i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters live. we start with the unfolding news. the details on this breaking story at another school shooting. it happened in east of atlanta, georgia, where law enforcement sources tell nbc news they believe two people are dead. four injured. a suspect is in custody at apalachee high school in barrow county. ambulances raced to the scene as students were scene heading out of the building into the stadium. on a campus of about 1,900 students. i'm joined by msnbc's tom winter and special agent jim cavanagh. tom, get us up to speed. what do we know right now? >> sure, chris. a couple of things. the information is coming from a variety of briefing that's we're

getting and people we're talking to are getting. this information is subject to change, of course, as the investigation unfolds. the initial indications are that there are two dead. that number could change. it could go up from there. as a result of this school shooting in at least four injured as well. that number can go up as well. the suspect is in custody, whether they're among the deceased or the injured, it's just too soon to say. no idea on the background of the suspect at this point as far as who that individual may be. we haven't heard a name yet. we haven't heard what the motive might be. it's still in its early stages. you're looking at video of a chaotic scene that has been taken in the last hour or so. and obviously, law enforcement officials on the ground and talking with students and gathering information. so this is an investigation that is still relatively in its early stages and we're continuing to await more information and an update briefing from officials

that we'll get later this afternoon. >> so marissa, tell us what we know. i understand at least one person who was hurt in this shooting has been taken to a hospital? >> correct. and we don't have much more information than that. of course, we know so many people in this community are clinging, trying to find information. we've seen the harrowing images on the football field. no doubt loved ones are waiting to find out the status of their loved ones at the school. it is a kind of recap of what we do know. at least two killed. four have been injured. we know the suspect is in custody. we don't know if the suspect is included in the number and we definitely don't know a motive. in terms the school, this is a small community. it is winder, georgia near athens georgia. there are about 19,000 people in winder. the school, apalachee, the enrollment is 1,900.

you can see the images, the growing crowds between, of course, you see the one person being taken on a stretcher. we don't know the status or the details behind that specifically but lots and lots of people crowded around undoubtedly trying to support each other, reunite with their loved ones. we have been getting some peppered details and testimony from people. these interviews have been done by our affiliate. they've been doing a really strong job trying to capture the scene which of course, in these moments, we have covered this all too often. it is always peppered with emotion and chaos all in one. i heard not that long ago in an interview with someone who is waiting to find out the status of her loved one and she is very emotional and happy to find out her loved one is okay. all of these details, of course, still unfolding. we know the first reports of gunfire came at about 10:23 in the morning, chris. >> all right.

our local affiliate did speak to a grandmother who has a grand son at the school and this is what she had to say. >> i feel really sorry for the kids, that they had to experience this, and the parents who got those phone calls that it was their child. he was with the principal and the principal told him, run to the band room. don't look back. just keep running. so that's all i know. >> reporter: you said your daughter is with him now? >> yes. his mom. >> reporter: a sigh of relief. >> yes, ma'am. >> jim cavanagh, there is an entire community that is either heartbroken, well, they're probably all heartbroken, or who will get horrible, unimaginable news. others like that grandmother will be breathing a sigh of relief for their own loved ones. but there are always questions. they come quickly.

they usually fall into two big categories. one is how could this happen? and why did this happen which goes to motive? let's talk about how you get to the human part of this. i know in the last hour, there were conversations about whether or not investigators might even start talking to the kids who went immediately to the stadium and determined who might have actually been in the area or in the room where the shooting occurred. is it best to get witnesses when the memory is fresh? are they too much in shock? what are the first steps? >> well, the juveniles will be interviewed with their parents. there are a lot of investigative resources now. gbi, the sheriff's detectives, federal agents. they have plenty of people. they can send out 30 investigative teams if they interviewed 30 children. they'll be delicate about it. they'll interview them with their parents. they'll assess whether the child can give the statement.

