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Man Arrested for Suspicious Bomb Packages; Packages Sent to Clapper, Booker, CNN Intercepted in NY; Another Suspicious Package Sent to Anti-Trumper Tom Steyer; Suspicious Package Intercepted Earlier to Sen. Kamala Harris; Trump Calls Attempted Mail Bombings "Terrorizing Acts". Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired October 26, 2018 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:31:22] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We are following the breaking news, the arrest of a suspect in the delivery of the mailing of these bombs by --the suspected bombs to at least 12 specific locations. Cesar Sayoc Jr, 56 years old, living in Florida, outside of Miami, but with ties to New York as well, and an extensive criminal background, including bomb threats in the early 2000s.

Shimon Prokupecz, you are getting more information on this suspect. What else are you learning?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE REPORTER: Wolf, a couple of tidbits of information. The suspect, once police learned of him and realized he could be the man they have been looking for, they used a cell phone to track him and used a cell phone to help and pinpoint his whereabouts, tying him to some of the locations that they have been interested in in south Florida. We are told that DNA was used and forensic evidence was used to tie him to the devices. You can see here quite quickly that law enforcement gathered a lot of information on the suspect, his whereabouts and where he has been, his connections to south Florida. Really key elements that have built this case that have allowed prosecutors to file charges against him.

He is quite an interesting guy, but we don't know much about him. He's Ga a huge social media presence. Plenty of video and Facebook account and other social media accounts that law enforcement have been poring through. He has a criminal history, He's in his 50s. There's a lot that law enforcement knows that we are gathering and putting together. But they've learned a lot about him, certainly, as to motive and his mind set, and things that may have caused him to do what he was doing. And all of this hopefully we will learn more when the court documents get unseal and we can read through them and see exactly what law enforcement knows and how they put it together. As we know, this 2:30 press conference. Hopefully, we'll learn more there as well.

BLITZER: I suspect we will learn a lot about this individual in the coming hours.

Shimon, thank you very much.

Several of the suspicious packages ended up in New York. That includes a package stopped by investigators in a mail sorting facility in Manhattan. That package addressed to both the former director of intelligence, James Clapper, and to CNN. That mail sorting facility only a few blocks from the Time Warner Center where CNN's offices in New York are located.

Joining us is the New York governor, Andrew Cuomo.

Governor, thanks once again for joining us.

First, give us your reaction. I assume you have been fully briefed on the arrest of the suspect.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO, D-NEW YORK: Well, thanks, and good to be with you again, Wolf.

The good news is the law enforcement agencies did a fantastic job. I spoke to the president the day before yesterday and we discussed that conversation. He said that he was going to tell the FBI to do everything they could. The FBI has done a phenomenal job. The Joint Terrorism Task Force had all sorts of resources and did a good job. No doubt about that. And they coordinated with state and local.

Assuming that this person is what we believe he represents himself to be, a sole operator, and it's not part of a more sophisticated group, from my point of view, Wolf, that's bad news. In New York, we are afraid of terrorism, and the worst case are these individual lone wolves who can download from the Internet and find out how to build a bomb and can really create, quote, unquote, "terror." That may very well be the case with this person.

[13:35:32] This nation, this state, there are many eccentric personalities, let's put it that way. When you have the heat and the vitriol that is now in our political system, you have an almost uncontrollable situation where you could ignite any one of these personalities at any given time. You can't police all these different eccentric personalities. We are going to really need to talk about systemic reforms, a microlevel. We have to do a better job of screening the mail. The U.S. Postal Service, we will be working on it here in this state. But also we have to stop generating the hate in our political system. Otherwise, this will happen again and again and again, and we can't sustain it.

BLITZER: If you look at this suspect's van, you see all the stickers on the windows throughout the van. There was a lot of hatred displayed and a lot of support for President Trump and Vice President Pence. But a lot of hatred, "Drain the swamp" and "CNN sucks." A lot of pictures of individuals, including some who were targeted with these suspected bombs.

