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recent conversations, including this one, when "time" magazine named its 2024 person of the year. [ cheering and applause ] >> all right. donald trump ringing the opening bell at the new york stock exchange. it's connected to "time" magazine choosing him as its person of the year, and "time's" editor and chief with us now. thank you for joining us. >> i don't know if this will be a controversial pick or not. it's hard to nod, given how "time" has said for good or ill, the person that has most impacted the year. we had a trial. we had an assassination attempt. we had the most tumultuous campaign in modern history. we had rhetoric that at least we thought around this table was

the most divisive in recent american history, and then we had a victory where donald trump improved in 49 to 50 states. talk about this year, this just year. >> you have made the case for why donald trump is 2024's person of the year. i think we are living in the age of trump. i think many people thought perhaps after his defeat in 2020 that his first presidency was an aberration. but what this election shows is it was not. that he is continuing a path through american politics, and i think in some ways because we have been living in that age for nearly a decade now, the sheer extraordinary nature of this year is hard to take notice of. you just walked us through those events, each one of those events is going to be a moment in time that historians are going to be writing about for years. >> take us behind the scenes of

the selection process. other nominees, vice president harris, elon musk, joe rogan and others. talk to us about these conversations here, why the choice became clear that it was trump. >> some years it was a hard choice. mika, we talked about taylor swift and the decision behind that. this year, not a hard choice. we asked the president-elect about many of those people you just mentioned. he's got opinions about all of them. this was an obvious decision for those of us at "time." >> i agree with you, it had to be donald trump. really the moment was the shooting in butler, pennsylvania. people forget history, 1973, their minds scrambled, what happened that year. but that moment where he's bleeding and saying, fight, fight, fight, and that moment is when bobby kennedy jr. made an effort to go see trump and talk about assassination, what happened with his father, and

that moment, elon musk endorsed him, and it kind of coalesced for trump. and then the symbol in milwaukee from the republican national committee was the bandaged ear , and at that point it started looking like it was going to be the year of trump. only one on the list who could have replaced that is harris if she had won, and we would be talking about the first woman president, but alas that didn't happen. >> that was a transformational moment. it's harder to get him to talk about how it changed him, but he certainly recognizes a moment when he moves from a factual political leader to a cultural one. >> simone, do you have a question? >> i'm interested in the conversation, the interview that the president-elect did that goes along with the endorsement. he said a number of things that i'm struck by, his admission, he might not be able to get grocery

prices down. this is his first time on the list. can you tell us a little bit about the interview. i know people should take a stab and read it because it's great. >> i don't think there's a news organization that spent more time on the record with president-elect trump than "time." this interview is revealing. i would be happy to talk through his thoughts on foreign policy, domestic policy. we spent time with him in the spring, and 65 minutes at mar-a-lago about pretty much everything. >> did you notice any changes between trump preelection and post election? >> we found him to be much more subdued, lower volume, i think reflective would be an overstatement, but doing a level of introspection that we hadn't seen before. trump is most comfortable in a fight. what we saw was someone who felt like he won the fight and is searching for his positioning. he said to us, it's actually sad this this is over, this will never happen again.

he seems happiest on a campaign stage, in a campaign, and he's thinking through what it is for this to be his last campaign. >> maggie haberman who knows him as well as any journalist, said if you want to understand donald trump, you have to understand that his entire life, he has been fighting to survive the next five minutes. five minutes at a time, and now you're suggesting that fight, at least politically, is over. >> over the course of 65 minutes with him, we found him to realize that that's done. >> that political fight for the next campaign. >> he's thinking which of my kids is going to have a role, my family members. what's the future of maga without trump. he has trouble answering that question. >> interesting. "time" magazine editor in chief, sam jacobs. >> i want to be clear, i'm not talking about how he's not stopping fighting, but, again, the political fight that he's been in nonstop since 2012,

2013, that's now at an end unless of course he wants to fight to run for a third time. >> and i think he wants to position himself as a global states person. i think he sees that, like eisenhower when he came in, won big in '52 and got out of korea by june of '53. i think he's going to roll in there and say what can i do with syria and israel, gaza situation, russia, ukraine, can i now run for something larger than the presidency, like global leader and work with china, russia in a big time old style summit way. >> presidential historian, doug brinkley, thank you very much. and symone sanders townsend, thank you as well. we'll be watching the weekend saturdays and sundays, starting at 8:00 a.m. right here on msnbc. let's turn back to politics

now. in his interview with "time" magazine, conducted late last month for time's person of the year, donald trump did not give a clear answer on whether he would allow his pick for secretary of health and human services robert f. kennedy jr. to end childhood vaccine programs. trump also appeared to draw a false link between vaccines and autism, one that has been debunked many times over the years, telling "time," quote, we're going to have a big discussion. the autism rate is at a level nobody believed possible. when you look at things that are happening, there's something causing it. when asked if he believes vaccines are linked to autism, trump answered in part, i'm going to be listening to bobby, kennedy, who has promoted the debunked theories. he would be willing to get rid

of some vaccines. trump answered in part, i want to see the numbers. it's going to be the numbers. he claimed his administration will be conducting studies adding, quote, we will know for sure what's good and what's not good. let's bring in former chairman of the republican national committee now, cohost of "the weekend" michael eele, and vaughn hillyard. you conducted a memorable interview with bob by kennedy jr., where you asked many of the same questions about his plans for vaccines, his plans for fluoride in the water. just to remind our viewers where he stands on some of that stuff, and that it won't be like a waving of a wand, if he does become secretary of hhs to just get rid of these vaccines. >> right. there's going to be a lot of layers of bureaucracy for him to wade through in order to pull that off here. one interesting note about bobby kennedy is the fact that donald trump is usually not deferential

to others. he's convinced about knowing the answers hips, answer himself and over the course of the last month, we have consistently seen he'll leave this in the hands of bobby kennedy to essentially tell him what to do, in which direction to go. since bobby kennedy was nominated to be hhs secretary, we have to pay attention to dave weldon, nominated by donald trump to take over the cdc, kennedy and weldon go back to the early 2000s, they would reference each other's works, pointing out there's a preservative to vaccines, that was the cause and link to autism. peer-reviewed scientific research has consistently shown an inability to find such a link. at the same time, kennedy is being put top and being put within the proximity. i was covering donald trump as he rang in the bell, and who was there with him, bobby kennedy, and so there's an access to

donald trump and an openness that's particularly unusual to the incoming president, an openness to somebody's opinion and ultimately word on policy that should be enacted and that's a lot of p.o.w. ower tha by kennedy would be yielding. david french calls donald trump a lucky man, and says it's all due to joe biden. we'll explain when "morning joe" comes right back. we'll explain " comes right back with so many choices on booking.com there are so many tina feys i could be.

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on the subject of foreign policy, conservative columnist david french has a new piece for the "new york times" that caught our eye this morning, it's titled "biden has a pair of gifts for trump," donald trump is a lucky man. he's inheriting a growing economy and weakened enemies in 2025. if trump wants to capitalize on our enemies weaknesses, he's going to have to, an american

retreat in syria or the sight of russian troops marching in kyiv or an iranian nuclear bomb would be deeply humiliating to him. it would signal american weakness, trump's weakness. trump's vanity may save us from trump's isolationism but vanity is a poor proxy for a coherent national security strategy. trump is a fortunate man, inheriting the conditions for profound foreign policy success but he's also inheriting the possibility of failure and the troubling realities that his instincts are wrong. his national security picks are flawed and he may well snatch a series of terrible defeats from the jaws of extraordinary military and diplomatic success. that's david french writing this morning in "the new york times." elise, what do you make of david's point there, which is that joe biden actually, for all the criticism from donald trump has left trump in a pretty good position here? >> i like david, but i really don't agree with that argument

very much. i think that the world as richard haass would say is in disarray right now. i think that i'm not going to lay all of that on president biden, but it's just coming into a very perilous point, and i do think that the save face aspect of donald trump and he's so reactive to bad press will, you know, mean that we're not going to have some crazy retreat in to isolationalism the way that some have predicted. he's going to try to save face no matter what. i don't want to see, you know, bombing teheran. i don't want to see hard core action immediately, and we're not going to see any of that, i don't think. >> i mean, that's possible. but we also, let's remember, he was this close to pulling out of nato in 2018 on the eve of the putin, sinki summit. it was interesting in the interview in "time" magazine that was released yesterday, he acknowledged it was going to be

harder to deal with the ukraine/russia conflict than he originally promised when he said he would get it done in 24 hours, and might leverage aid to bring an end to this, the situation in the middle east was thorny and it wasn't going to be just as easy as he talked about on the campaign trail. marco rubio, secretary of state, as we prepare for a second trump term, how do you see a trump foreign policy doctrine 2.0. >> i was sent to washington, d.c. a couple of days this week. >> we saw. >> marco rubio is the most interesting nominee of donald trump's, secretary of state. it's going to be interesting to see which direction he wants to take the administration in terms of foreign policy. the national security adviser who has been named is a good pick, a solid pick that everybody likes, but you're looking at a situation where i'm told the immediate question is

syria going to be a failed state, like almost immediately. is it going to be ball kanized, what's syria's role, what's russia going to do with the naval base in syria. are they going to play ball with any other countries, who's going to run syria. it's an enormous question. it spills over into the israeli wars with gaza. israel is still operating every day as if they are at war, and they are at war every day, and the impact that the israeli attacks within lebanon and syria, what effect does that have on the whole situation? and then after you get ready, finish worrying about that, ukraine. what's going to happen in ukraine? is that going to be resolved within the next 90 ys, the next six months , or is it neve

going to be resolved. something's got to happen there. it's a very small nation compared to russia. putin doesn't care about life. he feeds anyone into the maw of battle and the casualties they have suffered, russia has suffered are enormous. so how are you going to handle this when you don't know who's going to be secretary of defense, when you don't know who's going to replace tulsi gabbard, director of national intelligence in the white house. how are you going to handle this from the administration. that's almost as big a problem as america's role in the world? to play a role in the world, you have to be shipshaped here at home going forward. >> there's a lot on the chess board, and donald trump conceding in the "time" person of the year, that ukraine is going to be more complicated than he led on in the campaign. still ahead, the new forbes list of the most powerful women.

