>> merry christmas to everyone. i wish you nothing but health and happiness. >> merry christmas, merry christmas. merry christmas and thanks for tuning in. >> fox news alert on this christmas morning from nashville. you are looking at video into fox news. witnesses report seeing a huge cloud of smoke billowing from an area where a number of businesses are located. we don't know right now if anyone was hurt but we understand emergency responders are on the scene. people on the scene, eyewitnesses say it appears an rv of some type exploded. the tennessee office of emergency management told fox news there did not appear to be foul play. we will work our sources and talk to the police to understand a little bit more about what happened in nashville. and we are learning about new covid related travel

restrictions coming in overnight that now start days from now. taking the surge, surging in london, a new strain of the virus. good morning, merry christmas, welcome to this edition of "america's newswroom" leland vittert, if we didn't know it was christmas all we needed to do was look at your shirt. >> we are both like a christmas tree this morning. i'm julie banderas, merry christmas to all of you at home joining us this morning, rainy morning in this morning. sandra smith is off. the cdc said anyone on monday coming from the u.k. will be required to have a negative covid test before boarding. if airline travelers refuse they can deny entry into the u.s. this comes as a new and more contagious strain of the virus spreads in britain and beyond. >> it is yet more transmissible

and appears to have mutated further than the variance discovered in the u.k. >> this is what happened in the spring. it is deja vu. they lost track of the virus. >> leland: live in new york city the governor mayor called for this and now they have it this morning, good morning. >> good morning to you leland and julie. this comes on the heels of andrew cuomo blasting the trump administration really all week long sagging they did not take quick enough action once this virus was known over the weeke weekend. they wanted nation wide travel restrictions and how they have got them. the governor will now require travelers from the u.k. to show they have had a negative covid-19 test within three days of departure and the statement of dvds don't make cdc said must confirm negative results for passengers before they board.

if a passenger chooses not to take a test, they are line must deny boarding to the passenger appear at the cdc said u.k. travel has been down 90% because of travel restrictions in place since march, but there are still six flights expected to come in today for london. landing in the new york area with major airports. and they have potential, guys with travelers. that is why new york governor mandated a similar testing requirement earlier this week. british airways, virgin atlantic requiring passengers from england to show that they have had a negative covid test before they get on a plane headed to new york. united now joins them next week with flights arriving to new jersey, new work new - new t and no strains in the u.s., not in new york just yet, but just t

underway here in this state so we will have to wait and see, guys. >> leland: wait and see indeed indeed, the strain is already here. i shoul aishah, thank you. >> julie: the massive coronavirus aid and government funding bill is on its way to president trump's desk as we speak but after house republicans blocked democrats efforts, the increase in direct payment checks from $600 to $2,000 as the president demanded, it is still unclear if he will sign it a version of the government shutdown. chad pergram is live on capitol hill. merry christmas to you, chad to. >> thank you. >> julie: what is happening today? >> we are waiting to see whether president trump is willing to sign or veto this bill. this caught everybody on hill off guard, quite frankly. they thought they had negotiated with the president. he did not outright threaten a veto but president trump may not even have to veto the bill

appear the constitution requires the president to sign or veto a bill in ten days, send is excluded. if this comes before the end of a congressional session, he can simply ignore the bill. this is called a pocket veto. the president puts the veto in his pocket in this session of congress ends january 3rd and like the bill never even happened. democrats are outraged. >> he doesn't give a damn about people. he threw kerosene on a fire. >> only house republicans voted no on a bill and one was g.o.p. colorado representative ken bu ken buck. >> in this covert relief pack we are giving money to pakistan. we are giving money all over the world really and not focusing on those who needed the most most here at home. >> president trump has made this demand for $2,000 direct payment checks, something not in the bill, $600 is what the lawmakers

agreed to. that was thought to be a poisoned bill. house speaker nancy pelosi will put a bill on the house for monday night to provide for $2,000 in stimulus checks. they will tear republicans to oppose the president there because they didn't want that in the bill the first time around. also something they have to do here is fund the government. if the president will not sign or veto the bill, the government is not funding and the funding would expire monday night. the house would move the interim measure but the sun is not back until tuesday. that is why we are looking at the real prospect of a shutdown between christmas and new year's, julie. >> leland: john bessie joins us a associate at the editor. merry christmas to you, john. >> merry christmas. in playbook this morning, jake

sherman tweeting "trump has republicans in a horrible bind, and they are getting blamed for the week funding impact." fair analysis? >> well, probably a good analysis as any of this because it really caught everybody off guard appeared republicans had passed this bill, the senate appropriations committee controlled by republicans had endorsed all of the provisions of the defense bill as well as the stimulus bill, including $600 paycheck to people, the stimulus check to everyone. democrats had signed off on that. the president had been watching these proceedings and for $600 was no surprise. all of us have been talking about that for weeks as compromise number spirits and other republicans find themselves in a difficult position. we went john, you are laying this out well. i guess the question is if hughes understood for your sources and from the

white house, what is the president strategy or what is the present strategy? >> i'm not sure there is one. i think he has caught everyone off guard. it might be the president being at this point upset about a number of other things, and that coming through in this debate over this particular bill. upset over having lost the election come upset over the fact republicans slowly but surely endorsing the presidency of joe biden, which was legally one and the president has been fighting that. this is a way for the president to exert authority. now he hasn't vetoed the bill, so we don't know exactly which way he plans to go. >> leland: it is a good point, he said it was horrible and used other adjectives, but he hasn't vetoed it. look at the key dates going forward, chad pergram laid a

number else, but december 26 current aid package set to expire, december 28 potential government shutdown, january 3rd 3rd congress adjourns and somewhere in their december 31st who also have the rent controls and eviction moratoriums expiring as well as the enhanced employment insurance. based on all of that, what is the chance that the president signs it and says, but i just want another bill with additional money? >> it is entirely possible. the president has also said he doesn't like the foreign aid in the defense bill. so what do the republicans do? do the republicans reopen that bill which had been endorsed by both houses and cut foreign aid? that is going to be a difficult process if they try to undertake that. do they defy their own decision earlier to keep it at $600 and try to raise it $2,000 come a lot of republicans would not. they would feel the spending has

gotten out of hands. they have already made their decision. they don't want to reopen that. on the other hand, if the congress is counting on a veto of what the president might do, in other words, an overwrite of the veto, they may not get that out here. some republicans have sided with the $600 figure that now feel they have to support the president on his new number. so this is fairly chaotic. it is that if bad time. >> leland: it is amazing to me to think it is happening on christmas. christmas morning we are trying to figure out what news there is to talk about and everything is wrapped up for the year. the governments bonded and on and on. the 11th hour but sort of extended over. i talked to a number of house republicans who had plans for next week who had already left town. most have left town. they plan on going on vacation. this has got to be difficult to figure this out even in good times come as you would say in

chaos and do this in a week but the week between christmas and new year's makes it all the harder i in a pandemic. >> makes the order and a major government funding bill as well as the stimulus bill. we have to keep that in mind, $1.4 trillion in government funding. the president is given to, you know, chaotic gestures and movement and this is one of them. unfortunately, this isn't just resolved with continuing resolution which is entirely possible. the congress can write up a short-term spending bill to get them past this problem. it creates an enormous amount of uncertainty for people who are being hammered by the coronavirus, which in itself has been catastrophically mismanaged. the national plan for addressing the coronavirus. >> leland: you can imagine a lot of folks on christmas morning were sitting around and

counting on $600 checks coming in next week. that is very unlikely to have that happen. who knows what that means for them when you try to put christmas presents under the tree and buy food for their family. so lost and this may be the american people. we appreciate your time as always especially on a christmas morning and merry christmas to you and yours. >> my pleasure. you too. >> julie: so we could take years to fully understand the true scope of the fat mass of suspected russian cyber attack on several u.s. government agencies appear that according to experts who say the hack was so severe that it is unclear jut how much damage was really done. for more on what the experts are saying look like a massive intel failure, we have the empire from the justice department deputy director of affairs. merry christmas to you and thank you for coming on this morning. so there is apparently a lot more we don't understand about the depths of the suspected

russian cyber attack. what do we know at this point? >> well, what we know is there is a company called solar winds out of texas that had roughly 33,000 clients, many of which were government department, government agencies. so the hacker, but they did, they essentially hacked into the company and put in place a code that would then be pushed to all those clients through a software update. so just like on your phone, you get software update, you hit "yes" and when they hit "yes" this code basically was uploaded into their system and it allowed whoever the perpetrator was for at least nine months that we know of to basically monitor communications at several of the highest levels of government. >> do you think we have let our guard down when it comes to russia? i know so much focus has been on china and their power, but it almost seems like russia has not necessarily been at the front

stage as you will for the center stage what could potentially be a cyber attack. did we let our guard down? >> i would say we let our guard down with respect to china. these are countries that have different goals. china's goal is to dominate the world economy. they may come in and steal secrets, steal intellectual property. they are trying to advance themselves where russia is all about bringing us down, creating chaos. i think we certainly have a lot of work to do. this has been around nine months. and we are going to have to continue to try to stay ahead. obviously, you are looking at hackers. everything we do they are one step of the ohmic ahead of the game as we would be united states government, it is always easier to be on offense in those situations. >> julie: from the start last week secretary state mike pompeo and attorney general bill barr, they pointed to russia when asked about the source of the attack. but you will remember

president trump downplayed the hack when he tweeted the cyber hack is far greater fake news media then all actuality. he pointed to china being the possible culprit, which is why i just brought china. we know china was not the culprit. the question is though how does this impact a turning point on how the u.s. government needs to handle russia? >> well, look, as i said, both china and russia are to the united states, we need to deal with both of them. we can't look at train and exclude russia and we can't look at russian does gnomic excludes north korea and iran. they are threats to the united states security. i would say some folks call it the declaration of war and we need to be careful with that kind of language because we have operations as well. the last thing we want is for the cyber intrusions and be considered an act of war to escalate things beyond where we want to go. >> julie: all right, and prior, thank you so much for

joining us on christmas morning. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> speaking of christmas, celebrations like everything else look a lot different this year because of the pandemic as you enjoy the morning with your family come over pope francis iy christmas eve, the basilica barely had 200 patrons. coronavirus in bethlehem, the place of with a few people in hand for the arrival of the catholic clergyman in the holy land. >> julie: a grim new pandemic milestone at home as one state becomes the first to top 2 million cases. it's icu beds in one region at 100% capacity so officials are responding. plus from shocking prison sentences for some celebrities to another joining the presidential race. 2020 was full of surprises. we will take a look back coming

