that is within the package which contained the special device, there is also some kind of powder that's being tested now downstairs. so the mail room area is still being contained while we go through the various steps to test that. a field test, package it up safely for remove and deacon that area and anybody that came in contact with it. >> keep in mind, this just happens a couple of hours ago, and it's still ongoing, i'm going to take some questions, not going to be able to go too deep into it. >> can you talk about these targeting people who would have been criticized by the president? >> take a look at who's being targeted right here, right now. that's why we're doing this proactively. we're reaching out to people throughout the city, people who do their security and making sure their mail rooms follow proper protocol and we're reaching out to the right people.

>> governor, trump has commended -- for assaulting their journalist. do you have a message to president donald trump? >> i'm just going to say something broad because at a time when there's a lot of hatred and division, it duoes nt make senseexacerbate it. don't encourage violence, don't encourage attacks on media, you can disagree, but you have to show respect for people and air your disagreements peacefully. unfortunately, this atmosphere of hatred is contributing to the choices people are making to turn to violence, there's no question about it. and the way to stop that is to turn back the other way, to bring down the temperature, to

end any messages about the use of violence against people we disagree with. and that has to start at the top. >> this is a political year, it's a political season, we're weeks from an election. and that's obviously in the air, and that's and obvious threat. but we have been through many political seasons. and we have political differences, and that's the heart of our democracy. what is not -- pushes people to violence, and at the end of the day, we may have political differences, but this is one country, we're all americans, e pluribus unum.

and for political leaders who in any way set the tone, it is especially important. hold on. hold on. >> can you describe what the device looks like that was found? >> so far the devices has been what appear to be pipe bombs. but if i could, i would like to make a statement, i know that a lot of the public right now are scared and concerned and there's a lot of confusion surrounding this. i want to assure you that the reason we are here, because the totality of the federal, state and local authorities will investigate this thoroughly and follow every lead. we will turn over every rock and

talk every person we have to in order to mitigate this threat. the job of the terrorism task force -- to further one's own political agenda is not acceptable to us and we will not rest until we find this and stop these hazardous devices from being mailed and bring the individual or individuals to justice. we have no better partners in the nypd, the new york state police, and the entirety of the joint terrorism task force. we will be on this until the day that we find this individual and bring him to justice. i would like to thank nypd and our partners on the task force, as well as the united states secret service, as well as the u.s. capitol police, as well as the westchester authorities for the cooperation and collaboration we have thus far. and with that, i'll turn it back over to questions.

>> mayor de blasio, you mentioned that -- >> hold on a second. >> as you have heard, there is a number of devices and there is a pattern apparently to the number of devices, we wouldn't be at all surprised if more devices show up. a device has been sent to my office in manhattan, which we were just informed about. and that device is also being handled. so again, this is a situation, a number of devices have been sent, they're being handled, we wouldn't be surprised if additional devices are sent. and the device that has been sent to my office. that is being handled as we speak.

>> terrori [ inaudible ] >> terrorism is an attempt to strike terror, an attempt to strike fear. obviously these devices are an attempt to strike fear. hence terrorism, are they domestic? are they international? these are all questions that have to be answered by the investigation. a terrorist attempt is a terrorist attack. and as you said, what's the intent? to strike fear. and when they strike fear. they win, that's when they are effective. who controls that? we control that. we control that. this is not the first time we have been through this. we have beenthrough this many, many times.

literally, as i mentioned before, it goes back 25 years to the first world trade center bombing. this is new york, it is part of who we are, part of our profile. so we refuse to be intimidated. we refuse to allow them to make us afraid to go through our daily lives. we're all here, we're going to go on with our lives enjoying this bhufl cieautiful city and and we're not going to let them win, period. >> what was written on the packages? >> i'm not going to go into exactly what was on the package. we have to go back to work, so we're going to give you updates

throughout the day. i just want to remind everybody here and all new yorkers, any tips, any leads, call 911 or 1-888-nyc-safe. >> i'm wolf blitzer in washington, we just haireard fr law enforcement and the political leaders in new york city and new york state saying these were acts of terror, acts of terror. and we have also just heard from the governor of new york andrew cuomo saying a suspicious device was just found addressed to his new york city office as well. suspicious devices at george soros' residence outside of new york city, hillary and bill clinton's residence outside of new york city, michelle and barack obama's residence here in new york city. a and here at the cnn facility.