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. while i have maggie and huma here, we are taking a closer look of the forbes list of the 100 most powerful women, highlighting the world's most inspirational female ceos, entertainers, politicians, philanthropists, policy makers and more. let's dive into the mix. it's a really complex picture of female power, maggie. >> it is a complex picture.

i'm glad you used that word because we've seen over the course of the year a series of regressive forces against female power. and on the 2024 list, you won't see names like you saw last year, karen lynch or the outgoing vice president, kamala harris, but the women on this list are defying those global head winds and commanding a significant amount of power. at number one, we have ursula von der leyen, the president of the european commission, just reelected to a five-year term. it's her third year in a row at the number one spot. christine lagarde, hugely important for monetary policy at number four, claudia sheinbaum, she is mexico's president, the first woman in the 200-year history to hold the role. she won by a large margin in june, and we'll be watching her in the new year as the trump administration enacts tariffs. we have a lot of women alongside

her, we have rachel reeds, the uk's chancellor of the british equivalent of the treasury secretary. the first woman in 800 years to hold that role, number 39 on the list. at 55, we have bonnie chan, the ceo of the hong kong exchanges and clearing which operates the hong kong stock exchange. the 9th largest in the world. significant financial power, and if i can get one more in, we have breaking news at forbes, we are today announcing our first ever female ceo, sherry phillips has been announced as the next ceo taking the role in january. first in 107 years. >> there you go. that's amazing news, and congratulations to sherry. huma, a number of women in politics and policy made the list, many who wrote a pop ulis wave to their positions in power. what can you tell us about the shift to the right globally, how it's affecting female

leadership. >> i thought it was a very interesting list, and power is a pendulum, and that pendulum is swinging right and not all power is progressive power. number three on the list is the post fascist prime minister of italy, georgia maloney, and i remember being in italy, mika, in september of '22, and people being concerned about the fact that she would be this authoritarian figure, and she's balanced that out with the pragmatism and sort of steady leadership, and she's number three on the list, and i think the fact that we have seven eu countries that now have far right representation of their governments, she's going to be a key contact, i think for our incoming administration and the entire continent, frankly. another interesting political person is susie wiles, who makes her debut at 72 on the list. you question why, you know,

somebody like susie wiles takes on this campaign, and i think what she brought to donald trump's campaign is steady leadership, the chaos and disorganization that we have heard in years past, past elections went away. she's worked for republicans across the ideological spectrum. i think it's very interesting to see what steadiness -- >> she will be very interesting to watch. i totally agree with you. fascinated with that. maggie, there's someone unexpected in the number 100 spot. tell us about her. >> i'm so excited to tell you about her. she is caitlin clark. she broke the ncaa scoring record for men and women earlier this year, and she has driven unprecedented attention to women's basketball, women's sports as a whole. we spoke with coach dawn staley earlier this year, and i said, women have been playing at a high level for so many decades, why has it taken until now for women's sports to have a breakthrough moment, and coach staley told us, sometimes you need a unifier, and that unifier

is caitlin clark. people want to watch her. the wnba recorded record viewership in attendance. that's translating to real money. there was a $200 billion tv rights deal announced earlier this year, and sources tell us that women's sports are just getting started. caitlin clark takes our number 100 spot as someone who has driven the nascar rrative. >> to my next point, a lot of overlap in the 50 over 50 list for women that we're honoring with our effort and our 30/50 summit are showing that women sometimes reaching their highest power, greatest impact, and even finding the happiness that has alluded them much later in life. >> number eight on our list is melinda french. on your list is melinda french gates on the 50 over 50 list, one of the most important and

powerful women in philanthropy, and since we spoke to elizabeth alexander, this may she made a commitment to $1 billion to support women and girls causes over the next three years, that's real investment, and will see real impact. that was exciting. and number 44 on the list is jenna truncoly, we like speaking about women first, and she's the first woman to lead a big four audit firm. i love that she started in 1991 as an intern and leads 50 billion in revenue. >> we're going to be announcing our global list on "morning joe" next month. stay tuned for that. maggie mcgrath and huma abedin as always, thank you so much. great to see you guys. great to . this week we have been bringing you my conversation with former president bill

clinton where he talked about his life after the white house and his thoughts on today's democratic party. he reflected on his achievements as we toured his presidential library and museum in little rock, arkansas, now celebrating its 20th anniversary. >> the library is absolutely gorgeous, and for those that are looking at it, and wondering where the inspiration was architecturally, tell us about it? >> well, first, i wanted it to be full of light. and it is. and, you it rolls along it. but this room, and the one below it has all of this open lighting because it's modeled on the long room at trinity college of dublin where the library is.

and that is right across the green from where i had a rally as president when we went there promoting our process. so it has a dual meaning to me. >> we see a lot of books here. what are these records of? . >> these are the official records of the administration. somebody asked us, you know, under the freedom of information act citizens have a right to know what you did on their dime. >> let's talk about state dinners and as we go through here, and also of course gifts you got from the sate dinners. was that mainly ceremony or was there work you got done that made a significance difference. >> at the dinners per se, rarely was anything happening between me and someone else that got work done. but my senior people were there, so did they, and a lot of those

things worked in our benefit. now, if we had, like, on st. patrick's day, when we have an irish dinner, i did get a lot done. it provided cover for both sides to come upstairs and meet with me and talk through things, and see where we were. and everybody knew it was going on and it wasn't really reported on because nobody could prove it was happening. >> right. >> and we helped. i've got to ask about this ping putter here. it caught my eye. you kept this in your office, right? some of the things you kept in your office? >> i saved all of this sporting stuff. i've got a lot of baseball memorabilia i like. i had a baseball club ball signed by willie mays, willie mccovey. >> and i see bill masaraski,

famous home run in 1960. that's incredible. can i ask you, how important was it for you -- and we've seen other presidents do this too -- to get out and golf, ike to be outside. >> i could be on the first tee ten minutes after i left the white house. and there were lots of times when i went there late in the afternoon and just for nine holes of golf, and i might be on the fourth and fifth hole before i hit a good shot because you can't do anything but play if you're going to be play. you can't be thinking about all of this other stuff. but it was incredibly helpful to me, and i loved playing there, and i was very grateful. >> helped you clear your head. >> yeah. >> obviously. >> you had to let it go. >> from all the work. this is interesting. these are some of the saxophones

that were given to me, and these are just some of them. we may add to them or change them around, but they really were great. >> mr. president, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> such a great honor. >> president clinton's new memoir "citizen" is available now. two time emmy nominee ron pearlman will join the conversation to talk about his new film "day of the fight." "morning joe" will be right back. fight." "morning joe" will be right back undisputed, undefeated, checkout champion of the world. businesses that want to win, win with shopify.

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what's this i hear you fighting tonight, in the guard, that's big. >> you know, you're the only prick i know who can smoke a pack a day and still go 12 rounds. >> today is my last day. >> i'm sorry i didn't give you more. just remember the good. r the god >> whichever way it goes tonight, just know that we're proud of you. no matter what happens, i need to know that you would pay. >> kid, i love you, you know i do. but you got to let things go. >> i got nothing, okay. i got no wife. i got no kid. i got nothing. >> anything that really matters are far more than you might expect. >> that was a look at the new

film "day of the fight," premiering at the venice film festival last year. the movie follows boxer irish mike flanagan and his coach and father figure steveas they try to build the champion back in the first fight for years following his release for prison. critics have been raving about the film, with the "new york times" review calling it quote, an unabashed genera picture that manages to be both the kind of movie they supposedly don't make like they used to and also something brazenly fresh. those are good words. joining us now, dave the fight costar, golden globe winning actor, ron perlman, and the film's director, producer and writer, jack houston who's making his director debut. your first time behind the camera, why this time? >> i think i wasn't in any rush

to get behind the camera. i had to find something that really called to me, that made me not just want to do it but have to do it, when the story came to me, it was one of those moments, where it brought tears to my eyes when i thought about michael pitt who plays this lead, irish mike. and i started putting it together, and the elements came together, and yeah, it's, you know, one of the great moments when you actually do get to go and make your first film, especially something which is as heartfelt and real as something like this. it's sort of a throwback, like "the new york times" was saying, to films that don't really get made much anymore, human stories, adult stories, stories that make you feel smlg.omethin. i love going to the story and feeling something. >> ron, tell us what drew you to the film, and in particular, your character. >> well, in two words, jack

huston, we go back a couple of decades. but, you know, to be a witness to somebody who is leaving his comfort zone, doing something that he's never done before, which is writing and directing a movie, which is a very daunting task to those of us who toil in this little art form, that's having a front row seat in something that is kind of heartwarming and historic, and i wanted to be there for that. and i also found this script to be incredibly moving and resonating, and the character that he asked me to play was pivotal, and, you know, was going to have a major impact on

the way the movie turned out. >> let's take a look at a clip where we see the softer but expletive laden side of your character, stevie. >> hey. [ bleep ] >> what are you doing smoking? >> you're the only prick i know who can smoke a pack a day and still go 12 rounds. >> today is my last day. >> you have been saying that for 12 years. >> today i actually mean it. >> see a little pop in that thing. that's better. how you feeling? you get some sleep last night? >> kind of, you know. >> night before a fight. mind won't shut down. you had a crazy dream last night? >> yeah, it was a dream where we're in the meat market. >> ask me if i give.

