something that he drives or in connection to this, the one live on the screen right now, and we will continue to get some more information as to what he is charged with. we should be hopefully getting that in the next hour or so. >> all right. our justice correspondent pete william s williams is also reporting that dna evidence played a role in his arrest. i am going to step aside and andrea mitchell reports starts now. >> thank you, craig. i'm andrea mitchell in washington, and breaking news with the 12 packages containing explosive devices. and we are told that florida resident cesar sayoc jr. has been arrested in a string of mailed bombs. we will have a press conference at 2:30 with more details. and to today, we are told that cory booker, and james clapper, those men joining the growing list of public figures critical of president trump, and that

list is two former presidents, and democratic officials, and democratic law officials and a leading democratic donor. and now, joining me is kerry sanders and msnbc national analyst clint watt, a fbi agent, and geoff bennett, and investigations reporter tom winter. tom -- tom, let's start with you. >> andrea, the reporting from my colleag colleagues jonathan dienst and pete williamss who is on the way to the justice department now is that cesar sayoc jr. is the person taken into the cust dichlt he is 56 years old and from florida and he lived in new york at some point, and trying to get some clarify if it is new york city or new york state, but either way, cesar sayoc jr. is taken into custody, and charged in connection with the bombing probe that we have been talking about in the last several days,

andrea. and so far, we have been confirming 12 packages in total appear to have been sent or involved with this cesar sayoc jr., but it is 12 packages in total that we have confirmed and another package in california addressed to senator kamal harris of that, and we don't know whether that package is connected to what we are talking about here. and so what you are looking at on screen in this blue tarp,p and inside of that is a van, and they were able to look at that before it was tarped and transported to the presumably fbi facilities at the miami field office to be processed and looked at. there were some right wing propaganda is the way it is described to me through the law enforcement channels that was on the van, and likely at the location of the arrest according to pete williams. so to recap, cesar sayoc jr. has

been arrested in connection with the bombing probe that we have been talking about for the last few days. and there is to be a press conference this afternoon led by the joint terrorism task force, and in connection with the nypd, and you can see him as officer or detective there as part of it and the fbi and nbc news reported that the officials were circling florida as a location of where the package may have been sent. several hours ago around 10:00 a.m., myself and my colleagues here, pete williams and i started to get an indication that there had been or there was somebody that they were strongly considering and strongly eyeing in connection with this bombing, and at that time, the person was described as a male in his 50s and now we have more detail on who that person is, and in fact, that person has been take then into to custody. andrea. >> and we don't know if this is

the only person who may be involved or may be of interest in connection to the packages? >> that is exactly correct. when these investigations happen, they make and a arrest to stop the clock on this particular individual, and they will see if that person speaks to them, and this cesar sayoc jr., and in addition to that, we don't know if there are other individuals to take a look at. i will tell you that typically in the investigations, and this is typically, it is just one person who is involved, ale though others sometimes have knowledge of that. and so that is something that we need to wait and see is the next few hours and days progress, andrea, to see whether or not anybody had knowledge of this ahead of time, and whether anybody was aware of the parts and the things that he was purchasing for this. obviously, 12 packages that we have confirmed so far. that is a significant amount. so if they were all filled with some sort of a low explosive powder, which is the way it is is described to us, and then

some indication that maybe they weren't, and there is still a significant amount of powder to pick up at some point. so those are all of the thing ths that are for the investigation to come, and those are all things that will expect to be he hearing in the coming hours and days. we do know that the case is going to be prosecuted by the u.s. attorney's office for the southern district of new york, and those are the federal prosecutors based here. as pete williams explained clearly before, a number of the packages were obviously received here in new york, and the package that was sent for john brennan care of cnn and the package to james clapper care of cnn and the package sent to hillary clinton as well as the package sent to george soros, and the package that was sent to robert de niro and a significant amount of packages sent in connection to the case were sent to new york, and the federal prosecutors here have a tremendous amount of experience dealing with these types of c e

cases if in fact he is charged with the terrorism counts, then i would think, andrea, a weapons of mass destruction charge here, but we will wait to see once we get the complaint. and of course, what he is charged with today, he could face additional charges in the days and weeks ahead as the grand jury would presumably come back with an indictment. at least today, a decent sense with what they believe they think he did, and with the evidence that the fbi says they will get against him in order to make the arrest and in order to take this van that we are looking at right now, which is i suspect on the way to the field office in miami. and so that is the lat est that we have at this point, andrea, and we will continue the develop this out a little bit. and in addition as i mentioned in the top, this person is believed to have a criminal record, and we may have a book photo from one of the prior arrests that we hope to share with you in the next few minutes. >> tom, thank you very much, and as you continue to report on this, and kerry sanders in florida, and we are seeing the

