captioning sponsored by cbs >> dickerson: today on "face the nation," breaking news overnight. after a bomb injures 29 in new york city. and the presidential race moves back into the too close to call category. an explosion rocks a chelsea neighborhood in new york city saturday night. officials say none of the injuries are life-threatening. just hours after the attack, mayor bill de blasio spoke to reporters. >> there is no evidence at this point of a terror connection. >> dickerson: we'll bring you the latest on the investigation. the bombing had a sobering effect on a campaign where the candidates are nearly tied in the polls. >> a bomb went off in new york, and nobody knows exactly what's going on, but, boy, we are living in a time, we better get very tough, folks. >> i'll have more to say about it when we actually know the facts. >> dickerson: recovering from

pneumonia, clinton has seen her lead over donald trump collapse. we'll talk to hillary clinton's running mate tim kaine. plus donald trump has dropped his five-year campaign to prove the president is not an american. we'll hear from his campaign manager kellyanne conway and the head of the republican party, reince priebus. and finally, a special visit with civil rights legend john lewis at the new african american museum. it's all coming up on "face the nation." good morning and welcome to "face the nation." i'm john dickerson. we begin with that explosion in new york city. it happened last night at around 8:30 at 23rd street and 6th avenue in manhattan's chelsea neighborhood. cbs news correspondent anna werner is there. >> reporter: well, streets are still closed off here in chelsea, john, as authorities continue to try to determine who caused an explosion here and planted another device four blocks north. surveillance video showed the white flash of the explosion as the blast at about 8:30 saturday

night sent people running. >> i heard boom. i thought it might be officials, but it was so loud and it just went through my whole body. >> reporter: units from the police and f.b.i. were quick to respond, cordoning off streets in the area and searching for evidence. about two hours later police found a device in another location four blocks north. it was described as a pressure cooker. that street too was blocked off and police brought in a bomb disposal truck to remove the device. now, a law enforcement source this morning tells cbs news that terrorism has not, in fact, been ruled out, and they are also continuing to explore whether there are any potential links between the incidents that happen here and the pipe bomb explosion at a charity race event yesterday in new jersey. john? >> dickerson: anna werner in new york. thanks, anna. we go now to new york congressman peter king, who sits on both the house intelligence and homeland security committees. congressman, governor cuomo just said there are no links to

international terrorism. do you think that's the case? >> we don't know. in fact, in many of these cases we don't know until two, three or four days later whether or not there is a terrorist link. whether or not it's connected overseas. whether or not it's homegrown. the fact there is no evidence right now doesn't mean much. we have the times square bombing back in new york in 2011 i guess it was, and there was no... it took several days before we realized that was coming out of the taliban and pakistan. the boston marathon we didn't know for several days if that was terrorism. so i think we have to assume that terrorism is always a real possibility and go from there. whether it turns out to be or not, we don't know, but i certainly would in the think of ruling out terrorism at this stage. >> dickerson: what's the best way to react for the public and law enforcement officials in incidents like this? we now are so connected that the minute something happens, there's a kind of a rush to name it right away, one thing or

another. what's the proper way to respond to these? >> to let the nypd and the f.b.i. handle it. they are the best in the world at what they do. and also to realize that as we go forward, terrorism and these type of attacks, whether they're coming from overseas or whether they're homegrown or whether they're just mall content, we are always vulnerable to these type of attacks. that's why it's so important police are able to do their job. we have to have surveillance and we have to monitor so we can tell when these are going to happen. sometimes once things are over we, we put it in the recesses of our mind. these threats are real. they're going to continue. whether or not this turns out to be overseas terrorism. whether it's domestic terrorism or any terrorism at all, it's a wake-up call, another one, as to how vulnerable we are. that's why it's so important for the police and f.b.i. to be given the tools and be allowed to do what they have to do. >> dickerson: and if new york can be hit, a city that's been

on top of this issue since 9/11, what more can be done? is it just these kinds of things are going to happen, they're part of the new normal? >> i don't think we should accept this as part of the new normal. go to the larger issue. that's why the n.s.a. is important. that's why surveillance of communities where these threats are coming from is important. why we can't allow overconcern about civil liberties to get in the way of law enforcement. let's not let political correctness stop the police and the f.b.i. from doing the investigations that they have to do. i used the example many time, if you're going after the mafia, you go to the italian community, irish communities, right now islamic terrorism, go to the muslim communities. you don't look for the ku klux klan in harlem. >> dickerson: congressman pete king, thanks so much for being with us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> dickerson: turning now to campaign 2016, our cbs news battleground tracker shows this morning that in the 13 states we consider to be the tightest,