that was addressed to the former cia director john brennan. there are other developments unfolding right now, i quickly want to go to our correspondents and our anchors who were at the c nrks nrknn bureau in new york harlow and jim sciuto were on air when these situations began to unfold. give us your reactions to what we just heard from law enforcement. >> there was a lot of news there, wolf. in that press conference. in that, first of all, there was a live explosive device september to september -- sent to cnn, something that made its way all the way to the mail room. and in addition to that explosive device, aroun envelop that contains white powder. the concern, what could that powder be, could it be biochemical weapons, something like that, so out of an

abundance of caution they're looking out for that, and calling it out for what it is, this was an instance of terrorism on the streets of new york city. >> and as our colleague jake tapper so aptly put it. an attempt at mass murder, because that is what it is. here at cnn and all of these other locations, we have -- but again, a live device, with white powder, made it to cnn, we know that the call to the nypd was made at 9:58 a.m., it was shortly after the top of the 10:00 a.m. hour that the alarm went offnd we immediately went off the air and came outside. what struck me is what we heard across the board from officials there. it was mayor de blasio, who at the beginning of that press conference saying this is terrorism, this is an effort to terrorize.

he said notably, jim, it starts at the top. >> that was the new york commissioner of police o'neal saying very explicitly, don't encourage attacks on the media, that contributes, he said to choices people are making, there's no question about it. that's quite a reprimand you might call it from the commissioner of police in new york to the kind of rhetoric that we hear in public, not just the media, in the targets, but public officials and so on and that's a law enforcement official who they cakes these t very seriously and no police department in the country knows that better than the new york police department. >> and it is not a partisan comment. he is saving the facts. you look at the facts of who, to what entities and what people these explosive devices were sent to in the last 36 hours, and then you look at from the governor to the mayor of new york city to the police commissioner saying this is the world we live in, this is the tone and the tone and the rhetoric cools from the top.

>> and jim and poppy, you guys can't go back in, i take it, into the cnn bureau at the time-warner center because of the suspicious powder that was located, they're still dealing with this, is that right? >> that's right, that would be a good assumption. and explosive device is left. we reported that, it was live on the air nearly an hour ago. the white substance, you have to assume, standard procedure would be get the bomb sniffing dogs in there after the explosive devices were removed to make sure there weren't other devices that were similar. the white powder, if that was distributed in any way, that's something that you have to make sure is safe before you re-enter the building. >> this is a big complex, the time-warner center, you have a huge apartment complex, a lot of corporate offices, a lot of colleagues in different parts of the country there, a huge

shopping mall with restaurants, there are a lot of people in and out of that building every day. so we actually have no idea, just don't know at this time. >> they would exercise an abundance of caution, they want to be 100% certain for people who work on this street are allowed back on the street. >> for the first hour that jim and i were coming to you immediately in the aftermath of this, we were coming to you from the phone, from a skype like capability on our phone. but it takes a minute, when obviously you're evacuated so quickly. >> we're grateful that all of our cnn colleagues, in fact everyone at the time-warner center got out as quickly as they did. josh camp bell is joining us.

then he went on to say there were more packages delivered and i expect they're going to be discovering more. what are you hearing? >> that's right, wolf, and obviously listening to officials there, obviously new york city, a major terror target, so officials there have gotten unfortunately very good at this and they're laying out facts so i think the nypd did a good job there getting us up to speed. if you look at twos a pick s as obviously commissions nev lly c laid out different aspects. obviously these are linked. but motivation, people can look at it politically if they want. this is a fact that investigators will be looking at. if you look at the officials that were targeted. at least the ones that we know yet, there are certain

commonalities, there are democrats, or people associated with different causes, obviously john brennan, he's been the target of a lot of wrath, but these are specifically people who have been targeted by president trump and his allies. i look at it through an investigative lens and that is an important distinction, if you look at president obama, hillary clinton, and john brennan. there's commonality. as an investigator, you're trying to get yourself into the mind of the person who executed this. this was an attempted murder, an attempted mass murder, in order to figure out who this person is or group of people might be, you have to determine what the commonalities are. there are forensic commonalities and a lot of aspects of these that are very similar. >> you're getting some more information right now and it's

