, we just don't know that at this point.

However, it's pretty clear that an intentional massive explosive device set on a city street, this is some sort of act of terrorism. That's at least the way the FBI looks at it. They will initially utilize the full panoply of their counterterrorist resources to attack this problem.

Now, whether it's a domestic group that is pursuing some sort of political agenda here, we've certainly seen a lot of that in the last few -- the last few months, anti-government groups, white supremacist groups, things like that. That may be the case. We don't know.

If it's a foreign group seeking to, you know, advance their political agenda, we just don't know that at this point. We have got to attach some people to this event before they'll be able to make that sort of assumption.

GOLODRYGA: Which will happen once we have federal resources on the ground there now.

And earlier, we had said this explosion had taken place right outside of the AT&T building. It's the largest building in the state. It now appears to have taken place outside of a different building, but just gives you the scope of the explosion, when you can't really pinpoint where exactly this RV was parked and where it was detonated.

But when you hear the police say that they have no concern about additional devices, that isn't something I would imagine they just guess and come out and say publicly. So what would give them the confidence to announce that to the public? They may not be letting local residents back into the area but it is reassuring to hear them say they don't believe there are additional devices.

MCCABE: It certainly is. And they're confident saying that because they've done a sweep of general area using things like bomb dogs and just law enforcement officers to check vehicles, to check residences, that sort of thing. It is a low traffic time of day 6:30 a.m. on Christmas morning. So, that can be a lot of people or vehicles in the area. So, that makes that task a little bit easier.

But, you know, I have to say it's fascinating when you look at the location where the device went off. So, it's Second Avenue North in Nashville, just between Commerce Street to the south and Church Street to the north. From the exterior of that large, red -- reddish brick building that we've seen on the news footage, it appears as if the vehicle was parked on that western side of the street, maybe right alongside that building.

From just research online, it's pretty easy to determine that building appears to be some sort of an AT&T facility. It's not the large skyscraper, about two or three blocks away, but some probably a technical location where they have communications equipment or that sort of thing inside. Another really strange choice, right, of a place to park a device, because 6:30 a.m. on Christmas, not a lot of people around, parked next to a building that probably doesn't have very many if any people working at it, even in the most busy times.

[14:10:15]

Of course, the other side of the street is a lot of bars and restaurants. None of those likely to have people around at 6:30 in the morning on Christmas either.

GOLODRYGA: And thankfully, this didn't happen at night when those bars may have had other patrons there as well.

And last question to you, in terms of forensics analysis here and trying to decide how this bomb or this device was built and this level of sophistication of it, we clearly see the magnitude, what are officials going to be looking at now?

MCCABE: So, they'll be looking at, as you said, sophistication. So, there are early indications that there's a high degree of planning involved here, right? The use of the RV as a likely construction and also deployment device for the explosive, this use of a possibly recorded statement on some sort of a mega phone or announcement that's emanating from the vehicle. These are all things that somebody obviously put a lot of thought into and planned out.

From the forensics on the scene, they will ultimately be able to determine what were the components of the bomb, what sort of packaging or structure was it placed in. These are all very important because it drives you to determine whether or not this is a professional bombmaker, somebody with experience maybe with explosive devices, maybe through law enforcement or prior military career or something like that, or is it someone who just cobbled together, you know, a homemade device based on really direction that's readily available on the Internet unfortunately.

GOLODRYGA: And no doubt we will be getting much more information and clarity over the next few hours and days.

Andrew McCabe, thank you so much for offering your analysis. We appreciate it.

MCCABE: My pleasure.

GOLODRYGA: And let's go now to CNN's Natasha Chen who has just arrived at the scene of the explosion.

Natasha, I know you're just a few blocks away. What are you seeing?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's not a whole lot we can see from where we're positioned, Bianna because this is the closest investigators will allow media to get. This is at least four blocks away from where the explosion happened. But I can point out to you where we standing in relation to

everything. Just behind me in that direction, you're going to see that there are police cars and tape in the distance. So it happened on this street just several blocks down there in front of the AT&T transmission building. And that is actually causing some issues for cell service and Internet right now.

AT&T is reporting outages in the region and that's even affecting some ability to call 911. So some people have set up alternate lines for people to dial for emergency at the moment. We did see a couple of AT&T trucks try to come by, so seemingly go toward that direction, trying to perhaps solve this issue.

So, they did say that this is going to be a problem for the near future but, again, we're seeing just a lot of law enforcement presence, not just in this area right here but all around downtown where they've set up a wide perimeter around this area. And a lot of the ramps, the freeway ramps coming into downtown Nashville have also been closed.

So, really, this whole area has been sealed off. When we kind of just look around the downtown area, there aren't a whole lot of people walking around. Everyone is really being kept far back from this, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah, police said they're sweeping the downtown area to make sure everyone remains safe. I'm glad you addressed the cell phone service issue, because I had been wondering if that had been impacted at all and it does appear to be the case.

Natasha Chen, you're going to be reporting for us throughout the afternoon. I appreciate you being on the ground. Thank you.

CHEN: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: And still ahead this hour, stay with us as we continue to monitor the situation in Nashville, Tennessee, as well as bringing you the latest as we learn more about what led up to this morning's explosion.

But next, the incredible tool of the coronavirus on the U.S. December now, the deadliest month of the pandemic. More on the CDC's new rules to help protect against the U.K.'s COVID variant.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:18:34]

GOLODRYGA: Americans are marking this Christmas Day with gifts, gratitude and for the more than 300,000 families, grief. The number of lives lost from the coronavirus is nearing 330,000. December has become the deadliest month ever in the pandemic, exceeding April's numbers today.