extraordinary scene. the aerials now of this flat bed truck carrying the van. do we know where they are taking the van which is obviously critical evidence, kerry? >> well, it is -- yeah. at this point, they are traching the van, and it looked like they were heading to the florida turnpike and heading south, and they would be taking it to the warehouse facility that the folks at the fbi use, and where they can work under cover of secrecy, and what they don't need is helicopters or anything fly flying overhead and one of the reasons they covered in blue tarps. i am in the parking lot where they found the van and took the person of interest into custody. we are in the process of getting the camera out to sort of show you the scene here which at this point is crawling with more reporters and cameras than anybody who may have witnessed anything. i don't see anybody who appears to have been out in the parking lot at the time or if they were,

they have since left. we know that when the plantation, florida, police department took in, they took quick precautions to move people out of the area. because these are package bombs, there is no way to know if the person who is suspected here to be responsibility may have had explosives inside of that van, aed on so all efforts and precautions taken to make sure that everything was as safe as possible. so at this point, the van which passed right by me on u.s. 441 here passed with something on the back, and maybet it looked like a buy sibuicycle or a scoot folks who cannot walk well might have had on the back to get around, but at this point, it is a very significant development and in what has been an incredibly tense days in our nation as packages with bombs

have been turning up all addressed to those who are either democrats or those who are critics of president donald trump. andr andrea. >> thank you, kerry. and clint watts, from your experience, we don't know exactly how this arrest went down. but they clearly had a flatbed truck ready, and that is looking like a precise fbi investigation. >> i imagine that they plotted this out, and not to say that they do it a lot, but it is pretty textbook about how they go to apprehend people in these circumstances. you can look back to other cases, and kevin harfism who is an extremist who planted a bomb in spokane, washington, and they have gone through that before, and even the d.c. snipers they intercepted them the on a highway using a similar technique, and in a sense a planned raid the to try to get person, and apprehend them peacefully. i think that the other thing

that we can look at is that this is showing the value of forensic evidence, and what has been an opportunity, and what is an awful situation is that the bombs did not detonate, and that is leaving lots of human forensics out there, and even yesterday, i think that most people assumed that this would happen if not today by the end of the weekend which is that you have a lot of signatures, both in terms of the mail system, and you have a lot of human forensics, and you have a clear target list that, you know, aligns in a lodgical way based n the motives potentially of the bo bomber. so i am not surprised that they close odd then very quickly. and some things to think about is why could we do this so quickly as a country. if people remember back to the anthrax case, and that is one of the times when we started to developing a way to track packages through the mail system, and i have a feeling that all of the investment in the counter terrorism years as well has paid off today to where the fbi, and these task forces can quickly descend and run this

down before we see more bombs potentially hitting the mail or being delivered places. and pcomparing to the the austi bombings which was more complex and dangerous situation. >> to that point on 52nd street in new york, outside of the postal facility today, the deputy for counter terrorism in new york for the nypd john miller did a shout out to the 6,000 post tall work-- postal workers here on the front line. and now, coming from the department of tobacco and alcohol and firearms is with us. and they have spotted a envelope today, and they have been at more of risk than anyone else, because these packages were to be intercepted by the law enfor

enforcement who have secret service security, but in fact all of them went through the mail system. jim? >> well, the postal service is just great, and every last employee on the lookout for, this and the armed postal inspection service is great. and some key points here, and i have written many of the criminal complaints on the bombers and i can telle you how they develop and tell you what likely happened here as well. i think that, once they had the lead to the south florida, it would not be unusual for the task force to get a tip on a guy like this driving down the street with with the president's face and all of the right wing bumper stickers on the varngs and this is a guy that you get the tip on, and you would have his name. and of course, the lab would be work working to develop fingerprints and dna and i can tell you that on ten unexploded bombs, and i have worked on many, many of the bombs, that is is a fingerprint party underneath the tape, and

hair and dna and once you the name ofp someone, you have fingerprints and dna, and the person that you have the name of, wh you have got it from a tip, a cell tow thor inte -- ce tower intercept or the post office and he has a criminal arrest with fingerprints, it is academic that you check that arrest and get the fingerprints and we have literally sat there on the trunk of the card with the fingerprint card with the latent lift, and get the examiner that is the same guy, and this is likely what we will see in the criminal complaint, and that is the way we write them, and we will get down to the brass tacks, and this guy's fingerprint was found underneath the tape, and found on joe biden or maxine waters and based on the evidence, i want to have a warrant judge for this guy to send all of these identical package packages or in fact, we match the fingerprint on seven of the

packages or whatever. so they will get down the basics, and they don't want to get into the affidavit and into all of this great superfluous stuff, and what you are trying to get for the magistrate judge, and federal magistrate judge is to say, yes, you have probable cause to believe that this man is responsible for the bomb. and then we get into the grand jury process, and most likely the charges, and how we would do this is the possession and the manufacture of the destructive devices which is basically the atf law, and the law that the atf enforces. and because it is simpler and easier to say that. he was in possession and manufactured the bombs. simple, federal, fingerprint and keep it straight. they could add in weapons of mass destruction and use other charges bush we try to be simple in the complaint normally,