candidates are now tied 42% to 42%, which is consistent with the latest national survey. so what can hillary clinton do to regain her lost momentum? we now go to richmond and to her running mate, senator tim kaine. senator, i want the start with the explosion in new york overnight. in moments like this we look to the presidential candidates for some kind of response, but what can a president do if a lone wolf is going to put an explosive device in a dumpster? there's really not a presidential question there, is there? >> well, john, look, you have to understand that law enforcement plays a critical role, first responders, too. hillary understands this. she was a senator from new york after the attack on 9/11 and worked to make sure first responders got hillary clinton benefits. but the other thing is we always have to watch about these lone wolf attacks. we're in a battle right now to defeat isis and to defeat al qaeda. in the battle against isis,

their space on the battlefield is shrinking. our military is working to that their space, but sadly they are trying to strike out in other place, whether it's cities in europe or africa or the united states. the way you stop those attacks, we don't know the motive behind these attacks yet, but we're digging into it, but the way you stop lone wolf attacks is through smart sharing of intelligence. you have to have strong alliance, for example, with nato allies, and share intelligence about people, people who might be traveling from one country to the next. and hillary clinton is somebody who has been our nation's chief diplomat, understands the power of these alliances and would never do something like tear up nato or get rid of the alliances in the way that donald trump to to -- proposes. obviously, this was a horrible explosion in new york. the size of it was massive, and at least, thank goodness, we're thinking of those injured, but thank goodness there are no fatalities reported. that's something as of now we can be thankful for.

>> dickerson: on this question of national security and commander-in-chief, secretary robert gates wrote a pete in the "wall street journal" critical of both candidates, but about hillary clinton he said, "mrs. clinton has time before the election to address forthrightly her trust worthiness, which he put at the center of her ability to be commander-in-chief. how does she fix the trust worthiness problem? >> you know, you're right, secretary gates wrote that editorial. he said, "i need to see more from hillary clinton, but i've seen enough from donald trump. he's not qualified to be president." let me jump right to your question, john, about trustworthiness. i have a boy who is a marine infantry officer. he's one of the two million young men and women who serve in the united states military. he's deployed now for the second time. i would trust hillary clinton with matt's life, with my son's life. the reason i would is because she's had that searing experience of being at the world trade center as they were searching for survivor, because she's been our secretary of

state, because she was part of a national security team that revived the hunt and wiped osama bin laden off the face of the earth. i would trust her with my son's life. on the other side, with donald trump, here's a guy who praises dictators like vladimir putin. here's a gay who thinks a solution to global security is for more nations to get nuclear weapons. but most painfully to me and other military families, here is a guy who says the american military is a disaster, who makes fun of john mccain because he was a prisoner of war and says that means he's not a hero. and he went after the virginia family, the khan family who live in charlottesville, and went after them mercilessly after they very painfully described how it was to lose their son serving in the military who was killed trying to protect his fellow service members. donald trump as commander-in-chief scares me to death. >> dickerson: so, senator, if donald trump is democratically elected and your son serving as a marine, you wouldn't trust his

life under that commander-in-chief? >> i wouldn't. >> dickerson: would you tell him to get out of the military, senator? >> my son is a very independent guy and he's going to make his own determination, and my other two children are equally independent, but donald trump has demonstrated by his trashing the military, by his belief that we need more nuke, but especially by his praise of dictators, even encouraging the russians to commit cyber espionage against the united states, he's demonstrated that he shouldn't be within ten time zones of being commander-in-chief. >> dickerson: let me ask you on this question of trustworthiness, oftentimes presidents bring in a vice president who helps them with their weak spots. george w. bush did that with dick cheney, barack obama did that with joe biden, senator joe biden, the idea they didn't have enough experience, so they brought in an experienced hand. a lot of hillary clinton's supporters and friends say her blind spot is this question of transparency and trust. do you see your job as helping out on that? you're the new guy on the team. do you see that as a part of

your role? >> john, i'll tell you why hillary asked me to be on the ticket. she was pretty plain about it. she said that the test of a clinton administration is not going to be a bill signing or a passage of something. it's going to be whether a worker can get more skills, an employer can hire more people, a classroom is a better learning environment for a kid or for a teacher. fundamentally she wants a governing partner for our positive agenda, and, john, we've laid out a positive agenda. i just want to show it to you. we've put out a book called "stronger together" that reflects our vision for this country in this race. donald trump wrote a book when he decided to run for president, and the title of his book is, "crippled america." this is the case we're making over the next 50-plus days that this is fundamentally an election about a choice of vision. if you see our country as stronger together, we're the ticket, and we've got the policies to carry that forward. but if you look at our country and you see it as a crippled

