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Suspect in New York and New Jersey Bomb Attacks Captured; Interview with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo; Report: 800+ Immigrants Mistakenly Granted Citizenship; Interview with Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota. Aired 8-8:30 a ET

Aired September 20, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to America. You have a right to counsel, and you have a right to hospitalization. That is our system.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a sobering reminder that we need steady leadership in a dangerous world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. We do have some new details emerging about the man suspected of setting off a series of bombs in New York and New Jersey, a trail of clues leading them to capture Ahmad Khan Rahami within hours of releasing his photo.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The suspect captured only miles from his home but after a gun battle with police. He's now charged with attempted murder of police officers. We just learned new information about a person authorities want to talk to in connection with these attacks. We have complete coverage. Let's begin with CNN justice correspondent Evan Perez. Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Chris and Alisyn, the man that the FBI believes was behind at least 10 bombs at four locations in New York in New Jersey was uncooperative in his first hours after his capture. But investigators are beginning to put together a picture of what may have driven the 28-year-old to carry out these bombing. A note recovered by investigators contained handwritten ramblings that made references to past terrorists included the Boston bombers. And law enforcement officials tell me his wife left the U.S. a few days before the bombings.

The FBI is working with authorities in the United Arab Emirates to try to question her about what she may know. Law enforcement officials say that the suspect was seen on surveillance video near both locations hauling a duffle bag. Now 27th street in Manhattan, he was seen leaving the bag behind. Two men then take the bag, but first they remove what turns out to be the pressure cooker bomb that did not explode. Surveillance video along with fingerprints and records of cellphones

that he bought were the key pieces of evidence that led to the arrest of the suspect. At this point investigators believe that he was a lone bomb maker, but they are still looking at whether or not he received help from others.

Local prosecutors in Union County, New Jersey, filed the first charges for attempted murder of five police officers after a shootout that led to his arrest. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan and New Jersey are now building their case for charges that are expected in the coming weeks. Now, this case has already led to some people in Congress to renew their argument that U.S. citizens charged in these terrorism cases should be charged as enemy combatants. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, we'll be speaking about that in this hour. Thanks so much, Evan.

So Ahmad Rahami was captured just four hours after police identified him and released his photo. Then there's this treasure trove of evidence from surveillance video. They also got his fingerprints and DNA at the bombing scenes. And so all of that led investigators to his arrest.

The last break in the case came from a New Jersey bar owner. CNN's Ed Lavandera joins us now from the scene of Saturday's blast in New York City. Tell us that part of the story, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. Here 23rd street is opened back up, the sight of the bombing just beyond that white truck that has pulled up as this street has now re-opened.

But as you mentioned, a lot of key evidence down about four blocks north of where we are. That is where that fingerprint was found, and that is what led to the quick response to find Rahami. The officials here say they found that fingerprint at about 7:30 --

C. CUOMO: All right, we'll get back to Ed Lavandera when we get his feed back there.

The New York and New Jersey bombings that we have been covering here, the suspect, it's important to note, was not on the radar of investigators as someone they were tracking as possible to be radicalized. A law enforcement official tells CNN that he visited Afghanistan and Pakistan extensively for extensive periods of time, and one of the areas is a Taliban stronghold. That's a little bit of a curveball. So let's get to CNN's Jessica Schneider live in Elizabeth, New Jersey, with more of what we know about the suspect's travels. Jessica?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, we know that Rahami traveled overseas multiple times between 2011 and 2014. But U.S. immigration officials never flagged him. So now federal investigators want to know was Rahami in fact radicalized.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER: This is 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami, the suspect behind a series of bombings in New York and New Jersey.

JAMES REYES, FRIENDLY WITH FAMILY OF AHMAD RAHAMI: I saw him two weeks ago. I said hello to him. How are you doing? How's your daughter? He looked a little stressed out, but nothing of concern.

SCHNEIDER: Born in Afghanistan, Rahami traveled back and forth from that country and neighboring Pakistan multiple times.

REYES: His father wanted him to go back there and get to know his roots.

SCHNEIDER: Most recently he took a year-long visit to Pakistan from April, 2013 to March, 2014. While there a Facebook photo shows the suspected bomber a his brother Muhammad relaxing in traditional clothing. In 2011 Rahami spent several weeks in Quetta, Pakistan, a Taliban stronghold. It was there he married a Pakistani women, the U.S. approving her entry into the country in 2012.

