they have a sweep area that is far more extensive than where they found the device. because they go on the assumption, if they found one, there may be others. so you have massive amounts of crews flying around right now looking to similar packaging to that which they found this reported pipe bomb. >> we're hearing two separate things. so the nypd believes and confirms that there was an explosion, whereas the governor's office does not know and confirms that there is a device, but is not confirming the explosion. so, obviously, these are very early minutes. clearly, something is happening that is happening down there. and this affects, i can't begin to tell you the ripple effect that this has throughout all of new york in terms of this being the major hub on a monday morning. >> just to be clear, what we're hearing right now is a range of reports, something happened. some type of explosion happened. there may have been injured. there may even have been a fatality. the reports are out there. we do not have them confirmed. the port authority is a very tough place to secure. it is a tough place to investigate. what is it? it is primarily a bus terminal,

but it is an intersection of all kinds of local and regional buses -- >> subways -- >> trains and path trains that go aboveground, as well. sto so it's a really big and intricate place. and if they have to search all the different vulnerabilities for explosive devices, it's going to take a while. but again, this is not nothing. they at least found a device that is forcing them to have to do a massive sweep of this area around the port authority in manhattan, there in the midtown west side of manhattan. and there are reports that there was a human cost here. so we're going to have to stay on it and get you confirmed information. >> and this is an interesting target, right, chris, because it's a soft target, in that it's very hard to secure, as you say. however -- >> you don't have tsa going in and out of a place like this. >> great point. however, obviously, in recent years, in times, there has been a big beefed up security presence. when i go through any of these, either grand central or port authority, you see armed guards

and people patrolling. they are obviously always on the lookout for anything suspicious. but they can't do everything. they can't cover every square inch. >> they can't do much and you don't have enough egress out of that place. it is certainly a target of opportunity. that's why the see something, say something campaign is so important in cities like new york city. but again, there are reports that what you're seeing on your screen is a reflection of urgency in new york city. they are looking for more explosive devices. there are reports that one, maybe more explosive devices were found at the port authority in new york city. there are reports that there was a human cost here. we're not sure what that means. we're waiting for confirmation. we're also waiting to get somebody on the phone. do we have anybody yet to discuss this? >> if you're you're just tuning this, there is breaking news unfolding in midtown, manhattan. this is at the port authority. this is the major bus terminal, as well as subways and a couple of path trains that come in. this is how commuters -- one of the places that commuters come

in from the outer states and bur bureaus on a monday morning to work. it couldn't be a busier time on a monday morning at port authority. something that has happened there. there was an explosive device found and we're trying to determine if, in fact, it went off. >> one, maybe more, may have been a human cost. we have dave foot, he's with cnn and was there on foot, witnessed some of the scene. >> can you hear me? >> yes. >> are you good? >> i'm good. was in the port authority, one of the last buses in before they started evacuating. as i was coming down the stairs to the port authority, they started making the announcement. sorry, it's a little loud here. a lot of ambulances. >> what did you see? what did you hear? >> it was mostly a very organized evacuation of the port authority. all the activity seems to be underground. there was no visible signs of anything happening in the port authority. no smoke or anything like that. so it was an orderly evacuation

of the port authority. but right now, the entire area is just -- i mean, there's dozens of ambulances in the area. i'm sure that's probably normal for some sort of, you know, type of call like this. but they're really evacuating the area. and it goes all the way back towards the times square area. so traffic is obviously backed up. it's hard to get around. >> they have a straight protocol, as you know, about what they bring to the scene. it is not supposed to be as heavy as it is if nothing happened. that's why we're hearing -- i don't know what you were able to pick up on, because you've been doing your morning commute, but there is strong suggestion and rt reporting that they found something, maybe more than one device. there's a question as to whether or not it detonated before they got to it or was part of diffusing it and there are reports that there may have been a human toll here. we don't know what that means in terms of injuries or even worse. we're waiting on that. did you see any sign? did you smell anything? did anybody say anything to you

there? >> i didn't smell anything, but, yes, people did hear an explosion underground. when i was walking towards times square, we definitely heard people talking about it. and what's interesting now, chris, is when you look up towards 48th street, 49th street, there's more activity up there, which taking that subway line, which i would have been getting on to go to the office right now, on the a-train, that's kind of where the northern part of that station would land. >> right. all right, so, dave -- >> -- kind of long, so the bottom, the end is toward the port authority and the northern part would be towards, you know, the 47th street, 48th street area. so -- >> gotcha. >> that whole corridor is shut down. >> dave, keep yourself safe. get to work. this is obviously more than now a normal snap protocol for an alert. we have another producer on the phone, so let's get to that. >> shimon prokupecz is on the

