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Manhunt for Serial Bomber; Trump Blames Media; Garamendi on Trump Rhetoric. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 25, 2018 - 13:00   ET

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

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[13:00:18] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington. Thanks very much for joining us.

We begin with a major manhunt underway right now for a serial bomber, or serial bombers, a wannabe mass assassin or assassins. At this hour, a total of 10 devices have been sent to eight targets so far, now including the former Vice President Joe Biden and, in a twist, the actor, Robert De Niro. Authorities tell us two packages intended for Biden were intercepted at postal offices in Delaware where Biden lives. They've both been taken to secure locations.

Another package address to De Niro was found in the Tribeca area of New York City at a building that houses his production company. The FBI says the three new packages are all very similar in appearance and their contents are also the same. What the FBI doesn't know, at least not yet, is who exactly is trying to kill President Trump's critics.

CNN justice correspondent Evan Perez has been following every development for us. He's with us right now.

Update us on the very latest on what you know.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we'll first take the two packages that were being shipped to Joe Biden, the former vice president.

Overnight, the postal service was scrambling, trying to find at least one package. They ended up finding two packages, one of which was -- they thought was being sent back to the return to sender, which was in Florida. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the congresswoman, was the return address.

In the end, what they did is they were able to find these two packages. Both were being -- were in postal offices in Delaware, one outside of Wilmington and one inside of Wilmington. Now, at this point, the two packages are being sent to the FBI for examination.

A third package was discovered at the production office of Robert De Niro, another critic of the current administration. That package has now been turned over to the FBI.

And now the FBI is doing the work, Wolf. They now have 10 packages that they believe a person has sent at least 10 of these packages, some of which have already been found to be dangerous, possible bombs. And so now they're trying to figure out how to isolate who might have sent these.

The work is going on, trying to examine, for example, whether or not there's any DNA from a possible bomber that they can -- that they can identify. They're looking at some of the components to see whether they can figure out where the components were bought. They're looking to see where these packages were shipped from. There's a lot of clues that they can get from these packages.

We look at the bombings that occurred earlier this year, in March, in Austin, Texas. One of the ways that the FBI and the ATF was able to identify the bomber over a period of a couple of weeks was by looking at DNA. They looked at cell phone records. They were able to identify where the packages were being shipped from (ph). They looked at surveillance video. They even were able to examine the gloves that were -- that he was using to handle some of the materials. They were able to see that it was bought at a Home Depot.

So there's a lot of forensic work that the FBI, that the ATF, all the members of this counterterrorism team that are examining these bombs, that they can use as clues to find the people or person behind this.

BLITZER: And as far as we know, at least right now, they don't know if it's one suspect or multiple suspects.

PEREZ: Right. That's right, they do not know whether it's one suspect or two suspects or more. What they do know is that these -- this is a potentially dangerous situation. As you heard from the FBI yesterday, they called these potentially explosive devices -- destructive devices. So the concern is that whatever is in this thing could, in the handling, could go off and could hurt someone who's handling it.

BLITZER: It could kill someone.

PEREZ: Could kill someone.

BLITZER: And clearly some very prominent U.S. leaders.

PEREZ: Exactly.

BLITZER: All right, we're going to stay on top of this. I know you're working your sources.

PEREZ: Right.

BLITZER: We'll get back to you, Evan.

I quickly want to go to our senior national correspondent Alex Marquardt, who's also been doing a lot of reporting on this.

Alex, a number of similar crude explosive devices, as you know, have now been sent since Monday to the president -- the former President Obama, Hillary Clinton, other top officials. What are you learning?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, eight device -- eight targets so far, 10 devices, as you guys were saying. Let's first start with the timeline.

This all started on Monday. The first device was sent -- hand delivered, we understand, to the home of billionaire liberal philanthropist George Soros at the mailbox of his home in upstate New York. That's in Bedford. It was believed to have been hand delivered, the authorities say. Now, that was on Monday.

The next day, on Tuesday, also in upstate New York, just about a 20 minute drive from Soros' house, another was intercepted at the home of President Bill and Secretary Hillary Clinton.

Then there -- then, in Washington, the package that was found to be sent to the Obamas. That was again caught by Secret Service during a routine mail screening process that is in place for former presidents and people who are under Secret Service protection.

[13:05:17] Then, on Wednesday, as CNN was reporting on the packages that were sent to the former presidents and their families, the news broke that our New York offices, our CNN offices in the Time-Warner Center in New York had also received a package. That one was delivered by a courier. It was addressed to the former CIA director, John Brennan. Now, Brennan is not affiliated with CNN, so that was a little bit mysterious as well.

Now, word then came late yesterday afternoon that President Obama's attorney general, Eric Holder, had also been chosen as a target. That package was sent back to the return address because it had been misaddressed to Holder. That return address was the office of Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Her offices are in Sunshine, Florida.