Yesterday when we spoke, you warned there could be more packages coming out, and that played out today. One addressed to Cory Booker, the Senator from New Jersey, and another to James Clapper, the former director of National Intelligence, and another to CNN. Do you believe, Governor, there may be other packages in transit that have not yet been discovered?

CUOMO: I have no direct knowledge. But if I had to wager, I would say yes. I don't believe just because you caught him now it means that all the packages were -- that there weren't other packages in transit. The good news is, none of them have exploded. I don't believe they were ever fake bombs. I think that was more political rhetoric. He may not have been a sophisticated bomb maker, but these were dangerous devices. Everybody says that. I wouldn't be at all surprised if other packages arrive. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was just this person.

When you look at that van and you look at the poster on the van, it's almost a poster that would be done for the movie that we have been talking about for the past week and the past months. This is a polarized country. This is an overheated political discussion. The president markets, he markets anger and violence and vulgarity and there's an audience that is buying it. It's not going to stop until either the president and the other leaders who spread it decide to stop spreading or the American people agree to stop buying. If the American people stop buying, the president will stop selling. I think it's time where we start to say to the American people, look at what we went through for a week. Look at all the time and all the money and the energy spent. We can't sustain this. It's not the way it's supposed to be. You can have political differences without having political violence. We've always had differences. That's what make this country this country. Never to this level where you excite the eccentric personalities -- with all due respect to the person who has been arrested -- but you excite the people to violence. That has to stop.

BLITZER: Yes, it certainly does.

Governor Cuomo, thanks very much for joining us.

CUOMO: Thank you.

[13:39:30] BLITZER: We are getting new details about how the suspect will be prosecuted and new information on his cell phone.

Stand by. We will take a quick break and be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGINS IN PROGRESS)

BLITZER: -- Trump.

Evan Perez, tell us what you are learning.

[13:44:44] EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, at this hour, the authorities in Burlingame, California, are checking on a package that they believe matches the characteristics of the others we have seen. This one was addressed to Tom Steyer, a wealthy fund- raiser on the Democratic side. He's been funding a lot of anti-Trump ads on television and a lot of political donations to people who are critics of the president. Tom Steyer is who this package was addressed to. They are investigating at this hour to make sure it's safe, first of all, and to see whether or not it is similar and whether it's the same type of package, and then provide it to the FBI to investigate.

Earlier today, they had identified another package in California, in Sacramento, addressed to Senator Kamala Harris, a Senator from California. Again, similar package that is part of this investigation at this point, Wolf.

But it really goes to show you, something Shimon Prokupecz has been talking about, the fear, as they bring this guy in and arrest him, one of the key things is to find out how many more of these things are out there and make sure everything is rendered safe before someone gets hurt. Obviously, that's the big concern at this point.

But at this hour, they are still checking on this one package that has been intercepted in Burlingame, California, that was addressed to Tom Steyer -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Tom Steyer, someone who spent millions of dollars in opposing President Trump, including TV ads recommending his impeachment.

As we just heard the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, say, he suspects there are more packages out there as well. We just discovered this.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Evan, thanks very much.

I want to bring in our senior investigative correspondent, Drew Griffin, outside the field office in Miramar, Florida, where the suspect and his van are believed to be held right now.

Drew, what are you learning?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: The van for sure, and we believe the suspect is being questioned here right now. We've been digging into his past. Extensive criminal record in the state of Florida, including threats to bomb. He was arrested in 2002 by the Miami Police Department. Threatened bomb, threatened to discharge a destructive device. For that, he received one year's probation. There are multiple other arrests, eight in all, grand theft, battery, fraud, drug probation, multiple probation violations. This was why, perhaps, it was so easy one they had the packages with DNA or fingerprints to find this guy's name. Those fingerprints and DNA would have been in a system for law enforcement to peruse. And they were able to track him down, as we understand, believe possibly through cell phone. Which may be important as we're getting wind this may have been a nomadic kind of a person.