phone right now with what he's hearing from his sources. shimon, what have you learned? >> reporter: good morning. so basically, what we're being told, one person is in custody. police believe that this was some kind of a pipe bomb, we're told and at least, initially, that's what it appears to be. and that it looks like it went off unintentionally, or prematurely, is how they're also describing it. that this wasn't the intended target. that this wasn't supposed to go off at the location it did and that it went off. the person who was carrying it, the person who is in custody is injured, don't know if anyone else is injured, and we don't know who the person is yet. police have not identified the person they have taken into custody. but it appears right now, there is only one injury and doesn't seem like there are a whole lot of other injuries or any other serious injuries. >> so shimon, it's your reporting that there was, in fact, an explosion. that's what people are telling you, there was, in fact, an

explosion, but it doesn't sound as though it was huge enough, at least what they're sharing with you, to cause injuries and what makes them think it wasn't the intended target. >> reporter: that's a good question. i don't know, alisyn, but whatever -- based on whatever information they have right now, they don't believe that this was the location where this bomb, this pipe bomb was supposed to go off. and that the person was in transit and that it appears, at least, right now, that it went off unintentionally. >> any type of injuries? anything worse? >> it only appears that there's one person right now, maybe there's one other injury, maybe perhaps people running from the scene were injured, but i have not heard of any serious or any deaths, at least, at this point. >> shimon, have they shared with you where exactly this detonated? >> reporter: no. it sounds -- so i've heard two different locations, either on one of the platforms or somewhere near one of the subway entrances, as you've been reporting, by the bus terminal. but i don't have an exact

location. >> all right, now, in terms of this response, shimon, i've been telling people, this is not a normal, you know, hey, we have an alert of something, we need to investigate. there is a massive response effort going on right now around the port authority. there's several blocks that are closed off. and obviously, we know they're controlling movement underground, as well. what are you hearing about in terms of the severity of the threat level and how seriously they're taking it? >> the security, as you know, around the city, is already pretty much tight. it's the holiday season. this is our high season here in new york, which the holiday so -- and there's a ton of security around times square already. but the response here is large, because as anything right now, they would treat this early on as possibly a terror attack, just because that's how the nypd deals with these situations. so you're seeing a lot of heavily armed police officers, a tactical group, their counterterrorism guys just

running there. and they're all on the scene now, as well as the fire department and the bomb squad. and i know that the bomb squad was responding, because i think that the device was still active on the person. so they were responding to try to figure out what it is. the response is no doubt massive, as you would expect. especially in this area around times square, which is so busy, so, so busy, especially with the holidays. and you know, this is early. this is rush hour. people are just getting to offices around the area. so no doubt the response is massive. >> shimon, appreciate it, buddy. keep us in the loop on what you're hearing. again, just to remind everybody why you're seeing pictures of the flashing red and blue on your screen. in new york city, at the port of authority, which is a massive terminal for buses and train fare on the west side of manhattan, there are reports that there was an explosive device. we're not told it was a massive device. there are not reports of massive

injuries or anything worse yet. we know that there's a man in custody, according to shimon prokupecz, that is what the nypd is telling us. the response is much larger than normal. they have cordoned off several blocks and they are searching actively underground. it is a massive area. so that's what we know. >> brynn gingras is with us. she's on set with us right here. hard to underscore just how busy and chaotic this scene could be on a monday morning adds commuters flow in. what are your sources telling you about what happened? >> adding to what shimon was saying. the initial calls i was making, i was being told, this doesn't sound like terrorism. so to immediately have an idea, this is something they have to investigate, they can make that determination, but to get that initial sort of comment off the record, that's kind of consistent -- >> but if it's a pipe bomb, how can it not be terrorism? >> again, it's initial, just instinct that was given to me by authorities. it's not something that i can necessarily report. it's just consistent with what shimon was saying, that they're like, this wasn't -- >> but this is a frustration for

brynn and us when we report this. we see terrorism as something that's trying to hurt other people. that is not how authorities define terrorism. they have to investigate to see if whatever happened is linked to a political agenda. that is what is called terrorism. doesn't mean it's not bad or someone is trying to hurt someone in the name of others. they have to make the connection before they call that it that. >> so that's probably why they had that first instinct. i was just underscoring that. what i'm hearing from sources on the record is that someone detonated some sort of device on himself and it appears through my sources that that is the one person who is also in custody. so certainly, it didn't detonate large enough to injure even himself, that he's in custody. >> and they have the perp. so they're talking to him about why he did it, what he's about. so they're able to make some assessments, as well. >> exactly. but this is an extremely busy area, especially this time of day, when people are getting buses and trains. we're not quite sure exactly