very, very disturbing, this commonality, those where werelo attacked, all of whom have been very critical of president trump. >> that's right, wolf, we have a picture and an image of one of the devices that's been recovered. and what you can see is, clearly what scares is law enforcement officials who have been handling this is that it appears to be and they are treating it as a functional device, as the governor of new york and the mayor of new york just said, the one that was sent to the cnn building there, the time-warner building in columbus circle in new york was a live explosive device, so this device that you're seeing right there, could have hurt a lot of people should it have gone off. so the question now is what is happening, what is the commonality with all this. so far we know of at least five confirmed question vices.

we know about the first one that was found which was believed to have been placed at the george soros residence in westchester county, new york, that happened almost 48 hours ago, and we know that authorities have intercepted devices that were addressed to the bill and hillary clinton in new york, also in chappaqua, new york, and the obamas here in d.c., as well as cnn headquarters there in new york. and one that was addressed to eric holder, the former attorney general. it appears that one was labelled, what happened was, that was labelled as coming from debbie wasserman schultz, and the reason why it ended up back at her address is it was addressed as coming from her. the investigators believe she did not send this device to eric holder, so whoever sent it was

trying to get this device back to debbie wasserman schultz because the address was not correct to eric holder. there's been five devices found, and you heard the governor in new york saying there was another package that was sent to his office there in new york, they haven't confirmed yet that that one is related, as you just mentioned a few minutes ago, wolf, they're still trying to go through the scene there at cnn because of some suspicious powder inside the package that's now been taken to a facility there in new york to see if they can get any clues. every piece of this device is a clue, they're going to try to retrieve frimpingerprints, they going to see what sort of printing was on the label there.

the one that stands out is the soros device, because it appears that that was not sent through the mail, as the cnn one arrived by mail. it appears that the one at the soros address, was actually placed there believed by someone. we don't know if the person responsible for all of these events, all of these devices was the one that placed it there. but that is a huge clue for law enforcement as they try to investigate this. these are believed to be rudimentary devices, at least one of them examined, appears to have included shards of glass, so whoever was doing this was trying to exacerbate the damage, from the potential explosion that was in it. what they're working with now is trying to make sure that they capture any other devices that might be out. that's a great fear right now is that there might be other devices that were en route to other places, and commonality again, people who have been critical of this administration. so perhaps there's a political motive. again, it's very early in this

investigation, so everything is still on the table, wolf. >> i just want to put the address of that device that was sent to the cnn bureau in new york. put it back up on the screen to show our viewers. it was supposingedly from debbi wasserman schultz, it was addressed to jong brennan, brennan miss spilled there, addressed to the waime-warner. the widely held suspicion is yes there were five or six of these devices, but there may be more out there. >> the biggest concern for law enforcement, is there may be other devices, other threats. they are investigating other incidents, certainly the one that's at governor cuomo's office, but there are other

locations as well that they are investigating suspicious packages. we are investigating these calls, but there are more that could be potential liz lly link what's going on in new york. the first device was found at george soros' home, the authorities right away knew they were going to be dealing with something much bigger, and they started briefing other law enforcement agencies. they began briefing other jurisdictions about the potential that this could grow into something bigger because they knew right away that -- they felt they were dealing with something that was politically motivated. and you heard jon miller there in the press conference talk about that, how the fbi and the nypd are working together, they were briefed this morning about the packages that were sent to president obama and hillary clinton. the nypd bomb squad knew these

were connected because they were able to see the other devices. and this investigation, i can tell you, the fbi, in these kinds of situations, what they do is they call up these command centers and the joint terrorism task force, from all different jurisdictions from around the country start working together. and there is going to be a massive, massive man hunt now on your way, who knows how many people could be potentially behind this. >> david gregory, the suspicious is there are more of these devices out there. george soros, bill and hillary clinton, the obamas, eric holder, the former cia director, john brennan, there's one commonality that clearly stands up. >> and these are all people who have been or are perceived to be critics of the president who have been the subject of his criticism very directly. let's remember we have a

president who's talked a couple of years now of imprisoning his former rival hillary clinton. just last week, talking about the assault on a reporter by a congressman as saying he's his kind of guy. we have an obligation to be very careful and very circumspect in terms of what may actually be at work here. also you had sarah trump, on

behalf of the trump campaign condemn this two hours after this happened. there is a concern on the part of the campaign right now but certainly with political figures. we're in a political season, that's highly charged and incredibly tribal political environment where we don't just disagree but we hate the other side too often in our country.