One other tidbit. He registered for the first time to vote in 2016 and registered as a Republican.

Right now, we are outside this Miramar FBI facility where we believe the suspect is being held and questioned by the FBI -- Wolf?

BLITZER: I'm a little surprised, Drew, if he registered to vote with that criminal background. Did he have felony convictions? If you have a felony conviction, it's not that easy to supposedly register to vote.

GRIFFIN: And that is a ballot issue on the Florida ballot. But there are ways you can get back on, even if you are a convicted felon. It depends on the degree felony. Because these records are somewhat old, we don't have the adjudication in all of them. That bomb threat ended up being one year on probation. Although arrested, he may have pled down. That could explain why he was able to register to vote in the state of Florida.

BLITZER: He not only registered as a Republican, but if you look at the stickers on his van, you see his political orientation.

All right, Drew, thank you very much.

We are also learning more about who exactly will be handling this high-profile, sensitive case.

I want to bring in our Kara Scannell, who is learning more on this part of the story.

Kara, tell us what you can.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: We are learning, according to sources who spoke to me and Shimon Prokupecz, that the U.S. attorney's office for the southern district of New York, in Manhattan, where a lot of these were sent, will be leading the prosecution in this case. Prosecutors from the Terrorism Unit has been working alongside the JTTF on this investigation all week. Jeff Berman, the U.S. attorney, appointed by President Trump. We are expecting to be at the press conference in under an hour at the announcement of the charges. It's at that press conference where we are expected to learn what they are charging the suspect with. And additional details should be in that complaint -- Wolf?

BLITZER: We will watch it. And, of course, have live coverage of that news conference coming up.

Kara, thank you very much.

I want to bring in the former New York police commissioner, Howard Safir, who is joining us.

Thanks for joining us.

This looks to be a rather quick arrest in this case. What do you suspect could have led authorities so quickly to arrest this individual?

[13:49:57] HOWARD SAFIR, FORMER NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER & FORMER NEW YORK CITY FIRE COMMISSIONER: Well, first, it was a national priority, a full court press, both with forensics and investigations. Clearly, they found fingerprints or DNA. DNA is dispositive. It's something that's going to absolutely identify the individual. There's a national database called CODIS, which has over a billion DNA profiles in them. I'm sure they used that to find this individual.

BLITZER: Terrific law enforcement work.

They've taken away what looks to be his van. We've seen the van. We've seen the stickers on the side of the windows. What sort of evidence will they be looking for specifically inside that van?

SAFIR: They'll look for traces of explosives, traces of the wiring, the tape, the PVC pipe, basically, they'll look for anything that connects him to that bomb or the purchase of any of that material. When they find it, it will all be put into evidence along with the forensic evidence that they currently have.

BLITZER: As you know, the New York City Police Department has its own intelligence unit, part of a counterterrorism operation, very high quality, very sophisticated operation, especially after 9/11. It's had a lot of opportunities and roles over the years in preventing terrorist attacks. What do you think the role of intelligence played in this particular case in.

SAFIR: I think it was huge. We currently have in every police department and federal agency predictive policing software, which has algorithms that can take big data, put it together. This individual came from Brooklyn originally. He has a long criminal record. They probably were putting in, on they decided on south Florida, bomb, convictions, New York related, Florida related, and it all probably came together with the forensic evidence and that's how this found this guy. I am not surprised that they found him so quickly.

BLITZER: Really. Well, they did terrific work and we're grateful to law enforcement, all of the federal, state and local authorities involved.

Howard Safir, we're grateful for you all the important work you've done over the years. Thanks so much for joining us.

SAFIR: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: The news conference, we're only moments away, as we learned of more packages being sent to top Democrats, critics of President Trump. We're getting new information about the suspect's cell phone.

We'll take a quick break and be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:55:34] BLITZER: I want to bring in the former ATF explosives investigator, Anthony May.

Anthony, tell us a little more about your reaction when you heard of this arrest.