where it happened, at least through my sources, was you could see the response. this is the middle of manhattan at the rush hour. >> so brynn, we'll let you work your sources. stand by and come back to us with anymore details you get. maeeanwhile, all eyes on alabama's high-stakes senate race today as voters head to the polls tomorrow morning. meanwhile, president trump is making a big push for embattled candidate roy moore. making a phone call and rallying for the man accused of child molestation. so set the scene for us, caylee. >> reporter: with one day until the polls open here in alabama, president trump is ramping up his efforts to get roy moore elected into the special election. this is a state that hasn't sent a democrat to the u.s. senate in more than 20 years. but with the explosive allegations against mo mooore, dmuk party democratic party is hopeful they

have an opportunity to pick up a seat here. >> hi. this is president donald trump and i need alabama to go vote for roy moore! >> reporter: president trump making a final push to bolster alabama's republican nominee, an accused child molester, recording a robo call for the controversial senate candidate after a rally. >> the future of this country cannot afford to lose a seat in the very, very close united states senate. we can't afford it, folks. >> reporter: for the second time in one week, the president's former chief strategist, steve bannon, also campaigning for moore, who's become the face of bannon's anti-establishment movement. >> if they can destroy roy moore, they can destroy you. >> reporter: moore's candidacy continuing to divide the gop, with the state's most prominent republican, senator richard shelby, denouncing his party's nominee on cnn. >> so many cuts, so many drip, drip, drip, when it got to the 14-year-old story -- story, that

was enough for me, i said, i can't vote for roy moore. the state of alabama deserves better. >> reporter: moore's opponent, democrat doug jones, immediately m turning senator shelby's remarks into a online ad. moore himself seeming to avoid the spotlight. the former judge has not held a public campaign event since early last week, remaining largely out of sight this weekend, other than a taped interview with a local tv program. >> i do not know them. i had no encounter with them. i never molested anyone. >> reporter: jones, on the other hand, barnstorming the state, alongside a number of prominent democrats who are pouring money and resources into the race. >> i want to make sure that when my granddaughters grow up, they don't have to endure the kind of thing that those girls in etowah county did and then sit silent for 30 or 40 years. i want to make sure that we send a message of who we are and what we are. >> reporter: jones enlisting the help of former massachusetts governor, deval patrick, and new

jersey senator cory booker in an attempt to shore up the black vote, a critical demographic for jones. meanwhile, u.s. ambassador to the united nations nikki haley saying sunday that any woman that speaks up about inappropriate sexual behavior should be heard, including president trump's accusers. >> they should be heard and they should be dealt with. and i think we heard from them prior to the election and i think any woman who has felt violated or felt mistreated in any way, they have every right to speak up. >> those remarks from one of the highest ranking women in the trump administration. that's a notable break from the president's long-standing assertion that those allegations are false and part of a smear campaign. tonight in the final hours of this race, dueling campaign rallies, doug jones will be with a special guest in birmingham. meanwhile, roy moore back with husband friends, steve pabannon south in midland city. >> it's interesting, doug jones had been the one that was keeping a little quiet. he didn't take our invitations

to come on the show, didn't want to nationalize the race, but in the last couple of days, it's roy moore who went quite. democratic numbers don't match the republican once there and in a special election, turnout is everything. all right, let's bring in cnn political analyst, jonathan martin. he's been covering the race closely. please feel free to disagree with anything that i just said. what are you seeing in terms of the state of play down there? >> thanks, chris, for having me. i appreciate it. i think what has not been fully appreciated here is just how much money and manpower democrats are pouring into this race. and you mentioned, aptly, chris, a minute ago, that doug jones did not want to nationalize the race. and i can't echo that enough. democrats here are so sensitive about the perception that it's sort of out-of-state forces were orchestrating this race. but the fact is, as we report today, alex burns and i have a story in the paper, the fact is that out-of-state groups have, in fact, poured a lot of money in. they've tried the to do so

discreetly, but there's a multi-million-dollar gotv get out the vote effort here. and if jones does pull off an ja upset, i think it will be in large part because they had a lot of money coming in the end. and the money was flooding into his campaign and via third party groups to help get out the vote. is that enough in a red state like this, in a special election, where the republican has got deeply committed supporters? it's not easy to figure out, but i will say this, though. if the closing message here is richard shelby telling folks that he's not supporting roy moore and roy moore is not good for alabama, that's a huge gift to doug jones. >> is it true that roy moore himself was awol this weekend? other than that interview he sat down, whatever day that was, that people didn't see him out campaigning and in fact, the suggestion was that he had gone to the army/navy game, out of