because we are trying to hold him, and prove probable cause, and that is what we will see here, and it is great work by the fbi, and the atf, and the postal service, and all of the postal employees and the nypd and the plantation police, and miami-dade, and i mean, every single agency in maryland and across the country, super work. >> and let me interrupt you for a second and go to tom winter, because he has a e phofoe photo man who has been arrested. >> yes, we were able to get this and full credit to the colleague jonathan dienst and he is cesar sayoc jr jr., and the people sa that he is the man to be charged in connection with this investigation into the 12 bombs sent across the country here. and so the person on the right, that is a previous booking photo. i tried to get into the local sheriff's office, broward sheriff's office, and they are

the ones who might be bringing him n and i have been trying to take a look at the he has been posted yet, but he has not been. and this is from a prior arrest, and speaking of the prior arrests, andrea, i have a one, two, three, four -- about sev seven-page florida criminal record. his background search in the state of florida and those are public records that we can get our hands on, and in matching up the age of this individual with the records, it appears, and we will wait for a little bit of confirmation that he has a significant criminal history and i had been told this earlier today that he had a criminal history that dates back to, it appears to be dating back to the 1990s. that he was on law enforcement's radar, a sond we will take a little bit of a detailed look at this before we start to put it out there, and so, again, the person on the right is 56-year-old cesar sayoc jr.

and i am looking at my colleagues there poring over the record, and trying to match together what type of criminal history he has, and we are told that he definitely has one. in addition to, that andrea, we are looking at the social media records in social media accounts that this individual may have, and once we have guaranteeed and just to kind of pulled back the curtain a little bit for the people lis h inning to us, and watching us, there are, when these arrests are announced, there are a number of fake accounts that are typically put out on facebook, twitter, and et cetera saying they belong to the person who has been arrested for whatever crime it is in these high profile cases. so what we want to make sure that we do, andrea, a lot of information floating around in social media, and we want to make sure that those accounts

are definitively belong to this person. we will try to get confirmation through the official sources, and once we have that, that may be of interest to all of us, and may help to get a little bit more background information on who this person was, and to try to get a better sense of why they did it. and maybe it is interesting, but we are looking to cop firm that a little bit more and we will obviously get back to you with that as soon as we have that >> thank you. those cautions are terribly important, but it is fascinating to see this individual and something of his background that we now know considering all of the conspiracy theories floating around including at least on one other network. also, wanted to flag mimi aroca, a number of possible charges and as a former prosecutor, you understand far better of us the importance of the weapons of mass destruction according to the criminal codes. >> so there are different

charges that can be brought depending on sort of how the device was made and what it is intend intended to do. there are technical definitions of the weapons of mass destruction in the u.s. criminal code, and so we will have to the wait and see how they charge it, but again, as people have mentioned already, that, you know, this is a complaint and so this is going to be something that was likely drafted pretty quickly to get this person off of the street and into custody for obvious reasons, because of the threat to life. this is charged now, it does not mean that it is only the charge s brought about and if he stays in custody pending the ar res, there is a 10-day period and they have the go to bring an indictment, and in that time, they will have a little bit more time to develop the charges so if he is charged with

transportation of a explosive device and not weapons of mass destruction, and so really at the end of the day, these are all serious charges, but there are differences in terms of the penalties depending which statute is charged. there is one other thing worth mentioning just to keep the expectations at bay a little bit. you know f this device was not designed in a way that it could possibly have gone off. and so, in other words, not just a badly made device that, you know, was, there are are two possibili possibilities -- one a device that was badly made and just didn't go off, and one is that it was never intended to go off. if that is the case, there is a hoax statute that was enacted in the anthrax scares, and that was, you know, created for these kinds of purposes, so it is possible that statute could be used as well, and it may not be the only one, but the one that

is use noud to get him off of the street. >> and mimi, geoff bennett is at the white house, and in the briefing room, the east room, to expect the president at any moment, and he has ae ceas rece 10:19 this morning had not tweeted about this case and he said that the republicans are going so well, and now this bomb stuff happens and greatly slows the momentum, and not talking politics, and very unfortunately. what is going on? republicans, go out the vote. so he was tweeting about politics and referring to it as quote bomb stuff. >> and that is right, andrea. what accounts can for t can fors for the delay is the scripted remarks prepared for the president. but particularly, the president on this issue does not see fit to see his prepared presidential style remarks stand. remember, just a -- understand we have the president now with