ANTHONY MAY, FORMER ATF EXPLOSIVES INVESTIGATOR: Well, I'm not completely surprised. We had a wealth of information to use from 12 devices now. But the DNA, the fingerprints, I mean, the guy was leading us right back to him with all of these devices. BLITZER: And his political orientation, clearly, that must have been

a clue as well, I suspect.

MAY: Well, it's a clue to the motive as of right now, with the stickers on the van, and the fact that the van was apprehended at the auto store, it's not a surprise either because he was likely there to buy the wire. Because the wiring that appeared to be used in these devices was a heavy gauge wire, something you can buy at that store. I also noticed the investigators outside had a bunch of brown bags that was they were collecting as evidence bags -- they were evidence bags, and what they were putting in those bags appear to be receipts. So they must have him purchasing items.

BLITZER: They probably have a lot of evidence already, and I suspect a lot more is on the way.

Anthony, thanks so much for joining us.

MAY: You're welcome, Wolf.

BLITZER: I want to get some political fallout from what is unfolding right now.

Political analyst, Karoun Demirjian, and our political analysts, Gloria Borger is with us as well.

The president said these are terrorizing events that are despicable and have no place in the country.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. He did not use the word "terror" before today. Then, he had a rally inside the White House and, when people started chanting, you know, "CNN sucks," whatever, "fake news" --

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: -- their words, not mine -- and "lock her up," he didn't say, no, no, we have to stop that, we can't. He let it go on. So --

BLITZER: He seemed to be smiling actually.

BORGER: Right. And on his Twitter this morning, about 10:00, before we knew any of this news, he put "bomb" in quotation marks, and seemed to be offended that the stories of the terrorism were overtaking the messages he wanted to send during the election.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: What did you think, Karoun?

KAROUN DEMIRJIAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: He was very good the other day. I'm talking about, this is a bad. But he hasn't done anything impulsive the same way he's been impulsive on Twitter. And those have not been striking the same tone as these specific remarks. He hasn't mentioned many of the people who received the bomb by name.

BLITZER: He hasn't mentioned any name, and they're two former presidents of the United States.

DEMIRJIAN: Which is, to start with, the seriousness of this whole affairs. But he hasn't been doing that because it seems like he's being himself again, which is he does things correctly when his advisers have gotten into his ear enough that he's able to read those sorts of comments, but he still has a lot of -- his natural state of being is to pick the political fight and do not worry about the greater consequences of these things. This is a particularly egregious time to do that, but this is typical Trump.

BORGER: I think he has a sense that this has interrupting his political momentum. He felt like he was making a lot of headway on the caravan. He was making a lot of headway with getting out his base. He's been traveling nonstop to rallies. Immigration again heading to the forefront, promising a new health care plan, promising to lower the cost of prescription drugs, throwing anything against the wall that will stick. And this sort of was like a human speed bump for him and he didn't like it. It was very clear from the tweet today, and he read what he read off the teleprompter, but I believe the true Donald Trump is what we see tweeted, whether it's 3:00 in the morning or whenever --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Let me read that tweet. This is just before the arrest of this individual. "The Republicans are doing so well in early voting and at the polls, but not this bomb stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows. News, not talking politics. Very unfortunate what is going on. Republicans go out and vote."

DEMIRJIAN: Right. It's not exactly -- this is not a sort of get out- the-vote sort of messaging moment, but he clearly had. There was a lot of -- it's impossible to ignore the fact that there's something political going on here, whether this is somebody -- the person they arrested that seems he has affiliations with the Republican Party or sympathies with the Republican Party, or if it was someone setting it up to look like that's the case. Clearly, the president has sensitized himself to the politics more than to everything else.

[14:00:00] BLITZER: Yes. We're going to stay on top of this story. Clearly, huge breaking news unfolding right now.

Gloria, Karoun, guys, thank you very much.

I'll be back 5:00 p.m. Eastern in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

Our breaking news coverage continues --