america, then that's what donald trump believes. but i tell you, i don't see that in the optimistic, can-do, upbeat spirit of the american public that i meet on the trail. >> dickerson: senator kaine, we're out of time. thanks so much for being here. >> thanks, john. >> christa: turning now to the republican side, donald trump's campaign manager kellyanne conway joins us now from trump tower in new york. good morning, kellyanne. i want to start with a piece that defense secretary robert gates, former defense secretary, wrote in the "wall street journal." he was critical of both candidates, but particularly critical of mr. trump, and i want to play mr. trump's reaction to it last night and get your reaction. >> we had a clown today, an absolute clown, robert gates. he's supposed to be an expert. he's been there forever. so he goes out and he says negative things about me. i never met him. i never talked to him. believe me, i am so much better at what he's doing than he is. >> dickerson: all right. so robert gates served eight

presidents, most of them republicans, one democrat. a clown? >> so mr. gates, secretary gates really should have i think in his book been a little bit more forceful about the fact that radical islam has ideological moorings. he acts like terrorism is something like the weather, it just happen, and we as americans know that's not true, and i think that's part of why mr. trump is doing very well on the issue of who would vanquish radical islamists. hillary clinton referred to terrorists as our enemy. there's a great deal of frustration by many americans than we don't have serious leaders all of the time addressing terrorism for what it is. >> dickerson: but one of the critiques that secretary gates, who has seen and worked with a few presidents made, is donald trump is thin-skinned, he doesn't have the temperament for the office. wasn't he in, in response to mr. gates proving mr. gates' point? >> no, not at all. he was defending himself, and

mr. trump has the right to do that. he's attacked by people who have never met him, who haven't given a thawingful look to his plan, which, of course, are out there for everyone to see. he's on the stump every single day delivering policy speeches, addressing crowds, rallies, and bernie sanders had an event yesterday in ohio for hillary clinton. there were 150 people there. that's like a second reading where i come from. mr. trump has a right to defend himself from people who i don't think are looking at the substance of his plans. they're just judging someone they've never met. >> dickerson: i'd like to move on to a position that mr. trump held for five years that barack obama was not born in the united states. he changed that position on friday. why? >> well, he made very clear three things. number one, that it was mark penn, hillary clinton's chief strategist and pollster who put president obama's citizenship in question when he wrote a famous

memo in march of 2007 questioning his "american roots," saying in a time of war how could we elect someone like this. that's pretty radical stuff. of course, even patty doyle, hillary clinton's campaign manager in 2008 until she was fired by hillary clinton, admitted on friday to wolf blitzer that she said, "yeah," these are her words, "there was a volunteer in iowa who was pushing this." so this started with hillary clinton's campaign, number one. number the work it was donald trump who put the issue to rest when he got president obama to release his birth certificate years later. and number three, he said that president obama was born in this country, period, and let's move on to creating jobs, defeating radical islam, rebuilding our inner cities. >> dickerson: the reason i want to stick on this a little bit is he promoted this for five years. so this isn't some passing notion. this is a considerable amount of energy and time and money that he spent promoting this idea. the clinton... mark penn didn't

say anything about his citizenship. also, if you look at the clinton campaign, they fired the one staffer who sent an e-mail about this immediately. donald trump spent five years, his own money, called press conferences to promote this idea. so i go back to my original question, why did he change his mind and when did he do it? >> well, donald trump was not running for president in a bruising, vicious primary against barack obama. hillary clinton was. and you know that the former d.c. bureau chief of mcclatchy newspaper, a respected journalist, just on friday, john, said that he was approached, he had a meeting with sidney blumenthal, a very close confidante of both clintons and was on the payroll of the clinton foundation thereafter, he had a meeting with him where sidney blumenthal allegedly told him that president obama was not born in this country and check it out. the idea that people around hillary clinton were not responsible for this, donald trump in 2007 and 2008, while the clintons were pushing this

theory, he's a successful building man. he was building things. >> dickerson: but kellyanne, he's asked us to go back and look at things he said about foreign policy back in 2003, to draw conclusions about his judgment. so things he said in the private sector, something he spent five years promoting, you said he got the birth certificate released and that put an end to it, but it didn't put an end to it for him. for years after the birth certificate was released, he continued to question it, continued to question whether barack obama was born in the united states and whether the birth certificate was a fraud. so when the campaign puts out a statement and says he ended in 2011, that's just not the truth isn't it? >> no, i didn't say that. what i'm saying is it was president obama who released his birth certificate in 2001. no one accuses hillary clinton with mariano rivera. she's not a good closer. associates of hillary clinton started pushing the issue because barack obama came out of nowhere. they never expected him to rise