and yes, it is good to get when it it is fresh and not contaminated by the memories of others. what we're looking at now is a state prosecution for homicide. the reporting was two dead. so that will be a major case for the district attorney. so you want to get that information down. they have to sweep the house. they already have officers at the home of the shooter, wherever that is. o it's in a nearby community. possibly it's a student so they'll be there. are the parents there talking to the police? if so, they'll want to search and get a warrant. if nobody answers the door, they'll have to go in and see if somebody was harmed inside which sometimes happens. the the potential of bombs in vehicles and the harming of the shooter. once that's done, it switch to the investigation. just a lot of heartache tonight. >> it sounds like with the suspect in custody, the

investigative phase is probably well underway. how did they distribute that? what are the resources that are generally available and what between local state, federal, even if there are on-campus security officers? >> [ inaudible ]. >> sorry, jim? did we lose you? okay. we lost jim. let me go back to you, marissa. do we know anything about the immediate aftermath of that? we could see what the pictures were showing us which was students getting out of the school. they were going into, as i said, the stadium. you can still see in some of the shots that are apparently from above, the students that are in the stadium. beyond what seemed to be a very limited number of interviews that have been done, for example, with family members, what is the situation on the

ground right now? >> what i can tell you about is after we had those initial first reports of gunfire at 10:23 in the morning, chris, we know it was about an hour later that we had parents and families being allowed to reunite with their loved ones. we know there was a soft lockdown. apalachee high school did permit parents to pick up their children from apalachee high school alone. but that's it. other surrounding schools in the school district at last check at least, remained on soft lockdown. this is fluid so things might have changed. at last check there was a soft lockdown for all the surrounding school districts. in terms of the security, the protocol, we've been getting a lot of information to law enforcement agencies on the ground. of course, fire, ems, the fbi. even we heard from the mayor of atlanta. this is the atlanta mayor who sent his prayers to the students, the staff, the

families affected by yet another senseless act of violence. he did point out that he's been directing extra patrols around atlanta schools just out of an abundance of caution. of course, probably wanting to put that out there in case people did notice the extra patrols and didn't want that speculation to start rumors. so we know that there has been heavy police presence. for those who are just joining just to remind you, winder, georgia, is situation between athens, georgia and atlanta. there is a lot of increase in patrols, a lot of increase in security in surrounding schools and districts and the nearby cities just to be extra safe here. we're still waiting to find out again, two killed, four injured. we do not know the combination, whether they were students, teachers, or a combination of both. we know one suspect in custody. we do not know if that suspect is among that number there.

to recap again, 19,000 people in winder, georgia. the enrollment at the school, 1,900. school started just one month ago. we know they were off for labor day so you can imagine, there was still probably that back to school excitement and yet another tragedy at a high school. these are young students. even if they were not among the number. again, two killed, four injured. undoubtedly not just everyone at the high school, faculty, staff, students, traumatized by this but this very small tight-knit community as well, chris. >> i want to bring in clint watts, national security analyst. there is a statement that is out, clint, from the georgia department of education, the school summit who talks about not surprisingly being devastated by the news of this shooting, unimaginable loss for barrow and our entire

educational community across the state. he said our school safety team is in contact with homeless agency and barrow county schools. what has to happen in the immediate aftermath of an incident like this understanding that we already live in a country on edge. we already live in a country where a strong majority of teachers have a concern about whether there might be a school the shoeing where they are. where we know that there are literally thousands of people who have lived through school shootings and in recent years, we found that some of them become second-time, in a place, often in a college. they went through a high school shooting and now they've gone through a college shooting. how important is what they're doing, not necessarily an investigative sense, clint, but in a sense of calming not just the community but the people throughout the region and making sure that they're not distracted

by calls, concerns, that they're getting information out there for the very real concerns that many parents have throughout that area? >> yeah, chris, i think in the first step you're already seeing it. the quick reaction and the sadness of this is, this play book that we've seen time and time again. it looks like the administration and the community in law enforcement went thank you response play book that they've probably practiced before and may have even prepared for in many ways, and they're going through that trillion. the next is making sure accountability of all the school, all their needs, and following up with that over several days -- >> this is a news conference that has just begun. >> the investigation is very early and i have asked the assistance of the gbi and the agencies here behind me today and the multiple agencies that responded this morning to help us and help the sheriff's office. we do have a suspect in custody.