state. >> yeah, his folks won't confirm that, which is sort of telling, but they also won't deny it either. the two of you have covered lots of campaigns. guys, i can't recall the closing days of a major statewide election where one of the two major party nominees simply vanishes. he has not been on the campaign trail. he was not at his home church yesterday for services. and he has scheduled one final pre-election rally tonight, hours before the polls open, in a very rural part of the state. a kind of event that does not sort of scream as somebody who wants media coverage. and it's pretty clear why he's not having events. he does not want to face impromptu questions about these charges of sexual misconduct. he has very much been out of the public eye, a stark contrast to jones who's having a lot of events and is very active, especially in the black community here in the final days of the campaign. >> well, doug jones doesn't want to nationalize the race, because that plays into this theme of

trump's influence with moore, which is that this is a culture war going on. and this is about changing the values that matter so much to alabama voters. what is your sense on the ground down there, as to what the plus/minus is on the morality issue for roy moore? he's getting dinged on these accusations, and rightly so. but on the flip side, he's seen as such a big christian wrarrio down there . so on morality, does that net him to neutral? >> it's an urban/rural divide here. the fact is alabama is much like the rest of the country if you talk to people in the cities here, huntsville, birmingham, mobile, you know, they have little regard for roy moore and very much believe his accusers. you go more into rural areas and you find more support for moore. so that doesn't really change. i will say that the jones folks privately have said that trump full i embracing moore here in the last few days has been

helpful to moore, because it sort of gives some people here who like trump cover to support a candidate in roy moore who perhaps they're kind of uneasy about it. but at the same time, by fully engaging in this race, trump also sends a message to african-americans here, hey, there's a campaign on tuesday. it's kind of an odd date, the special election, the 12th of december. but trump coming in sort of works both ways as far as motivation. >> jonathan, i know you're in alabama, but if you can put on your national hat for a moment, i want to ask you about u.n. ambassador nikki haley and her comments this weekend where she said that donald trump's accusers, the more than a dozen who have come forward with claims of sexual misconduct, assault, et cetera, deserve to be heard. chris has been pointing out all morning, that's different than deserve to be believed. but it's also different and offscript from what we've heard from the white house, which has tried to undermine them. >> yeah, i thought it was striking, and i think if she can

say that and basically suffer no internal consequences, it will demonstrate that she has got a really strong place, in this administration. and that she has sort of some freedom to speak her mind, that perhaps others in the administration do not have. i'll be curious to see what happens here in the next few days and what, if anything, president trump says about it, because it is a far cry from what sarah sanders has been saying from the podium of the white house, which is, when the voters supported donald trump for the presidency last year, that ended the issue, period. and this is something very, very different. and the fact that it's coinciding with the emergence of some of donald trump's accusers coming out today and speaking publicly about their stories could sort of fuel this story more here in the days to come. and guys, we know very well, this is a president who responds to media coverage and follows media coverage very closely. so i think it will speak to whether or not she has got a strong place in this administration if president trump lets this go.

>> so you're referring to this -- there's this sort of press conference happening where some of his accusers have gotten together, a show of strength in numbers. they're going to come out and we feel as though -- we've heard them say this, they feel as though they've been forgotten. everything that happened with donald trump was before harvey weinstein, this is a me too moment that is happening and they want to be counted in that. so we'll see what happens when they come forward. >> look. and it also depends what the forum is and what the standards are that are in play. and we really haven't come to any good conclusions about what we should do each time out with these. thanks very much for being down there. give us a heads up if you see any meaningful change, okay? >> thanks, guys. roll, tide. >> thanks so much. so we are staying on top of this breaking news that just broke a few moments ago. one person is in custody after an explosion at port authority in new york. that is a major commuter travel hub that comes into the city. press secretary sarah sanders says the president has been briefed on this situation. so we have all of the latest breaking details as this unfolds for you, next. lower back pain has met its match

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is a person that is reportedly in custody, because they had either a vest or some type of pipe bomb. there are reports that it detonated. we're not sure whether or not the person debt natonated it or response forces did it in trying to diffuse it. there are reports all over the place about casualties. we are staying away from them, because we cannot confirm them. >> a law enforcement source tells us that it does appear to be some type of pipe bomb that exploded. it appears to have gone ununintentionally, with meaning it didn't hit its intended target, perhaps an even more highly trafficked area. there is a person in custody, we're told. the last record we had was that he was injured and at the moment, we don't want to report on any other injuries. president trump has been briefed, according to the white house, press secretary sarah sanders said that she has just recently briefed him. let's bring in tom fuentes now. he's our senior law enforcement analyst. tom, what do you see?