us. andrea. >> i think that we have jonathan dienst who got that picture, geoff. so before we go to the east room, the president has not started speaking. jonathan? >> yeah, hi, andrea. so that photo of the suspect is from a prior assault. three law enforcement officials are confirming that is the man who they believe is the suspected bomberer who mailed the pamckages from florida and connections with new york. there was dna material found or some sort of forensic material the on one of the envelops that wound up being a match in a database that led to this arrest. there is active work right now, and the initial theorys is a lone actor, but now there is concern that others may have known or helped, and there is a large manhunt and search under way for any possible others who may have assisted him in

connection with this mail bombing that has been sent to new york, california, washington, et cetera. so the investigation is still very active. it is still possible that he is a lone actor, but they are running down every other lead to see if others knew or might have in some way assisted. but that photo is from a previous assault we are told. he has several past arrests from the time. he lived in new york and florida. and the criminal charges are to be announced later today. >> do you know anything more about what you were suggesting which is the first indication of possibly more than one person involved in. >> i can tell you that there is enormous personnel, and number of personnel from the federal, state, locale in the florida region running around following numerous leads and possibilities

and turning over every inch of this guy's life, and everyone he knew and everyone he was in contact with. so i think that we should stick with the lone actor at this time, but they are running around and looking at other possible connections with which would be routine in any investigation, and my sense is that there may be more to it, but we will see as the hours progress. investigation very much active and on going in florida at this hour. >> thanks to you, jopn than dienst, doing so much work on this. and just to recap, briefly, we are expecting the president at any moment in the east room at his previously scheduled event. the attorney general was at the white house today, and he had canceled a trip to kentucky, and he has been on top of this, and spoken earlier about this investigation, but we had not heard anything except a tweet about a half hour ago saying that from the president saying that he would be speak iing, an quote, addressing this in about 15 minutes, and that is the first that he had tweeted or

indicated that he was addressing the specifics of this case today. earlier when ben carson, the h.u.d. secretary who gathered the crowd that had gather in order 11:45 scheduled event in the east room, there was crowds from the trump supporters in there cnn sucks which is what we have heard at trump rallies as we well. so we have yet to hear anything from the president of what cnn has gone through and targeted in this way or any of the others who have been target and former presidents of the united states, and former cabinet members and intelligence members. and geoff bennett, you are in the briefing room, and this response by the president a has been different from past leaders during moments of crisis, certainly. >> that is right. and as you mentioned today, we have seen him tweet about cnn and illegal immigration, and twitter and attacking that company for the algorithm which he suggests a has cost him

conservative followers and also referred to this series of suspicious devices and pipe bombs as quote this bomb u stuff, and trying to dismiss it, but this we should say is before he was officially briefed by the dhs and the fbi and by his own chief of staff. so we do expect the president any moment now to speak from prepared remark s s in the east room. we understand that the remarks are being updated in realtime tot account for the latest developments, but the president makes clear that he accepts no responsibility for contributing to the current political can discourse, the atmosphere in which a man sent a series of pipe bombs to the president's political adversaries, and an entire news organization, a andrea. >> and what is the president's tweet shortly after 3:00 this morning? if you can refresh our memories there. >> and i don't have it in front of me at the moment, but he was suggesting that when he attacks cnn, he then is attacked for not

being seen as presidential. and people close to the president before this incident happened have told me that he views himself as being most effective when he has an enemy or the foil to attack, whether it is real or perceived and so in this instance, clearly he is viewing this or has viewed it up through this the point through a political lens, and so we will v have to see if he says anything about the fact that the man who would appear, and had what appears to be trump-friendly and trump supportive decals can on the van. and of course, we will have to lett the investigation to determine what if anything that suggests, but we will have to see if the president speaks to that if at all. and just yesterday, the press secretary sarah huckaby sanders said that it would be the same as blaming president obama for the attack then committed

against steve scalise on the ball field. >> that tweet that was shortly after 3:00 is funny how lowly rated cnn and others can criticize me at will and even blames me for the current spate of bombs and ridiculously comparing this to september 11th, and the oklahoma city bombing, and yet when i go after them they go wild and scream that is not presidential. that is the quote. jim kavanaugh, that is with us, and as we see continuing aerials in the truck with the blue on the van which is connected by the man who has been take then into custody on the right. what can we expect once we go through the processing? >> yeah, we can expect that he'll be the united states

attorneys will be argued that he needs to be helped because he is a danger to the community, and the legal analysts can talk to you deeply about the bail reform act, but it has two provision, one, will the person flee the jurisdiction and it would be easy for the u.s. attorney to argue that this guy is a clear danger to the community and held without bail initially, and of course within ten days a grand jury indictment will be coming down. and mimi made a good point about the hoax statute, and she is right that it was enacted, but i don't believe they will have to use it here, because the nypd, andrea, they told us that they had all of the components, all of the components for a bomb, and the federal law, the national firearms act that regulates the bombs and that we enforced in atf everyday is specifically says that a combination of parts that makes a bomb. so if you are even have the fusing and the firing is not