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♪ >> leland: this is video of a big explosion in downtown nashville coming into us. as you can see sunrise on christmas morning, they are clouds of smoke billowing from the area. there are a number of businesses in downtown nashville. we understand emergency responders on the scene. investigators say it appeared to have been an rv that exploded. we talked about folks to tennessee office of emergency management and they do not think that all players involved. this video taken from a driving car. we are checking with police contacts as we know more. we will continue to look at the headlines christmas morning. merry christmas to you and your family. the cdc to require negative covid test for u.k. travelers before entering the

united states. the new restrictions begin monday as a new and more strain of the virus is spreading elsewhere and in the united kingdom. the covert relief bill and government spending package to president trump in florida. the actual bill, a white christmas, maybe not this much snow. a winter storm has brought blizzard conditions to the midwest. the snow to the south, big rain in the northeast. for these stories and more the fox news app, go to foxnews.com/app. there is a grim new milestone in the pandemic. california has now become the first state to record more than 2 million coronavirus cases. less than two months after hitting 1 million mark. christina coleman life in los angeles. christina big locked down in california one of the most restrictive state and you have to wonder what this means for

hospitals now. >> that is right, leland. this is tough for hospitals as covid cases sore and hospital 0% zero whited. california added 1 million new infections in six weeks, more than 3900 covid patients are currently in icu units. california used to have low per capita case rate because of the huge size of the population, but that rate has skyrocketed. we have the second highest per capita case rate in the country right now after tennessee. and the state's largest county, l.a. county 148 deaths reported on christmas eve. that breaks the record we just set the day before with 145 fatalities. nearly 5500 people are currently hospitalized with a virus in l.a. county alone and 20% of them are in icu. county health officials say that is another new high and some hospital administrators say they are past their breaking point.

>> california is in a crisis mode and its health care systems. we are breaking records we do not want to break more gnomic, number of admissions for covid, and patients in our icus. sadly, the number of mortalities that we are witnessing. >> julie: also health officials fear an even larger surge in covid cases because of holiday travel. leland. >> leland: getting to the doctor a little later in the show, christina, thank you. all right, the clock is quite literally ticking against the stimulus showdown possible shutdown. the time is literally running out, our spirit about whether or not there will be a deal and ifo deal, who gets the blame, members of congress met months dragging their feet and arguing over covid release. will they hold him responsible, president trump to reduce foreign aid.

former special assistant to george w. bush, matt bennett cofounder of third way and former clinton white house deputy assistant, both with festive christmas backgrounds. thank you gentlemen, good to see you both. you guys offer a unique perspective. you've been in the white house traveling with the president with these last-minute things. let's start with you, brad. this is a high-stakes part of the deal either bluff or demand. >> brad: well, when is a covid bill not a covid bill? what is a budget bill? we have seen this every year whether a public administration or democrat, you always go down to the wire, the last minute, even though the fiscal year for the government is october 1st. it always seems to be around christmas and new year's just when the year is ending for the american people. and they hold them hostage. this is a budget bill and masquerading as a covid bill. it is an absolute disgrace to hold covid and the budget hostage at this time of year.

there should have been a bill in the summer but nancy pelosi would not permit it. >> leland: this goes to the very issue of who will get the blame, matt. the president is saying come i want twodollars for every family making less than $75,000 a year. if it doesn't happen. there is a chance the democrats get blamed for this? >> matt: no way. for all of brad's hoping, it's not going to be nancy pelosi's fault. they passed a bill early summer. they have been wanting more money for people, $2,000 and she put that bill on the floor yesterday. $2,000. the problem first was mitch mcconnell and the congressional republicans, but they fought through the differences, and they got to a bill of the problem now has one singular issue, and it is donald trump. he waited into this for reasons known -- >> leland: the problem or the

hang up, you may be right commit was president trump everybody thought tuesday night we had a deal. then he came out and said, by the way, we don't. if you look at the dates december 26 the current aid package to expire tomorrow and the government shut down on the 28th, january 3rd current congress adjourns. brad, sometimes people who are to blame don't get the blame. if you are at home hanging out wondering where your stemless check is and why dings are so dysfunctional, but the seems to have put those in the senate and a pretty tough bind. >> brad: no come i don't think so at all, leland. the president is sticking up for the worker. the american who is sitting at home and not having a merry christmas today because of nancy pelosi playing games. donald trump said all along, even in the summertime when fighting for a covid bill, we can't afford a $3 trillion covid

bill, which, my friend said was passed through the house. >> leland: brad, you have been a washington long enough to know that you can't change billions in foreign aid packages were a couple hundred billion dollars in foreign aid packages. renegotiate government spending and then also do the stimulus checks in four days. that just doesn't happen. it's >> brad: that is exactly right. that is the point. why wasn't this a clean stemless bill? why wasn't this a stand-alone stimulus bill? instead of cooperating 5,000 page budget document that nobody has read to include a lot of relief that has nothing to do with covid and by the way, it's not even deserved. for the american people to be spending money what they can't afford to. >> leland: you look at what is happening in georgia right now. early votes 2 million already come already more than half a billion dollars in spending on advertising alone. we are still two weeks away.

a week and a half away from the georgia senate race. matt, both jon ossoff and raffaella warnock are running against president trump. that seems to be their strategy, but you have president trump out here saying i want $2,000 for covid relief. that is a tough message to run against, isn't it? >> no because you came in way too late. >> leland: matt, really, matt, hold on. we all pay attention to the stuff minute-by-minute and on twitter reading it, but the generic georgia voter pay attention to it every second? president trump came in too late so therefore we don't get credit. i'm standing up for the workers, and i want a $2,000 check. democrats aren't providing it. isn't that a talking point democrats have to deal with? >> matt: they may try, but as you noted, warnock has a lot of money to communicate. they will communicate to georgians this was trump coming

in at the last minute with no rationale, surprising the republicans and the senate and the house, and blowing this deal up for literally no reason. the reason, actually, mitch mcconnell and others in the senate aren't backing he backing his insane conspiracy theories about the election. so now he's throwing a temperature temperature ham prim and then playing golf while millions are struggling. >> leland: . >> leland: of the agreement so many americans are facing the worst christmas of their life in so many ways. there is an agreement there, and solving that problem and who should get the blame, gentlemen, matt, brad, appreciate it. i hope you have a merry christmas traveling with respective president on the road and hope you guys get time with your families, good to see you both. thanks. >> merry christmas. >> leland: thank you.

a lot of us probably even based on that conversation feel that 2021 cannot come soon enough. the devastating virus shut down the world and in many ways, 2020 was a year like none other. like every year a share of celebrity scandals and filmic scandals, and we take a look lok back. >> there was not a short of scandalous headlines to go around from royal drama to tiger king, we take a look back at the year in the scandals. next, the royal news that sent shock waves around the world, the duke and duchess to step back from the royal duties in january. the couple and their son, or to making the move across the pond settling in the dutch's home state of california. prince andrew also stepping out of the spotlight due to admitted friendship with jeffrey epstein. the prince saying allegations of inappropriate relationships with minors are not true. the department of justice though saying they would like to speak with the press as part of their

investigation. longtime talk show host and comedian ellen degeneres is known for permitting kindness -- promoting kindness but several on her show site or workplace a. the show opening investigations of allegations of intimidation, racial insensitivity and misconduct. 2020 a major blow to actor johnny depp's career, ruling against the actor and his explosive libel lawsuit. a judge finding claims published in the son of abusive behavior towards his ex amber heard were so substantially true. judgment day for disgraced movie marco harvey weinstein, sitting 23 years behind bars with sexual assault and rate in the third degree, lori locklin making a big trip to the house, beginning their senates and filmic sentence because of a admission scandal. rapper kanye west throws his hat

in the race for president after shocking campaign event in south carolina that covered topics from relationship with kim kerr kim kardashian, kanye dropped out of the race and though his name did appear on some state ballots across the country. >> glee star liam michelle apologizing over the summer after costars came forward alleging abusive behavior by the star saying she was extremely difficult to work with onset. and late-night talk show host jimmy fallon issuing an apology after "saturday night live" sketch resurfaced after two decade showing fallon and blackface with comedian chris rock. he said he made a terrible decision. >> they will have to kill me to shut me up. >> netflix tiger king seem to have viewers and a call like grip this year. the docuseries with a heated rivalry between animal keeper joe exotic and animal rights

activists carol baston. everything from joe exotic murder for hire against baskin that she fed her missing husband to her tigers. >> this is what i have to do to get some tigers in. >> more royal drama with netflix show the crown. the show garnered plenty of betrayal of the reign of queen elizabeth, some have called for netflix to add a warning for viewers that the show was primarily a work of fiction. in the world of sports, mlb to deal with the fallout from 2017 controversy. the boston red sox parting ways with alex cora in january. he was accused of planning and executing a scene when a coach for the for the houston astros and boston red sox where he would use technology to decode signals used by opposing teams d then relay information to the players to give them an advantage. the discovery of a noose in the of the only black driver bubba watson stunned drivers and fans over the summer.

but after their investigation, the fbi determined wallace was not the target of a hate crime. there were plenty of faux pas' to go around this year, both california governor gavin newsom and house speaker nancy pelosi caught violating covid-19 restrictions. newsom seen dining out with a large group of people with no social distancing in force. the speaker was seen inside of the san francisco salon without wearing a face mask. no doubt, there will be plenty of scandalous headlines in 2021. we will be there to cover it all for you. in new york ainsley earhardt, fox news. we went a rocket attack on the u.s. embassy in baghdad is raist possible war in the middle east. how does it shape up for joe biden's plans working with a iran. and the top space advisors wanted to cooperate with china despite those concerns about beijing stealing our text. so what would a limited

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the downtown districts. earlier reported it may be an suv. emergency responders on the scene but no major injuries. the office emergency of management said there does not appear to be foul play. obviously, a lot more to learn about this 9:40 eastern time downtown nashville. politico has been reporting the top advisors to joe biden urging the president-elect to cooperate with china on space exploration despite growing concerns over beijing stealing american technology and data. biden's advisors a limited partnership with tensions between the two nations. gordon chang with the author of "the collapse of china" and the institute, good to see you merry christmas as always, we appreciated. >> merry christmas, leland. >> leland: is cooperating with china in these kind of ways ever worked out for the united states?