[ bleep ] >> he had to have the finger hovered over the bleep button for that clip. >> he really throws a nice, benign clip. >> family friendly before 10:00 a.m. on the east coast. ron, tell us about your character and also just the cast, traordinary. steve pesci, michael pitt. what an all star team. >> it's great to feel like you're part of the '27 yankees, kind of like the cast of the murderous row. but in the center of it, and this is something that shows the infinite wisdom of jack huston, and his insight into what was going to make this thing cook was the performance of michael pitt. you see him in his most raw state as an actor, most courageous state as an actor. this is such a personal, deep,

feeling-ful moment, a character who is asked to get his house in order. and it's -- it was a privilege to be a part of it. it was a privilege to watch. and it affected my game in infinite ways. >> so, jack, fight movies in your family lineage, to an extent. what did you love about this story line, and talk about working with ron. >> well, i sort of set out to make a movie about a boxer, not a boxing movie because, you know, it's all character. i wanted to make something relatable, and something that asked the major question, if you only have one day, what would you do, who would you see, what would you say to them? our sort of tag line is how far would you go for the ones you love.

because the metaphor of the film is the day of the fight isn't what he's fighting for in the ring, it's everything outside of the ring he's fighting for. he's fighting for everybody, every single thing, all of those mistakes. this redemptive journey. i was so lucky to get ron perlman. i have been sort of very fortunate in my life, i got to work with my heroes, ron being the top of that list. that was, you know, a few years by a film that shall not be named, but we had such a great time off camera is the better way of saying it. but i just needed somebody because, you know, miky, he didn't have a father figure. his father was abusive and tough on him. you can see it comes out in the film. stevie, his coach became that sort of father figure for him, that mentor, somebody who stood by him through thick and thin,

through his mistakes, never wavered, was always there, and you know, at the end of the film, he says, i could never have done this without you stevie, and the beautiful thing is nobody embodies this like ron. it's the most delicate, sympathetic, funny, abrasive, but he captures, encapsulates all of these amazing feelings. i watch ron, and it brings me tears to my eyes. one of the most beautiful performances. >> "day of the fight" is playing in select theaters and will continue to expand in theaters throughout december and january. actor ron perlman, and director, producer and writer, jack huston, thank you both very much. >> love you, ron. coming up, actor, peter sarsguard joins us with a look at the movie that covers the hostage crisis during the 1972 munich olympics and how it was broadcast on television. "morning joe" is back in just a moment. on television. "morning joe" is back in just a moment world that actively co ols

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what's the situation? >> the police are departing. >> we have a hostage situation going on right now in the olympic village. >> abc news wants to take over. >> you're in way over your head. >> we're 100 yards away from where this is happening. we are the only people capable of following it live. >> this is our story, and we're keeping it. >> what do i tell the cameras. >> what do you mean? >> i mean, can we show someone being shot on live television? >> we're on. the olympics was shattered this morning. the games are still going on. within a few hundred yards, nine terrified, living human beings are being held prisoner. >> that was a look at the new movie "september 5," the film goes inside the abc sports inside the 1972 munich olympics when a terrorist group took members of the israeli delegation hostage. in a whirlwind 22 hours, roone

arledge and coordinating producer geoffrey mason must fight to stay in control of the story as the harrowing events play out on live television, watched by an estimated 900 million people worldwide in realtime. joining us now, costars of "september 5," peter stars arsg who plays roone arledge, and ron, who plays geoffrey mason, and serves as coproducer on the film. thanks to all of you for being here. geoffrey, we'll start with you. >> thank you. >> just watching, even here, the trailer, again, watching these moments that you lived through, what is that like? >> it's a first experience for me. i have never had anybody play me. it brings back how difficult that day was. i still feel it when i think of it. the way peter and john played

their roles in the movie is really really accurate, really authentic, and even though it is a dramatic recreation of what we went through that day, they nailed it. and i'm proud to be part of it. >> so, peter, tell us what drew you to this story, and in particular, the roone arledge character, obviously legendary tv executive caught with geoffrey in the middle of what became such a defining television event. >> well, when it first came to me, actually, sean penn is one of our producers, and he actually was in my first movie i ever did was "dead man walking", and i looked at it a different way. it had his stamp on it, and then i met the director, tim, and for me, the most important thing with this story is that it be told truthfully because it's about these guys trying to tell the story as it happens, in the

most accurate way, and if we had someone who was interested in hyperbole, it would have thrown off the message of the movie. this guy was obsessive like the equipment was going to be the actual equipment. he wanted to use this documentary footage, and then he showed me some of it, and seeing jim mckay, i saw we had a fantastic leading man. >> john, what was it like to play geoff? >> what a challenge it was. >> oh, really? >> look at this. >> why was it such a challenge? >> looking in a mirror right there, it's a little weird. no, you know, first of all, there were so many people we wanted to honor who were in that control room, and obviously the victims and everyone on that day. and sometimes when you're playing a real person who exists, it's kind of a detriment, but geoff was such a vital resource for me in more ways than one. he was also a vital resource for the entire production. the reason we got the 22 hours

of footage from disney, you know, a different company, was because of geoff and how revered he is in the broadcast world. so it was an honor. and i'm just happy that he feels like i got it right. >> so, geoff, let's talk about, we alluded on the way in, a tension between the sports side and the news side of abc as to who was controlling what was happening that day. walk us through what happened? how did sports end up winning? >> we mentioned it in the movie, abc news in new york was quite anxious to get on top of the biggest story on the planet. and roone arledge spent a lot of time on the phone talking to new york during that day, and basically refused to hand it over to news. the whole story was developing 100 yards from our broadcast center. there was no reason that we could see to give it back to, you know, a host in new york.

why would we want to do that. so roone won the argument. he kept it. we knew we had it. we knew we were capable of telling the story the way it should be told, and it turned out pretty well. >> those numbers, 900 million viewers. 900. at what point in the day did you realize just how big and how momentous what was happening, horrific, but you were there and you were at the scene of it? >> you know, elise, we were so busy, we never thought about it that day. we were too busy. truthfully. the next day when jim mckay got a telegram from walter cronkite saying, in essence, well done, you told the story beautifully, couldn't have been done better, then we began to understand, okay, we did have more of a footprint than we thought. >> let's take a look, another clip from the film where some unexpected visitors make their presence felt in the abc sports

control room. >> what's going on? >> up. easy. >> you do not point a gun at my crew. jesus christ, all live cams off. charlie, that's you too. turn the tower cam off. happy? >> hey, hey, hey, what's going on here? >> they just took us off the air. >> sam stein, next question is yours. >> let me just say, first of all, that it looks like an amazing film. munich, but stephen spielberg, which details the after math of this incident was an amazing film, i have a question for john orrer, or peter, this took place in the after math of october 7th. we have had the political debate around acts of terrorism, culpability for them. this movie isn't necessarily about that. it's about a news coverage of a

terrorist incident. to a degree, was that in the back of your mind as you sought to portray these news men covering this horrific event and if so, how did it affect your acting? >> well, i mean, october 7th hadn't happened when we started shooting this. we were done editing when that event tragically occurred, i don't think it would have changed anything in the way i approached it. this is a story about the media and the media's response to tragic events and how we as consumers of these events in our homes and on our phones and through all of these devices are how it's given to us. i think we wanted to show this time when the media forever changed and that was our goal, was never to be political or apolitical. this is a crisis that has been going on for decades. you could argue millennia. there was no way we were going to solve it. and i think we wouldn't have

been honoring the people on that day or the crew on that day, if we tried to do it any other way. i just want to say that, this was bound to happen, technology had reached that point. whether it was that conflict or a different conflict, it was inevitable. it just so happens that was the tragedy unfolding. >> the events of october 7th amplified the issues the movie is about, issues of journalism. >> september 5 is playing in select theaters beginning today and goes nationwide starting january 17th. costars, peter sarsgaard and john magaro, and former television executive, geoffrey mason, thanks to all three of you. congratulations on this. >> thanks for having us. ♪♪ ♪ you don't have to settle. ask your gastroenterologist if switching to rinvoq is right for you. it's one of the latest treatments from the makers of humira. rinvoq works differently than humira and may help.

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hello, and welcome to this special holiday edition of "morning joe." we're on tape this morning, bringing you some of our best recent conversations including this interesting one about what donald trump's second act in the white house will look like on day one. >> hey, jim vandehei, as i said earlier, i had a busy weekend talking to business and political leaders in new york and london, and they all have the same question, who's going to be in control in trump's inner circle because that's going to move on tariffs, that's

on how integration is going to be carried out. that's how a thousand different policy questions are going to be asked, and you have actually a report on this and it is the divide and this is, again, this is what's vexed business leaders on both sides of the atlantic, political leaders on both sides of the atlantic, thought leaders on both sides of the atlantic, who is going to have his ear the most, the creators or the destroyers? tell us about it? >> i think you understand trump's mind as well as anyone. i think their intention right now, there is the creators are the folks you're seeing named to the economic jobs, the energy jobs, the ai jobs where they feel like they can juice economic growth, try to keep jobless rates allow, and keep the stock market soaring. if he does that, he feels like he'll have a very successful presidency. he'd be popular, and he would get sort of what he wants out of the white house.

at the same time, all the people you talked about earlier, all of these people who are up for cabinet jobs that are controversial, they would fall into that destroyer category. and those are people that are brought in specifically because of their loyalty, partly to do retribution, partly to gut the very agency that they're being put in charge of, and i think that's the reason you have such jarring moments with trump. i think you're going to see wild swings between the two of them. tying all of your stories together today. think about just right now. you have a ton of people thinking the ufos , you have th president-elect saying maybe we should just shoot them down. then you talk about hegseth at defense secretary worrying about a woke military or worrying about trans in the military, really, the biggest topic, and you have smarter people on the set today than me on this that

the military needs to worry about, that the next defense secretary has to worry about is drones or it's related to drones. it's how do you move as quickly as possible to a type of warfare that's waged in space with satellites, with drones, with new technologies, less dependent with boots on the ground, more dependent on getting the best and brightest in the government, how do we take this advantage we have over china, meaning we created ai. we have a big lead over them on chips and a lot of the thinking that goes into ai, how do we take that and make sure that our military is even more dominant in the next generation. when you get bogged down in these small ball little things, you lose sight of the big picture, we have an enormous advantage going in. >> you talk about this trans issue, again, 0.5% of the military right now, trans, if

that. and yet this is his obsession? we have a possible world war breaking out in the middle east. we have a possible world war breaking out in eastern europe with north korean troops down there, and i do want to follow up on something you said because this is something i picked up overseas. the obsession, we're not talking about the drones over jersey, we're talking about the drones over the front between the ukrainians and the russians, and the things i heard this weekend about what those drones are doing and how far advanced they are moving is nothing short of extraordinary. it is making so many defense systems almost obsolete right now, jim, and you're exactly right, we either obsess on that, not the 11th century crusades, we obsess on bringing order in the middle east, and not on 0.5%

of who's in the military right now or we get left behind by people who don't know how to run the pentagon. it's astounding, and i will say, this is one of the things that i kept hearing over and over again. you guys are ahead of all of us. you've lapped us 12 times but the world's moving on. are you really going to be focusing on the 11th century, on civil war? that's the question that was repeatedly asked. >> yeah, i mean, it's a legitimate question to ask because it does go to what you said, for any dogging of america during the campaign or doing it in books, it just defies the logic on the ground. we have so many built in advantages right now, and listen, on the good side, if you could get the pentagon focused on what it needs to focus on, i think it's a good thing that you suddenly have really smart entrepreneurs like mark

endegreeson or elon musk thinking about government and trying to apply their mind share to it. having the smartest people who built these technologies, thinking about it and advising the president, could be a net positive thing if you structure your administration to make sure you're focusing on how do you make the advantages we have bigger and bolder, so we create a gab between us and china. that's what success would be. when you get into grievance or retribution, that does rattle markets, does rattle world leaders, it does rattle ultimately the public. maybe the public is too disoriented but the public will see is, and the public doesn't want people jailing reporters. it doesn't want you doing things that defy institutional norms, and we'll see how it plays out. >> it is important to remember the market is at 45,000 right now. you have people who believe like, for instance, warren buffett, that it's over valued.