[08:05:10] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a very friendly guy. You'd never suspect this. Terrified. He's hiding in plain sight. You would never know.

SCHNEIDER: Rahami underwent secondary screenings upon returning to the U.S. because of the area he visited but was never flagged according to a law enforcement official. The bombing suspect had a run-in with the law before. Rahami was arrested in 2014 on weapons and aggravated assault charges, though the grand jury declined to indict him. His family came to the country seeking asylum decades ago. Now they own a fried chicken restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and they live above it.

MAYOR CHRIS BOLLWAGE, (D) ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY: This place has been in operation for many years. We've had issues with this location regarding code enforcement issues.

SCHNEIDER: The Rahami family claimed to be the victims of discrimination and harassment in this 2011 lawsuit against the city of Elizabeth and its police department, the suit alleging that a neighbor told him Muslims don't belong here and that they were threatened and harassed by police officers.

BOLLWAGE: There was a lot of congregation going on, a lot of people hanging out. The city council was getting complaints from the neighborhood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER: And we're just getting word that the Taliban is denying any connection to Rahami. Meanwhile right here on the ground in Elizabeth, New Jersey, police maintain that perimeter just outside the family home, and throughout the morning and overnight hours we have seen federal investigators going in and out of the home where Rahami's family lives and operated that fried chicken restaurant just below their home. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Jessica, thank you so much for all of that reporting. Joining us now on the phone is New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Governor, thanks so much for being here.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO, (D) NEW YORK: Pleasure to be here. How are you, Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: I'm doing well, governor. I know you're doing well because I spoke to you exactly 24 hours ago, and I don't think either of us knew at that time that his capture would be quite as swift as it was yesterday.

A. CUOMO: It was really a remarkable situation when you think about it. It has been really educational 48 hour. It's been up and down. But I think if we had said when we first chatted, Alisyn, that this was going to come to a conclusion this quickly, none of us would have believed it.

But I think it's a statement of the time. We have gotten so sophisticated in law enforcement, especially in New York. We had a great coordinated approach. The president was very helpful in dispatching the top FBI agents. We had the state police. We have the New York PD, and it is a very sophisticated operation now. Your reporting has done a very good job on it, but the unexploded bombs had evidence.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

A. CUOMO: Obviously when the bomb explodes it's one thing, but you had the fingerprints, you had the DNA, you had the surveillance video, and then, as you said, you have modern media that puts the picture out so quickly. And law enforcement, police, God bless them, did a great heads up job, got the man.

CAMEROTA: Right. And then thank goodness for all of the New Yorkers and the guy in New Jersey, the bar owner who saw something and decided to call 911.

Governor, we have some new reporting. CNN has a lot of new reporting and I'm wondering if you can help expand on some of it. Number one, do you know anything about the wife? This guy had gotten married in Pakistan. He brought his wife from Pakistan over to the U.S., and CNN has learned that she left back for Pakistan just days before the bombings. Any more information or intel on that?

A. CUOMO: On the wife specifically, no, Alisyn. But as you've been reporting, there is something to learn in this case of what radicalized Rahami when -- should we have learned something from where he was and when he came back and went through screenings, but should those screenings be improved? And the investigation is pursuing that course.

We also want to find out what to me is even more urgent, did he have associates that he was working with here or was he on his own? You see other people accompanying him in that area and that, to me, is of prime importance. Is there anyone else out there that could pose a danger? So they're going down both tracks simultaneously about Rahami himself, but more pressing possibly, was there anyone working with him.

CAMEROTA: And what about that, governor? What is your thought on whether or not he could have pulled off these 10 different bombs planted at all different sites in different states? Do you think that he had help?

[08:10:03] A. CUOMO: You know, it is possible that he did, and that is a predominant operating theory. It's also being tested in a serious investigation. We just want to make sure there's no other associates of this man that could be a potential threat. And they're quite exhaustive in that review.

CAMEROTA: During this guy's capture there was a gun battle with police, and at least two police officers were injured during this. And then here's the video, governor. You see the suspect, he's loaded on a stretcher there. In a minute he's about to be loaded into an ambulance. He's going to be taken to one of our finest hospitals. Obviously he's going to be treated for his injuries along with the police officers who are treated for their injuries. You know, Donald Trump made the point that why does he get equal treatment with the police officers that he injured? So let me play for you what Donald Trump said about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now we will give him amazing hospitalization. He will be taken care of by some of the best doctors in the world. He will be given a fully modern and updated hospital room. And he'll probably even have room service knowing the way our country is. And on top of all of that, he will be represented by an outstanding lawyer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Governor, you heard the people there booing. That makes the crowd angry. What's your response to what Trump says?