particularly perfect, just the fact that you have a all of the components alling together, that is enough to meet the bomb statute, and they have plenty to charge him with the possession of the bomb based on the information. that is the simplest charge, possession and manufacture of the bomb, and now sh, they can charge bombs in the mail, and weapons of mass destruction, and it is definitely going to fit the domestic terrorism statute by trying to intimidate, coerce a civilian population by the government and they will be looking at the statutes deeply and bring them all to the bear. but that is not the business today, because it is not to bring all of the statutes to bear, but it is to bring the most easily provable statute with the hardest evidence like a fingerprinter dna and with the fingerprinter dna, and you know, found on the bombs, that matched this guy, you don't have to get too wordy in the complaint.

it is pretty well enough for the judge to make the determination that there is probable cause to hold him. and so it is right down to the basic basics, and that is what the prosecutors want you to do as well, and they will expound on the case as well. so i would love to be in command of this case, andrea, when i have the guy's motive plastered all over the van. that is really, really great for the investigators and for the prosecutors to deliver that in court. he plastered the motive all over the van and the motive is all over the targets. >> and the president has just walked into the east room, and he is approaching the podium, and he has the reporters there with cell phones taking pictures and shouting usa, usa. and we will wait for the president to start to speak. >> thank you very much. what a group. what a group.

and what a great honor to have you. thank you. it is a great, great honor to have you in the white house, thank you very much. and as you know, in is young black leadership. and it is the summit, and to is have you here, it is truly my privilege, and we will have a lot of fun. we will talk, and meet -- but before i do -- i would like to begin -- >> we are leaders. >> and that is true. and you are real leaders. i would like to begin today's remarks by beginning with the update of the packages and the devices mailed to high profile figures throughout the kcountry and the media organization. i am pleased to inform you that law enforcement has apprehended

the suspect and taken him into custody. incredible job by law enforcement, and we have carried out a far-reaching federal and local can and state investigation to find the person or persons responsible for the events. these terrorizing acts are despicable, and they have no place in our country. no place. i have instructed authorities to spare no resource or expense in finding those responsible, and bringing them to swift and certain justice. and we will prosecute them, her, whoever it may be to the fullest extent of the law. we must never allow political

violence to take root in america. we cant not let it happen. i am committed to doing everything in my power as president to stop it. and to stop the it now. and so today, with the apprehension of the suspect i want to thank the fbi, the secret service, the department of justice, the u.s. police departme department, the nypd and the incredible partners. and to be looking at this needle in a haystack and how do you do it? and they have done an incredible.

ooh and and to have done it so quickly, and si like a needle in the haystack so quickly and they have done an incredible, incredible job, and i want to congratulate them. the bottom line is that the americans must unify and show the world that we are united in peace and love and harmony as fellow american citizen, and there is no country like our countries, and everyday, we are showing the world just how truly great we are. so, you are really very special people and i wanted to say that before our little talk. i appreciate the time that you have given me, and boy, one day, one of you is going to be standing, and it could be be three or four of you actually, but you are going to be standing right here. you will be standing right here. i have no doubt. i have no doubt. who in this room --

>> me! >> who in this room wants to be president some day? so it is an ambitious group. and joining me now as the president continues to speak to his previously scheduled event having congratulated law enforcement for the quick work. and having said that whoever is arrested this or other suspects will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and having said that the department of justice is with the fbi, and the others around the country have responded admirably and quickly. joining me is michael steele, a fo former republican congressional aide and jen pal mmari former obama and hillary clinton campaign manager. and it is, also, michael, a little more than a ttwo hours a

referring to this as bomb stuff, and suggesting that the news media coverage can of this cris instead of talking about the crisis said that it could depre depress the republican voter. >> it is like jackal and hyde presiden president, and when he gets these criticism tweets and then in light of the to dday's news,e get the enthusiastic crowd, but generally speaking, appropriate presidential response. and you never know what you will get and the consistency to expect from this president, and that is very concerning. >> jen palmari, your thought shs. >> it is convenient to compare to the president obama or president bush to handle it, and not that we would expect him to behave in the same way, and just to remember or grade him the way that we should as someone who is

set on dividing the country. if it is either president bush or obama who had been leading at this moment, they would have called hillary clinton and barack obama, and the others to the reach out the cnn to express concern for their safety and if you had seen one of their, one of those presidents speaking about this today, and that it had been cleared that the suspect was motivated by political rant inings from this president as is pretty clear as you saw on that van, you saw cnn sucks, and you saw a lot of the right wing propaganda on the suspect's van, it would be incumbent on this president to say something unifying, but also a message to his side of the political, of, of, of politics to say that we have to tone it down, and come together. and there is no acknowledgment of the ownership on his part that he is feeling these flames,