>> more recently, as shimon this caravan of migrants who is making their way north. he's been talking about a lot at his rallies, was being paid by someone and a lot of his allies have suggested that that was george soros, and it's been thoroughly debunked. but he clearly has been going after the group of people that have been targeted. clearly the people responsible for this attack, or this almost attack are the people that mailed these devices and we shouldn't lose sight of that, but the president certainly has encouraged this kind of rhetoric, and what was interesting to me in the response from the white house today, was not initially that the media was not part of their

condemnation of what's gone on here. but the president wasn't able to get to a chasm -- the vice president president included the media and his response, and said that we condemn this, the people will be brought to justice and be responsible. the president said to that, i agree wholeheartedly. but that's not saying -- >> sarah sanders later tweeted to include a condemnation of cnn being targeted, that was not her first response, i did not mean sarah trump, i mean laura trump, who condemned cnn. i think back to nbc being attacked after 9/11, i was there in tom brokaw's office with the anthrax attack. we're working in an environment here where the media and politicians are working on this

very heated conversation. this is one or some persons working together to get a lot of attention which they're getting. and to launch this kind of terror attack, where it's coming from, we don't know, identifying the sources of it, we certainly don't know. but we have to point out what the context is, and the broader context too. what we have been talking about over the past couple of weeks is the murder of a journalist overseas in turkey. so this idea of violence against the media and certainly terrorist attacks dedicated toward or attempted against political figures is all in this context. >> evan perez, you're getting some new information, what are you learning? >> now we are learning that law enforcement is now checking on at least one additional package, suspicious package that's been intercepted at a facility in capital heights, maryland, this is a facility that is used to screen mail that is going to the members of congress.

there's a package that's been intercepted. law enforcement hack checking it to make sure that it fits this pattern. at this point we know of at least one such package that's been intercepted at this facility at capital heights, maryland. again, this is a facility that screens mail and it's headed to congress. before the mail ever gets to the capitol and to their offices outside the capitol. they go through a facility here to make sure that there's nothing dangerous, no bombs, no anthrax, nothing that could harm people. so it happens that that syst ap has worked in this instance. and it appears to be at least five package bombs that have been sent do peopto people here washington and in new york. wolf? >> a lot of suspicion there may be others out there as well that

have not been detected. anthony may is joining us right now, he's a retired atf explosives investigator. walk us through what atf, fbi, local law enforcement, others are doing right now to find out who is responsible for sending these kinds of bombs? >> well rk, wolf, right now, th federal agencies are standing by dealing with the bomb squads making them safe, once that occurs, the evidence will be forensically examined to determine the similarities, to try to develop any leads, probably right now, the joint terrorism task force is looking at the targets themselves to see if they can determine a trend and we have already talked about that, you guys have already talked about that trend and the commonality and all the targets. the fact that these things are

going through the mail, they are going to try to determine, based on the arrival dates, where these devices could have possibly been mailed from. >> the suspicion right now, all of these targets as far as we know right now, all of them, critics, really sharp critics of the president of the united states. what duds that say to you as a federal investigator of the federal government. >> when we look at multiple devices that are sent through the community, we try to determine who was a target, what was the motive behind these devices being sent. if for example, the austin bombing, the serial bombing that occurred several months back,

investigators were looking at the pattern of the placement of those devices. in this particular case, it cannot be ignored that this is politically motivated. the term terrorism is being used, i would not suspect this is international terrorism, i would suspect this is, if we're going to label it terrorism, domestic terrorism would be the appropriate term. but i would not even go so far as calling it domestic terrorism yet. >> this investigation is obviously very, very early right now. stand by, anthony, kerrie cordero is with us, our national security analyst, you have some strong thoughts on where this is all heading. >> i would think from the investigative standpoint, where they are going to be looking for, they are going to be looking at the forensic piece that you're going to be looking at as far as the origins of the actual devices. then a separate track, domestic