Now, the next target, Representative Maxine Waters. She got not one but two packages. Both of them intercepted on Wednesday. One was addressed to her office here in Washington, D.C., the other to her office in L.A.

Now, Wolf, that brings us to this morning. There was a package found at the production company offices of actor Robert De Niro in Tribeca in Manhattan. There the police found a package that looked like all of the others. In fact, that's what alerted the security there was the fact that they had seen the pictures of the others and they knew that this was likely part of this same story. Now, the NP -- this package was found on Wednesday, by the NYPD was called early this morning, 4:45 a.m., by the company, by the security there. Robert De Niro was not in the building.

Now we come to the final ninth and tenth packages, both of those sent to former Vice President Joe Biden. At least one of those was also misaddressed and returned to the sender. They were both located in Delaware post offices.

So that -- those were the targets. That timeline running from Monday to today, Thursday.

Let's take a look at what was inside these packages. Now, the -- the bombs that were inside these packages the FBI says were all slightly different. But the bombs -- the devices that were sent to Soros, to John Brennan, to the Obamas, the Clintons and the other Democratic officials were, the FBI says, pipe bombs. They were basic, but they were certainly functional. At least one of them contained glass that would act as shrapnel when the bomb went off. They were unstable, but they could have been set off simply by handling them. And that means they had the ability to do real harm and damage to whatever room they were in, wo whichever people were around.

Let's look at the packages that they -- that they came in. All the pictures that we've seen of these envelopes are almost identical. They are manila envelopes with padding on the inside, plastic padding. They have two rows of three stamps each. These are Forever stamps with the American flag on them. The labels were printed out. Lots of misspellings. You can see here, John Brennan's name is misspelled, Debbie Wasserman Schultz's name was also misspelled.

It goes without saying that there's obviously no indication that Representative Wasserman Shultz is actually involved. But as you and everyone was saying, Wolf, given how many of the envelopes have been found with the bombs intact, none have gone off, there is quite a bit for investigators to go off of as they try to hunt down this suspect or suspects.

Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, it is clearly an act of terror. Alex, good reporting. Thanks very much.

I want to bring in Anthony Ferrante right now. He's a former FBI special agent, bomb technician assigned to the New York office, and Ralph Basham, the former director of the U.S. Secret Service.

Anthony, these packages, as we just heard, are similar. The suspect used what are called peel and stick stamps, not the kind you actually lick. He printed the labels instead of writing them out with penmanship, with handwriting. The fact that he took these precautions, what are the chances that they will get fingerprints.

ANTHONY FERRANTE, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT BOMB TECHNICIAN: Wolf, these are the first of many, many clues that the FBI is going to be able to uncover.

Let me also start by saying, I'm very confidence that the good men and women of the FBI will catch this person or persons responsible for these devices. There are so many clues on these devices, not only on the envelope itself, but, of course, within the envelope, the device itself, the various components used, where they were purchase, how they were put together, the tape used to wrap it around -- to wrap the clock around the devices, the wires themselves. When those wires are cut, it leaves forensic evidence. So they will be able to determine what type of tool was used and then they'll be able to trace that back to the actual laboratory, whether it's an official or makeshift laboratory that was used to make these devices.

BLITZER: And we know this is a major, major undertaking by the FBI right now. They've got a lot of -- a lot of FBI agents, technicians, experts assigned to the task of finding this terrorist or terrorists who are at large right now.

[13:10:11] Ralph, based on who's being targeted, the bomber or bombers seem to have a pretty good understanding of current politics, even though he misspelled, for example, John Brennan's name, misspelled the state of Florida. What do you make of that? Some are suggesting maybe that was purposeful.

RALPH BASHAM, FORMER DIRECTOR, U.S. SECRET SERVICE: Well, that -- Wolf, that certainly could be the case. But at the same time, that could provide clues, information to the FBI, the Secret Service and to others. As they do research and do analysis on the individuals who have sent threatening letters, e-mails, social media to these -- to the protectees of the Secret Service and others, to see if there is a common thread there. You know, have they used these misspellings occurred in other situations, which helps them to maybe narrow down the individual or individuals that have perpetrated this.

BLITZER: So you agree that there's a lot of clues out there that the authorities are working on?

BASHAM: Absolutely. The Secret Service working with the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the FBI, obviously, they are out there right now, I assure you, in tracking down every clue, every piece of evidence that they're obtaining from the dismantling of these devices, their databases, ATF's information. So this is a huge joint effort by law enforcement. And it's important that they get this individual quickly or individuals quickly because the fear is the longer it goes, the more emboldens this individual to keep this up. And who knows whether or not this individual is devious enough to have sent inert packages and the actual real target is apt to be out there and the next package is actually going to going to go off and so --

BLITZER: And, once again, we don't know if it's one individual or accomplices, multiple individuals. That's what they're looking at right now.