and we are asking for your patience as the media to please let us get the facts that we need to make sure we get this right. again, i've asked the gbi to help us, the sheriff's office to help us along with this. i know this is not what you want to hear but i'm not going to answer questions after this is over with. i wanted to give you the respect and our community the respect to let you know what is going on initially. we're in the process of reunifying our students with their parents. obviously that is chaotic. we want to be respectful of them and their privacy as well. i want to thank the state, the federal agencies, the local agencies that showed up today, as you can see. the multiple ems and fire and other agencies that responded today. again, i ask that you give up barrow county schools, apalachee, lift up our agencies.

this will take multiple days to get answers as to what happened and why this happened. but i wanted to give you a statement. it is our hope in conjunction with these people behind us that we give another statement at 4:00. i know you have to go back on the air. that is my hope. i wanted to be fluid with you all understanding that it is fluid as well with this investigation. i appreciate you being patient with us. again, it's very active and ever developing. every minute it is developing on what we're finding. so we're going to have releases from other schools. again, we ask that you be patient with us. please be patient with us. and hopefully i can give you more information and better information, if you will, this afternoon. thank you all for coming out here. we'll be back shortly, okay? >> it's been widely reported -- >> i'm not releasing any information. we have multiple injuries.

i'm not releasing any more information. thank you. >> media, i want to let everyone know, as the sheriff indicated, the priority is trying to get the students back with their families. we'll be holding a news conference at 4:00. if you're not already following us on twitter or x, make sure you follow us. we'll be providing details then. there are a lot of investigative details. i know you want information. that's what the investigators are actively working on now. >> the idea would be to be back here at 4:00. keep an eye on our social media. if that changes, you'll know it. we'll be able to address and hopefully answer more questions for you. or be in a position to give you more answers. >> we just realized, tell us how many people, what you know about that? >> we're not in any kind of position. the sheriff made his comments.

we'll leave it at that. by 4:00, we hope to have a better picture so you can better comprehend what's going on. we really appreciate it. thank you. >> so you have law enforcement wanting to get ahead of what understandably are a lot of questions they're getting. questions from the media and many of those also from the community, right? that they hope to get answers from the media. in the early hours of the investigation, they don't want to put out the wrong information. here's a couple things that he did say that we do know. there are releases from other schools meaning that we know other schools in that area were on a soft lockdown. they wanted to make sure there wasn't a danger there in moving people about. so soft lockdown. but now apparently, they're in the process of releasing those other schools. in the process of reunifying the students who were actually in apalachee school with their

parents. we saw those who came out and were brought into the stadium as well. also mentioning a number of the agencies that were involved from the georgia bureau of investigation to the local sheriff's office. officials from, obviously, barrow county schools and that school. and federal agencies, state agencies, ems, fire, there you see the picture from a little while ago in barrow county, georgia. let me bring back my guests, also with us, the former assistant director for counter intelligence at the fbi, and retired seattle police chief. thank you all for being there. clint, one of the things he said is that it will take multiple days to get answers. i think all the answers that people want may well take more than that. in the early hours of the first day after a shooting like this, what kinds of answers do you

expect that they might be able to have in two hours and 45 minutes. they say they'll brief again at 4:00 eastern time. >> the casualty question which kept coming up at that initial press conference will be the first one they'll probably address. they may want to confirm some of these things or they may not be certain. i think second, everyone will want to know in terms of the suspect, identification and what is it in terms of the criminal process potentially now if they do determine that is the person that was the shooter. that's the first two things. beyond that, we know to some degree how this goes. in the coming days, everyone will be lack at the social media and electronic profile of the individual, the suspect, if that is the perpetrator. they'll be looking to see about any associates and expanding the investigation. were there any early warnings or tip that's might have popped up. and then other details will come to fold, i'm sure, as the

investigation continues. working at the crime scene now. they're gathering evidence. and they'll probably be able to put together in the coming days the larger scene of what actually unfolded on this day. so at least i think in the immediate, the basic questions we heard fired right there in that initial press conference, where they're going to go if they do have another press conference for 4:00 p.m. eastern time. >> one of the first questions will be having someone get a gun into that school. what kinds of security is in place there? how careful and how monitored was it? how much in recent years, carmen, has generally, and i know you can't speak to this specific school. but has school security training about what students should do, what teachers should do? we did hear from one grandparent that her grandchild said they were told to run and not look