you have top leaders, hedge fund leaders starting to take their money out of the markets because they fear the volatility coming up. that's why when you start talking about having these people ill equipped, people seeking retribution, these people that aren't up to the task, you start. and i will say, tariffs, too, there's going to be a real battle, i think, internally over tariffs because donald trump doesn't want to see the stock market, which many people believe is artificially inflated drop 10% in a day, and trust me, where it's sitting right now, if the moves are wrong. >> yeah, . >> it's going to drop 10%. the fp dropped an article. they're going to slow down interest rate cuts because they fear the inflationary pressures of the incoming administration.

now, i will say, he's put somebody that the street really respects. >> the treasury. >> the treasury. >> he's got some other smart people around there. they can manage this, but i have a feeling, the message is going to be steady as she goes or else you're going to have people wishing for the good old days, and i'm dead serious, of joe biden's 45,000 dow industrial. >> that article was really important because it showed a consensus that the inflationary pressures are going to grow, which sets up a clash between the chairman of the federal reserve and the new president. and that is also something investors and others will not want to see . >> there you go. >> "axios" cofounder, jim vandehei, thank you very much. let's talk big picture, democratic party, post election, soul searching, the piece is titled "dnc should move d.c.

headquarters to youngstown, ohio," that's where you're from. youngstown, ohio. you have been talking about what happened on election day for ten years or so. you're saying we're losing these people, we need to work harder to keep these people. now that i think a lot of democrats have woken up to what you have been saying for a while, what now for democrats? >> that i say a little bit tongue in cheek, move the headquarters to youngstown, ohio, where there's working class people. it's an old factory town. they're tty. we have created stoops brothers, urban myers, not far away. how with you gritty, how do you lead? how are you disciplined and how do you have straight talk, honest conversations for people that teams trust you, and i think democrats have lost that trust? i say youngstown, it could be

flint, detroit, toledo, milwaukee, pittsburgh, it doesn't matter. it just can't be in freaking washington, d.c., like how many times are we going to talk to ourselves about something that's irrelevant to that person in youngstown, ohio, who comes out of that culture, the economic anxiety and all of that, and so it can't be in washington, d.c. i think it would be a very good strategic move, and as i say in the piece, to have the workers there, have these high, over paid consultants go to youngstown, play bocce, watch sports, eat dinner, go there and just listen. don't be on twitter. don't tell them what you think. nobody cares what you think. listen, two ears, one mouth. you listen, just like we were raised, and if we do that, we will begin to shift the culture of the party. >> congressman, so youngstown is a great example because i think

decades ago i guess the big employer there was probably republic steel. i remember when i was in college, i had a friend whose dad who grew up in youngstown, and his dad worked for republic steel, and, you know, so it's one thing to listen and to play bocce, but what should the message be for a place like youngstown, ohio? what should democrats be saying they intend to do or they want to do to make people's lives better there? >> we have got to become the party of reform. period, end of story. everything needs to fit under that. everyone knows that the government is broken. everyone knows that the economy is not working for them, eugene, whether you're white or black or brown, male, female, whether you work in manufacturing or retail. you know we blow too much money on health care.

you know we're spending billions of dollars on education, but yet we're not getting the skill set that we need to dominate the new economy. we know that affordability around energy is not where it needs to be. we know these communities need rebuilt. these downtowns are empty. the rivers are dirty. we need a huge reform agenda. that's where we dropped the ball, and gave trump the lane on reform. you see it with doge, and he's the one taking on the broken economic system. even though he's got concepts of a plan with health care, he's, at least, acknowledging that there's a lot of problems with health care, and we didn't get the message out on the insulin and other things. i think the brand for democrats needs to be, you know, reform and renewal, allah, teddy roosevelt, we're going to take on the entrenched interests. what robert kennedy is doing, talking about food, what we have done to the food industry, the

consolidation in meat packing, consolidation around seed and pesticides, why can't we go in rural america and tell farmers, we're on your side, it went from seven, eight, or nine seed producers to two or three, and it's a monopoly, and you're going to get screwed. we've got to have courage, the guts to say, we're going to go into rural america, you can't leave voters out there, they don't know what you stand for. >> how can it be that in youngstown, ohio, the average salary last year was $34,000 a year. for a family. for a household. household average salary last year, $34,000. and yet the government -- i'm frances rivera as we break away from msnbc programming on this new year's morning to bring you breaking news from new orleans this morning. at least ten people are dead,

city officials tell us, and at least 30 injured after a vehicle drove into a crowd on busy bourbon street, as revelers were there to celebrate and ring in the new year. let's turn to live coverage from our nbc affiliate, wdau. >> we are at the back end of the perimeter. the french quarter, of the 70 blocks, i would say 25 to 30 right now are completely locked down with a massive police presence investigating everything. so i'll send it back to you right now in the studio, but again, to follow up, this is a situation where they're investigating right now on the corner of bourbon in orleans, a suspicious package, just to make sure that this isn't a second incident after the first tragic one that unfolded. >> speaking of that tragic one, joining us at 6:15 on new year's day, a mass casualty event in the heart of the city in the

french quarter on bourbon street. we have live team coverage, multiple crews and experts on scene. what we can tell you right now, after 3:00 a.m., someone plowed a vehicle down bourbon street. it was packed. people were still out celebrating the new year in 2025. it is our understanding through multiple sources that as many as 12 people have been killed, maybe as many as 27 have been sent to the hospital and there's the possibility that this was intentional. it was not a drunk driver, that it was done intentionally. let's get to s.w.a.t team commander, mike khan with new information. you talked to a lot of police officers, some of whom are at the scene right now. what are they telling you? >> the same situation right now. we don't know what we don't know. it's going to be a little bit of time for a press conference. they are putting this together amongst lsp, and opd and the fbi to make sure that they have

everything correct when they do finally break it to the public on exactly what transpired. they're looking for evidence along the street. they're looking for other evidence in that vehicle. in the event that there was an information or some sort of i.d. on that perpetrator, now you can assume they're already starting to do a complete breakdown of the perpetrator. going back to social media, going back to everything that you could put together about them, as well as if they lived in the area, potentially doing a search warrant at that person's house right now. so a lot of things are transpiring, taking place all at once. >> mike, who takes the lead on something like this? look, i know obviously this is something where loved ones are trying to make sure that the people they have in the city are okay. the hospital is dealing with one aspect of this. but there are so many law enforcement entities, is it nopd, fbi? when you're dealing with a

possible suspicious package, that seems atf or the feds would deal with something like that as well? >> nopd has a bomb squad and a s.w.a.t team, lpd has a bomb squad and s.w.a.t team, and the atf deals with explosives. right now, it's probably a joint effort amongst all three of those, and to determine what the package is, if there's a package you probably see some dogs around it also, perhaps a robot, that would be doing an x-ray, things like that. they're going to work together. in the event that it starts leaning toward terrorism or it has leaned that way, you're going to see the fbi take the lead on everything. and the fbi would then initiate the entire investigation, and have everyone work together but under their auspice. >> mike, stand by. we're coming back in a couple of minutes for more insight into the mass casualty, tragic situation in the city of new orleans. let's go to brandy b. harris.

you saw fletcher live there. a lot of streets shut down. they're going to remain that way across downtown and the french quarter. >> that's right, and as we know, whenever we have such large events like new year's eve celebrations followed by the sugar bowl, there's already a huge presence in the french quarter. multiple streets were blocked off for cars. there's so many questions to be answered. and i want to walk you through what we have been seeing. here's bourbon street, completely shut down as police continue their investigation, and on my traffic maps, a serious accident on bourbon. they are giving us a live picture. this is bourbon and orleans. police still blocking off the area, state police, wildlife and fishery, so many different agencies responding to this mass casualty event. canal street, showed us a sea of law enforcement and first

responders there on canal street, and sending out information to folks, avoid canal, avoid the french quarter, as this is still a very active investigation happening right now. let me show you some of the images we have been seeing from canal street, with the sea of law enforcement. there's still the holiday lights on canal street, followed by that sea of law enforcement on both sides of the street and on the neutral ground, and as you can see, just a huge police and law enforcement first responder presence. this is another picture. as you can see, there was just a huge presence there. we have been seeing this all morning. you definitely want to avoid the area. nola sending out the information, letting people know you need to avoid the area. this is likely the scene for most of the day. this is now becoming national news, and we all want to make sure we're avoiding this area as law enforcement continues their investigation to give us the latest information. i want to show you that picture from bourbon street because it's

still a very very active scene, and again, the french quarter, i'm going to work on making graphics to give you an idea of exactly what streets have been blocked off. you can put a square around all of this. we know canal street is shut down. going down to decatur. you want to avoid this area. a very active scene that started around 4:00 this morning. i'm going to continue to follow it, as far as the traffic goes. what routes do you need to take now. there are going to be thousands of people in the crescent city as we anticipate, we're counting down to the kickoff of the sugar bowl and those folks are going to have a lot of questions about what's going on in a tourist heavy area of the city, probably the most tourist heavy area of the city at a time like this. i'll continue to follow it and i'll have much more. >> we appreciate it. we have crews over the city for the mass casualty event on bourbon street, and the head of the state police, robert hodges are expected to give a press

breefrg. we are told we should be standing by. it's going to happen at the 8th nopd district in the heart of the french quarter. this is a live look. we have been given stand by. we are going to stand here for a second and hold because our crew at the scene was told to stand by. it's our understanding that maybe this might be starting. the mayor is there, latoya cantrell, anne kirkpatrick, as well as robert hodges. i spoke moments ago to a spokesperson with the governor. he has been briefed. he is still getting information in realtime from the nopd and from the state police. as brandy said, we are just about 14 hours away from kickoff for the sugar bowl. the eyes of the college football world, tens of thousands of fans from georgia and notre dame are in new orleans and the biggest sporting event on planet earth in early february.