>> no, it hasn't. and especially what might be coming down the road. because china is trying to militarize space. they are ahead in certain critical technologies. they are going to get to them in some time by 2028-2029. they are going to try to find the helium-3 but will establish a military base. by the way, they will try to exclude other nations from getting to the moon. that, you can learn from the comments of the head of china's lunar exploration program. they want to keep everybody else out. that is why they want to get their first. >> leland: frank was a former congressman china has taken a lot from the united states. china is catching up ahead of them. china has a lot more to learn from the united states owe any cooperation would mean they take from us, not that we take from them. the chinese would beg to differ on this point, obviously. but you have to look at what the

chinese do rather than what they say and perhaps the evidence of the islands among other places? >> yes and clearly china tries to steal $150 billion to $160 billion intellectual property each year the director of national intelligence john radcliffe but that figure at 500 billion. so we are dealing with these teams and i don't see how you cooperate. you can put limited safeguards in place and all sorts of things but we know at the lower levels, scientists like to cooperate. they like to share. that is where we lose our technology and where they purposely go after low-level scientists on these cooperation projects. so all these safeguards that we say are putting in place, they really don't mean very much. >> leland: that may be what we know about in terms of safeguard. i'm interested because this comes a couple of days after the axios reporting about the

chinese spy in san francisco that made her way into a number of democratic political circles. i'm wondering if you feel as though we are being naive if we think that 2010, china policy and reporting back to that cooperation is going to work. >> yeah, we are certainly being naive. we don't understand the militancy of the chinese regime. we are afraid to talk out loud about the nuclear goals. clearly, we do not understand it. as ronald reagan said, you have to understand the nature of these regimes. yes, the american people are just like the chinese people, but that doesn't mean the american government is like the communist party of china. it certainly is not. >> leland: gordon, speaking of the chinese communist party run by the man on the screen, president xi ping, and a profile that came out and for those who haven't read it, i'm interested, do you have any key takeaways that apply to what we are

talking about and how the incoming president should look at china, perhaps differently than he did as vice president? >> yes, the big take away here and this is not just america but people in democratic societies in general. we deluded ourselves about china because we wanted to think certain things about the chinese regime. so yes, the chinese tried to deceive us, but we want to be deceived as the chinese say. so therefore, we look and just a renewal of pope. it always happens with a new chinese leader, leland, we hope it will be better than the next but it never works out that way. >> leland: hope may be a keyword. "the wall street journal" piece is how the u.s. misread china, hoping for an autocratic. you've been talking about this more than "the wall street journal" has from the very beginning, gordon, we always appreciate you spending time with us. merry christmas to you and your

wife as well. we appreciate the time. >> thanks, leland. hello and merry christmas to you. >> leland: merry christmas. the pope on christmas had to appeal to the nations of the world. what is calling on countries to do when it comes to the covid vaccine. plus, this man's dad is an army veteran and his family just got a big holiday surprise. they will be here to share a little bit more about this price and what it means for their family next. ♪ when it comes to autism,

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♪ >> leland: welcome back. merry christmas to you in years. amid the pandemic and politics, often times the worst of times brings out the best in americans. brandon swan and his wife taylor went home last year. a few months ago they had a baby named finley. there is the baby and there is the mom. finley has a serious heart condition so the family living at the local ronald mcdonald house and not able to move into their their new home yet. not only were these there are mortgage paid off but decorating the ronald mcdonald house temporarily called home. joining us from the ronald mcdonald house, nice to see both of you. merry christmas. brandon, i'm wondering when you understood what was happening, what was your first thoughts? >> well, because of finley, they

decided -- when they first told me that, just kind of hard to believe the applets to regular people. now i don't have to work my life away and do all the overtime all the time and go to work, after the hospital, back to the hospital as much. >> leland: and you can spend more time with finley. taylor, tell us how she's doing and what you are all thinking about when she might be able to come back to your new house? >> he's been great. we are able to finally go home soon. a very, very long road. five months from now, the last thing we are working on is getting the breathing under control to an oxygen level where he can safely go home. >> leland: i'm looking at his pictures and what a smile on his

face, even through all the tubes. brandon, i'm interested you were in the army, veterans united also paid off 11 other home loans and what they call make it mean more campaign. i'm just trying to tie your time in the army to this. the fact that they've done this has got to make you feel good about those four years you spent serving all of us and away from home. >> yeah, a mean, you know, god has a plan for all of us. and right now, so -- >> leland: finley is lucky to have both of you as parents as dedicated as you are and been at the ronald mcdonald house. we hope you get to celebrate christmas a little bit. you look at the pictures veterans united to put together for outside of the ronald mcdonald house. what a story you will have to tell your son.

merry christmas to you both. >> merry christmas. >> merry christmas. >> leland: we will be back. and there is a new covert rule coming into effect quite literally on christmas event to christmas. it will affect international travelers. the united states will soon require some americans to test negative before they can come back home. plus, millions of americans waiting for congress and president trump relief on covid relief set to expire tomorrow. the president has the bill. we will talk about his options when we come back. ♪ advanced non-small cell lung cancer can take away so much. but today there's a combination of two immunotherapies you can take first. one that could mean... a chance to live longer. opdivo plus yervoy is for adults newly diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer that has spread and that tests positive for pd-l1

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big apple and move south from hyde tax burdens and other restrictions. >> we have an incredible city that is booming, growing almost by double digits on average for the three years i've been here. and into the future. if you are looking to headquarter in miami to have access to capital and markets across the world, i think that can differentiate from any city in the united states. >> leland: has we talked about, new york state continues to impose the nation's highest tax burdens on business while florida does not have state income taxes. check out this. you might call it a christmas miracle, when lucky slot player in las vegas hit the jackpot new year's eve. the sun kevin cook took home $15.5 million. and he reportedly only put $40 into the machine before winning.

the casino owner said the biggest slot jackpot nevada has seen in eight years. merry christmas. breaking news this christmas morning from nashville. in the explosion that has rocked downtown nashville sent heavy black smoke and flames into the sky. emergency crews right now are on the scene. welcome to a brand-new hour of "america's newswroom." lee lim fedor, sandra smith has their holiday off. we are learning that police in nashville reportedly believe this explosion was an intentional act. in southeast newsroom with the latest on this comet hi, charles. >> lee lynn, the metro police say this is connected to a vehicle that exploded second avenue and commerce downtown nashville. multiple reports right now say that parked rv was in the middle-of-the-road and exploded around 6:30 this morning sending

heavy, black smoke into downtown nashville. the police fire and federal authorities are on the scene investigating right now. we are told they are being very cautious around this explosion site. the video posted to social media show a very chaotic scene moments after the explosion. and in one video, there appears to be a video on fire near buildings that appeared to have been badly damaged from the explosion. an individual we spoke to this morning with the metro police department could not confirm any details but said he could feel the explosion rattled the ground as he made his way into work this morning. right now we know from metro ohmic nashville police three people transmitted to the hospital but none of those serious at this hour. leland, as you mentioned, metro national police believe this explosion may have been intentional. the police, local fire, and the federal authorities on the ground investigating as we speak.

of course, we will keep following the story as more details developed, legal end. >> leland: as we watch this video, you see the plume of smoke coming from downtown nashville. you mention second commerce street. there are a number of bars, pedestrian walk right by the river. the melting pot bar, the brazilian steak house, beer store, bellsouth, cell phone store, pizza joint, the coyote ugly, the blues club. you would hope on a morning, on a christmas morning like this, thankfully they would not be anybody out and about. as you noted some injuries and thankfully none of them appear at the time to be life-threatening. looking at the ap wire, emergency crews are there. black smoke and flames coming out. the metro national office of emergency management told the nashville public station wk are in a parked recreational rv

damage the building and the explosion did not seem suspicious so we get the rv point and now we hear that this christmas morning explosion appears to be an intentional act. times like this, you end up with the fbi coming in, the atf coming in and asked charles mentioned, you have a number of federal authorities who responded and typically in a situation where everything slows down dramatically who is injured and getting those people out. you can see the video from buck mcquay on facebook which is right and by. which appears to have been very significant. you can imagine if that street was packed with people going out last night. it would be a different situation than what happened this morning where charles reports there were only a couple of minor injuries. if things slow way down, then the investigation begins. the bomb squad comes in and

clears any vehicles nearby to make sure there is not additional danger there. then they go in and assess the buildings to make sure they are not structurally damaged. and then the investigation begins of who owned the rv and who is behind this. we just checked with the cruise, this is a live picture from nashville, right? not live, taped right now and down the street where we see the ambulance and fire trucks. charles, i'm interested as you have been trying to talk to folks, have you gotten any information on who the people who were in here are? were they living down in that area or walking around on christmas morning? >> leland, we'd have not gotten a lot of information about this incident in general. not a lot of details about the victims transported to the hospital and why they were in the area this morning. whether they were out on a run, walk, or going into work, but obviously, there were folks out this morning.

as you mentioned, there are videos on social media moments after this major explosion where you can see vehicles on fire and the surrounding buildings. there were people in the street. luckily there were not more people entered this morning when you consider all the videos. >> leland: did this happen at 6:30 a.m., the national police department twitter account. buck mccoy whose video we referenced on the ground gives us the best perspective of the cars burning and others. he lives in the area and posted on facebook, water pouring down from the ceiling of his home. and you can hear -- be quiet for a second and we will put the gnats out. [screaming]

>> leland: it appears as though you are hearing the video, the screams of people possibly injured. we know there were a number of them. all my windows, that blown into the next window. if i had been standing there, it would have been horrible -- this is buck mcquay -- it felt like a bomb. it was that big. buck talked to the associated press. there were four cars on fire and i don't know if it was hot so they caught on fire in the trees were blown apart. we are going to let charles go and work some of his sources and check in with the federal authorities who came in. with that we bring in ted williams, former d.c. homicide detective and former federal agent. you hear the nashville police now saying this appears to be an intentional act. no critical injuries, but that word intentional act changes everything, doesn't it, ted? >> leland you are absolutely

right, it changes everything. now we know that this is perhaps a criminal investigation. the first thing they are trying to do, leland, is to make sure they clear the scene. that they make sure that there are no explosive devices or other explosive devices there. and they are going to have to work on this. but this is definitely a very catastrophic event taking place here this morning in nashville. >> leland: obviously, the fact of these are extremely slim but we know 6:30 in the morning is when this large explosion occurred. they think it came from an rv, which is the initial report. as we look at that video from ground level, the destruction is pretty significant. if it is an intentional act, what do you make of the fact -- oh, now we have a life's pictures. a helicopter shot from our

affiliates in nashville. the burned-out car, and ted i don't know if you are near your tv, but if they zoom back in, it looks like a pedestrian area with bars, restaurants downtown. if this had happened 6:30 at night restaurants in tennessee are open, we would have a different situation than 6:30 in the morning. >> you are absolutely right. this would have happened any other time other than the time here early in the morning, we could very well be looking at more catastrophic. but no doubt about it, there have been injuries, but not any deaths reported at this immediate time. but you have the bomb squad, you have federal agencies on as well as the local agencies that are on that scene. it is now, i'm sure, considered a crime scene.