back. just run, get out. how much has that changed in recent years and how much more sophisticated is our ability to deal in a school with a horrific situation like that? >> yeah, chris, sadly, there is no community and those schools immune to this. large towns have been affected. literally hundreds over the course of the last several years. so everyone has been preparing for it. law enforcement, school officials, teachers, students, all well aware of the potential with this gun violence sadly in the schools. so again, i can't speak to this particular school specifically. i would not be surprised at all if they've already had some level of training in terms of potential active shooter in the school. and certainly all the law enforcement officials and ems and others that have responded have had this training routinely

as a part of what we are dealing with in our society today. >> frank, have we gotten really good at this and unfortunately, had too much experience with it that you would think this investigation could move along very quickly? >> i think so. with all the resources that are being brought to bear, it is no longer, on, this is a rural or suburban county that's not used to this and they don't have the resources. that's not the case will it is literally a mutual aid all hands on deck division of labor. hey, gbi, which i've worked with, i was assigned to the atlanta field office for a portion of my career. they're very professional. they're quite capable of leading this if they're asked to do so. the fbi, great at crime scenes, re-enacting and computer graphics to show exactly what happened and when. an overlaying witness statement and the kind of chronological

map. there are victim witnesses services that the fbi is really good at. meeting with victim families and students. this can get done relatively quickly. let's remember, this is going to be a prosecution. this shooter is in custody so we can't really get a lot of information out ahead of an actual prosecution to add to things we don't know, whether this subject is a juvenile and that will complicate what can be said publicly. we have to keep all of that in mind. we'll get a picture of why this happened, who this person is. members of the public will come out. i'm kind of surprised that the sheriff at the very limited press conference didn't say to the public, look, we've set up a number. you can call this number if you have information on this shooter or how this happened. that would be very helpful.

again, gbi and fbi have a number available so that can handle high volumes of calls. that can be done. it also caught my attention that the sheriff used the word chaotic with regard to an ongoing reunification process. didn't like to hear that word. i have to tell you from the scenes that we're seeing, this football stadium, yeah. that adjective might apply. that has to get better. >> so what is it about this scene that you think is chaotic? help us to understand. most people would say, okay. if there is a shooting incident and they feel students can get out safely, and they tell them run, that getting them out of the school all in one place where they can start to account for them makes sense. but is that not standard operating procedure? help us to understand why that might be chaotic other than obviously trying to field who the parents are that they want to reunify the students with.

>> yeah. in open air reunification center, it's a bit unusual. but it's also logical. if you've neutralized the threat and you have your suspect, there's a lot of convenience to an open air football stadium. the problem is, i'm not sensing that there's been a rehearsed way to match student a with parent a. do we have a traffic line? are we doing alphabetical order? hey, a-f, you stand on the 5 yard line. the others, 10 yard line. 20 yard line. your parents will be allowed alphabetically to retrieve you. in this day and age, everybody has a cell phone but what about the students who don't have a cell phone? maybe the school has a no cell phone policy. are kids telling their parents, don't worry, i'm okay. i'm on the 20 yard line. i'm not seeing that. they're just milling about.

>> this video that we're seeing, that is exactly the situation. people just milling about and i supposed waiting to see what instructions they get from authorities. you can see people going from the parking lot inside. we're going to take a quick break. we have marissa and jim and clint and frank and carmen. we'll be back with much more breaking news with the school shooting right outside atlanta, georgia. >> university of maryland global campus is a school for real life, one that values the successes you've already achieved.

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we're back with more on the breaking news of the shooting at a georgia high school that killed two and injured at least four people. that's preliminary information from law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation. our local affiliate spoke to the neighbors of a parent whose child was at the school and who rushed to the scene to try to pick them up. >> i wanted to put eyes on them to see that he was okay. he knows that he's safe. and god got him. >> it makes a difference -- >> yeah, to put your eyes on that person. to see what mental state he's in. i'm sure he's devastated. he probably doesn't want to finish the rest of the year. his last year, and this is what happens. he actually heard the shooting. he's like, they're shooting. they're shooting right across from my classroom. he called his mom devastated, i'm sure. >> nbc's reporter is on the