December has already recorded the most infections of any month, more than 4.8 million new cases. And Christmas travel is expected to intensify the spread. The TSA found some 7 million people passing through airports in the past week. Now travelers will start their return trips as well.

For those trying to enter the U.S. from the U.K., a new mandate, they must present a negative COVID test within 72 hours of departure. The U.S. now joining more than 40 other nations that have placed some form of restriction on U.K. travelers due to a more contagious variant of the virus detected in the nation. Scientists expect vaccines will work against it. That is thankful news.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN OF TROPICAL SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: I'm not as worried about the vaccines protecting against these new variants, but the bigger issue is we know this virus is a plastic genome and has the ability to mutate quite a bit. So, even if we do okay with this particular variant, it's only a matter of time before other variants emerge in the coming years. So, we have to have an additional program in place to rapidly develop new vaccines.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins me.

Elizabeth, good to see you.

Is the U.S. requiring a specific kind of coronavirus test? And if so, what is it?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So, Bianna, it's that same diagnostic test that many of us have taken, where the long thin swab goes up your nose to test for presence of the virus. And this will go into effect on Monday.

Let's take a look at what these requirements actually are asking for. They say that passengers who are coming from the U.K. must get tested within three days of leaving the U.K.

So, for example, if you're, you know, leaving on a Sunday, you have to get tested three days before then. Passengers must provide documentation to the airlines, that they have received these negative test results. Now, I talk to several experts about these and they say these new requirements will likely not do very much of anything.

So, let me show you a calendar to explain what they're talking about. If you have a flight here, then if you look all the way to the far right, if you have a flight on a Saturday, then it's not -- and you got infected, any time in those days beforehand, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, if you got infected any time then or on the day of your flight, it's not going to show up on the test most likely and you will be flying infected.

These tests are not perfect. They don't pick up very recent infections. So there's a very good chance here if you were infected on any of these days in this calendar, it will not show up on the test and you will fly infected. Might it do some good? Maybe. But one doctor said it feels like trying

to catch a mosquito through a chain link fence -- Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah, especially when you hear from experts saying that this variant could very well have been in the U.S. for months now, just been undetected.

COHEN: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: We know that Dr. Fauci is now saying that as much as 85 percent of the country needs to be vaccinated in order to reach herd immunity. That number was a bit lower earlier. It was around 60 to 70 percent that he was stating. And he's offered a couple of reasons and explanations as to why he believes that number is going up and he's being public about it.

What is he saying?

COHEN: I want to be very clear. I spoke at length with Dr. Fauci about this yesterday. He's like, look, this number, it's based on a bunch of different variants. It's very unclear what this number is. He doesn't think he's really raised his number over the period -- over the past couple of months. He said it sort of depends upon how you think about it.

So, he says, look, this could change again. This is just based on how does measles spread, how well did it work against measles. How many people need to get vaccinated against measles. This is all just sort of cogitation.

So as he said to me, Elizabeth, please tell people not to go bonkers over these numbers. He actually used the word "bonkers". I think that's really, really important to remember. I think the bottom line, Bianna, is that when he said, as he thinks about 75 to 80 percent of Americans would need to get vaccinated to reach herd immunity, and the bottom line is, as many people should get vaccinated as possible. If it is safe for you to get vaccinated, you should get vaccinated, not just for yourself, not just for the people around you, but for the entire country.

We should all do our part and roll up our sleeves so that we don't spread the coronavirus.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah, it was reassuring to see him vaccinated last week, and that he thinks more Americans are becoming open to taking a vaccine themselves. That is clearly what doctors want to push out there publicly.

Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

COHEN: Thanks.

GOLODRYGA: Well, back to our breaking news, a major explosion in Nashville. Federal authorities are on the ground and are asking for tips from the public. The very latest, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:27:57]

GOLODRYGA: We are continuing to follow breaking news out of Nashville, Tennessee, where the FBI is investigating an intentional explosion in that city's downtown. Police say they initially responded to a call for shots fired. And when they arrived, they found an RV playing a recording over its broadcast system, warning that a bomb would go off in 15 minutes. Well, police began knocking on doors to evacuate any residents nearby.

And soon after that, that vehicle detonated. Three people suffered minor injuries. The FBI has set up a tip line while pursuing what led up to the explosion.

Joining me now to discuss is Steve Moore. He's a retired supervisory special agent at the FBI and CNN law enforcement contributor.

Steve, thanks for coming on. Merry Christmas to you.

Authorities are calling --

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Merry Christmas.

GOLODRYGA: Authorities are calling this announcement coming from the RV something that they are really focusing on right now. What questions do you have after hearing about that announcement telling people that a bomb would go off in 15 minutes?

MOORE: Well, the mindset behind it is your big thing. I mean, obviously, you have two prongs to this. You have the bomb scene investigators out there who are looking at things like how it was detonated or how they set the bomb up, what the sound was, what the smoke was. But at the same time, you've got investigators there trying to figure out the why.

And the why is informed quite a bit by the fact that this person sent a warning out. The person obviously did not want civilians injured. But at the same time, it could have been a way to lure police towards the explosion while keeping civilians away.

GOLODRYGA: Have you ever seen something like this where you have such mass destruction? I mean, I can't get over these images. It looked like a warzone or a tornado just went through downtown Nashville.

So, on the one hand, you have mass destruction. On the other hand, there appears to be intent to prevent mass casualties by having that warning go off, suggesting that the bomb would detonate in 15 minutes and giving police time to go door to door evacuating residents.

Have you ever seen a situation like that?

[14:30:00]