and as a result of that, you will find a tmf, will take over that scene there because this certainly as they have said and reported is intentional. so that is deeply concerning. and what is more concerning, leland, there are other areas that will be affected in the city of nashville. and i'm sure law enforcement and otheareon alert with other exple that they have taken place in nashville. >> leland: these are live pictures sky 5 in north carolina and what is called intentional act of a large explosion in downtown nashville. the area that you are looking at right now is a very popular bar and restaurant area downtown asheville. the explosion happened

6:30 a.m., that is 6:30 a.m. central time zone two and a half hours ago. and you can see that it destroyed much of the ground level of the entire city block where they were as a number of bars and restaurants, cafes, ted williams and former federal agent is with the spirit you mentioned a good point, we have seen things happen on christmas before the shoe bomber and othes like this. how difficult is it to get things going from a federal response at 7:00 a.m. christmas morning versus eight or 10:00 in the morning on a tuesday mornin? >> well it is somewhat difficult because it is a holiday. normally on holidays, you know, in this country, we are pretty relaxed. but i must tell you, i am sure law enforcement plans for these times of unfortunate activity. one of the things that they are

going to be looking at strongly, leland, in this area will be videotape. because the videotape in this area and most of the area in nashville. and i am familiar with this area. there are video cameras throughout the area. so we will let some place the explosion itself, i believe and also, they are made very well that supposedly -- >> leland: we are looking here at different pictures. we are looking at different pictures now, ted. >> to make sure everyone is safe in the area. and then after that, they will start processing it is a crime scene. >> leland: are national affiliates, this is shots from what is called their error. we are seeing with a horsing

real time. this appears to perhaps be a view down one of the streets towards where this explosion took place. it would be hard to imagine a couple of hours later that there are still cars on fire there. if you look where the fires are, there is a pretty big distance between them. the force of an explosion to set these cars on fire and to clear out this entire block of this business district has to be pretty significant. ted williams with us. ted, as we think about the issue you brought up which is the closed-circuit television cameras that will be all over an area like this, how long does it take from the time you start getting the atf and the fbi on scene to win they will be able to get those videos and those tapes? >> they have to move immediately. you must realize in light of the

fact, leland, there was this massive explosion in that area that some of those cameras could very well also have been damaged. and so they are going to have to search the area, i'm sure, plus some of those cameras. now what happens in most these metropolitan cities are that while you do have the cameras on the scene, there is a central area -- >> leland: ted to come i'm going to stop you for one second. >> video will come in so there will be a video feeding of what is taking place in downtown nashville, leland, i believe. >> leland: i'm going to stop you for one second. this is news from a local reporter at news channel 5 and helicopter pictures as well. chris davis reporting from metro nashville pd, before 6:00 this morning the police received a report of a suspicious vehicle on second avenue north outside of the at&t building.

an officer responded and investigating and had reason to call the hazardous device unit. based on the timing there, it would have been before 6:00 in the morning. the call came in and by 6:30, you had an explosion. something about the vehicle had whoever show up call out the hazardous device unit, which i think is a more technical term for the bomb squad, correct? >> yes, it is. but that is good information that you are feeding to the public right now, the viewers. because that means they had some time to make sure that the area was clear. and so i'm sure the that that officer and the fact that it was called in of a suspicious vehicle that they were able to clear that vehicle. and that saved a lot of lives, leland. >> leland: it certainly likely did that that phone call came in

and people paid attention even at 6:00 on christmas morning. ted, we appreciate you joining us here. obviously we will be back throughout the day and counting on your expertise. right now, it is about 9:15 in the morning christmas morning in nashville. a large explosion which the police call an intentional act. it appears there was in the explosion of the vehicle of some type. live pictures from overhead. you can see it destroyed what looks to be an entire block of downtown nashville. part of the very popular downtown bar and restaurant district there. we are checking with some of our federal sources as well. we understand the fbi and atf and route in the bomb squad trying to clear things. we will be right back when it comes to autism,

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♪ >> leland: fox news alert as we return to nashville, tennessee. right now 9:20 in the morning a massive explosion, it felt like a bomb come up when i witness and blew out every single one of my windows. this is a popular bar and nightclub area downtown nashville. second at commerce street if you've ever been out to a bar like coyote ugly. this is what is live.

live helicopter shows massive explosion at cars burning for a couple of hours. we bring in former cia dan hoffman with us now. dan, one would imagine if intentional act involved in an explosion, major american city christmas morning, there is a lot of people in your former line of work and job getting calls right now. >> yeah, there are pure there were three things going on, first technically at the same forensics. you have a car that blew up. that car presumably registered somewhere. there may be prints on that car. that can lead the police to determine whether those who committed this crime, this horrific act christmas day are still at large. are they planning follow-up attacks. third, where my former colleagues come into play cia, intelligence community at large, they are a component here and you can bet we can go out full court press with their sources, foreign lead to determine if that is the case.

>> leland: what do you make of this. this is one of the local reporters they are with quoting a police spokesperson before 6:00 a suspicious vehicle on second avenue outside of the at&t building. the officer responded and upon investigating a reason to call the hazardous device unit, the bomb squad out. they must have had some inkling whatever was going on was really out of place on christmas morning. >> yeah, that is your last opportunity to stop an attack, see something, say something, something out of place that shouldn't be there. i'm sure the police are looking at whether there was an opportunity to stop it a little farther left. the police have a lot of sources and networks, people who are potentially focused on trying to commit these sorts of facts. and in this case, they didn't obtain that information and was not able to stop it, but you're someone who spotted it and did

the right thing. >> leland: we have seen attacks on christmas mornings and christmas day before, specifically those shoe bomber from amsterdam to detroit, the flight that did not detonate. is there a significance now that happen christmas morning but at the same time it happened 6:30 in the morning christmas day when this downtown area was basically deserted compared to what it would have been like 12 hours ago with people going out for christmas eve dinner? >> so those are some of the questions we need to be answering. was this meant to go off 12 hours before and there were mistakes made to? those are things that i think we will learn in the coming days. you are absolutely right. the time of the attack 6:30 in the morning, relatively deserted area, it is not like a shoe bomber or oklahoma city bombing or something of that sorts were lots of innocent civilians would have been at risk. this is entirely different. again, we have a lot of facts that we still need to collect

before he make a definitive conclusion. >> leland: there are so few facts that law enforcement knows far fewer to be able to assign a cause or motive or reason. but as you look down this stre street, you've had a lot of training in things like this. looking at pictures just like this, what do you make how big of a bomb or explosive device was needed to cause this much damage? >> you know, i would probably have to leave that to the forensics and the police department. i mean, i've been around plenty of these sorts of acts overseas. and the level of the explosion you see here, it is pretty significant. and that is where when the police goes out and they do the forensics, they may be able to determine where these explosive materials originated, who

ultimately purchased it, and where they got it from. a small, silver lining in these dark clouds this morning on christmas day. >> leland: you think about in past explosions commit was the serial number off of the actual ryder truck of the oklahoma city bomber that ended up finding the man and the man responsible for that. dan hoffman on christmas morning, dan, we appreciate your expertise. standby. we are coming to you later in the show with exactly what's going on at the federal level. in the past few minutes in nashville, the police held a press conference about this explosion and about a phone call they got roughly a half an hour before the explosion. take a listen. >> we have multiple personnel here from hazmat team as well as special operations division working to support our local state and federal partners. right now we can report we made three transports to area hospitals. none of the transports are critical. >> leland: for those of you

just joining us right now at 10:24 easter and christmas morning there has been a large explosion downtown nashville on a fairly significant part of the downtown restaurant and entertainment district, second street and commerce we understand. the police got a little call before 6:00 a.m. central time here they called the bomb squad and about 6:30, there was a large explosion. it felt like a bomb said one eye witness. and now we see the aftermath. julie, when you talk to dan hoffman among others, it is hard to imagine this went up on christmas morning. they call it an intentional act. that sets off all sorts of alarm bells. >> julie: it certainly does. of course, just remind everyone at home, this is in the very early stages who we do not want to speculate one bit. but the fact this was potentially intentional act according to experts is really alarming to wake up to on

christmas morning in nashville. right now, live time right now is 9:25 central time. it is important to note that three people were injured, but none critically. that, quite frankly, is a miracle. if you look at the pictures, the devastation, the picture shows a building completely obliterated. it is just down to ashes. there was nothing left. the structure is gone. you see cars, you see steel, and that is it. the ground is all you see where that building stood up. we don't know the reason why what caused this explosion at this time, leland, but the pictures are certainly just horrifying. >> leland: we understand that there was a vehicle of some type that was parked at 6:00 a.m., suspicious vehicle and that is what blew up at 6:30. right now, you can see it didn't collapse the building. dan hoffman, former cia station

chief with us a little earlier talked about how you would need a pretty substantial amount of explosives to do this much damage. it felt like a bomb, said one eyewitness. there were four cars on fire and all the trees were blown apart. we will continue to check in with our sources both in atlanta and nashville as well. back in washington where the federal response is also getting organized on this christmas morning to what nashville call a intentional act, large explosion downtown asheville at 6:30 central time on christmas morning. we will be right back. mom, look! are you okay? head home this holiday with the one you love. visit your local mercedes-benz dealer today for exceptional lease