You know, Anthony, what can you tell us, based on the pictures you've seen, what was inside these packages of the bombs, how they were intended, for example, to be detonated? What do you make of the fact that so far of the 10 that were found, none of them have exploded and thank God no one has been injured?

FERRANTE: Yes, well, thank goodness none of -- no one has been injured. And the fact that they didn't -- they haven't exploded doesn't mean that they were necessarily inert devices, OK? I mean we definitely see a pipe-shaped figure in the x-rays. We definitely see wires surrounding and within the devices themselves. A clock. That clock could have been used to actually activate the device.

One thing I'm not seeing in the x-rays, and I'm just seeing my x-rays on open source sources here, but I'm not seeing any sort of triggering device other than the clock, and that wouldn't make sense because if you're delivering a device, that clock is going to countdown. And you don't know where the device -- where that package is going to be when that clock counts down. So that's why I'm presuming here that that clock is meant to trigger the devices. But it has all the components. It has the wires. It has the pipe. It

has a clock. So clearly whoever is making these devices is looking to create chaos and panic.

BLITZER: At a minimum to terrorize the country. In fact, to terrorize these individuals, even if these bombs were not necessarily intended to explode.

FERRANTE: Absolutely.

BLITZER: Yes, that's a -- that's a serious issue.

What do you make of the fact, Ralph, that both the former vice president, Joe Biden, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, they both received two of these bomb packages. The others, at least as far as we know right now, they received one. Is that at all important?

BASHAM: Well, I'm not sure that it is. We don't know that the others are not going to receive additional packages. And, again, as I said, that's why it's important to stop this individual. And -- but I think that the, you know, the Secret Service, in particular, has alerted all other officers, all the protective divisions, to be on the lookout for this and to make sure that they are screening whatever packages come in, mail that comes in. And the next one may not look like the previous packages. So you don't want to just focus on one particular looking package, but to be alert to anything that looks strange or suspicious and make sure you call in the proper authorities.

BLITZER: Yes, and we're grateful to the Secret Service, the FBI, the ATF --

BASHAM: Yes, they --

BLITZER: Local law enforcement, state law enforcement, everyone who's involved in this major, major manhunt that's underway right now for these -- at least one potential -- potential killer or multiple killers who may still be at large right now.

Ralph Basham, thank you very much.

Anthony Ferrante, thank you to you as well.

BASHAM: Thank you.

FERRANTE: Thank you, Wolf. Thanks for having me.

BLITZER: The one common thread between all of these bombs, all of those who are being targeted, are President Trump's frequent punching bags.

Plus, new today, President Trump trying to blame the media for the anger in America. We're going to discuss the political climate hitting a boiling point right now here in the United States.

[13:15:05] And the new warning from officials, there are likely more bombs out there. This is CNN's special live coverage.

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BLITZER: Less than 24 hours after top Democrats and CNN were mailed bombs and roughly 12 hours after calling for unity, President Trump is now casting at least some of the blame on the news media. He tweets this, and I'm quoting, a very big part of the anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the mainstream media that I refer to as fake news. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream media must clean up its act fast, closed quote.

[13:20:01] Let's go to our senior White House correspondent Jeff Zeleny. He's outside the White House for us.

Walk us through what the White House is thinking, what the president is thinking right now.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, there's no question that message from the president this morning certainly is a far cry from what he said yesterday just about 24 hours ago in the East Room of the White House when he was standing by saying, you know, it's time for a call for civility, for unity, for everyone to come together. He ratcheted up the rhetoric a little bit last evening at a rally in Wisconsin saying that, you know, whoever is responsible for this, the authorities will get to the bottom of it. And he said, you know, there certainly is not a need for violence here. But then he shifted to go on to blame the media.

Now, this morning, he's full on in blaming he media mode. A familiar position for him. Something he believes works for him. He believes his supporters believe it and he, in fact, believes it.

But, Wolf, I talked to two confidants of his who spoke to him this morning and they both said that he has no plans of changing his posture here, he has no plans of accepting any personal responsibility for what, you know, his rhetoric may have contributed to, just this climate here we're talking about.

And one of the confidants, Wolf, trying to explain the president's thinking said this to me. He said he believes he's been treated with hostility and unfairly. There's no talking him out of that. So that is clear that that's what the president's mindset is. His aides are doubling down as well. They believe that it's unfair to link the president to any of these serial bombing incidents here. So we have not yet heard from the president today. He has an event in about an hour or so to talk about prescription drug prices. We'll see if he mentions it there.

But, Wolf, if anyone's looking for a change of tune from the president, don't expect it.

Wolf.