scene for us. tell us what you're able to see and learn. >> reporter: hey there, yeah. i just arrived here at apalachee high school and there is a massive law enforcement presence here. representatives from local, state, and the fbi are here and we're seeing many parents, family members, walking around. a lot of the roads that are adjacent to the school are completely blocked off. there is a lot of confusion with cars backing up for essentially miles, parents trying to become reunited with their children. asking law enforcement how close they can get to the scene. people are walking over a mile to get to the school. to give you some perspective, this high school is directly across the street from a preschool, and next to a middle school. so just in this high school there are about 1,800 students. we're seeing very little kids with backpacks being picked up by their parents from that preschool and many parents going

over to the middle school to check on their parents there. we just heard from the sheriff of barrow county who confirmed that there were multiple casualties. he couldn't give any more specifics about the conditions of those victims but we also know that a suspect has been apprehended and is in custody. we don't have any further information about the potential identity of the suspect or the motive at this point. as of right now, it is basically families coming here, extremely emotional. very scared. trying to find their kids at a time where this should have been the end of a very normal school day. >> thank you so much for that. we'll come back to you as you get more information. let me go back to you with what we heard from her but also, the obvious chaotic situation with people trying to get in and the area of people being blocked

off. what the neighbor said, trying to pick up a child and learned how devastating it was to be in a room where you could hear the gunshots coming in potentially from across the hall. we're dealing with ninth through 12th graders here who probably saw or heard something, who experienced this. how do you even approach someone of that age? and i'm thinking about, first of all, yes. they probably just went back to school in the last month. these are students who went through what was for many a traumatic time, going through a pandemic, who have unlike those of us who are on this panel, gone through active shooter drills and now this has happened. how do you approach students and get information that is useful to the investigation? >> yeah, chris, as jil was mentioning earlier, this is something done with family most likely. in terms of what investigators will need to know, they'll probably be able to zero in and really focus on those classrooms where the shooter was actually

at. you would expand out from this and then look for additional leads. there is a degree of trauma to this. as you heard right there. the hearing of gunshots in classrooms, that is going to traumatize those kids for the rest of their life. add to that, how do you get them to talk about it in a way that you're not reinforcing the trauma that will take working with counsellors, working with interviewers and working with families at the same time to try to get the information that is needed without causing more harm. just looking at this at the start of the school year. think of the detriment that is done to the school and the damage that would be done to the kids throughout the rest of the school year. they're just getting started. so overcoming the obstacles, it will be an intense challenge for all the administration and the entire district the rest of the year. >> thank you so much for that. frank figliuzzi, there is a

publication called ed week. a lot of folks started following it. it is about education, started following it during the school situation that happened during the pandemic. they followed school shootings. they say there have been 22 of them this year resulting in injuries or deaths. 204 since 2018. 38 school shootings with injuries or deaths last year. in 2018 and 2019, those were the years when there were few, other than the 2020 year of the pandemic. 24. in 2022, there were 51 school shootings that ed week tracked. we talk about how we've gotten good at training kids about what to do when the unthinkable happens. how good law enforcement has gotten at investigating and getting answers. have we gotten any better at

stopping them, preventing them? >> no. the short answer is no. we're not getting to the root cause. we're simply not. the root cause, people will politicize this and say it's mental, no, it's the guns, both, and we're still not addressing the root cause. that's because we seem to have politicized what is a threat to our children. our children are dying in record numbers because of gunshots. and we've seemed unwilling to rise to the occasion. we're not talking going suggesting some exotic thing where we come and take everybody's weapons away. no one is saying that with any logic. we're talking about safety and enforcement of existing laws. there isn't a reasonable gun owr out there who thinks someone verbalizing all the warning signs and indicators of violence should continue to possess a gun. we're talking about, thinking about red flag laws.