>> good morning, alisyn? >> well, i think right now it appears that the bomb did not detonate in one of the more crowded areas of the terminal that it probably wasn't intended to explode at that location, at that time and that whoever was carrying it through that hallway or passageway was trying to get to an area where it would inflict more damage. the question now is whether the authorities are going to be able to identify that person. does he have identification on him? are there any other people involved in this? they have to do a thorough search of the terminal to determine that there are no other secondary devices that were already placed in a position to detonate later. so they still have a lot of work to do in this. if it's one person and that person is in custody, it doesn't mean that they don't have more work to do throughout the terminal to make sure it's clear. >> now, why the port authority? soft target. tons of people, tons of ingress

and egress. hard polito police, hard to sec. and it's not like an airport, right? >> correct. you just answered your own question. that's exactly why they want to do these attacks. and even if it's just a derange ed person who's not connected to a terrorist group, but the more damage that's inflicted, the more attention that person or movement will get. that's usually the intent in most of these situations. we'll find out, i think, by the end of the day. >> and what is pipe bomb, the weapon here, tell you? >> well, that's a very amateurish device. it's not military-grade explosive. practically anybody can learn how to put a pipe bomb together with common goods available at a, you know, a home repair-type story and all kinds of recipes on the internet to go about doing that. so this could be anybody doing

this all by himself. normally, you would expect a more military-grade explosive, if it was a major terrorist organization with a number of co-conspirators. but in this case, with one person all by his or herself could do this fairly easily. >> look, the sad reality is, we're not telling people who want to be in the business of doing bad things anything they don't already know. if you look at boston, if you look at what happened in london, you know, backpacks, pots, there's lots of different ways to make crude devices that can do a lot of harm. now, tom, people are always angst to hear that this is terrorism. will you explain to people why that determination is not as simple as somebody who tried to do a bad thing to a large group of people? >> well, they have to determine, for terrorism, that it's the motivation for doing the attack is political, religious, nationalistic, it's part of some ideology, as opposed to a deranged person. now, that ideology could be in

support of international terrorist organization, based overseas. it could be in support of a domestic organization, a white supremacist group, for example, or neo-nazi, coup clku klux kla type of organization, which would make it domestic terrorism. so terrorism requires that it's based on an ideology. and domestic or international is determined by where the organization is based. >> yeah. okay, tom, if you would stand by for us, we really appreciate it. we have our reporter, brynn gingras, which is on set with us who has some new reporting. what have you just learned? >> we just learned that this person, this man, was wearing this device, it was a homemade device, according to sources. and it either didn't detonate according to plan or it how malfunctioned when it was supposed to detonate. that's what we're hearing preliminary from these sources, as to what exactly what was going on. still trying to learn exactly how many injuries we're talking about here. if there's any. i know that evan perez saying that it could have been something catastrophic and it

wasn't. we also know this suspect, this man, don't know anything about him other than he is in custody, he is alive, i was told from my source that they just saw him on a stretcher not too long ago. so you can sure that he will be questioned very soon. at this point, law enforcement is just taking people in, questioning them, trying to put all the pieces together. >> and this is the port authority on our screen right now. this is not times square. this is not where -- this is at the port authority, this is where that happened. >> correct. this happened at the port authority. it is an avenue way from times square. certainly, it's all connected underground in some way, shape, or form. >> in fact, do you have any reporting the that suggests that what tom fuentes was just saying may be in one of the underground passageways or tunnels, something like that? anything? >> i've been trying to get exactly where it happens, if it was even on a train or on a platform or in tunnel, you can see the scene stretches for several -- >> look, again, people get touchy with these types of analyze, tom, because it makes

it seem like we're giving away information. but it's just not a secret that these massive hubs of transportation are huge targets of opportunity for bad guys. they always have been. underneath the port authority, the reason it could be confusing in the reporting, whether it's stwa times square or the port author is because they're all connected and if you can get into that tunnel structure, you can go a lot of different places. >> anywhere that a large number of people gather and have not gone through a security checkpoint or in a line to go through a security checkpoint, they're vulnerable. we've seen this at stadiums, concert venues, sporting venues, transportation hubs, large buildings on the sidewalks, outdoor locations like times square. you know, so anywhere people gather, someone wants to get the attention and inflict the damage that they're intending to do, they're going to be looking for a place where there are a lot of people. and those people, including the person carrying the bomb, aren't required to go through security to be there. we have so many open areas that