A. CUOMO: You know, Alisyn, no one has felt this more strongly than I have. This is my worst nightmare as governor of New York. We were very lucky that when the bomb went off 29 people were hurt, nobody was killed, thankfully. So no one feels this more than I feel it, OK? And the first responders are my first responders and my friends, and

-- but I understand the anger, and I understand the anger that Donald Trump is speaking to.

This is America, and this is our system, and you are innocent until proven guilty. And you have a right to counsel, and that is the constitution of the United States of America. And that is what makes us who we are. That's what makes us special. And if you give that up, Alisyn, then you have defeated yourself. That is the code of democracy and freedom. That is what they resent about us.

So don't lose your soul in the process because that is the soul of America. We believe we have the right man. We believe he was on the surveillance video. Yes, we believe that's his fingerprint. You know what, I was attorney general. I was an assistant district attorney. Maybe the government is wrong. It's possible. And that's why you have a trial. So while we should condemn him on the spot, secondary hospital care, leave him on the street and whatever happens, happens, that's not who we are. That's not who we want to be. And that's not how we defeat the terrorists. We defeat the terrorists by staying true to who we are.

CAMEROTA: Governor, one last question. A little palace intrigue before I let you go. You were very quick to call this terrorism. Already this weekend you were labeling this attack as terrorism. As you know, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was reluctant to label it as such. Some people are wondering if there's a rift between you two as a result of that or even predating this. How's the -- is there some tension between you two?

A. CUOMO: Look, I don't think you could have had better coordination between the city and the state than you had here. The president, the federal government was fantastic. The FBI, we all worked hand in glove, and the city and the state and myself with the mayor.

I called it terrorism because I believed it was terrorism, and it turned out to be terrorism. I think the question was whether or not it was international terrorism. Was there an international connection? And that wasn't clear early on, and it's a line of questioning that is still being pursued. But I think it was semantics -- difference of semantics more than anything else between myself and the mayor. I called it terrorism. He called it an intentional act, I think. But those are just words. We worked hand in glove. You couldn't have worked better than we worked together.

CAMEROTA: Governor Andrew Cuomo, we appreciate you being here. Thanks so much.

A. CUOMO: Pleasure, Alisyn. Thank you.

[08:15:00] Chris?

CUOMO: All right. We have a new Homeland Security report that's expected to add fuel to the immigration debate. It shows more than 800 people potentially ineligible for U.S. citizenship were mistakenly allowed in based on incomplete fingerprint records.

CNN's Tom Foreman is live in Washington with more.

What did you learn about this in terms of the scale of concern?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I learned a lot of people aren't very happy about it, Chris. One explosive line, this new report lays out a potential security breakdown. Here it is: the federal government granted U.S. citizenship to at least 858 individuals ordered deported or removed.

So, how did this happen? Investigators found hundreds of people who were supposed to be deported simply came up with new names and birth dates, side-stepping the removal orders. It happened because some old paper fingerprint records have not been digitized and so, were not readily available to immigration officials. The report found three of these people received credentials which have

since been revoked to work in secure areas in commercial airports, in shipping and another, quote, "is now a law enforcement official." In fact, as citizens they can now be, quote, "sponsoring other aliens' entry into the United States."

Homeland Security says, no, not all of these people represent any kind of threat, but the investigators point out that few of these people have actually been located and looked into, and 148,000 other old fingerprints have yet to be processed, meaning it could all happen again -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK. That's important to know. That is a vulnerability that they should fix.

Tom, thank you very much for all of your reporting on that.

So, there are growing concerns in the Muslim community, of course, about potential backlash after these terror attacks.

Congressman Keith Ellison, a Muslim who represents Minnesota, joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:20:36] C. CUOMO: Authorities identified the man who attacked several people with a knife at a Minnesota mall on Saturday as 22- year-old Dahir Adan, a Somali refugee who moved to the U.S. as a baby. The incident raising concerns about anti-Muslim and Somali backlash in the area.