interrogators, i would system from the fbi, are going to go back and talk to people who aarhave brought other threats regarding pipe bomb, individual pipe bombs, there was a case charged, there was another case charged with another potential toxic device, toxic substance that they were trying to use in a way. >> i would expect that it really would fall within domestic events they're going to be coordinating. >> these particular devices we have been reporting so far all all connected to individuals that the president has specifically and his political allies have been attacking. the president and his allies, they need to dial down the political rhetoric, they are making people less safe, they are make journalists less safe,

and they are making law enforcement officers less safe. because they are creating an environment where somebody and we'll find out whether this is an individual person or whether this is a network of people, because now we're seeing that there are attacks, potential attacks taking place in various locations, so there's a question as to whether this is just a loan actor or a network of individuals. each time this is generating an enormous law enforcement response who then has to handle these devices and then needs to explore further to what extent this threat exists and track down the other devices. >> because i assume, you're deeply concerned as recently as a couple of days ago this week at a huge political rally. the president of the united states was once again encouraging the crowd when they were screaming lock her up, lock her up, referring to hillary clinton and he was encouraging

them at that chant. another time when they were chanting cnn sucks, cnn sucks, he points to the pen where the journal its are located, he berates them and then he goes on and he actually suggests that the news media are the enemy of the american people. >> look, the news media is not the enemy of the american people, the news media is protected by the constitution. it has a constitutional function to perform a check and balance on executive power. and any time a president or other politicians attack members of the press. they're actually attacking the constitution. they are attacking our system of justice and they are undermining the rule of law. and i understand that this particular investigation, law enforcement, will track down who the perpetrators of these potential -- these actual attacks and potential attacks are, but at the same time, there is a responsibility from political leadership to dial

this all down. and if the president has a rally tonight, he needs to start today. we have seen political figures targeted at restaurants. we have seen the mob mentality of more liberal protesters. and the president's attacks on the press specifically. let's remember that this is something that is very different. this is an attempted murder, this is an act of terror,coordi a group of individuals, we don't know the answer to that. but this is a whole different order. we need to get focused on what's

going on here. we have seen periods in our history of gross expesz. but >> i remember back during this '90s in the oklahoma city bombing, the way people hear certain kinds of attacks can motivate people to act in a way that we all need to think about. >> the fbi is all very much aware of the climate that we're in right now. they do look for these kinds of things, right? it's not that they can bring violence in these protest situations, but they're very much aware of the climate and they have certainly done the work to keep an eye on the people in this country that are prone to any type of violence, political violence. and make no mistake about this, they knew very early on on monday, after the george soros thing that they're dealing with a politically motivated thing and they're making every effort to let everyone know that there could be other targets.

they have a lot of evidence, we don't know exactly what other pieces of evidence they have uncovered in the other pipe bombs, but they have a ton of stuff to work with here. they have the envelope, there's stamps on there, there's writing, and talking to law enforcement in new york, they do believe that cnn was targeted as well. it may have john brennan's name on this. but the person put cnn on there. so is this person really mistaken about where john brennan works. >> schultz was miss spelled, brennan was misspelled. everyone involved is political. it could be political motivation killing civiliansor attempting to kill civilians. >> the package addressed to eric holder, they sent it do the wrong address. and it was returned to the return address which was debbie wasserman schultz. >> while it's rudimentary, these

are functioning devices, why they haven't gone off, luckily they haven't. >> think about the una bomber, these were people that were killed and maimed because of those objects. >> they are good at this, so they're going to know probably, well, they should know where this was sent from, there are stamps on there, they're going to go through every component on that bomb and try to figure out where was this purchased, who purchased it, where, what area, we do have amount of clues, and even some of the devices that they had detonated, they will be able to gather clues from this. and this will be key for them i bet, in trying to determine who this person is. you can get fingerprints, there's black tape, electrical tape, this is the thing that kind of helps law enforcement find the suspect, there can be fingerprints on there, there's all sorts of piping, there's