you can't, you can't put everybody through. and even if you set up a security checkpoint, you're going to have a line to go through it. and the people in that line are vulnerable. >> yeah. so, the port authority just put out a tweet saying they have shut down the entire port authority bus terminal. for people who don't live in new york city, it is impossible to overstate the impact that this has on the commute into new york city. millions of commuters come in through that hub and so shutting down the subway under there, when the buses coming in and out of there, which is just causing, as you can see, chaos. >> right. basically, people are stuck in new jersey right now, that's the major hub from people coming in from new jersey or really that side of the hudson. and certainly, the subway, too. anyone who's in manhattan, trying to get through, that's a major hub. just being in times square. so we know that the press is going to get updated soon. i've been told they're corralling the press at this point to a location on 42 and 8, which would be right outside the

port authority, to give us more information, but this is where we're getting. >> and what we're hearing, tom, and this seems pretty reasonable, is that they shut it down, because it's too big a search area and they can't have people going through it. they may have gotten some mixed information from this perp, when they brought him, whether or not he's able to speak to them, and it's just choosing to err on the side of caution, does that make sense? >> absolutely. no matter what that person says, if he says, i acted alone and there's no other devices, why should they believe him? on the other hand, if he's bragging that there's a large group of people on his side doing multiple attacks, why believe that? you have to search that whole facility, huge as it may be, and shut it down, as disrupt i have as that may be, to get to the bottom of whether or not this was one person with one device and the whole situation is over, or could there be more and they have to check that out. not only that, but they have to check out the other major hubs, because it might not be -- if

there were others involved or if there was some conspiracy using dark communications on the internet, we could also have a threat to other large facilities in new york or other cities. so this is going to require a lot of searching, just to make sure. >> brynn, one more time, tell us what we know about the suspect. what your sources to tell you. >> what we know right now is that -- not much. is that the person is in custody at this point. >> and alive. >> and alive. >> the latest information you got. >> what i was told exactly from a source is that we just saw him on a stretcher alive. so that certainly -- they're going to be learning more. >> so we understand he was a man. we don't know the angge. don't know country of origin, don't know anything more. >> but he wasn't running around a knife, either. this was a level of sophistication. it's not hard to do this, but not like you're going to do it in fife minutes. that's going to be something they'll take very seriously. because if someone can make one device, they can make six. >> absolutely. and i'm talking with sources as

i'm sitting here and i'm hearing that this did happen in a passageway from this particular source. so that would explain sort of what we're talking about, people thinking times square and port authority, because passageways are what connect them under the ground. >> and if you were choosing a location for maximum impact, you wouldn't choose one of the passageways, a platform, a train, somewhere in the big waiting areas that's not a passageway passageways. >> it's fair to say, the passageways are super busy and very narrow. >> choked with people, people can't get out. >> i think if someone wanted to cause damage anywhere in that location would be suitable. >> but a lot of these things, they are volatile. they are unstable devices. and so are the people who are carrying them. brynn, stay with us. let's take a quick break. tom fuentes, thank you. we'll keep you on hold, as well. we'll have more of our breaking coverage. we know that public officials are showing up there. they're getting briefed. more information going to come.

we also -- if we get more information about this, and need to take a break, we do have more information for you about president trump's habits inside the white house. so we will update you on some of those, as well. when we come right back.

a "new york times" report gives fascinating insights into president trump's tv-viewing habits. he watches at least four hours of television a day and drinks 12 cans of diet coke a day. here to discuss all of this is michael d'antonio. we have breaking news, so i may have to cut away from you, but while we get our sources in place and get more information, you and i will chat. so you, of course, are a trumpologist. you wrote a biography about him. did you know about his voracious viewing habits? >> oh, sure. i think people who have been around the president for any real period of time know that he is a television addict. he is probably watching us right now, because as "the times"

reported, he tunes to cnn when there's breaking news. cnn is the strongest network in hard news and so, as much as he might berate the network at other moments, he tunes in when he needs the facts. >> here's a tidbit from maggie haberman's reporting, along with some of her claegolleagues. people close to the president estimate that mr. trump spends at least four hours a day and sometimes as much as twice that in front of a television. sometimes with the volume muted, marinating in the no-holds-barred wars of cable news and eager to fire back. here's another interesting thing, michael, i know that you can speak to. it's just how much president trump still enjoys being -- hearing his name on tv. though, of course, he's now the most, you know, famous, talked-about person in the world, their reporting says, "to an extent that would stun outsiders, mr. trump, the most talked about human on the planet, is still delighted when he sees his name in the

headlines and he is on a perpetual quest to see it there. one former top adviser said mr. trump grew uncomfortable after two or three days of peace and could not handle watching the news without seeing himself on it." your thoughts? >> well, that strikes me as consistent with who he's always been. the president, as a boy, 14, 15 years old, saw his name in the paper because he got a hit that won a baseball game. and i think that started this cascade of headlines that featured the name trump and made him really happy. and you know, i've written about the fact that he is a man of his time. and a lot of us, i think, seek to have ourselves writ large, whether it's on facebook or twitter or in the president's case, on the news. and it gives us a sense that we're alive and that we matter.