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always look for the grown in idaho seal. ♪ >> leland: fox news alert as we look live nashville, tennessee, down they entertainment district in that city where there was a large explosion about 6:30 this morning. a vehicle blew up. the police had been called with reports of a suspicious vehicle 30 minutes before. the officer showed up and agreed it was suspicious and called the bomb squad. 30 minutes later, there was a large explosion that the place call intentional act. a couple of people injured. none of them critically, we understand. these are helicopter pictures from wtvf. we understand in the federal part of the investigation to

figure out who was behind this explosion on christmas morning. big part of this, julie is going to be looking at the tv cameras and all the cameras around this area of a big bar area. you will have this rv and other things drive-in and perhaps who got out of it. what was interesting to me the note that dan hoffman made, which is it happen 6:30 this morning when the area was pretty much already empty. you imagine this 6:30 last night on christmas eve from a disney restaurant and entertainment district in tennessee, the restaurants are open. we could have had a very different situation 12 hours before or 1 12 hours later. >> julie: know, the timing is very suspicious, if you would appear at 6:30 in the morning christmas morning i'm driving around 9:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m. at the studio into the streets are empty. if you are doing harm or intent, massive harm you would think 6:30 in the morning would not be the most ideal peak time to do

mass damage. so i'm wondering if this went off prematurely. i'm wondering if that explosive devices on a timer and triggered early. if you are going to come again, trying to harm people, you pick a time where more foot traffic or more people in general. i want to get back to the investigation because this is early. we are just learning this was an intentional act. we don't know anymore than that. the fbi, as you mentioned, the atf in route to the scene to do their investigation. but just remember, we will not know the details as to who did this or how this happened and what the intent was for quite some time because investigators are obviously going to get the information until they know more. the police and the tennessee highway patrol come i understand are also conducting a shutdown of the area as they investigate and gain access to the area. you mentioned this happen second avenue. this is about downtown nashville. it is in between two buildings.

and you see the downed trees and the carnage, the cars that are ripped apart there. but when you look at the damage and you consider the fact there were only three people injured out there at this time and none of them were critically hurt, that is nothing short of a miracle, leland here that is something i'm sure many people are thinking of. this could have happened and been much, much worse. >> leland: you think that 30 minute notice to give police time whoever was on the streets off the streets as the bomb squad came in. we don't know if the bomb squad got there, it is christmas morning and not necessarily the team on standby. the right-hand side of your screen buck mccoy who lives in this area. i don't know if we can take that in turn the volume up at the chaos after the explosion is significant. take a listen. [screaming]

>> help, help! >> leland: that is an unmistakable scream of somebody, chilling really to think if you were home or going for a jog or whatever christmas morning and this huge explosion comes through. this is from buck talking to the associated press. all my windows come every single one of them got blown into the next room. if i had been standing there it would have been horrible. it felt like a bomb commit was that big and four cars on fire. i don't know if so hot it caught on fire. all the trees were blown apart. julie, as you think about this, we have seen christmas day attacks before. you would think most naturally about the shoe bomber on the flight from amsterdam to detroit on christmas day. but it would be hard to imagine this is a coincidence. >> julie: you are right.

i mean, there is obviously a message being given here and we don't know what that message is. at this point, we can just go based on facts. the experts are saying this was an intentional act. so clearly somebody was out to harm someone. and probably a lot of people if you put explosives in a car and park it on second avenue downtown nashville, your intent is to kill. so whoever, person or persons is behind this is looking at, you know murder charges, attempted murder charges for sure. but there is ill intent for sure. we don't know if it is directly tied to christmas, but it doesn't seem like much of a coincidence. as you mentioned, the shoe bomber another incident of terrorism. this by and large, if it is an intentional act, this is domestic terrorism. it happen on our soil and somebody tried to maim and kill americans. and so the experts not calling it that but eventually they will come out and title it that way.

we should be getting a news conference at some point by the fire department. you have the nashville highway patrol, the local police, fbi, atf all going to be on the scene there is a obviously have to make sure there are no other explosive devices. because there could be other explosive devices perhaps and other cars. so we will have to wait and see once they get what they uncover, leland. >> leland: it exactly, bernard in charge of the atf, bernard to come i can imagine there were a lot of times you got calls like this early in the morning and late at night about an explosion going off. take us through minute-by-minute what is happening the federal agents on the ground who are beginning this investigation? >> unfortunately, critical bombings in the united states are not uncommon. they are conducted for all types of motive and so the investigators from the get-go will not be assuming a motive. they will let the evidence speak right away. the fortunate thing is in a

bombing case, the use of explosive device, there is lots of evidence left behind. they will go through a very systematic way of assembling what happen and actually get to the point where they will know exactly what the device was. if everything, it is a giant pile of evidence right now. so there will be a lot of personnel, state, local, federal assigned to different leads to track down all the information. it will allow the information to speak with the most important suspects and people responsible. >> leland: bernardo, what do you make of the fact there is a call of a suspicious vehicle? you think about the timing. not a lot of people out christmas morning before 6:00 in the morning. you get a call about a suspicious vehicle and an officer comes and some believes

it is suspicious enough to call out the bomb squad christmas morning. and then 30 minutes later, there is an explosion. obviously, we will know as you point out the evidence will point to whether it was supposed to go off 6:30 in the morning were supposed to go off 6:30 last night or 6:30 tonight. but what do you make of the fact pattern waste on what we know? >> first off, the officers involved in making that call should be commended to peer that is significant serious public safety and police work right there. that is fantastic with their response. but i will say at this point, i would not assume anything about this thing because time and time again, bombing cases have demonstrated one thing seems very apparent. for example under the guise of a hate crime ineffectively insurance fraud or something appears to be potential terrorism case but in fact a domestic violence case. >> leland: that is a good point. are you at your television and able to see -- >> we will start to make a public announcement about that. >> leland: bernardo come are you near a tv and able to see the pictures? >> i am not.

>> leland: i will try to describe the best i can. downtown nashville, the commercial district, entertainment district, a street with a lot of bars and restaurants. none of the buildings have collapsed. the number of cars and street level lit on fire and destroyed and all the store windows destroyed. big explosion, but no, as far as we can tell, no building collapse, no major change to the nashville skyline there to the street come although the damage on the ground is significant. we understand that suspicious vehicle call was an rv call of some type. what do you make of how big of an explosive device is needed to do that kind of damage of blowing out storefronts but not collapsing buildings? >> it is a very surprising matter of physics. because you basically have kinetic energy expanding at a rapid rate and it's pushing the material in its way. for example if i took a stick of

dynamite and put it on the field someplace and ignited it, detonated it, it might leave a shallow, greater type thing. it would not be dramatic at all. if you take the same hand grenade or dynamite and i'm using in simple terms, explosives or a pipe bomb and set it in front of a contained place like a vehicle, everything that the vehicle was is now being projected and expanded. but it is also deleting the energy of the device. >> leland: bernard, we are looking straight down now, second and commerce in nashville and that entire block, the ground level is destroyed. the video from buck mccoy, sunrise in nashville. it was a powerful enough explosion that he felt like it was a bomb with an intentional act and live in a number of cars on fire. bernard, we appreciate your taking time and sharing your expertise. it is a former on the ground i'm a quite literally right now

beginning the investigative process. now, 10:42, we are about three hours after a bombing in downtown nashville. in the explosion that was an intentional act. the police have been called to downtown nashville 6:00 a.m. notice suspicious vehicle. they called out the bomb squad and 30 minutes later, there was a massive explosion. three or four people hurt not critically but that is really a christmas blessing. you can imagine if the explosion happened 12 hours ago in the downtown restaurant entertainment district christmas eve. this would be tragically a much different situation. we will continue to check with federal law enforcement officers. and we will take a quick break and be right back. [ beeping ] [ engine revs ] ♪ uh, you know there's a 30-minute limit, right? tell that to the rain.

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♪ >> leland: we are going to go to nashville right now reporting on this explosion, the mayor speaking as we go to him live with the latest on the investigation. >> sometimes it takes a shocking

event like this but we've had so many shocking events. the tornadoes, the virus of course. it has been quite a year or so adding explosion to the list, i guess, somehow so 2020. for sure. it will be a while to be put back, but also, you will want to inspect the property to make sure there were not secondary effects from the blast. and then write up on the site itself, but you know, the streets a mess and will take a while to clean up. >> [inaudible] >> good question. you know, i do think it is something that insurance does cover very well. but again, we need everybody back in business. again, we will have a great 2021. we've had all this practice working together this year. dealing with hard problems.

we will put that practice with you. >> thank you all. >> julie: john cooper the mayor of nashville. we got the end of the news conference but he was saying there was not a secondary explosion. earlier talking how the atf, fbi, highway national patrol and the police on the scene right now trying to figure out. obviously, they have to lock down the area, which that has already happened. a suspicious vehicle being seen somewhere on second avenue between second avenue and commerce which is right downtown. a suspicious vehicle 6:30 in the morning. so we are now several hours later. but they have to determine as i mentioned earlier if there is secondary explosive device in any of the nearby cars. if anywhere downtown in the country, you will see cars parked on the street. so that is just a looming sort of scary fact that there could be other hidden explosive somewhere. so i would leave that part of

the investigation i believe it is still ongoing and i need to make sure every single car is safe in order for the investigators to move in. as you see here, live pictures courtesy of wtvf 9:45 a.m., people on the ground surveying the area and it seems they must have deemed the area safe enough for investigators to move in and get more information. you know, you talked to earlier an expert, leland, how a lot of the evidence can be taken from explosive devices. in other words, once explosive device goes off whether on a time or triggered activated, the explosive device left a lot of evidence. >> it certainly does. >> a complete mess from our aerial view. the men on the ground have plenty of evidence to go on. whoever is behind this is going to get caught. >> exactly and you think one piece of evidence in a bombing leads to so much farther.

the serial number on the ryder truck during the oklahoma city bombing that led investigators to timothy mcveigh. so it is amazing what one tiny little piece of evidence that they are trying to collect right now. if you talk to the fbi come atf to do this on a daily basis and beginning this process, they are meticulous and thorough because they believe and know that one little piece can break the case wide open. perhaps would make things a little bit easier for them right now, as you pointed out, this is downtown nashville, tennessee. second and commerce street, which is the main nightclub, restaurant, bar entertainment which means there are dozens if not hundreds of closed-circuit television cameras both looking down the streets, looking out from buildings, looking out from businesses. so the thought would be that this rv, which we understand the call initially made on of the suspicious vehicle. the great likelihood is that was

caught on thousands of closed-circuit television cameras. and the beginning with those, the very first thing is make sure everybody is safe to number two coat, get the videotapes of seeing the car come in and who might have parked it, what they did, and the like. >> julie: closed-circuit television's and remember if you go on twitter right now, people have cameras on their homes are outside of their office windows that are also capturing this. you have eyes from every single angle here. i want to join now, who joins me on the phone retired new york city city police detective and you know about investigations, you know, homicide. certainly this is a criminal investigation, one that will lead to an arrest. we know that this was intentional. we know it is an intentional act. do you call it domestic terrorism yet and when do you do so? when is the next step? >> so good morning.