the super bowl. we have been talking about security preps and plans, a big question that hopefully nopd and state police will answer, was this a drunk driver. was this an accident? or was this an act of essentially domestic terrorism? was it intentional that somebody drove a car down bourbon street? we're going to get off that live look. as soon as they start talking, we'll take you back to the french quarter. until that happens, let's go live a couple of blocks away from the 8th district. fletcher, what does it look like there? you were following an additional scene, if you will a possible threat of a suspicious package? >> what you're looking at right now is the corner of bourbon and orleans in front of the tropical isle bar. you can see law enforcement, some type of bomb unit. they are bringing out the robot unit to investigate a suspicious

package. there's a huge state police presence here right now. one of the troopers we saw saw a suspicious package on the corner of bourbon and orleans. he immediately called it in. they are investigating a suspicious package on the corner of bourbon and orleans to make sure there isn't a second attack or this isn't part of the original plan. we don't have details. we don't want to speculate. we don't want to jump to conclusions. nopd is working on a suspicious package, right in front of tropical isle bar, on the corner of bourbon and orleans. we did the initial live shots from the front of tropical isle on the corner of bourbon and orleans, and we were moved back here. we're now by the gold mine saloon, between orleans and saint anne, and photo journalist is going to stay on the shot to show you the work they continue to do about a block away, but,

again, there's a half dozen more law enforcement officers in this area as this situation continues to unfold. again, law enforcement very vigilant right now with a massive perimeter in the french quarter blocked off. >> we also have security expert, former nopd s.w.a.t team commander, let's get back to the 8th district nopd station, part of the french quarter. what we have been reporting from a lot of sources, more than ten people tragically killed on bourbon street. 27 more sent to the hospital. somebody drove a car right down bourbon street. we also know shots were fired. when is this expected to start? we are getting information from nopd superintendent anne kirkpatrick, and the police. >> reporter: we heard from officials to stand by and any

moment, nopd superintendent anne kirkpatrick is supposed to address us here. that's when i will ask those questions, and run those numbers by her like you mentioned at least ten people killed. 30 people hurt. i will ask those questions to her to get the numbers confirmed. other things i plan on asking her is around social media, witnesses said they witnessed a white f 150 plow on to bourbon street, running over so many people. that is also something i want to confirm with her. we have been standing out here for half an hour now. i want to tell you what we have been noticing. i have seen of course dozens of nopd officers here. we have seen the homicide unit here. we've seen also the fbi, louisiana state police, so we do expect several agencies to address us. of course we will run that media briefing here on air, and also online. that way you all at home who may

have had family or friends on bourbon street or are concerned about what's happening in our city, that way you all can tune in. back to you. >> autumn, keep us posted, give us an update. we're going to come back live. everybody wants to get the latest information. here's what we know. at least ten people, possibly 12 have been killed. tens of thousands of people are in the city for the sugar bowl. notre dame fans, georgia fans, on top of the fact, this is one of the biggest tourism weekends in the city of new orleans with tens of thousands of people here to celebrate new year's. let's go back to security expert, mike, it is appearing more and more likely it was not a drunk driver. in 2017 and 2019, when drunk drivers plowed their vehicles into people after mardi gras carnival parades in other parts of the city, it is seeming to be like this is going to be an intentional act.

bourbon street is not drivable. there are ballards on the street that prevent that. nopd also has cranes in the sky with spotters. how can something like this happen on bourbon street with so many law enforcement officers down there? we reported two days ago, more than 300 nopd officers are assigned to that one area of the french quarter? >> so you can do your best to prevent an incident like this, and this incident, again, if you had ballards up and other things set up like we have in the past, that prevents a vehicle from further egressing through the street and creating more carnage. you can't stop it completely from entering the area without a massive amount of, say, dump trucks filled with sand or things like that. we don't know what we don't know still. we don't know how far they got down, how many blocks they got down, and what their intent was, and we should find that out.

by now, nopd, state police, the fbi should have that, and i'm sure they're putting everything together, so they want to sound, you know, reasonable when they spoke to you and give you your press conference. >> and, mike, look, if this is an act of domestic terrorism, it's hard to wrap your head around that, no one wants to believe something like this can happen in their city, we see it play too often against america. we understand that shots were fired. with the nopd, if somebody was driving down bourbon street intentionally, be allowed to use lethal force to stop somebody like this on bourbon street? >> in answer to that question, yes, that individual would. anyone who was trying to take the of someone else or engaged to take the life of someone else, you have the right to use lethal force.

in this situation, if you have multiple police officers at different angles shooting at a moving vehicle, it can be whether other people end up getting shot, civilians end up getting shot, but you have to stop that vehicle from continuing to engage and that threat in taking more lives. >> mike, great insight in light of a tragic event here. stand by, we're going to have much more with you coming up. if you're joining us live at 6:30 a.m., on the new year here in new orleans, we are following tragic news, a mass casualty event right in the heart of the most famous neighborhood in the state of louisiana, the french quarter. according to police just after 3:00 a.m., a truck plowed down bourbon street, killing more than ten people, maybe as many as twelve and injuring at least 27 others. it's an active scene right now. we do not know if it was a drunk driver or possibly some act of domestic terrorism that was

intentionally done. we have crews all over downtown and the french quarter. we'll bring you the very latest information. also the nopd superintendent, anne kirkpatrick, and the mayor of new orleans are in the french quarter, the 8th district precinct on royal street. we are expecting them to give a press briefing very soon. as soon as that happens, we'll bring it to you live here. live at university medical center, the only level one trauma center in the state of louisiana and southeast louisiana. right now that is where all of these people have been taken. aubrey, a tragic scene, what is the latest information that you have from umc? >> >> reporter: so new orleans ems have been working hard all morning long giving us new details, new information on this tragic and devastating story that we have been staying on top of all morning. behind me here at umc, the sun is starting to come up.

you can see the cars going up and down the entrance ramp. here's what i can tell you, according to new orleans ems, ten dead, 30 transported across five local hospitals. they have additional units staged downtown as well. they say those hospitals are university medical center, east jefferson general hospital, oxner main and baptist. they received patients. unc with the most, 14 patients transported by ems to unc. i asked were any of the victims first responders, they said they cannot confirm that at this time. they have to defer to nopd for that. the scene is still actively being worked, and nopd is asking the public to stay clear of the area. new orleans ems is asking residents and visitors of new orleans to activate 911 service responsibly for emergencies only.

ems has additional staff on duty to continue to respond to 911 calls. again, this is what it's like here at umc. we did see nopd on the entrance ramp. we also saw jefferson parish units on the entrance ramp at this time. again, ten people dead, 30 injured. stay with me on this developing story. back to you. >> they are all standing by live. this is a live look at the 8th district nopd station. we are zoomed in through the window. for those of you not familiar with this, this is in the heart of the french quarter. >> breaking away from our coverage to go to the officials there updating us on this mass casualty situation. let's listen in. >> we are still actively investigating this situation. with that -- [ inaudible question ]

>> as the officials there in new orleans gather themselves, let's turn back to our affiliate, wdsu on their coverage of this mass casualty situation. >> come out and address and give you some preliminary information on what has taken place. because this is an active investigation we want to make our citizens aware of what is taking place, and there will be no questions because we are continuing to investigate. we will have an updated briefing at 11:00, we'll be at police headquarters. if that changes, we'll let you know. with that, we'll get our group behind us to assemble. as i said, we will have three to four leaders speaking. we won't be able to take questions because we're still actively investigating this situation. and with that -- [ inaudible question ]

>> harry davis, we're going to stay here live. you're going to hear from the mayor, and superintendent, anne kirkpatrick, possibly roger hodges. >> we're expecting to hear from multiple law enforcement agencies. they tell us they will not be taking any questions from the media after they address us because this is an ongoing investigation. they tell us they do plan on updating us again, 11:00 in the afternoon. they say possibly again 3:00 in the afternoon, but right now, we're just waiting on multiple law enforcement agencies to come down and address us. that's including nopd superintendent anne kirkpatrick, new orleans mayor, latoya cantrell, and louisiana state police, so we will get those up to you just momentarily. >> yeah, autumn, as soon as this starts, it looks like it is going to start. here comes the mayor. let's listen live. >> our unified command leading with our mayor, and mayor latoya

cantrell, we'll start with her remarks. >> thank you. >> thank you. good morning. first of all, we do know that the city of new orleans was impacted by a terrorist attack. it's all still under investigation. you'll hear more after me. however, i have been in direct contact with the white house, with governor landry, and of course a unified command who was present here. what i'm asking at this time are prayers for those who have lost their lives in the city of new orleans due to this tragedy. in addition to that, i'm asking the public to stay clear of eight blocks around bourbon

street. stay clear from bourbon street, eight blocks around. very active. and again, a unified command is in place right now. i'm going to ask chief kirkpatrick to give you an update. you're then going to hear from our agent in charge relative to the fbi. so at this time, chief kirkpatrick. >> good morning, everyone: so i'm going to give you as much of the information as i possibly can. we are going to give you an update a couple of times today. so we will give you just the basics this morning. all right. we had this event started at about 3:15. it did involve a man driving a pickup truck down bourbon street at a very fast pace, and it was very intentional behavior. this man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could. it was not a dui situation.