and it's remarkable that he could be president and still crave this, but it is consistent with who he's always been. >> the article also gives interesting tidbits about the other kinds of consumption of the president, including his eating habits. this is about his diet coke habit. let me read it to you. "watching cable, he shares thoughts with anyone in the room, even the household staff he summons via a button for lunch or for one of the dozen diet cokes he consumes each day." if you add this, michael, to what his former -- corey lewandowski, his campaign manager has a new book out about some of these very things. corey's book is called "let trump be trump." here's what he writes. "on trump force one, there were four major food groups, mcdonald's, kentucky fried chicken, pizza, and diet okay" " what are your thoughts? when i read this, i think, this

is not what doctors would recommend. this is not the healthiest diet. however, obviously, president trump seems to have boundless energy, so what does your reporting suggest? >> well, some of that energy is obviously caffeine. and you know, we see him go up and down during the course of a day and during the course of a week. and it may sometimes depend on the supply of diet coke. the thing that would concern me more is this consistent consumption of fats and sugars and all sorts of stuff that's bad for you. we can get to 65 or 70, the president's n president's now, i guess, 71, and look healthy on the outside, and he does have a lot of energy, but any physician will tell you that that's a recipe for problems. and we need a president who's healthy, who's not going to have an episode that puts him in the

hospital. i would look forward to the physical that he's going to have in january, for the country to be reassured or for the president maybe to be put on a different path. as president clinton got on a different path and you look at him now and he's quite slim and healthy. >> after heart surgery. i mean, let's remember how far down that path president clinton went. but you're right, he is getting his first official medical, which will be publicly disclosed and will, of course, be fascinating to everyone, because he's our president and you want to know what kind of health he's in. what do you think, michael, about that episode recently where he slurred his speech. did you know that to be true of hum in the past? >> no. i hadn't seen that before. and i don't think the public record has much in it that would suggest a speech problem or, you know, a mental processing problem. but there have been observations

made by neurologists and psychiatrists about the decline of his vocabulary over the years. when you analyze how he spoke and his public performances in the '80s and 'ot90s -- >> has it declined? >> he did have a much broader vocabulary. >> yeah, yeah. >> so when you interviewed him, you noticed a difference? >> well, i did notice a difference between the trump i saw in 2014 and 2015 and the man who was publicly with us in the '80s and '90s. he is a little slower. and he falls back on these habitual phrases, like, "nobody would believe" or "it's the greatest you ever saw" and those are ways for him to catch his breath and let his mind grasp the next thought hays goie's go. in the past, he was much quicker

and could go right to the point he wanted to make it. so i've seen it. i think this is something we should have checked out. all of us lose words as we get older and we speak with more deliberation. there's nothing inherently wrong in that. but i think we need to be reassured that he's okay. >> okay. michael d'antonio, always great to get your perspective on all of this stuff. thank you very much for being here. cru cru chris? >> all right, we are following breaking news. news keeps coming in about what happened in new york's port authority during rush hour this morning. we are told one person is in custody. there was an explosive device. we have the latest, next. me meas peace of mind. we had a power outage for five days total. we lost a lot of food. we actually filed a claim with usaa to replace that spoiled food. and we really appreciated that. we're the webber family and we are usaa members for life.