wires, the stamps, the envelope, and they're going to run down every lead and probably have a good idea at least in -- generally probably within hours, if not already where some of this material was purchased, oar at least what area and they could start zeroing in there. >> and there could be a suspect or suspects. >> this is such a scary situation right now for law enforcement, because they do believe there's potentially other devices like this out there. >> but to your point, they have got so much great experience and they will work very fast to track this down, this is a pattern they have seen many times before. >> at some point they're going to brief the president and the white house on what they're finding and we're going to probably hear from him at an event at the white house in the next hour, he does have a rally torre tonight in wisconsin, and beating up on the media, and this violent rhetoric, calling them radical and dangerous is

such a statement of the way he talks about his components. it will be really interesting to see if he has some -- how does the crowd respond? >> i can't tell you how many people have gone to the president quietly behind the scenes and appealed to him. don't do this anymore, don't go after the news media, don't make these accusations unless they want to see the united states in deep, deep trouble. because it could cause, in a strange people out there to take action on their own. this is a president who so far has refused to listen to all of that advice. i will be interested to see if he dials all that back. kate bolduan, you've been there since the beginning, you had to evacuate the time-warner center when the alarms went off. you've been there on the streets of new york, what are you seeing now? >> reporter: right now wolf we're near the time-warner center, just a short distance from the entrance of the building that houses cnn.

after the press conference where they talked about that lives explosive device that was at cnn and all the other locations that we're talking about, i was able to catch up with governor andrew cuomo, and he talked about what you guys were just talking about on set, the heated rhetoric around the country, from the politicians, the white house. listen to this. >> do i believe the heated rhett derrick, t -- rhetoric, the toxic environment, yes, the suggestion of the pattern is that they are politically related. and i think that's a caution to all political officials, elected officials, candidates, and americans. we can have political differences. we have always had political differences. that's what made america america. but let's have our political differences with civility.

and let's avoid the hostility and the rhetoric and the rancor and the anger. because we are at a boiling point. >> reporter: and to put a finer point on what governor cuomo was saying, there were two people that came up and showed him their phones, he found out during the press conference that a suspicious package had just been delivered to his new york office. it happened in that moment is when he found out about it. i asked him about it afterwards, he says they still need to get information, it came -- it was addressed to their new york office here in manhattan and he said that there was a letter associated with it. but he didn't want to provide anymore details than that. putting a finer

details at the moment. governor cuomo calling this an act of terror. >> many high ranking former government officials, two presidents of the united states, an attorney general, former cia director, george soros and now governor cuomo saying his office in new york received a suspicious package. what are you learning pamela? >> we're learning that there are now five suspicious packages that law enforcement believes are all linked and one law enforcement source i was just speaking with described why that is. one of course is the timing, when these packages were received, we know the five packages including the cnn new york bureau, george soros, the clintons, the obamas, and this congressional mail facility, in capital heights, maryland, a suspicious package was recently

intercepted there, bomb squads are looking at that and officials believe they're from the same person. based on the packages, wolf, we know that several packages have the return address to debbie wasserman schultz, we believe she was behind that, the similarities with the packaging and the return address was another clue. and of course what was inside his packages, we heard there during the press conferences, the pib believe fbi believes th bombs, even though they were rudimentary, they are still very dangerous packages. as we have been saying, there are more out there, i can tell you, letters have been sent to members of congress, warning them, do not bring any unopened packages or letters into the buildings, just sort of reiterating what the protocol

is, but there is a lot of concern, law enforcement is on heightened alert that there could be more than beyond the five packages, suspicious devices that we know about, wolf. . >> there are more packages yet to be found out there, and law enforceme enforcement -- as our viewers probably know by now, you escaped, y0ur7 on the air, you were anchoring our coverage, when all of a sudden the alarms went off and you got out of there very quickly. >> we did indeed, we're now on the corner of 58th about a block away from the cnn center. as you know, about an hour and a half ago, they moved the device, the live explosive device up to the bronx to check in. but they also found that