this is a more complex, and more serious based on the information we have right now. with respect to numbers, we have right now, and as you already know, this could change throughout the day. we do know that there are 26 injured people who are at umc hospital. we know we have four at turro, four at ochsner baptist, one at tulane, but even as i was walking out the door, i believe i have an unconfirmed additional people who have been taken to other area hospitals, possibly on the east side, but we will give you as many correct numbers as we can as the day progresses. it is a very tragic situation for me to tell you that we know we have ten people that this man

killed on bourbon street. that is why we do not want anyone on bourbon street today, wherever you see yellow tape, please do not violate this tape. this is in order to protect and stabilize the scene. we have information to a certain degree of the demographics of those who are in the hospital right now. we do not know at this point how many could be tourists versus locals, but from the information i have right now, it seems the majority are locals versus tourists. what i also can tell you is that this man, this perpetrator, he fired on our officers from his vehicle when he crashed his

vehicle. two of our officers have been shot. they are stable. and we will give you an update on them. i have yet been able to go to the hospital. i will be leaving here for us to go visit our officers. we have called in every officer that we have. we have so much appreciated our partnerships who have also offered us staff. last night we had over 300 officers out here. and because of the intentional mindset of this perpetrator who went around our barricades in order toll conduct this, he wa hell bent on creating the carnage that he did. because of the nature and the indices that we have on the scene, and we have a -- enough

information that the fbi will be taking over this investigation. and with that, i am going to be asking -- this is the assistant agent in charge. this is agent duncan, special agent duncan, and she has taken over this case on behalf of us and the fbi. as always, we will be in partnership with all of our partners, but agent duncan, if you want to have a few words. >> thank you, ma'am. good morning. my name is alika duncan, the special agent in charge for fbi new orleans. as chief kirkpatrick said, we'll be taking over the investigative lead for this event. this is not a terrorist event. what it is right now is an improvised explosive devices that was found, and we are working on confirming if this is a viable device or not. as chief kirkpatrick said, we're asking everyone to stay away from bourbon street, specifically from canal street

to st. . that is my ask. once again, stay away from bourbon street, canal street, all the way to st. ann until we can figure out what is going on. our goal is to provide you additional information at the 11:00 a.m. press conference. thank you so much, and we will be in touch. >> yes. i will say that we want our community and our visitors to continue enjoying. there's so much to enjoy about new orleans, and we are going to make sure that our routes and the super dome are safe today for the game. and yet we had this tragic event, and we're sorry again to everyone in our community. but we do want you to go about the day. as we say, just stay away from bourbon. >> can you elaborate on the device? >> we are not going to be taking

questions this morning until we have more information. that's why we will give you an 11:00 briefing. until then, please hold your questions. we will give you everything that we possibly can. okay. so 11:00. we will see you at the headquarters, and we will go again from there. okay. no questions. no questions right now. >> a significant briefing from the mayor of new orleans as well as local law enforcement there on this mass casualty situation where they have confirmed that ten people have been killed, and at least 26 people hospitalized when a man in a vehicle, a pickup truck intentionally drove through bourbon street at the height of the revelry for new year's eve celebrations. according to the mayor, she did call this a terror attack, but the fbi, as they are now taking over, saying that this is not a terrorist event. local law enforcement officials saying around 3:15 this morning, a man driving a partnership went

at a fast pace, trying to run over as many people as they could. this was not a dui situation. and in the words of the local law enforcement officials saying that they were hell bent on creating carnage and damage, so we do have confirmation from them, the majority of those killed, the majority of the victims were locals. also confirmed from new orleans police that the suspect did fire on officers upon crashing there on bourbon street in the heart of the french quarter, and two officers were shot. they are currently in stable condition. they have also said the fbi is now taking over or the fbi clarified this is not a terrorist event. as you can imagine, at this point, with this happening, just hours ago, they are just now getting as much information as they can. there is no word on this suspect or other information, but as you heard from the law enforcement officials saying that this was

an intentional attack. at one point, there were also investigators looking at a possible suspicious package around the area of bourbon and orleans. again, all in the heart of the french quarter during the heart of the revelry, during the time where everybody is celebrating, bringing in the new year. also, keep in mind, there are many tens of thousands of tourists there in new orleans, outside of those who are celebrating the new year's, given that the sugar bowl is tonight, georgia versus notre dame, and many people in new orleans. as we take a look there at the scene, as you can imagine, many people who were there have now been asked to leave and not come around the areas investigators are looking at this situation. again, confirmation, there have been ten people who have died, at least 30 people who were taken to the hospital after a man who was driving a pickup truck at a very fast pace

intentionally drove in to the french quarter, that area around bourbon and ibevville in louisiana. many of those injured have been taken to university medical center, the only trauma center in southeast louisiana. they have 19 surgical units, and around the vicinity of that area is about eight minutes from the scene here. so as you can imagine, a very difficult, beginning of the new year. as we are hearing this news. confirmation from new orleans law enforcement and the mayor. the ten people who are dead after a vehicle -- driver plows their vehicle into a very busy crowd in new orleans. i understand we have jim cavanaugh on the phone. jim, are you with us? >> i'm here. again, the headline that people are waking up to, especially horrific in new orleans. talk to us now given the fact that there have been hundreds of

law enforcement already there and something that they're very used to given mardi gras celebrations, what is happening at this point in trying to secure the location and find out the most they can about the suspect because at this point, we don't know the whereabouts, if he's in custody, they have not said anything to that effect. >> that's right. we know the attack is morphed into more than just a car in the crowd because the chief of police said that the assailant fired a gun and hit two new orleans police officers who were wounded in the hospital, and they found the home made bomb. police call that an iud, imvised explosive device. it's a home made bomb. we have vehicle attack, a firearms attack, and an explosive attack. the fbi assistant special agent in charge spoke, and declared it to be a terrorist event yet. it may still morph into that.

certainly a very planned event. very purposeful event, and, you know, breaching barricades at, you know, one of the most iconic, celebrations and new year's locations in america. we have all walked bourbon street, and you know, there's ballards in a lot of places, metal ballards. it will be interesting to see if the pickup truck crashed through, sually that's difficult to do or did they breach a wooden police barrier, that is grossly inadequate to protect the card. one of the white boards on horses, that's just a, you know, a visual blockade. it doesn't stop any kind of a vehicle. if you want to stop vehicles, you would think that would be planned for this evening, in an impacted area that would be

targeted, you would need dump trucks, filled with sand, backed up to each other, even sanitation trucks, garbage trucks, line those detail where vehicles can't penetrate that. even a truck would hit that, it would stop it, and then the police could respond, so there's a lot to be seeing here today. there's a lot to unfold at the next presser with the police commanders. and, you know, of course we also have the questions of was the person acting alone? is there any other bombs? was there someone else killed at the location where this person lives? and we don't know the status of that person. are they in custody? are they deceased? there's a lot of questions to be answered. >> and, jim, let me ask you that, given that we know very little about the driver, the suspect here, given that this happened around 3:15 local time.

it's 6:50 there now. is that surprising to you at all that we don't know even more or they're not saying that the suspect is in custody, or is that something that you would expect? >> well, they know who he is, i would say. they know who he is, but it's just not a big point to release that at this moment because they're just overwhelmed by the events here. they have, you know, all of these fatalities, they have all of these injuries. they have two officers shot. they're dealing with at least one homemade bomb, and they have to sweep for others. they're bringing this all of their officers, and of course all the other agencies are coming to help, and they have a large football game there today. thaim notre dame and georgia. so they're contending with so mump that releasing that name at this moment is not important to them. i can assure you that new orleans pd detectives and federal agents are all, you

know, working investigatively, which we don't see here, they are working to track down everything about this guy, who he is, and probably drawing up search warrants at his home at the moment to go back and see what they can find. his motive will probably, you know, evolve quickly because people like this, they often, you know, write their motive on their shirt. i mean, they really want everybody to know why they're doing it. it's sort of their reason for living. you know, whatever the reason they're doing this, however twisted it may be, they usually want to shout it from the roof tops. i wouldn't be surprised if we know that this morning as well. >> and we know we won't know anything more officially as far as law enforcement goes from the fbi or local officials until another press conference that they're expecting at 11:00 a.m. local time, so for now, the investigation is very much, so i

want to turn to ken dilanian who has more, and as we're slowly getting information in, ken, what are you hearing? >> yeah, frances, i think our viewers may have been puzzled by what they saw at the official news conference when they heard the police chief say that this was a terrorist attack, and then they heard the fbi assistant special agent in charge contradict that and say that it wasn't. i think i can explain what's going on there. clearly this was an intentional attack by someone who set out to kill people. that's clear from what the police chief said. the fbi has a very specific definition of domestic terrorism. they're going to know exactly what the motive was. if this was just a person with a personal grievance who wanted to kill people without a political motive, they may not consider that terrorism. our viewers, on the other hand, can make their own decisions. obviously this was in the common definition of the term, that terrorist attack in the sense that it's a mass asualty event

inflicted on a city, a crowd full of people, and recall what happened in 2017 in new york city, there was a terrorist attack by a person inspired by isis, who drove a truck into a crowd of people and killed seven, and other incidents around the world, one in germany at a christmas market. so this is the hallmark of the kind of attack we have seen from terrorist organizations. we don't know the identity of this perpetrator or the motive. obviously we're talking to our sources and trying to determine that. it's very early. again, you know, ten killed, at least 30 injured, and the police chief said clearly that this man did it intentionally. he drove this truck at a high speed, trying to kill as many people as he could, and then when the truck was stopped, he got out and shot two new orleans police officers and then they also mentioned that there was an unexploded ied. what they didn't say is whether they took this man into custody. that's the big question we're

trying to pursue right now. >> how is it when it comes to withholding that information until they update us formally again, for the people who are concerned about their own safety, this suspect may be out there, that's something that the public doesn't know. i know we heard from the police chief say please, you know, urging the public not to come around the area, but it's got to be such a frantic time for the families, especially, friends and family, loved ones of those people who have not heard from their loved ones, who are afraid they may be one of the victims. how do you reconcile that with everything that's going on with the investigation and finding out about the suspect and also the hundreds of family members who are wanting to find out more? >> yeah, of course you make a very good point, and i'm not even sure whether that was intentional or an oversight the fact that they didn't mention the status of the suspect. police and fbi officials are human beings, and this is a very chaotic time for them. they're trying to figure out what they can say and what they