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there was an explosion. they know that. they believe that the injuries, according to the nypd, were limited to him. cnn's jason carroll live on the scene. he joins us on the phone. what are you seeing? what are you hearing? >> reporter: well, chris, i'm standing right in front of port authority on 30, 41st, and 8th avenue. what they've done along 8th avenue is they set up a number of frozen zones leading all the way up here into the scene. one mta employee describes it this way. she was downstairs, underthe ground in that large area you were talking about. she heard a loud boom. she said everyone immediately started running. in fact, she said she left her coat, she left her cell phone. she ran into one of our producers, gave our producer her phone -- our our producer gave her his phone so she could call home and let everyone know that she was okay. she was clearly very, very shaken and got out. what i'm seeing here is block by

block, they are literally hundreds and hundreds of people who are basically stuck. some who were trying to get to work. others who were just trying to get through were sort of stuck in some of these frozen zones, and police are gradually letting them come out. letting them know, there's no way they can get into this scene where they are now. so what we are doing is we're waiting here to get some more information. we are expecting a press conference within the next 30 minutes or so. again, right now, i'm at 41st and 8th and we're in the so-called frozen zone. and the frozen zones are set up, again a security perimeter to let people come in and come out. [ inaudible ] >> we're losing jason a little bit in terms of the sound, as you can imagine, cell phones are challenged down there during all of this breaking news. jason, if you can still hear us, we had brynn gingras on the set with us, and her sources had said it did happen in an

underground tunnel or passageway of some kind. do you have anymore information on the ground there of where exactly this went off and the kind of weapon? >> all right, his cell's out. let's go to cnn law enforcement analyst art roderick and tom fuentes. gentlemen, thank you for joining us. tom, let's check in with you quickly. have you heard anything more about this situation to expand our understanding? >> it's being reported that the police have identified the individual and are in the process of going to that person's residence to conduct searches. but i have not heard the identity or anymore details about the individual. >> hey, art, one of the things that we've heard all along is that it's a pipe bomb, but we also heard that he was wearing it, that the suspect was wearing it. that's different than what we normally in layman's terms think about. what are you hearing or what are your thoughts on what kind of bomb this was? >> well, initially, when i heard about this, it was, wow, this is a major transportation hub in new york city. you've got an individual that

has either a pipe bomb on her or a pipe bomb in his possession, which is a homemade device, sort of an improvised explosive device that is made for one reason, to create a limited sort of mass destruction in a particular area to include not only property damage, but also personal injury. so they've got to mauve ove on fairly quickly. it's a really good thing they have the individual alive, because he's going to be the greatest source of intel right now and they've got to get to his motive right away, because that's going to determine how widespread this is going to be. is it one individual? are there several individuals? are there other locations that have been targeted? so i'm sure they've got the answer to a lot of these questions already, but they've got to move very quickly on this. >> terrorism, what do you need to show that it's terrorism, tom? >> you need to know that it's motivated by some type of ideology. either political, religious, nationalistic, that that's the motivation. it's not just a deranged

individual or someone seeking attention or, you know, other issues like that, of mental health. that we're talking about something that is motivated by a political agenda. >> you know, art, we always talk about how the police here in new york city and in major cities and even small towns around the country, they're just doing, you know, yeoman's duty now. the terrorists only have to be right, you know, once, and the police have to get it right every single time. so anytime that, certainly, nan of us travel through some of the mass transit zones of grand central or port authority, you see all of the police presence. they're armed and out in force. and i assume they're doing behavioral profile and keeping an eye on everybody and watching this, but so many millions of people go through port authority and grand central and places like that, it's kpoimpossible f them to have eyes on everyone. >> it is. and it's also an issue where we have the holidays coming up and i know a lot of people are

traveling to new york city to see the sights, check out the sights there. and, you know, there's probably a lot more people in the city now than there would have been a month ago. and again, to me, striking the transportation hub like this is a key part. i mane, it has a couple of pieces and we don't know for sure right now, obviously, we're not going to know for a period of time, but when you look at what terrorism -- what terrorists do, they used improvised devices like pipe bombs and go to transportation areas. we've seen this in london, we've seen this in other locations around the world where they target these types of facilities specifically during these types of holidays. >> and look, you can't be surprised by any of this anymore. this is the call that's been put out by the bad guys in the world. this is what's been responded to. the technology is out there. and if evil is in your heart, this is the way you're going to go. we'll get new information as soon as it comes in. gentlemen, thank you very much, appreciate it. >> obviously, cnn will be covering this breaking news throughout the morning and the

day. and it will continue with "cnn newsroom" with poppy harlow and john berman right after this break. ke up to keurig. wakey! wakey! rise and shine! oh my gosh! how are you? well watch this. i pop that in there. press brew. that's it. so rich. i love it. that's why you should be a keurig man! full-bodied. are you sure you're describing the coffee and not me?

all right. we do begin with major breaking news this monday morning. an explosion near times square, here in the heart of new york city. an nypd source tells cnn a man wearing a homemade device attempted to detonate it, but it either malfunctioned or did not go off as planned. that suspect is now in custody. >> all right. we have a team to have reporters covering this story for us. cnn's brynn gingras here. our crime and justice reporter, shimon prokupecz on the phone. let's go first to