which georgia, by the way, does not have, that would allow family members, teachers, police to say look, there is a threat coming from this individual. until we figure it out, we'll temporarily hold the weapon and then have a due process procedure to give that weapon back when the threat has awaited. we're talking about gun safety locks which you can get for free -- >> i need to interrupt you. i'm sorry. merrick garld is speaking. this is about russian interference but perhaps the school shooting as well. >> -- respond to a dangerous increase of public threats. we did so because countless americans were enduring terrible threats simply for doing their civic duty. and we did so because threats to election workers cuts to threats to our democracy itself. in just a few minutes, the task force here will meet to discuss

its continuing work in advance of the upcoming election. before we begin, i want to address the tragic shooting that occurred this morning at a high school in winder, georgia. we are still gathering information but the fbi and atf are on the scene working with state, local and federal partners. i'm devastated for the families who have been affected by this terrible tragedy. the justice department stands ready to provide any resources or support that the winder community needs in the days ahead. before i get to the work of the task force, i want to announce two major law enforcement agencies that the justice department is taking that are separate from the important work of this task force but are part of our broader effort to protect our elections from unlawful interference of any kind. first, this morning we unsealed an indictment in the southern

district of new york of constantine, two russian-based employees of rt. a russian state-controlled media outlet. they are charged with conspiring to commit money laundering and to violate the foreign agents registration act. that law end acted nearly a century ago was enacted to ensure that the american people were informed when a foreign power engages in political activities or seeks to influence public discourse. the american people are entitled to know when a foreign power is attempting to exploit our country's free exchange of ideas in order to send around its own propaganda. the company never disclosed -- i'm sorry -- and that is what we alleged happened in this case. in the wake of rusch's brutal invasion of ukraine in 2022, rt,

which was then known as russia today, was dropped by its american distributors. the company ceased its formal operations in the united states and the european union, the u.k., and canada banned rt's broadcasting. as rt itself has boasted, the government of russia continued to use rt to direct disinformation and propaganda. in the wake of russia's brutal invasion of ukraine, rt's editor-in-chief said the company had built, quote, an entire empire of covert projects designed to shape public opinion in western audiences. we alleged that as part of that effort, rt and its employees, including the defendants, implemented a nearly $10 million scheme to fund and direct a tennessee-based company to public and disseminate content deemed favorable to the russian government. to implement this scheme, the

defendants directed the company to contract with u.s.-based social media influencers to share this contact on their platforms. the subject matter and content of many of the videos published by the company were often consistent with russia's interests in amplifying u.s. domestic divisions to weaken to core russian interests, particularly its ongoing war in ukraine. the company never disclosed to the influencers or to their millions of followers its ties to rt and the russian government. instead, go the defendants and the company claimed that the company was sponsored by a private investor. but that private investor was a fictitious persona. the charges unsealed this morning do not represent the end of the investigation. it remains active and ongoing.

in a separate enforcement action, the justice department is seizing 32 eminent domains that the russian government and russian sponsors have used to engage in a covert campaign to interfere and influence the outcome of our country's elections. as alleged in our court filings, president vladimir putin's inner circle direct russian public relations companies to promote disinformation and state-sponsored narratives as part of a program to influence the 2024 u.s. presidential election. and internal planning document created by the kremlin states that as a goal of the campaign is securing russia's preferred outcome in the election. the online infrastructure used by the russian public relations company known as the social design agency, or sda, and related actors included what are

sometimes referred to as cyber squatted domains. these websites were designed to pear to american readers as if they were major u.s. news sites like the "washington post" or fox news. but in fact, they were fake sites. they were filled with russian propaganda to reduce international support for ukraine, bolster pro-russian policies and interests and influence voters in the united states and in other countries. internal documents of the kremlin described the content as, quote, bogus stories disguised as newsworthy events. this maligned influence campaign has been referred to as doppelganger. the russian public relations company drove viewers to these websites by deploying influencers and paid social media advertisements. they also created fake social

media profiles posing as u.s. citizens, post comments on social media platforms with links to the sites. according to sda's records, it actively sought to quote, eliminate the possibility of the detection of the russian foot print. both of the schemes i've just discussed may clear the ends to which the russian government including at its highest levels is willing to go to undermine our democratic process. but the enforcement actions i've discussed also made clear that the justice department will aggressively counter such efforts, and the same is true of the entire united states government. today, our colleagues at the state and treasury departments are announcing parallel actions in both of these matters. unfortunately, we know that russia is not the only foreign power seeking to interfere in our elections. as u.s. intelligence community

noted two weeks ago, we have observed increasingly aggressive iranian activity during this election cycle. that includes recently reported activities by iran to compromise former president trump's campaign and to avoid an election outcome that it regards as against its interests. those recently reported iranian activities also include efforts to obtain access to individuals who themselves have access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties. the justice department's message is clear. we have no tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic system of government. we will be relentlessly aggressive in countering and disrupting attempts by russia and iran as well as china or any other foreign ma lined actor to interfere in our elections and