know, and getting information in the moment and so of course as soon as i get off the phone with you, i'll be hammering my sources and other people at nbc news will, and hopefully we'll have that information before 11:00 a.m. you're right, it's an important question, do we have somebody at large or not? is there a further danger to the community? it's kind of remarkable that they didn't make that clear. but we will try to get you answers about that. >> yeah, and also asking how this could have happened. you know, they have mar di grae celebrations every year. they have the law enforcement, police force there as we see them. mounted police here, knowing how they do this every year, and here we have this driver in a vehicle, described as driving a very fast pace in an intentional manner, trying to run over as many people as they could in the police chief's words, hell bent on creating carnage and damage, and even saying that he went through the barriers, and we have seen it time and time

again, as these fast past incidents, you have mentioned, there are dump trucks, sand trucks, large vehicles, concreted barricades, and the thought that was needed to go into doing something like this, when it comes to this perpetrator, so many of those questions as well. >> that's right, and frances, you're make ing a very good poi about the question of how can this happen at an event where there are crowds of people. that question came up in 2017 in new york, and after that horrific event, the nypd took further steps at gatherings to make sure that the barriers were higher, that there were, as you said, dump trucks and sand trucks that prevent any vehicle access. this is a thing where communities learn from these incidents. it's hard for people to conceive that anyone would do something so diabolical. crowds have been gathering on

bourbon street for decades, and this has not happened ever. this is a new thing for them. they're going o learn from it. clearly whatever barriers that were in place did not protect. you can't protect from every contingency from something like this. it would have been unimaginable several decades ago to see this kind of attack, an intentional attack by someone driving a truck into a crowd. it's just the world that we're living in right now. >> and to think that the local affiliate described this day or this weekend as the biggest tourism draw with the sugar bowl there tonight, with tens of thousands of fans expected, georgia versus notre dame at the sugar bowl. also something to think about as well, the super bowl is going to be there in new orleans in february so that also has to come into play when it comes to preparations and how law enforcement will go about in securing the public then.

>> that's right, and that's a great point, you know, the super bowl is considered a special security event every year, that means the resources of the federal government, the maximum resources are brought to bear to protect that event. it is considered a ripe terrorist target. the fbi, homeland security, other agencies, even the military get involved in protecting not only the ground around the building and the city but the sky above and the seas around every possible access point, and so they will be ready for that event. i think what's going to transpire over the next few days a heightened state of alert, more security, every police officer in new orleans, their leave will be canceled, that often happens after these incidents, it may well be that the danger has passed, we don't know that yet. the police haven't said whether

this person had confederates. >> that is especially tough for loved ones of those victims, and many family members and friends who are so frantic now in trying to find out the whereabouts of their loved ones are people waking up in new orleans, across the nation, hearing this breaking news at the start of the first day of this new year. just to update our viewers here if you're just joining us, the mass casualty situation in new orleans is ten people are killed, at least 30 others injured as the vehicle plows into a crowd a man driving a pickup truck at a fast pace intentionally trying to run over as many people as they could. in their words not a dui situation and they were -bent

on creating carnage and damage. the police chief said that after the vehicle crashed, the suspect opened fire and hit two police officers, they were shot and they are currently in stable condition. there is at least 30 people who were injured and many have been transported to university medical center which is around eight minutes away from bourbon street. it is the only trauma center in southeast louisiana. we also know 10 people are dead . on the side of this crash and this vehicle running into a very busy crowd of people at 3:15 who were still celebrating the new year. we also know that they were looking into an icd, and unexploded device as well and there is a suspicious package and law enforcement is looking into that blocker two away on bourbon street and orleans.

we are watching this video and i am not sure if you can see it of law enforcement officials. what is it now they can show us and can tell us when it comes to securing this area? >> they were very clear and that was the primary message to the public, which is, please stay away from bourbon street because it is a crime scene. and they are hoping and they will try to campus at the best they can. it is a huge area and they hope the public adheres to the request because they do need that to be preserved and they need to gather evidence all along the route and they need to gather tire tracks and shell casings because the man fired shots and that kind of thing and they don't want people traipsing around, you know, infecting the crime scene because that will be important when ultimately they bring a case in court against this person, whoever else was responsible. they will try their best to secure that crime scene as they

continue to investigate the circumstances of this attack to >> stand by ken as i bring in jim kavanaugh, adding to what ken has been saying about this investigation, can you talk about how we understand that local law enforcement has turned this over to the fbi in preserving this scene in the crime scene and collecting evidence and everything they need together to further their investigation. how is it when it comes to the fbi and the jurisdiction of the local law- enforcement, how is that coming about now? >> they work hand in glove really, the agency's practice and work together in the work together every day on crime. and you will see fbi agents and you will see atf agents and they work with detectives constantly every day. it is nothing new to work together. saw the chief talk about the attack and then you saw the

assistant special agent in charge of the new orleans fbi division and that is a ranking person. sometimes we are fooled by the title of assistant but it is like the executive officer in a military organization and it is the number two in charge or the assistant chief, it is a high-ranking command position and she spoke and talked about the ied and the officer shot. all the agency's get together and primarily what fbi and atf will do as they work as investigators first. this is also most misunderstood by the public and they work first as investigators, shoulder to shoulder with new orleans detectives and they will interview witnesses and they will gather evidence. go and get search warrants in the first act as detectives mma layer on whatever specific expertise they have. for bombs or guns or whatever they need, you know, even

family and peer support, they can add in whatever resources the agencies have. i think you will have a very rapidly developing investigation this morning and i think there will be some new facts at the next presser because i think they have a lot of them. like ken was saying, i don't think there is a mystery who the guy is, they know who he is he is either in custody or deceased. if he had escaped i think they would have let us know right away. i think we get a lot of facts from the presser and probably they will have some indication of the motive. but a pickup truck at a high rate of speed into a crowd and a sidewalk, you can see the devastation. >> absolutely. >> it is horrible to >> jim, i want to ask him a gathering the evidence if there are hundreds if not thousands around the area, how do they gather evidence if someone has

cell phone video of the scene or a photo or eyewitness accounts? given the fact there were so many people and also that they had someone dispersed right after the incident? >> that is a great question, frances , and it goes back to what we were discussing this is where the detectives and special agents come in because the police commander's need to get on answer publicly asking for that from citizens who were there, and they have to have, you know, people who talk to the citizens when they call in and field all that and go out and get the video or at least have it sent to them so they can look at it. the majority of the evidence in this case will be right in the pickup truck. and adjacent to it, if you jumped out and fired his weapon , as jenny devoted to, depending on the type of gun he is using, there may be shell casings underground and they probably recover the gun as well and that will be traced by atf. they will look at processing

the inside of the vehicle and likely had his wallet in his pocket and there is his i.d. and it does not always get into -- if it is vehicle it to be registered to him. he is probably not an international man of missionary, they may be able to find out who he is pretty quickly and discern his motives and back to the standard investigative process of, go to his house and get a warrant and search his laptops and cell phones and find out what he is all about, or whether there were any confederates involved. the planning is, you know, i would not call it extremely sophisticated but it -- there is some planning. you have a three-pronged attack. a vehicle, a firearm, against the police and a homemade bomb. you know, there is a lot of thought and process into that

if it was just one person involved. you have to make the bomb and get the gun and player attack and you have to get worked up to do it. and then you are hitting at this hour at 3:00 a.m. goes to more of a drunk careening into a crowd at 3:15, and i could happen as well but this looks like more than that. >> you bring up a point when it comes to just one suspect. how do investigators go about and see if there was anybody else involved or if the suspect and the driver had an accomplice in working with somebody else. >> exactly, frances . is there somebody dead at his residence or his family's residence that he killed? a loved one, a spouse, you know, parents, you know, neighbors.

if all these things have occurred, did he leave this house wired with explosives? did he leave messages for the reason he did this. there is a lot to be uncovered. if he has one bob -- bomb and then you have to sweep his house in vehicles to make sure they are not -trapped. if you recall back when the killer was in the theater in aurora caller -- aurora, colorado, he came into the theater with an automatic rifle with a large magazine but he had wired his apartment extensively with explosives and trip wires, knowing full well, you know, he might have been killed in the attack but the police would go back to his apartment and blow up or he would kill other neighbors. once they have bombs, you have to see everywhere they touch, like there may be more bombs. >> there are many questions that need to be answered as to, it was intentional or what was the motive. jim, hang with me

for a little bit as we turn to emily who is in times square who is covering the security measures and the precautions taken during last night's revelry. what are you hearing about the situation in new orleans? >> reporter: frances , good to be with you. the police chief in new orleans calling the situation tragic that resulted in 10 people killed, about 30 others injured and transported to nearby hospitals. the chief also describing it in a news conference a short time ago as very intentional and she said that a man in a pickup truck purposely moved around barriers on bourbon street and that popular hot spot in that area and drove as fast as possible down the street to run over as many people as possible and that is according to police. once the driver crashed the truck, police say a he began firing at police officers in the area. hitting two officers who we have learned are in stable condition at the

hospital. according to police and that area, she points out had several hundred officers devoted to it and we are talking about the heart of the french quarter, bourbon street and canal street. also tens of thousands of people flocking to the area not just for a new year's eve celebration but also for the sugar bowl set to play out in the city later today. the police noting that she believes at this time most of the people that have been impacted from the driver plowing into the crowds had been locals. the fbi is taking over the investigation and a special agent revealing in the news conference that several improvised explosive devices had been recovered and our affiliate capturing images of robotics teams being deployed in the area. the governor tweeting and posting a social media a short time ago, a horrific act of

violence took place on bourbon street earlier this morning around 3:15 a.m. according to police, adding i urge all near the scene to avoid the area. frances . >> tough as we are going through the official words that came out of the press conference and telling us they will not have another briefing and not taking questions and not having another briefing until a few hours from now. and urging the public to stay clear from bourbon street. eight blocks around is active and a unified command in place right now. jim, i want to bring it back in because were hearing about what may be happening and what is likely happening when it comes to the investigation and finding out more about the suspect. very little consolation to those family members who have been notified that their loved ones have been injured or have died. from this incident. what happens now with family members who are wanting to find out more, a staging area or triage area? how our law enforcement and city officials dealing with that family members of loved ones