envelope with white powder. and we still don't know what that white powder is. we know a few things, there was white powder, and they're testing it. we just got an internal update because we're reporting on this story but also living it. we have heard at this point the sweep of the time-warner center, still continues, this is from internal communications, as a result it will take some time until we know about the safety of the building. we'll continue to keep you posted as we know more. there's still a lot of questions about safety, and that's why none of us are back inside of the building and we don't know when we will be. >> it's four hours since really the start of this and it's really abuzz of activity outside of where our office is, and this white powder, it adds a big question mark, right, because the explosive device that has been removed, the white powders they tested, it could be a fake, you have letters like this sent

all the time, and that white powder turns out to be talcum powder or something. but there's anthrax sent to news organizations. i was in the news office when our office received an envelope that contained anthrax and it did affect a child of one of the workers there. as they did with the explosive device, they're going to operate out an abundance of caution. >> all right, so i want you guys to stand by over there, because we're getting a lot more information, even as we speak. walk us through, because you've been doing a lot of reporting on this investigation, how all of this unfolds? >> what happens here is the fbi after monday night's incident at george soros' house, starts to

brief, the terrorism task force takes over the investigation, they start to brief other authorities, other police departments what to look for in case there's similar packages, they sent out an alert, they sent out photos for things to look for, wolf, and then what happens is obviously overnight, and then this morning, there are other packages that are discovered, one that was sent to barack obama and then one that was sent to hillary clinton and immediately, they launch a bigger investigation, they then brief the joint terrorism task force, then briefs the nypd, briefs other law enforcement that work on the joint terrorism task force. and immediately, the nypd now know what is they're looking for. they step up security at other areas within new york that are connected to barack obama and hillary clinton and also george soros. and then they get notified of a potentially suspicious package at our offices in new york and i was on the air with both poppy

and jim as that started developing. and i got word right away, someone reached out to me and said, hey, i think there's could be one in your building. and thankfully, the nypd knew almost immediately that they were dealing with similar devices because they had been briefed about what to look for. they just went into that mode of what to do, the bomb squad respond, it's now at the bronx at their facility where they're examining it, they'll detonate it . >> some of this is going to go to forensics. all of that the fbi, the forensic teams in virginia are probably going to go ahead and look into that. then they really need to start

piecing together as to how all of that is connected. they'll be able to tell by some of the components in the bomb, the explosive material. the explosive material has its own dna kind of. they'll be able to start looking at that and seeing if it is similar is to what the other devices had. clearly on its face from the pictures we've seen and the fbi have seen and the nypd, they're all connected. the fingerprints and dna,those are the components for the fbi. >> and jack reed with with us from the fbi. have you been briefed on these incidents? >> no, it's been breaking so quickly, there's been no time for briefing. >> have you been warned, watch out what you're getting in the mail? >> we have screening centers and

we're consciously alert. before it reaches us, it's been carefully screened. >> have they told up theyou the greater threat today than yesterday. >> i have not been told that. >> they're looking to one device addressed to somebody in the u.s. senate that could be in the area. >> there's multiple targets and there could be many more. that's disturbing. >> what's your reaction when you hear someone was sending bombs, acts of terror, potentially murder to two former presidents, a former secretary of state, a former attorney general, a former cia director and cnn and others presumably. what's your reaction to that? >> it is an attack on our government, our constitution. these are people who have enjoyed the trust and support of the american people to support

us, two president, as i point out, secretary of state. so it's not just an individualized attack. it's an attack on our system of government, our constitution. as you pointed out and i think is quite obvious, some of this is a reflection of the tone of debate. when the president is at a rally and smile as people chant "lock her up" or make direct attacks on the news media, that doesn't raise the level of debate, that lowers it and it creates this environment where these acts could take place. not only being an attack, this is an act of profound cowardice. someone is sending an explosive device anonymously to people who could be hurt, and this is something that is just disreputab disreputable. >> it's not just these individuals whose name was on the envelope, on the address, but there are postal workers, there are clerical workers.