very few known facts have been disseminated at this time. but known facts, an explosion linked to a vehicle has been deemed intentional by the investigative authorities. and at this time, there is not a secondary explosion that they are aware of. so there is very little known. but the fascinating thing about the investigation of explosions, which in the explosion, right now, as earlier guessed pointed out, we don't really know anything relative to the insurance job, it could be domestic from a domestic incident. it could be a mistake. it could be an accident. there is nothing known relative to other than it is intentional. >> julie: would they call it an accident? >> i don't know who labeled it intentional. i've been reading through it. i'm not exactly certain who labeled it intentional so early

in the investigation, but the irony of the investigation of this nature -- >> julie: the national police. >> by default, they have to leave clues. the bomb is a physical, physical item. that physical item, the physicality of the bomb will provide the clues, provide the thread that will lead back to the corners where it originated from. >> julie: right. but the national -- >> carry-on. >> julie: i'm sorry, we are both on delay but the national police deem it an intentional act which seems to much lays it out for you right there. somebody intentionally put in an explosive device in a vehicle and it went off. whether it went off on time or whether it went off too early, you have to wonder why somebody if they are going to do widespread harm would have an explosive device so often downtown cities like nashville at 6:30 in the morning on a holiday morning, christmas morning. and i'm sure there's no coincidence to the fact it did happen christmas day. but why it would go up 6:30 in

the morning and not later when perhaps more foot traffic or vehicular traffic, you need to wonder about that too, don't you? >> 100%. but we are presuming it went off the time it was scheduled to. we are operating on that premise this early in the investigation. it could have went off earlier or later it as planned. but the harsh reality for the bad actors involved in planting this device is that the bomb itself cometh the device to do harm is exactly the device that will lead them and provide the clues to allow investigators to create the story. in the story is many parts. basically, it leads back to the origin of the parts that were put together to build the bomb. as you mentioned earlier, they are cameras on the present and absolutely mind-boggling. they are backup cameras on buses, they were individuals with cameras. there are cameras everywhere. so somehow that car got there by

a human being. that human being at some part was captured and memorialized on a camera. that is the very start. and the rest, everything else may be is what is remaining of the bomb. this is an active investigation. i'm sure it is moving warp speed. >> julie: thank you very much. we have to go to the police because they were holding another news conference. let's listen. >> another news briefing at 12:00. the fbi come atf come all at the scene. the hazardous device unit is with them as well. as you know, the downtown area, immediate downtown area sealed off by law enforcement as we conduct this investigation. a number of our police dogs, excuse me, the number of our police dogs have been called and are now searching the area. these are explosive detection dogs to make sure no secondary

devices. we have no indication that they are secondary devices. however, under precaution, we have a number of dogs conducting sweeps of the immediate downtown area. we will also be conducting searches of downtown buildings, particularly those that would impact second avenue to make sure there is no one in need of help or notice. i will say that the dogs first conducted a door to door, apartment to apartment check of units on second avenue this morning just before the explosion occurred. and got persons to safety. there was actually a man walking his dog on second avenue and an officer stopped and directed another way just before the rv exploded. the explosion knocked one of our officers to the ground.

thankfully, no officers were significantly hurt. i think one officer sustained, what we hope is temporary hearing loss, but no other officers have been injured. obviously, the officers on second avenue working this call when the explosion occurred. and being interviewed by the federal partners in the investigation is progressing. i will take a couple of questions. >> what caused the bomb squad, what with a seed to make them call the bomb squad? >> when the officers got to second avenue north on the shots fired call, this rv was parked there. there were circumstances about the rv that because the officers to request the bomb squad. >> the officer leaping at the intersection of broadway and second just about six:45 this

morning with two or three teenagers in the backseat. do you know about this? was this just taking them somewhere or was this possibly -- >> the officers would have been looking for witnesses, anyone who may have been around in the area who may have seen something. the central precinct is a couple of blocks away. i know that some persons were taken into the central precinct for questioning. that will pan out more as the day goes on end. >> do we know if anyone was in that vehicle and if there may be any other type of may be potential bomb situations down here, explosions? or is it isolated to that one do we think at this time? >> so we do not know if anyone was inside the vehicle. there was a significant explosion. we don't know if anyone was physically inside. are you asking me if there was another explosion? >> if may be another vehicle possibly come in and attempted at explosion anywhere or just

that one vehicle at this time? >> we are not aware of any other attempted bombing. >> do we know where the vehicle came from? i know the explosion may be -- didn't see anything at that point. >> that is all part of the investigation. as you all know, they are cameras throughout the downtown area and part of what we are doing now. the footage -- >> ther were there other small explosions after the main explosion? >> i don't know that. maybe the windows breaking, chattering. >> [inaudible] how many buildings were damaged? >> several buildings have experienced damage on second avenue. >> the shots fired call, we don't have it confirmed that shots were fired? >> you are correct.

i will see you back here at 12:00. >> thanks. speak to you all just heard from don who is the spokesperson. so the national police is saying that the area is filled out by law enforcement. they do have police dogs come explosion and detection dogs. they are basically looking for any kind of secondary device, although they say there is no indication of a secondary device. they have searched buildings on second avenue and door to door safety checks. they actually got people to safety before the rv actually exploded appearance of the suspicious vehicle was spotted 6:30 in the morning. thank god the police were there to get people out. more damage obviously could have been done. one officer we understand was knocked to the ground and another officer, perhaps the same officer, is experiencing hopefully temporary hearing loss. the bomb squad was called in and burst a call of shots fired a purity we don't know if shots

were fired. i believe the people heard a loud explosion and thought it might have been shots but it turned out to be an explosion. some people were taken in for questioning. that is all we know as far as who potentially could be behind this. there will be a lot of people come anybody in the area will be taken for questioning. they need to know why they were there, who they were within so for stomach so forth and their backgrounds were released. they don't know if anyone was inside the rv. the rv is completely destroyed. there is no indication at this point if anyone was killed, but they do say at this point only three people injured. no one critically. one officer knocked to the ground. the officer with temporary hearing loss, but i mean, by the looks of it it is a miracle that nobody was killed due to this. leland, we will continue to watch this. the nashville police department will have another news conference at 12:00 p.m. so we will look forward to that peer that is two hours from now central time. so we will look forward to more information hopefully by then,

leland. >> leland: for those of you just joining us 11:00 on christmas morning, there has been a massive explosion downtown nashville along the main business district, restaurant entertainment district. secondhand commerce street. the timeline goes like this shortly before 6:00 in the morning, a cola basic specials vehicle in rv and the news conference just now, nashville police told us that they are officer arrived and they sold certain things about the rv. they wouldn't tell us watch. the officer agreed it was very suspicious. they began moving people away and off the street. not many people out christmas morning but began moving people away. that probably saved an awful lot of lives because at 6:30 this morning, there was a massive explosion. you can see if you look straight down onto the area with bars and restaurants, a number of the businesses in the buildings are completely gutted by this

explosion. we have some video just after they explosion taken by somebody who would be called a victim, buck mccoy's video on the left-hand side of the screen. in it you can distinctly hear somebody screaming for help. somebody that was injured in the explosion this morning. we listen to those sounds for just a minutes, the alarms and the fear. [screaming] >> help, help! >> leland: that is the same christmas morning in nashville, tennessee, one of america's great cities. we bring in guy lewis former u.s. attorney and he prosecute d cases just like this. i appreciate you being with us. as you listen to don aaron the spokesman for the national police, fbi, atf are in route. but you had to think that he knew an awful lot more than he

was sharing in the news conference. >> boy, oh, boy come i think that is right. it reminds me of the guys of the oklahoma city bombing years ago when i was in the new york attorney's office down here in miami. and in that case prosecuted out west. i'm looking at the pictures, and the explosion was tremendous. you look how widespread it is. you look at the damage. this was not simply a small homemade device. my guess is looking at the level of the damage and explosion is that there was a significant device in the rv. i would also indicate that as a result of the feds moving in quickly and working with the nashville police department, look, nashville has and that

area and that area has antiterrorism task force, which was all set up right after 9/11. all hands on deck basically kind of task force where they bring in state, local, federal officials to start looking at. >> leland: you make the point about the size of the explosion. if you look at that building on the screen, you can see the entire building hollowed out. all that is left appears to be the roof here at the rest it is empty from this explosion, perhaps right at ground zero so to speak. the law enforcement investigators we had on, guy, coupled with the atf, makes a good point that you've got to wait and see where the evidence takes you in a case like this because what appears to be one thing often is something very, very different. i'm wondering if you can talk about what you're going to be

looking at and what tidbits come a trained observer like yourself will be looking for, listening for in the police news conferences to tell where the investigation is going. >> great question. some information is going to start pouring in immediately. and when i say information, look, they will be pulling cameras from every single location in and around that area. they are going to find out when they are the first related to the downtown area. they are going to find out as a result of tips and other source information where the rv came from. and yes, i agree it is destroyed completely. the forensics on this, guys, they will be looking at every piece of evidence within a multi-block area. there will be debris that they were will be analyzing, at the

fbi, laboratories in washington will be called in. they will be looking at what actually is the source of the explosion. again, remember in oklahoma city, it was as i recall a sort of moving van type. >> leland: it was a writer rental truck and serial number of the axle is what broke the case open. they were able to find out who rented it and how. i guess this would be my question though. as we were listening to the press conference, were there any tidbits that you heard that were especially significant? the idea that somebody called this in, they noticed the rv. they had a 30 minute window. hats off to the police officers who showed up at 6:0 at six chrs morning and calling the bomb squad and i doubt moving people away from the area saved a lot f

lives, but i'm wondering if they are tidbits that you picked up that give us an idea where they may be headed in this investigation. >> so what was interesting to me is how quickly it became apparent to local law enforcement that something was very, very wrong. and i heard the follow-up point, and i heard the officer sort of waved them off and not indicate exactly what the initial causes of concern were. but you have to think in terms of a phone call coming in that there was clearly a suspicious vehicle, something that was where it was, no place there is my educated guess. >> leland: you make -- you make a good point when you say that there was something clearly so apparently wrong with the rv that the police officer who showed up as a street cop,

not necessarily trained in these things. but there was something so apparently wrong that they called the bomb squad christmas morning and started moving people away from the area pretty quickly. that is an important point. in just a little that we know. you are a former -- former federal prosecutor and what changes this from a state case to a federal one? >> i guarantee you, as soon as this explosion -- look, you've got to start with the presumption that this wasn't a mistake. this wasn't just some kind of issue where, hey, it was a fault with the rv. maybe somebody had gasoline and started their car. this was a real deal explosion that was designed, it was