and that he wants a message of unity, and yet he is leading the rallies where his supporters still chant "lock her up" and calls the press an enemy of the people, and of course this is going to happen. >> and chants in the east room of the white house of cnn sucks by that crowd in the east room today wearing many of them wearing the red maga hats and clearly the campaign supporters. michael steele, this is not helping people of either party? >> of course not. and there is a real tension of the president over the next several hours and days, because this is a success for american law enforcement, and they have acted swiftly and presumably the right person in custody, and they are stopping the threat. that is great thing to celebrate, and yet a lot of the coverage is going to focus on the bumper speakers and motivation, and that is going to drive the president crazy. so we will have to watch whether he is able to contain himself, and able to stay with a high-minded supportive of law enforcement and do the right thing kind of attitude or

whether we will see see the angry tweets that we saw last night and this morning. >> clint watts is also with us, and clint, former fbi official, and we have pictures as well from the auto facility where we believe this van was found earlier today. the fbi is all over it. and clint, what would they be looking for now? >> at this point, they will take the vehicle in and process it for evidence, and what you are seeing there is that they are moving it to the location that is secure, and one that where they are ready to process that inevidence and log it to build out the case. you know, as we were talking about earlier, they will need to match the evidence they have and beyond that to match the evidence from this van which i am assuming that everything in terms of the dna and looking for the bomb-making materials, and remember, allegedly black pouder in the pipes and look for the residue both on the person and the contents of the vehicle, and

this is all added to build that case. like they were saying before, we will see them going to the grand jury at some point, and going to the court, and go for the indictment. this is where they will get all of the evidence from. i think that the other thing is that they will clearly look at in terms of the targeting methodology, and in terms of the reconnaissance of the targets and how the addresses were pick picked out and look at the computer forensics, and something that we should not overlook x and -- and we think that it is a lone individual or actor and that may not be the case, because oftentimes we look at people who have helped them in terms of the reconnaissance or the parts they needed to construct the devices or in terms of the delivery, so you will be looking at that the social network of that person, both online and in person, and make sure that there was no one else who knew about it or might potentially take on further attacks. and another thing that we should not overlook is that we saw how it played out in the media over the past few days, and there is

always people, whenever we see these incidents where it is a contagion effect, and you will see the copycats sometimes popping out of the woodwork, and so something that is i am sure that law enforcement and the fbi is worried about, anybody else who is willing to take this on and anyone else who might be i thinking of doing something like this, and when they see the act like this, it is what we call the cascading terrorism from the international experience, and is there anybody else who wants to take it to another level or been thinking of doing something is similar who is now motivated to do that, and the fbi is really exploiting the networks and trying to find out just in terms of the individual anyone else out there on the tipping point. >> and pete williams, clint, he is joining us as well. pete, i know that you were heading down to the justice department and doing all of this reporting at this stage. what are they looking for and do we think that there is other people connected with this man? >> so, what they are going to be looking for now, andrea, let's start with what you are seeing

on the skreep, and they will be looking for what they find in his vehicle, and what the fbi does is that they have the specially made vacuums to vacuum up the tiniest bit of fiber evidence, and go through the van extensively for well over a day trying to find anything that they can that could link, and that could be useful as evidence in the investigation, and secondly, they will look at cesar sayoc's social media and the phone and the computer and was he in touch with anyone else, and was he looking on the int internet to get the addresses of the places where the bombs were sent, and did he use the internet to buy any pieces or parts of the bomb, and now, you know, some of the -- and by the way, this is a still picture of the side of the van that you just saw a moment ago with the tarp the over it showing some of the stickers in the window, and which people that we have had that were on the scene look g a

ing at a it say are very, well, i think that they speak for themselves, and very pro-trump administrati administration, and some sentiments about cnn in the lower left-hand corner, and whether that going the be useful to the investigators or not, i don't know, but in any event, they will be looking to see if he bought any bomb components on the internet, and for example, the pictures of the devices show those electrical circuits taped to the side of the device which we think are timers and are where did they come from? dud he order them on the internet or order the explosive powder on the internet or fireworks or anything like that. they will look at that, and then look at the thing that is taped on the side of the bomb, and that is the circuit that i am talking about and the picture of what we believe is cesar sayoc and what we are going to be seeing them looking into the, and other things that they believe he is the sole suspect

or they would not do that for someone they thought was a peripheral player, but then in a situation like this, you can never say, we are satisfied that he is the only one, because they don't know what they don't know, and until they get into the exploiting the communications can and looking at people that he was in touch with, and interviewing the friends and neighbors, they will have to continue to investigate. >> and we have governor andrew cuomo on the line. and governor cuomo, thank you very much and we know how busy you are, and what can you tell us about the investigation of how they got the him, and importantly, whether he has other co-conspirators in the new york area. >> well, first of all, great to be with you, andrea, and you have been doing a great job on this as you always do. >> my thanks to you. >> and first, congratulations to law enforcement who has done a great job. i spoke to president trump about