there a lot of people who might have access, to might have to deal with this. especially, as john miller, the head of counterterrorism in new york with the police department said, there was suspicious powder found in these packages as well. >> it's unlikely that a former president of the united states will receive mail -- >> secret service will take care of it. >> a secret service agent, a public servant, a postal worker. one of the surprising things with five or six devices, they're fairly sophisticated if they didn't detonate in route. these homemade weapons, the danger is they'll detonate prior to delivery. you're right, average men and women, postal workers are doing their jobs and they could be the victims. >> what does president trump have to say? >> he has to stand up personally, not through a

twitter message or endorsing someone else's statement and very calmly talk about this is a threat to our constitution and has to raise the tenor about public life here. he can't condone these chants of lock her up, et cetera. that's unpresidential. he has to now step up as a president and call us all to a much higher level of conduct and debate and discussion. >> for him to acknowledge and say i apologize, i was wrong, i didn't mean it and those who think along the lines of what i was suggesting and are taking these kinds of dastardly steps, please don't do it, that's not in his nature. >> i don't think it is frankly. but at least he has to draw a clear line between this tenor of abuse and personal attack and acrimony and raise his discussion. he can set the example. he can start talking about

policies based upon facts, based upon what's in the best interests of the united states. we can disagree about that. it doesn't have to be personalized. it doesn't have to be really frankly a reality tv post going for ratings. it's got to be the president. >> you've been in washington for a while, been around for a while. have you ever seen anything like this emanating, the kind of language from the president of the united states? >> no, all of presidents i've had the opportunity to work with, george herbert walker bush, president obama, have took it upon themselves to raise the level if they thought the public was slipping into personalized attacks, and they did it in a very conscious way. they looked upon the presidency as an office that had to be respected and their behavior had to reflect the kind of solemn and important duties. >> i know you take this very seriously. you and i went to iraq together

and back several years ago. you're a former army ranger. you work hard as a politician as a united states senator, but also you remember your military background. it's very disturbing to see what's going on right now. >> i think it is. again, you think about the thousands and thousands of young americans all across the globe that are dedicating themselves to our protection. i don't think they'd behave this way. they understand the respect and they understand the importance of what they say and what they do. >> they want some important, poi important words from the president, the commander in chief right now. poppy go ahead. >> reporter: you can hear the sirens. we're joined by former fbi special agent. now that this additional threat

has been discovered, the white powder, not determined if that is an actual threat but something they want to check out, how long and how will they determine if this is a fake powder or more concerning? >> they'll probably take this up to rodman's neck and do it there. i'm not a chemist. there's three things this could be. one, it could still be an explosive. c-4 comes in a powdered form. it could be ricin and it could be anthrax. they'd be able to that's and determine it right away. it could also be talcom powder. >> the other devices that we reported on previously were rudimentary but functional. you have now seen, i think guys in the control room, if we can pull it up on the screen what

the actual package looked like, addressed to cnn and john brenan. what you have gleaned from looking closely at everything we can see on the picture of the packa package? >> i'm just looking at the package talking to former bomb technicians that have worked these things. the way it looks on the outside, the way people send these out if they're amateur, there's generally a lot of tape or strings, excessive postage. the last thing a bombmaker wants is for that to be sent back to them. the device could possibly be either pvc piping, cast iron or something like that. where bombmakers struggle is where they're trying to seal the device. this has two end caps on it. generally speaking, some of the explosive residue, black powder, something like that, gets caught in the threads, that's where bomb makers meet their demise trying to put the device together. working with the fbi and the new

york police department, they're telling me that looks clearly like an amateur device. it's sad but since 1971 obviously can you find these recipes in places, whether in books or online and unfortunately that's where somebody that this does not look like from the outside of this like something that somebody that had experience in this would have put together. >> reporter: so now you have multiple devices you've discovered. you have in your possession, now, that you can test for information, intelligence. you also have a pattern of targets here. does that give you enough -- and again it's early -- to potentially find who sent these things? >> yes, with a caveat. the number one thing that police are doing,make sure no one gets hurt, crisis resolution. people looking at devices or potential devices right now, oily residue on a package, stamped do not fragile,

excessive tape, those are things to key in on. every bomb maker, they're just like bakers, they have their own special signature, how they crimp the wires, the tool marks, how they tape it up and type out the address. >> thank you for your expertise. we're going to stand by, jim and i here. we're just about a block away from cnn, which is still closed because they're looking at what that white powder could be. we'll go back to the studio in d.c. >> i do want to reset what we know right now. any moment now the president is expected to deliver a speech where he's likely to address these devices that have been sent to public officials and offices today. a pipe bomb appeared to be mailed to the time warner center, which is where cnn is