BLITZER: Did he at least have the curtesy to call the former president, the former secretary of state, any of those others that were targeted by this terrorists or terrorists and reassure them that the government was doing everything possible to find these suspects?

ZELENY: Wolf, he did not. And that is something that we have been checking in on repeatedly. The president and no one from the White House yesterday reached out to any of those offices, I am told by several officials on all sides of this. The president did not and the White House did not as well. They are essentially receiving their information through their Secret Service detail. So it is surprising.

And, Wolf, I checked with someone from the Bush administration as well just to sort of get a read on this, if it is sort of unusual, if that would have happened on their watch, what they would have done. They said be sure President Bush would have reached out. So this is not a partisan matter. You know, this is not an ideological matter. This is, you know, just a sense of how the president sees himself in this club of former presidents. And he is not, as far as we know, up until the moment, reached out to anyone who has been on this list, Wolf.

BLITZER: Seems to me that would be the decent thing to do, to reach out to these individuals, his predecessors and others, and simply reassure them. But that clearly has not yet happened. We'll see if it changes.

Jeff Zeleny at the White House, thank you very much.

ZELENY: You're welcome.

BLITZER: Everyone targeted by this bomber or bombers has one thing in common, they either have been targets of President Trump or they have been his critics.

For instance, let's take the billionaire philanthropist, the Holocaust survivor George Soros. Earlier this month, President Trump accused him of paying people to protest the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. More recently, at a sitting U.S. congressman accused Soros of funding the caravan of migrants currently making its way through Mexico.

In addition, to Soros, former President Barack Obama, he received a package. You know the history there. So did Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a longtime target at most of President Trump's political rallies. People are heard chanting at those rallies, lock her up, lock her up and the president smiles.

John Brennan was also targeted. The bomb instead for him was sent to our CNN offices in New York City. Brennan has criticized President Trump. He's called him a narcissist, deeply flawed, among other things. The president has gone after Brennan as well. He accused him of being behind the infamous dossier, said he was the worst CIA director in American history and revoked his security clearances.

Joe Biden, the former vice president, was also targeted. He was sent not one but two devices. Both President Trump and former Vice President Biden have talked about beating each other up out there. And former Attorney General Eric Holder also received a device. He was recently record on video saying, quote, when they go low we kick them.

Two devices were also sent to Congresswoman Maxine Waters. President Trump has frequently accused her of being a, quote, low IQ individual. Congresswoman Waters has also encouraged some protesters to push back against members of the Trump administration by creating crowds and telling officials they're not welcome.

And this morning the actor Robert De Niro became the latest target. At this year's Tony Awards, you might remember, he declared f Trump during his speech. In return, the president called De Niro, once again, a very low IQ individual.

As I noted earlier, CNN received the bomb intended for John Brennan, the former CIA director. President Trump has frequently criticized our network, referring to us as fake news and, together with other major news organizations, as the enemy of the American people. He also posted videos, by the way, of him body slamming our CNN logo. That was pretty awful, as a lot of us remember.

[13:25:20] Here's what former CIA Director Brennan is now saying about being a potential target and the president's responsibility.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: What he has done heretofore, as a lot of this rhetoric, really is counterproductive. It is un-American. It is what a president should not be doing. What he said today is what the president should be doing, but follow-up on those words with actions and with his future comments.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: But so far the president hasn't followed up his pleas for unity with similar comments. Instead, at his rally in Wisconsin last night, he put the blame directly on the news media. And in that tweet we just showed you, he, again, is blaming the media.

Joining us now from Sacramento, the California Congressman John Garamendi. He's a Democrat. He's a key member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

First of all, what do you think of the president's response to these terror attacks so far?

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D), CALIFORNIA: I think it's totally inadequate. This is an extremely dangerous situation. And, frankly, a very, very sad situation for America where the top leadership of the Democratic Party has been targeted in a terrorist attack with bombs, whether they go off or not, they are none the less bombs and they could be extraordinarily destructive. It's a sad time. It is a very dangerous moment for America.

With regard to the president, I think we understand this president. We blocked him now for almost three years, through the campaign, through the almost two years of his term of office, and he has not changed. He clearly wants to blame other people. He clearly targets people. He's clearly a bully. All of those things are part and parcel of who this gentlemen -- who this person -- who the president is.

So, you know, what are we going to do about it? Well, all of us need to understand that our words have impact. A preacher in a church knows that his words have impact, otherwise he wouldn't be preaching. And so too for us in politics. And we've got to be careful on how we do this. And I would hope that the president would be more careful.

With regard to the enemy of the people, the press --

BLITZER: Congressman, I'm going to interrupt. I'm going to interrupt for a moment because we have a lot more to discuss. I want to take a quick break. We'll resume our conversation with Congressman Garamendi and follow all the breaking news right after this.

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