undermine our democracy. now i will turn back to the topic of today's meeting. just as we are dedicated to combatting foreign threats to elections, we are equally dedicated to combat domestic threats against the public servants who administer our elections. since the 2020 election, we've seen an unprecedented spike in threats against the public servants who do administer our elections. election officials, workers and volunteers and communities across the country have been targeted with heinous acts and threats of violence. following are a few examples of successful actions that the justice department has taken over the past year. in new mexico, county commissioners and other elected officials were targeted with a series of shootings that the department has alleged in court papers were organized by an unsuccessful candidate for the state legislature who claimed the election had been, quote, rigged against him.

at least three other shootings occurred while the intended victims or their children or their family members were at home. in february, two shooters who we alleged were recruited by the candidate pled guilty to carrying out the attacks in march, the candidate himself was charged in the 13-count superseding indictment. in arizona, a man sent a state election official a bomb threat warning that if she did not resign within two days, quote, the explosive device impacted in her personal space would be detonated. in march, the man was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for making that threat. in maricopa county, arizona, an elections official, a county attorney and their families were threatened by a defendant who called for, quote, a mass shooting of poll workers and election officials in precincts he believed had quote, suspect results.

his revolting comments included, quote, dead children burned into the memories of people. the county attorney who had been targeted later reported that he, his wife and four children had been assigned around the clock protection and issued body armor in response to the threat. an elections official targeted said in an impact statement, i'll i am the person directly threaten bid this case, the impact of such threats is felt by a much larger community. the thousands of committed election work here's operate our democratic processes. when threats are made against any election worker, the impact reverberates throughout the entire community. that defendant was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. in recent months, our enforcement actions have continued. in july we secured the guilty

plea of an alabama man who threatened to kill election workers and officials. if one particularly chilling message, he said you better not come in my church, my business or send your kids to my school. you are stupid if you think you are safe. his sentencing is scheduled for next month. also in july, the justice department secured a 14-month sentence for a man who sent a death threat to a michigan election worker. in a voicemail he said, quote, 10 million plus patriots will surround you when you least expect it. and he added, we'll kill you. less thank not two weeks ago we man for allegedly threatening the lives of election officials, judges, and law enforcement officials in both colorado and arizona. as i have said before, and i will reiterate again today, these cases are a warning. if you threaten to harm or kill

an election worker or official or volunteer, the justice department will find you. and we will hold you accountable. in a democracy, people vote and argue and debate. often loudly in order to achieve the policy outcomes they desire. and the justice department will continue to relentlessly protect the rights of all americans to peacefully express their opinions, beliefs and ideas. but the promise of our democracy is that people will not employ violence to achieve their preferred outcomes. the public servants who administer our elections must be able to do their jobs without fearing their lives. that is why this task force has been marshaling the full resources of the justice department to aggressively investigate and prosecute threats targeting election workers, officials and volunteers. and we will continue to do so in

the months ahead when the task force will build on the partnerships with state and local election officials and law enforcement officials tasked with protecting them. since march, the task force has participated in more than 25 convenings, engagements, trainings, and table top exercises, including both with our law enforcement partners and with your partners in the election community nationwide. over the next several weeks, task force representatives will be on the ground meeting with election workers, and in early november, both in advance of and after election day, the fbi will be a hosting federal partners at its headquarters command center to address advanced issues and potential crimes, related to the elections in realtime. election officials and administrators do not need to

navigate this threat environment alone. we are here to support them, and to make sure they can safely carry out their critical work. protecting our democracy and protecting our elections was a founding purpose when the justice department was established in 1870. the department answered that charge then and we will answer that charge today, as we confront those who would use violence or threats of violence to attack those who administer our elections. now the deputy attorney general to make some remarks. >> thank you very much, attorney, and good afternoon, everyone. i also want to start by expressing my sympathies to the families who have been impacted by yet another horrific act of gun violence, this time in winter, georgia. i also want to extend the department's support for and