designed to cause massive destruction. look at the picture. look at the area of damage. >> leland: you make a good point. while we don't know the motive of the person who did this, this was clearly an intentional act. and that was the word the police used initially in the hour or so after the explosion. they said there was no reason to ask suspect foul play. that change pretty quickly. you make a good point, we may not know the motive of the person or persons behind this who parked the rv there, but we know they did it intentionally. that is a key distinction. the fact that they change from no foul play to intentional act, what kind of evidence where they need to be able to make that change? >> first of all, they are looking at the size and how massive the explosion was, the damage that was done. the fact that it was in a busy downtown district, look, i'm

from chattanooga not nashville, but i've been there. have been to that area before. this is where people come and go. i understand -- i mean, everything, i'm curious as to when the rv was there. how it got there, what the photographs and what the pictures and the video is saying in terms of, listen, i bet you a dollar to a dime that there is already security. and they will find out when they arrived. >> leland: i want to interrupt you one second. we understand the fbi is officially leading the investigation, which tells you something of what they believe. you are the first person we have talked to who has actually been to this area. i've been to nashville before but i don't think i've walked this strip second and commerce. you see the river along and those where houses are dozens and bars and restaurants. very importantly in this

situation, the bars and restaurants in nashville are open during the pandemic, especially on christmas and christmas eve. based on just sort of your experience down there, you can only imagine that if this had happened 12 hours before work 12 hours later, we would be talking about tragically a different situation. >> oh, my goodness. this is an area, literally where thousands of people walk in and out appear the bars one after the other. they are all music oriented appear this is nashville, tennessee. people are playing out on the sidewalks. i mean, this is a very concentrated area. which again goes into the thinking, guys, this isn't an area where they parked it again, let's use oklahoma city. they parked in front of the courthouse, which had its own design in terms of timothy

mcveigh and the message he was trying to send. this is an area where massive people regularly and routinely gather. so we can my educated guess, it was designed to cause as much human damage as possible as opposed to just trying to take down a federal building. >> leland: so for, we appreciate your insights. you make a lot of great points. >> doing a great job, thank you. >> leland: thank you, julie. >> julie: we did confirm the national police department will hold another news conference at 1:00 p.m. rather eastern time. so that will be 12:00 central time. we will bring in mark meredith. he's got the white house reaction and what the president is hearing on this ongoing investigation now involving the

fbi. so essentially a federal investigation, mark. >> julie, good morning. that is right we can confirmed president trump briefed on the explosion in nashville, tennessee. the white house spokesperson telling fox news he is in contact with security officials. also the president is grateful for the incredible first responders and praying for those injured. it is unclear whether we will see the president address what is going on on camera or not. he's at his golf club this morning and been out here in mar-a-lago since christmas vacation. there was nothing on the president's public schedule so unclear whether we would see the president on camera or get a tweet about this. now within the last two or 3 minutes, the white house spokesperson letting us know the president briefed on the explosion, continued to receive the regular updates but also thankful for those working to find out what is going on. we also heard from republican senator marsha blackburn from tennessee who said she was actively monitoring what was going on as well, praying for those involved. it is likely we will hear from

all the tennessee state officials on the state level to see what they can do to offer federal resources. no official word yet we have seen from the fbi or the atf. they tennessee bureau of investigation said the fbi is taking the lead in the investigation. they put out a tweet in a few minutes ago. so obviously, we will see this ship from state investigation to federal level. president trump will look to see what he may have more to say on this but now briefed and monitoring the situation happening in nashville, julie. >> julie: mark meredith, thank you so much. there are so many witnesses going on social media and talking about the shock they felt not only psychologically but physically. someone wrote that they were 8 miles away and that it was so forceful that it felt like an earthquake. it was intentional. so sad christmas morning in the heart of the city. i hope everyone stays safe. i have to once again bring to

light the fact that the nashville police are to think for a lives not being lost this morning. there was apparently as leland was mentioning earlier, a police officer on foot witnessed in order to become a suspicious looking vehicle. we don't know what triggered it as being suspicious, and rv park downtown and maybe not something you see every day. something about that vehicle alerted the police officer and they started conducting safety checks, door to door safety checks and remove people from their home. when they got people to safe and clear locations, that rv did in fact explode. we understand that is the only explosive device on second avenue and commerce, no secondary device is located about bomb detection dog surveying the area just to make 100% certain of that. again, we are not calling this terrorism so i want to make that clear. the investigation ongoing atf and fbi in route to the scene. >> leland: julie, you made a great point there was something about the rv that not only did

someone call in, but the police officer who showed up, there was something so wrong 6:00 a.m. christmas morning with rv in the business district of nashville that they called out the bomb squad, which you can imagine a young street cop or any kind of street cop making that call. then beginning to move people away. there had to be something wrong. don erin of the nashville police didn't say what that was. it gives you an idea how powerful this was come with the helicoptking down on the business district and the upper left-hand corner, there was nothing left inside of that building. it is now a show. obviously, number of cars on fire as well. an update from the nashville hospitals. as we have said all along, the fact this happened 6:30 a.m. christmas morning undoubtedly saved dozens and hundreds of people from really a terrible outcome. this is a restaurant entertainment district. people are out on the streets all the time.

nashville restaurants are open. tri-star medical center confirms one patient in stable condition and expected to be discharged national general no patients. one police officer knocked over, when experienced hearing loss because of the explosion. in both of those officers were in harm's way because they knew that this rv was so spacious. and, they were trying to move people back, wake people up because there are a number of apartments on the street. second and commerce in nashville. it was clear from the news conference earlier that the police knew a lot more than they were telling us. guy lewis said there had to be a couple of very key indicators for them to label this intentional and perhaps the biggest clue is just how wrong something with that rv looked. we will take a break on this christmas morning, and we will be right back presents under the bed. narrow to those whose dogs... also fit under the bed.

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injured in a couple of other folks with nonlife life critical injuries. owning a bar in nashville, i appreciate you being with us. i assume by the fact you are joining us, you are okay. you know how close your bar is to this? >> about a half a block. >> wow have you been able to figure out the condition of the bar or check out the television cameras? >> you know the cops called me this morning and asked if they could use our facility as headquarters. and i went to go down there to let them in. and they weren't communicating enough to let them in. [laughter] >> leland: tell me about how far -- so you are a half a block, was your bar damaged at all? what does it look like down there? >> well, i haven't had a chance to do a close examination, but

by the looks of the photos that friends have sent me, there's not much of a chance that it wasn't damaged. >> leland: okay. have you been able to log in to the cctv cameras or anything like that? >> we have. we actually were trying to login to see if we can find the vehicle that they have held explosive devices. but we haven't found that yet. we have a good view of broadway and second avenue. >> leland: what did the explosion look like on the cameras? >> we were not able to find that yet. >> leland: okay. >> but i can tell you my brother and i, gavin, we live just a couple of blocks away on the 23rd floor. and it knocked us both out of out of bed. >> leland: oh, my god! >> something i thought it was an earthquake to be quite honest with you.

and panicked and came downstai downstairs. >> leland: thankfully not many people injured and tanks to that police officer moving people out. i'm interested, what would this have been like last night 6:30 p.m.? >> worse, i guess. you know, it is hard to say. i don't know why it went off the time it did. >> leland: describe for me this area. a lot of bars and restaurants in nashville, are they open and are people out on the streets typically? >> more per square foot than any place in the country on the block on broadway between fifth and the river, which is first avenue. between second avenue come a busy street as well, not quite as busy as broadway but busy. it could have been much worse. nobody is hurt. that is amazing news.

>> leland: a couple of nonlife-threatening injuries. i understand it is quite cold in nashville right now. so you can imagine the police and fire department working in, i guess, in the teens right now? >> it is pretty cold. yeah, it is pretty cold. i don't know, 25? maybe 30? i'm not sure actually. >> leland: we understand this phone call came in right before 6:00 a.m. to the place about the suspicious rv. would an rv be suspicious parked down there? describe what this is like not during bar hours. 6:00 in the morning come visit deserted or are people moving down there? what is it like? >> data, a heavy residential population down there for sure. some police officer obviously had his eyes peeled and picked up something suspicious, thank

god, because it doesn't seem like this was unintentional. and certainly, they would have tried to hurt more people. this is not the hour to do it. >> leland: the police are now saying they are definitely was intentional and whether intentionally went off at this time or not we do not know. or whether it went off at this place or not we don't know. but clearly, the police do know a little bit more. you say it is a residential area, and we can see some of the buildings now just shells, four cars lit on fire. so i'm guessing, i'm guessing based on where we were at that there is probably not a lot of people out and about. we understand a few people off of the time. joe owns a bar there, joey, we will check back once you have a chance to go down and look at the bar in we are hopeful that you all can recover from this.

so we think you for your time christmas morning and sure glad you are okay after being locked out of bed. >> yeah, right, thanks for checking in on me. i hope everybody pays attention what is going on in nashville today. certainly not coincidence going on at christmas. >> leland: everybody is paying attention, joey, thank you very much. julie, what joey ended with his it is not a coincidence. almost everything you need to know about this. an intentional act on christmas morning with a massive explosion. there's an awful lot we don't know but there's an awful lot we do know about really sort of how incredible this is. and scary. >> julie: the pictures tell a horrifying story, will leland come if you look at the picture somebody had ill intentions and somebody was out to kill americans in nashville. 6:30 in the morning christman's do we know was that the intent and time of the explosion?

we don't know but the atf and the fbi will get to the bottom of this and the bomb squad as well. but at this point, the street was obliterated, second avenue. he said second and broadway is a very busy street in nashville. the majority of the bars on the night life or in this area. so this could have potentially turn into multiple casualties and thank god only three people hurt and none of them critically thanks to one police officer who spotted in an rv parked at 6:30 in the morning, found it to be suspicious and got people out of their homes. a highly residential area we learned as well. thank goodness has those people were gotten out of there on time. we will take a quick break. we will come back. we are waiting from a news conference from the national police department speaking 1:00 p.m. eastern time. we will have much more after the break. stay there. [ engines revving ]