in the polls let alone beat her in the democratic primary where a vast majority of voters were female and rejected her in that year, just like they didn't see bernie sanders coming and like they didn't see our comeback of the campaign coming. she's not known to be a closer. she's not known to be good at recapturing momentum. so i understand you want to talk about hillary clinton and this is an election about a choice, but it's also about whether people can trust a candidate who may become president one day and who may send people to die in a war. so just on this question of trust, donald trump advocated something for five years that was a lie. why did he do that? >> well, you're going to have to ask him, but again, i think this is a side show now. the media seem obsessed with this john, respectfully. again, he put everything out on the table on friday. those are his words. he does things on his term, on his time line, and regot to the microphone after honoring 14 gold medal recipients and also

after showing all these veterans that supported us our campaign, we were very proud to stand with them in washington, d.c. and he said the three things you and i just repeated. but what this campaign also did this week that nobody seems to want to talk about, we tightened the polls, we have a childcare plan, economic plan. he was standing yesterday with parents of victims of illegal alien crimes who have murdered their children. you know, there are so many things going on in our campaign, and that's his entire point. he's moved on to the things that matter to america. >> dickerson: i understand, but he did spend five years on it, so it would be something... we would be remiss if we didn't pay some attention to something he spent so many years advocating and promoting. kellyanne conway, thank you so much for being with us. and we'll be back in one minute.

>> dickerson: and we're back with the chairman of the rnc, reince priebus. mr. chairman, on friday donald trump said he no longer believed that barack obama was born somewhere other than the united

states. for five years, though, he spent a lot of time on this issue, and he now says he's the one out there trying to put this rumor to rest. do you believe that's what he was doing for five years? >> i think it was something that got started in the 2008 presidential campaign, whose fault it was, you know. hillary clinton herself, her supporters, her intern, her staffers, clearly it was something that was circulating in 2008. i'm agreeing with you that he took it further, and he brought it into the public debate even more so than what was brought in, in 2008. however, the point is: people are asking him about it. people weren't asking him about it for a long time. and he came out and said, listen, i was involved in trying to figure this out, as well, and i've determined that the president was born in hawaii, just like i've said for years some this is not for me a mystery. >> dickerson: so there is also no evidence that hillary clinton had anything to do with this. there are rumors that people on

her staff and one person was caught spreading rumors about barack obama, and people... >> and people get convicted every single day with circumstantial evidence that is enough to tip the scale. and by the preponderance of the evidence before us, hillary clinton or her campaign were definitely involved in this issue. so we can't keep saying it's not true. that's ridiculous. i know you didn't, but there's enough media people out there claiming that's not true as if it's some fiction. it's not fiction. it's the truth. >> dickerson: but when you think about... it may be contributory, but donald trump spent the bulk of his time. >> he's not denying it. >> i understand that. >> but she is denying it, and that's ridiculous. >> dickerson: well, her former campaign manager... >> everyone around her is involved but not her... >> dickerson: well, everyone around her is a little more than the evidence suggesting. >> her campaign deputy manager was apologizing on cnn three days ago. >> dickerson: she said she fired the one person who brought

it up immediately. there's a difference between firing someone immediately. >> what about sidney blumenthal. was hi involved or not? >> so you have a person spreading rumors and you have a person holding a five-year crusade. here's my question to you, which is not to figure out the details anymore, but to ask you this question: donald trump said republicans love this idea in 2011 when he talked about it and congratulated himself for reinvigorating the investigation of it. the question is: did the nominee of the republican party use this issue as a political issue to rile up republicans? is this the kind of thing that gets republicans excited, the question of whether the president was born in america? that was his assertion. >> that's not my opinion. i don't think donald trump was thinking about 2016 in 2011. it was an issue he was interested in. it was an issue that i believe and i think the preponderance of the evidence shows hillary clinton started it. and after getting this issue resolved, he proclaimed on friday that he believes the

president was worn in america, just like i have as chairman of the republican party. i never believed that he wasn't born in the united states of america. >> dickerson: we'll have to hold it right there. we'll take a commercial break and we'll be right back. it was an idea. an inspiration. a wild "what-if." so scientists went to work. they examined 87 different protein structures. had 12 years of setbacks and breakthroughs, 4,423 sleepless nights, and countless trips back to the drawing board. at first they were told no, well... maybe, and finally: yes. then it was 36 clinical trials, 8,500 patient volunteers, and the hope of millions.

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>> dickerson: some of our cbs stations are leaving us now, but for most of you we'll be right back with a lot more politics and our interview with civil rights legend john lewis. stay with us.

closed captioning provided by cbs sports division >> week 2 in the nfl. >> there andy dalton. he led his team to a victory. 2-3 in all-time pittsburgh. 16 sacks in five games. >> arguably the best receiver in football. antonio bryant last week in a playoff game before he got knocked out. >> stafford minus johnson equals greater distribution. we call it addition by