solidarity with the members of airport and community members who are responding to this tragedy. now, we are fewer than 65 days out from the election. and this convening reflects the diverse and aggressive threat landscape that we face and the breadth of the department's work that we are doing to combat those threats. in our increasingly polarized environment, we're seeing continued threats toward election workers, those who ensure that we all can exercise our most fundamental of rights, the right to vote. we are identifying dangerous foreign actors working to spawn division, discord, and disinformation, particularly across social media. threats of violence to public officials including election workers represent a clear and present danger to our democratic process. that's why we establish the

election threats task force to investigate and prosecute the growing number of threats directed at the public servants who make our elections possible. dedicated career prosecutors -- >> that is the deputy attorney general lisa monaco, and she is task about this task force. a short time ago, you saw the attorney general merrick garland, addressing three things in the news, the ongoing breaking news we have been covering, which is the shooting outside of atlanta, georgia. early assessments have two people dead, four injured at that high school, grades 9 through 12. he called it devastating. he says resources are at the ready for the fbi, for the atf to be on scene. we should say we also saw immediately to the left of the attorney general fbi director chris wray is there in that meeting as well. we're going to continue to follow that breaking news in

georgia, and we will go back to it. but a couple of other important things that he talked about. this is what lisa monaco is addressing right now. the folks who are in the room are part of the election threats task force. you heard the attorney general talking about threats to election workers across the country. constituting a threat to democracy. and as the number of threats have increased, so have the number of prosecutions. and then the broader issue of what is happening to try to influence the election by many foreign actors, but specifically russia in this case, and if it wasn't set in 2024, and it didn't involve technology, it almost sounds like a cold war russian spy novel, but you heard him talking about things like disinformation and propaganda, and fictitious investors and fake news sites. joining us now, nbc news justice reporter, ryan reilly, and former u.s. ambassador to

russia, michael mcfaul, frank figliuzzi is back with us as well. ryan, give us the big picture here. we are looking at the very real threat that is being posed just 62 days before the election to the election. what is the big takeaway from what attorney general merrick garland had to say, and chris wray is about to speak to. do we want to listen to chris wray? tell us what the big take away is from the attorney general. >> yeah, i mean, i think the big takeaway is that the government isn't going to get caught flat footed twice. back in 2020, after donald trump spread his lies about the 2020 election, the government got caught flat footed. this was a situation where people stormed the u.s. capitol because they believed donald trump's lies about the election. that's not going to happen again i think is the big message, the takeaway. one thing that jumped out to me about that press conference is

this idea of having an actual location at headquarters, fbi headquarters where they're going to gather people together, a rapid response team to anything that's coming up. we're quickly headed to the same scenario. donald trump has not yet conceded his 2020 election loss. we're in a situation now where millions of americans believe these lies that have been spread, and also on the side of that, you have these foreign efforts to sort of boost that narrative as well as just generally pro russia narratives and put favor on one side. the way the indictment lays out documents, they redact the names of the actual parties they're speaking to here. they're not saying explicitly that russia is trying to help republicans, but really that's what the documents allege here. they say, you know, party b or party a. they don't identify republican or democrat, but if you read the context of it, it's extremely easy to figure out what we're talking about here and what the

u.s. government, the justice department is alleging that russia was doing to bolster donald trump's efforts in 2024 after doing that eight years ago in 2016 when he first came to power, chris. >> we heard ambassador, the attorney general name check a couple of folks, and lisa monaco describing some of the folks involved here as dangerous foreign actors. how dangerous are they to the u.s. and how integral to what vladimir putin wants to accomplish? >> well, i would say two things, they mention sergey, one of the closest political advisers to putin and the kremlin. this is not just a marginal character. this is being orchestrated from the kremlin. they said that and they named him to say that he is directing this campaign. they want to make sure that we understand that this is coming from putin. i used to know sergey kirienko.

we should be able to vote for who we want without foreign influence. i would hope the trump campaign, and candidate trump himself would denounce this themselves. they should say, categorically, that we don't want foreigners intervening in our elections. number three, i'm not going to predict that. mr. trump, ever since 2016, has been very consistent. he admires trump. he admires mr. putin. he never criticizes his policies, even when his own advisers tell him that he should. read hr mcmaster's new book, and yet he has been consistent on that. >> realistically, ambassador, what can the u.s. do? is there anything they said today that's