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entire block, essentially blown to bits. you, in fact, did work on boston marathon bombing but what is the first thing that comes to mind? we want to confirm the fbi memphis is taking the lead on the investigation. so what is their first step? >> so the first step is to secure the crime scene, make sure they are limiting the x to gather all the physical evidence that will be able to help them rebuild exactly what has happened here. you have a collar on earlier who said he had access to the video system to see what he could see on his closed circuit cameras. they were going to be other store owners, bar owners, restaurant owners that have that ability. they should all contact the nashville police at their tip line or the fbi to let them know where they are currently because what will happen the fbi memphis will partner with the national police and work with the

investigators to follow up on tips and leads. and the quicker we get information, the better it is. so anyone who has information or the ability to access cameras contact the authorities and let them know where you are currently so investigators can go to your location and get that information. in some ways, the boston marathon we were waiting to come down from a video for us only to find out there was remote access. so that is an important thing. anyone who has access to cameras and has the ability to share information to let on enforcement know where you are now so they can send investigators to get the information. if it is relevant we want to process it can analyze it to find out information to identify anything about this in anyone involved with who put it there, when it was there any details at all we want to get that completed as quickly as possible. >> julie: i'm so glad you mentioned that because we've been talking about the circuit cameras but you talk about the

people's personal cameras, this is a residential area appear they are apartments there and people with personal cameras. i'm sure they have and will be having a slew of video evidence to go through. let's talk about the physical evidence. at this point, the rv is obviously gone. they don't know if anybody was incited. they can't determine that as of yet, much too early. based on the physical evidence on the ground when a explosive device goes off, how much evidence is spread as it explodes? >> the atf construction team will work this case with the fbi. they are experts at reassembling the devices. we were able to build exactly the devices that the two terrorist in boston's against the citizens. they will be able to do that and we saw that in oklahoma city. there is a valuable evidence to identify the vehicle. they can identify the chemical compound. i'm sure we have technicians

taking samples of the air, samples of the burn and the charter in the area to seek to identify the accelerants might have been, what the contents of the truck might have been and how it was detonated. information on the street indicative to a radio probe device. so it was remote detonation, the time of detonation, all of that evidence can be obtained by the experts once they get to the scene and start analyzing the information pier that is going to take a while. they are national experts and they have gotten woken up this morning getting in planes, helicopters and coming in around the region to support memphis, fbi office the lead in this. quantico will have teamed up and you will have the experts quantico fbi lab already in route and around the country searching resources international peer of the thing

we want to be considerate of, other jurisdictions until we know exactly what happened here need to have a heightened awareness of things going on in the area. hopefully this is one event, one individual, but you need to be concerned we still have the heightened religious activities going on and whatever is going on in the community, the challenges and however the motivation come with law enforcement across the country need to have their eyes up and community isa. again, this is a great time for just what happen here. somebody saw something and contacted law enforcement. the miracle today is reports of the injured are so small in numbers because of people getting involved, taking action and maybe getting somebody looking over their shoulder. >> julie: i'm so glad you mentioned that and for people to be leery of this nation wide. the fact this happened 6:30 in the morning could have potentially saved hundreds of lives. the fact that it happened

christmas morning probably no coincidence. we will have to get more as the information comes out. daniel linksey, thank you for providing your expertise. we appreciate it. thank you. >> leland: dan hoffman of the cia made the same point that dan just did, that right now, not only domestically are their phone calls going out to the fbi office is a major police departments around the country about what they know in nashville but the police know a lot more than they are telling us. but also around the road u.s. embassies, fbi liaisons and stations around the world, they are also looking and talking to their sources and seeing what information they may have to shed light on what happened in nashville. thankfully, nobody killed. a couple of people injured with massive explosion walked downtown and there was an rv park, the main business district. it exploded. there had been a call about a suspicious vehicle. the police officer showed up in

something about that vehicle was so suspicious that not only did they call the bomb squad, this officer but also began moving people out of the area and undoubtedly saving a number of people. some of the buildings downtown nashville are gutted this morning with just a shell left. the city shut down. one eyewitness said he was a couple of blocks away on the 23rd floor and bolted out of bed. he thought it was an earthquake. this explosion was so intense. we are checking with sources and another news conference in one hour and 15 minutes. m we will be right back. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it with hassle-free claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right. usaa. what you're made of,

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people blocks away were thrown from their beds. a number of people were injured in this explosion in the block where that happened has turned into a shell of former self. video on the ground showed fire is burning long after this explosion occurred and perhaps most notably is the fact that the police had been called a little bit more than a half an hour before this explosion with reports of suspicious vehicle. and they came down, investigated a vehicle and called the bomb squad and began clearing people from this entertainment bar, residential area undoubtedly saving a number people in the upper right hand on her of the screen, minutes after the explosion by somebody who lives there. mark meredith is traveling with the president. as we understand the fbi is taking the lead in this investigation so clearly it's gone from intentional act which the nashville police have been saying. suspicious for those in the federal government that it could be a lot more, mark.

>> leland, president trump has been briefed in nashville and we heard from white house spokesperson an hour ago indicating the president was getting regular updates on this and also offering all the support and prayers for the first responders. the president is at the trump international golf club right now not too far from mar-a-lago estate, which is where he has been spending the christmas holiday. he came down to florida wednesday night. we haven't seen the president on camera since he touched down. there were no events on the president schedule but he simply having meetings and phone calls. but we were wondering if we would see the president today or hear from him. no indication yet whether the white house will put the president fourth after nashville explosion and waiting to see whether a tweet or not and so far not one from the president. we are hearing though from the justice department. you remember attorney general bill barr left the justice department wednesday. there is now a new acting attorney general. a statement from the doj spokesperson, jeff rosen was briefed on the national incident

early this morning and directed all ag resources made available to assist in the investigation. the statement coming from the justice department 20 or so minutes ago. we will look to see if an official briefing in washington or on the ground in tennessee. also we are hearing from the congressional delegation of tennessee. we hear from marsha blackburn, republican of the state indicating she is monitoring what is going on offering prayers and support. you can imagine so many tennessee lawmakers will be calling for any information that they can get on all of this. one thing we haven't heard is whether president-elect biden has been briefed on this or not. the biden camp called a travel photo lid around 9:00 a.m. indicating they were not expecting news, comments or developments. obviously, that can change depending on what's going on in nashville. leland also what is happening here in florida. >> leland: mark meredith traveling with the president. he standing by and if president trump wants to talk about it or tweet about it,

oftentimes what they are briefed on in terms of the president and his team obviously come a lot more than what the police department and nashville will tell us. mark, thank you very much. you mentioned joe biden, kamala harris and her husband just a couple of minutes ago our producer is there in delaware covering the biden camp said there have been two videos released by joe biden on separate tour with happy holidays. so far we have not heard from the president-elect or his two month explosion in downtown nashville. but julie come i keep coming back to as we think about what s transpired in nashville is you've got this 911 call early on a christmas morning of someone saying there is a suspicious rv parked on the street. the police officer shows up and then there is something so suspicious about this suv that they call out the bomb squad and begin moving people back. that is an awfully big decision to make on the spot at 6:00 in

the morning anton aaron who is a spokesperson for the national police department was asked abot that. what about this suv was so suspicious and he wouldn't tell us here that seems to indicate the national police know when off a lot more than what they are saying. >> julie: yeah, no, they deftly have too. it is incredible to think the police officer spotted an rv and thought to call the bomb squad appear that alone just did countless. >> leland: it says a lot. >> julie: countless lives, if you can imagine. joining a steve rogers, retired lieutenant detective for the new jersey police department. lieutenant rogers, great to talk to you but importantly under these circumstances we understand that the nashville atf is in nashville right now. they will be on the scene. the atf, fbi, memphis fbi on this so this is a federal

investigation. what say you about the early onset of this investigation? 6:30 in the morning, you see an rv and you think it is suspicious and you call the bomb squad appeared within 30 minutes, the rv explodes. you see a block of nashville demolished. >> what is very important, julie, at least to the viewers, to get them in the mind-set of the first police officer on the scene. there is something called a sick sense that we in police work develop over the years of experience. a couple with intelligence information. so this officer is no doubt in my mind is $0.06 kicked in that something was wrong with that van and probably he didn't have intelligence information. we talk about things they are things national tv made known that they are not sharing with us now but because of his instinct, information and intelligence he may have been given throughout the course of time, he did exactly what he was trained to do.

he did save a lot of lives. now, they will be as you say, an ongoing investigation. >> julie: you talk about that instinct. when you see an rv park downtown 6:30 in the morning, i mean i don't know if it is typical to see an rv, but what about the rv could have potentially triggered that instinct? that instinct, quite frankly, and i'm glad you brought it up as a former detective lieutenant is incredible. that instinct is what, in fact, potentially saved lives here. >> that is right. as you say, we don't know the area in particular but the fact of the matter is, may be those who responded to the neighborhood. maybe they know that time in the morning, there is very little if at all in a traffic, any parked vehicles. so that triggered something in that officer. in addition to that, again, certainly we don't know what the national pd may know. they could have gotten

intelligence information that may be something taking place during this period of time. and based on a totality of that information and that instinct, that sixth sense healthy officer take the measures he did. >> julie: the fbi in the atf, the national police department obviously very much involved. they say that they do have several people, some people that are being questioned right now, but is that just pretty much typical protocol? anybody in the area at that time will be brought in perhaps as a witness or potentially persons of interest? >> well, it could be a number of things. persons of interest. there is no doubt in my mind if you have a databank, and by the way, they are sharing all the information they have with the police departments nationwide as well as the fbi and other agencies. they are gathering all that information. there could be people that lived

in their city around that area that could have been in trouble with the police before. and annie committing arson's for building bombs, anything. but they will track down every single person who had prior us with the police with regards to this possible rv bombing. video cameras, cars, anything at all they will collect. >> julie: thank you. lieutenant, thank you very much. we watch this as the atf and fbi leading the investigation in nashville, tennessee. an explosion this morning happening sometime shortly after 6:30 this morning when a suspicious rv spotted. we continue our coverage after the break. ...for more time... ...has come. living longer is possible- and proven in postmenopausal women taking kisqali plus fulvestrant. in a clinical trial, kisqali plus fulvestrant helped women live longer with hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer. and it significantly delayed disease progression.

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>> leland: fox news alert as we look to nashville, tennessee, where there has been a massive explosion that police now say was intentional. noon eastern, 11:00 a.m. in nashville, we understand the police are going to speak along with the fbi about this explosion, sometime around 1:00 p.m. eastern, noon central time. fbi and atf agents are currently on the scene in nashville. the fbi has the lead of this investigation, and they believe the blast, which was an rv that exploded, was an intentional act. this is christmas morning now and nashville, christmas afternoon in washington, d.c. i'm leland vittert. >> julie: and julie banderas. sandra smith and trace gallagher are off