this moments ago and he pledged total coordination between the state, local and federal resources, and that he was directing the federal resources to do everything they need to do and the fbi and he did that, and the fbi and the jttf have all worked together with the state and local police. and this is a tough investigation, and they handled it extraordinarily well. and also, there is more information to come, and mayb e york, and i'm the former attorney general and district attorney, and my instinct is that it is going to be basically this individual acting on his own behalf. which is in some ways is the

wor worst situation where one disgruntled person can learn from the internet how the build a bomb, and get the explosives relatively easy. which means that it is relatively simple for an individual to be highly disruptive, and that is what this is. we are in new york, and so we have had a number of terrorist attacks, and i keep trying to think about how do you get ahead of it, and how do you stop it. and this is just a symptom, not the illness, but the lesion on the body and not the virus, and if we don't stop this political mania, this fervor rancor or hatred, you will be seeing it again. and thank god nobody got hurt, and i don't know if it is by the design of the bomb or an amateur building the bomb, but we have to get to the genesis. and the genesis is an overheated

vitriolic political division in this country. and it is starting with the leaders, and it starts with the president, and with heated rhetoric, but i think that we also have to start talking to the american people and say, hey, this has to stop. this is not constructive and it is not productive and it is not sustainable. we just learned how to handle sexual harassment differently, and we are more sensitive. and we are more sensitive on the racial matters, and we have to be more sensitive about how we handle the political discourse, because we cannot -- and this is going to destroy the democracy as we know it if we don't get it under kcontrol. >> and what is your message to the new yorkers? i mean, since all of these devices were sent through the mail, there could be more in the pipeline before this arrest was made, and there could be others involved, and what is your message to the new yorkers and the postal inspectors to be cautious about any packages and

to be watching for anything that looks similar. >> yeah. well sh well, first of all i will not be surprised if there are additional packages and just because he is caught doesn't mean that he does not have other packages en route. and again, the good news is that none of them have detonated. they are not fake bombs, and the false propaganda and they are not highly sophisticated devices oo either, and everyone should be on full alert. in new york, i believe that one of the lessons that we have to learn here is that we have to do a better job of screening the mail, and part of it is going to be federal and the u.s. postal servi service, and i will be working with the postal agencies in the state, but there has to be a way to detect that you are sending bombs through the mail. i mean. we have to get better at that. that is one of the lessons. and diligence still, but again, andrea, i am going to go back to the people of new york and i am

going to say, look, we have to bring down the heat and bring down the rhetoric, and yes, it is the responsibility of the leaders, but more, i believe in the american people. you know, we are taught and the. i believe it's often the other way. the people lead and the politicians follow. they will not sell a product if the american people don't buy. president trump is a great marketer. if the american people are not buying his product, he will stop selling his product. he's done it many times. we have to say to the american people, stop buying hate. stop buying vitriol and you can have political debate without political violence and we have to get back to that immediately. >> andrew cuomo, governor of new york, thank you very much. thank you for taking the time. going to the white house now, jeff bennett just to recap some of the comment that is the president made, because there

was still a lot of political rhetoric coming from the crowd, as well, in the east room today. >> a gathering of young african-american conservatives, trump supporters, seeing the red make america great again and he says people are attacked for their beliefs and how he feels attacked, too, and then the people shouting fake news and info wars and that's a website that trades in skiconspiracy theories and i believe we have some sound to that. >> i get it. i get attacked. i think -- maybe more. maybe. maybe more than anybody. i don't know. i can do the greatest thing for our country and on the networks and on different things, it will show bad. they will take it back. yes, fake news.

>> reporter: so, you can see there, andrea, when the weight of the presidency, the nation in peril, compels the president to hue to conventional standards and norms, the president cannot really seem to comply and so we saw him at the beginning of that event deliver a scripted remark, a presidential style remarks that he will not let have the last word here. andrea? >> with me is michael steele. michael, these points keep getting reinforced by the president's speech himself. you are a republican. you worked on the hill for john boehner. >> violence, political violence should be condemned by everyone in american political life. should be condemned by all americans, completely unequivocally and consistently and the consistently is the problem this president seems to have. we hear him say the right thing with the cameras and the tell prompter on and then the angry tweets, asides. we're 11 days from the midterm

elections and hard to keep partisanship out of the fallout of the conversation and it takes discipline starting with the president himself and absolutely the right thing do do and what the country needs. >> back to the investigation, kerry sanders in florida, what are you seeing at your location? >> reporter: well, let me give you sort of a view of where i'm standing in the parking lot right now at the auto zone. this is where the vehicle was taken into custody and this is where the suspect was taken in to custody. now, where i'm standing is in the parking lot. let's take you to the other camera up against the window and as we look through the window you can see that there is at least one fbi agent and another detective. it may be also a fbi agent. can't quite determine that. they're not wearing the jacket and they're talking to an employee of the auto zone. they have been talking to this employee for quite sometime and they have been looking at the computer screen and as they have been going through looking at the computer screen, at times, they take their phone out and