Joining me now is Democratic congressman from Minnesota, Keith Ellison.

I'm sorry for your community and for the first responders that have been victimized by this situation.

REP. KEITH ELLISON (D), MINNESOTA: Thank you.

C. CUOMO: Congressman, thank you for joining us.

ELLISON: Thank you, Chris, for that kind sentiment.

I'll tell you, we have to condemn this horrible, senseless act, but also commend Officer Falconer who responded and stopped the attacker. You know, the community that has come together around this incident, they had an inner faith event yesterday and they're going to keep on pulling together and not letting these people tear us apart.

C. CUOMO: There's no reason to dance around it. You know what an event like this does.

ELLISON: Of course.

C. CUOMO: It raises the voices who say, you see? You see? These Muslims, they have it out for us. ELLISON: Right.

C. CUOMO: There is something wrong with these people. We see it again and again.

What's your response?

ELLISON: Well, my response is sadly, unfortunately, there's a lot of people with all kind of motivations who commit senseless acts of violence. This is one of them, a certainly we have to condemn it. But, you know, whether it's Sandy Hook, or Orlando, or any number of events that have happened where we have catastrophic violence happen, we have to stand together and be against all of them no matter what the particular motivation of the killer might be.

And understand this, when people commit acts of terror, they're trying to terrorize you. What happens when you are terrorized? Well, you stop thinking as well as you should. You stop thinking about all the possibilities. You get angry at a group that may share a characteristic with the other one. You turn on them. You give up your civil rights and your civil liberties.

You say you can't have any of that. You start treating due process as a nicety and you start over-surveilling.

Part of what the terrorist's objective is, is to help the community -- is to push the community towards cannibalization of itself which is something we can never allow to happen. We've got to be careful. We've got to adhere to our core values.

Investigate this thing. Make sure we know everything we can about it, heal the community, come together. And, you know, I think, you know, we've got a police chief named Blair Anderson in St. Cloud. What a tremendous public servant he is. He's already saying, look, I'm handling this thing as a law enforcement officer, built relationships with your whole community, including the East African community, and part of the best defense is to have good relations so that you can get the intelligence that you need.

C. CUOMO: What do you hear within the Muslim community, and in your community there in Minnesota, about how to deal with the radicalized group of the faith?

ELLISON: Well, mostly in response to these horrible incidents, people just have sympathy for the victims and gratitude towards the first responders. That's where people are coming from. People -- you go talk to people in the Muslim community and they say, oh, my God, those people must have been terrified. I'm so sorry that this happened.

And then they say, you know, what a brave guy Officer Falconer was, what a great public servant Chief Anderson is, and then we start thinking about backlash because we know that there will be some people who are going to take the bait of the terrorists and say, this is about the Muslim community, the Somalis, the immigrants. It's not about that. It's about we see horrible violence committed by people who were born

here, people who were not. People who were Muslim, people who were not. All this stuff.

And the answer really is to come together as a community, to be vigilant, to share information and to never let them forget who we are and what we're about, and that -- and so, America's a pluralistic, inclusive society. We're not going to stop being that because some horrible person decided to commit an atrocious act.

[08:25:05] CUOMO: Congressman Ellison, thank you for joining us on NEW DAY. Please keep us apprised of the situation there in Minnesota.

ELLISON: Yes, sir, Chris. Thank you.

C. CUOMO: All right. Be well.

Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris.

One big question this morning, is the bombing suspect in New York and New Jersey connected to a bigger terror cell? The information CNN has just learned that could affect this investigation, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Here's an interesting development. This morning, the Taliban is denying any knowledge of Ahmad Khan Rahami, the suspect in the bombings in New York and New Jersey. This as law enforcement officials tell CNN that the bombing suspect's wife left the U.S. days before these bombings.

So, let's discuss all the new information with CNN counterterrorism and analyst and former CIA official, Phil Mudd, CNN justice correspondent Evan Perez, and CNN terrorism analyst and editor in the chief of "The CTC Sentinel", Paul Cruickshank.

Gentlemen, thanks so much for being here.

Evan, I want to start with you because you have this new reporting. What do we know about the wife?

PEREZ: Well, the wife left the United States a few days before the New Jersey and the New York bombings. And so, now, the FBI's looking to work with UAE authorities and Pakistani authorities -- she's Pakistani descent -- to try to talk to her.