they're taking pictures of the computer screen. collecting evidence. looking at things that are on the computer screen. now, it may be that this was a one-time customer that pulled in here and that the fbi and other agencies were able to track him as he came here today to go shopping. or it may be that this is a frequent customer here, someone that came to the store and a record on the computer, maybe of items that could have been used in the building of bombs. all thing that is we don't know. all questions that investigators are quite frankly gathering information on trying to determine. i can tell you that the lead fbi agent inside there and she appears to be the lead because she's doing most of the questioning, is taking very copious notes, taking her time, ignoring the fact that there are about 25 to 30 cameras outside peering in watching every unblinking moment of what's going on and focusing on what's taking place. now, where i am standing right now in this parking lot is where

the van was taken. it's where the fbi eventually covered it in a blue tarp. loaded it on the back of a flatbed and took it away from here presumably to a warehouse or a place to look at the evidence under roof top without peering eyes and television news helicopters flies overhead. when the fbi moved in, along with the plantation police department, we're told from those who work in the area that they heard what sounded like some sort of pop or explosion and they weren't sure what it was so people went up to their windows in their offices and buildings and started looking out and then very shortly thereafter those fbi agents, the s.w.a.t. team members, those who were clearly responding to something, told people, you need to back off. go back in. get under cover back away. presumably because the van itself was perhaps believes to have an explosive inside. clearly nobody knew that but if this was the suspect it was pretty reasonable to assume there's explosives inside and

put people at a safe distance. that van was taken away without explosions explosions and at this point finding evidence inside would appear to be perhaps the most important link to the suspect. meantime, police agencies across the state are examining their records. this is a rather unusual spelling. cesar sayoc we're looking and seeing records pop up with different charges. one which we're still in the process of trying to make sure that this is the same cesar sayoc jr. but it was and i'm only pointing out because of the charge, bomb, destructive device, threatened to throw at a place. so there may be indication in court records from previous arrests that link to cesar sayoc and it may be that the authorities who when they have put a blanket on the investigation here searched not

just the mail facilities but just about every piece of evidence possible and combing through court records to see if there's somebody who had any sort of propensity to do this sort of thing and found the name buried there and began to follow him. all the sorts of detective, all the sorts of methods that detectives use and maybe 2:30 a clearer idea how they found him but the unanswered question is, is there anybody else who may have been linked to this? >> and someone who could help us with that question, thank you so much, bill bratton, the normer nypd commissioner. what would the nypd and the fbi be doing in new york which was the locus of so much of the activity, bill? >> andrea, coordinated by the joint terrorism task force and the largest in the country. and has probably been the lead element in this investigation. they've already talked about bringing a lot of this back up to the u.s. attorney's office in

the southern district. so, you saw some of the earlier video at the van. the multiplicity of law enforcement agencies at that van including a nypd officer and nypd jacket. the effort that paid off so quickly in terms of now the arrest of the apparent suspect could not have been accomplished but for the joint effort. reinforces the importance of that. >> and, commissioner bratton, former commissioner bratton, your experience as well in boston, l.a. in big city police departments, how concerned would you be about copycats and about others who might be out there? >> we already are starting to see that in the sense of the significant increase in public calling in concerns about packages left unattended. had that last night and the time warner complex in new york city where they have had to evacuate

the bidding. two packages left unattended in the middle of a shopping plaza. turned out to be two toys in a package. so, police departments across the country always see a surge in see something, say something. people calling it in. the copycat aspect i would be concerned with going forward that in this day and age that we live in where there's so much publicity around this, there's an awful temptation of somebody else to try to emulate what this character just pulled. four days he's captivated the national attention to the extent they're pushing everything else off the screen of cable and national networks and a concern going forward, certainly. >> thanks to you, former nypd police commissioner, of course, bill bratton. just to recap, cesar sayoc arrested, brought into custody. you have seen the van. the van is taken in for further

evidence to be discovered and let's turn it over to ali velshi and stephanie ruhle for "velshi & ruhle." >> thank you for that. we'll continue the coverage here. good afternoon, everyone. >> it is friday, october 26th. let's get smarter. >> florida resident cesar sayoc jr. has been arrested and will face charges in connection to the string of package bombs. >> we must never allow political violence to take root in america. cannot let it happen. and i'm committed to doing everything in my power as president to stop it. >> two more packages found this morning. one addressed to senator corey booker and another to former director of national intelligence james clapper. >> this investigation is moving very fast. lots of leads are being checked. >> our reporters on the ground there with wtvj telling us that the windows on the suspect's truck are, quote, completely covered with pictures of trump, the presidential