who are wanting anything, any information or wanting their questions answered? >> standard procedure, frances , is to set up a family center. the police set up a family center usually in a nearby church or school or even at a police facility nearby. crime scene where thing is shut off, somewhere where families can easily go and get access and speak to police officials and get direct information. of course, you also have a lot of unfolding at multiple hospitals. and family members will be going to hospitals, if they have injured and they were notified. the police have got to put out quickly, where their family reunification center is. people who have injured or deceased can go and find out information. they did not put that out early this morning. i am sure they are just getting it set up because it takes a little time to set up. at the

next press conference we should hear for sure where that family unification center is and how family members can get to it and call and get information. that has to happen quickly and it will, i am sure, by the next presser. it will be a very busy day, with the super bowl, i'm sorry, the sugar bowl, they have a lot to do and they have a lot of officers committed to that. you know. >> how about the resources, sent to bring that up? i want to ask about resources because they did say with the sugar bowl happening tonight and the officers were already and many already assigned to be deployed. how does that change after this incident for them to secure the area even more? especially with the fbi now involved and federal authorities involved? >> it will take more officers

more deputy's from jefferson parish and it will take more louisiana state troopers probably because ones that are assigned to the sugar bowl, they really cannot be pulled off from that security. in fact, like you say, it may want to be beefed up a little bit. they have a real drain and they have all this going on. a lot of investigative resources in the federal agents can help them with a lot of investigative stuff. fbi and atf. but even the state police and jefferson parish deputy's can help with uniform services to beef up the crime scene. they will be holding that for a while. keeping the public away from bourbon street and shutting down bourbon street and that is a large thing to do in america, shut down bourbon street, that doesn't happen very often. and to do with the crowds from the notre dame-georgia game. a very busy day in new orleans.

>> new information -- i apologize for him -- for interrupting. we got information from a federal law-enforcement official tells nbc news that the suspect is dead. tell us how again that may change how were going about in the investigation, how they're going about knowing there is not a continuing threat to the public works>> that is a matter of searching his car or the truck, the f150 and going to his residence with a search warrant and going through a carefully making sure there is no other explosive devices. interviewing his relatives, checking on their safety. making sure someone was not killed earlier. before the attack. and that is just a matter of gathering the forces in getting the warrant and going to do it. normally we would just send agents to the house and just you know, basically, park and

surround the house and call the occupants out. and wait for the warrant to be signed in and go in carefully with the bomb squad and go through before step-by-step. that is what they will have to do and the person deceased there is a lot of answers and the answers are just in their phone and computer and their home. with their family and friends and that is where you have to clean them from, instead of him just telling you unless he left a message. now, a lot of these times these things, as we know from seeing them or suicide and homicide wrapped together. and you know, when people are suicidal, they often want to leave that message. you know, this is why i'm doing this, this is the reason, and so sometimes the message to be on the front seat of the truck, laying there for you to read because he thought he was going to jump out and shoot it out

with the police and die in his vision of glory. i don't think it will necessarily be a mystery. and i think will probably, that will start unraveling later today. >> absolutely. that may be happening with new information that ken dilanian is sharing with us. ken, what are you learning? >> frances you reported earlier that a federal law- enforcement official tells me that the suspect is believed to be dead . and also that the fbi is investigating this incident as potential terrorism. and you hurt some confusion about that earlier where the police chief said, the first thing she said this was an act of terrorism and later the fbi assistant special agent in charge, seem to contradict that and say we don't have a terrorist incident. that is just the fbi being careful and they are investigating the motive but they are investigating this as a potential terrorist incident, which obviously, clearly may have been. and again, at the news conference that did not explain

the status of the suspect, they said he shot a two new orleans police officers, but we are told that he is believed to be dead at the scene.>> ken, at this point they are not saying whether this was self-inflicted or at the hands of law enforcement, are they saying anything else? >> no. that is a great point and the question was not answered in my conversation with a law enforcement official and that is something to be determined. somebody knows the answer but we do not. >> you can imagine, they really are wanting to make sure that all the information is good before they pass it on to us first to report. but appreciate you getting that information for us. ken, stick with us a little bit as we turn to eddie with more and . every time you join us, unfortunately it is for inside

for something so unfortunate as something so horrific especially starting this first day of the new year. >> yeah. and you know, listening to the press briefing we just heard a couple of things stuck out and one major thing that stuck out as well we were briefed they told us how they had barricades and we don't know what kind of barricades they were but they did have barricades up and they went around them. this is actually quite similar to what we saw in germany. they had barricades and the individual with the vehicle to the same thing and went around them. sometimes in law enforcement, what we will do is put a barricade or things to deter behavior. the problem with that is if it is not locked in meeting the person absolutely cannot get through, ideally in the past the idea of having the barricades in the fence and having these things, it usually deters good people. it usually deters people who

follow the rules and what were seeing now, that is not enough. and i think we will see a shift in mentality in law enforcement and making sure of these events because this is the second time were seeing this, second time there were barricades and the second time the person was intentionally able to get around that they will probably have to harden these up a bit more and maybe use the map areas making sure that they are immobile in the cannot be moved because we are seeing this again happen. where somebody wants to do something. when you have a bad actor and they want to do something, they will find a way. and we are seeing this again and again and again. >> you talk about the preparations in the planning for the suspect to go about doing this given the fact that this is new orleans and they have mardi gras where they protect hundreds of thousands of people and the sugar bowl tonight with many tourists in town, what is it that a suspect or bad actor would have to go around and plan as far as to go around barriers to have this

destruction and have as many as 10 people, at least 10 people killed and at least 30 injured? >> i would think they had some sense of an idea of what the setup was. because they knew that they could the get the vehicle in any one with the vehicle and the new they could get around the barricades. i would be curious to see if it was a local, which very local could be. was a someone out of town who use this as an opportunity or a target? this person we know had a weapon so they were very keen and intent not just to use the vehicle, but also use the weapon. do they know historically there is always an event here? i am a local new yorker and i know every new year's eve as most of the world knows what streets are close because i know new york city for new year's eve and what the security will look like. we need to know that he can this? how did he campus? how did he do his research? also, the main thing is his weapon, legally purchased or not?

when did he get it and how long had it been planning? and they will look at all his data. and this was brought up before, the good thing today is people have devices and they speak for themselves and we will know, did he go. vehicles have computer systems in them and is there anything showing up in his gps or devices showing he went there? you can actually use cell phones and see people's movements. something that law- enforcement typically uses you can actually look at somebody's device, to see if that device visited that area. what were his movements? and we might be able to see how often and how he did his reconnaissance, in addition to doing it online and searching. and did he communicate this to somebody else? most often, people do communicate. when you do something like this, you are sadly, and i don't say this to be insensitive, but this person is

trying to make a statement. these people try to make a statement and they wanted to be known and wants the world to see it. so what is his manifesto? his statement. what do you want the world to know? and that will also lead the investigating agencies to decide whether it is or is not terrorism. what was this person's motive? >> that is also very difficult at this point given they are gathering so much and going through so much evidence still collecting it. evy, hang on a second and i want to update the viewers that the president has been briefed on this incident . what has confirming the president is aware that the white house has been in touch with the mayor of new orleans and confirming that the fbi investigators are on the lead on the ground, conducting this investigation. if you just joining us at least 10 people are killed after vehicle plows into a very busy crowd in the heart of the french quarter on bourbon street. at least 30 people have been injured and brought to

university medical center, the only trauma center in southeast louisiana. after crashing his vehicle in bourbon street, the suspect went on to shoot at officers, hitting two officers, the mayor saying, that they are in stable condition. and also the fire chief saying that at this point, excuse me, the fbi saying is not a terrorist event until they find out more. when we hear about all these things and we know they are securing this area trying to find out as much information, they still cannot permit the fact that other people are involved, evy. >> they want to see is this a loan actor or others involved? based on the preliminary things we are seeing and hearing. it does seem, seem, it kind of fits a lot of the similar patterns that we have seen before. one of the concerns are that

this was brought up in a briefing by the fbi, potential explosive devices. but again an individual can make those on their own. sadly, you can go online and so many people figure out how to do these on their own. they will look at how sophisticated are these devices? are the amateur devices? that will lend you to look closer to believe this person is doing it on their own. are they sophisticated? where did the components come from? did they have felt putting them together? that may lead you down other avenues to see if there are other individuals involved and also again, motive. loan actor who is going through something personal. stressor. or someone else tied to somebody else for a bigger cause or a bigger reason? we are still trying to figure out which we will go. >> evy, stick with us and we will check back with you. we will continue coverage on the other side of this break.

in mourning. reporting from

new york. we are following breaking news on this new year's day out of new orleans. at least 10 people are dead and at least 30 hospitalized after what local police are calling a mass casualty event on bourbon street, that is the french quarter, very busy tourist area, especially on new year's eve for police say around 3:15 a.m. local time, a man drove a pickup truck into a large crowd at a very fast pace and they said this was intentional the city's police superintendent said he was, "quote hell-bent on routing carnage. a federal official tells abc news the suspect is believed to be dead, right now there is a major security response in that historic french quarter and authorities say people need to stay away from the area as this investigation is well underway.

want to bring in nbc news law- enforcement analyst and former secret service agent evy poumpouras, evy, you have been walking with us through these developments over the course of the last hour or so after that press conference with law enforcement officials on scene. what are you suspecting is happening in this investigation right now? >> right now they are trying to figure out the motive. they will be looking through his devices, they will try to understand to see if there are things around. that will be secondary. the primary thing they will look at is either any of other explosive devices? any ied as they should be concerned with? other weapons or actors that may be worked with him. you have to think safety is first. is there any thing else planned? could he have put in an explosive device elsewhere? other other people working with him? that is what you want to clear first. once you have a very good idea on that then you will look at

devices. you will be look at any computers, going into his home, getting into the house right away. accessing his devices. interviewing people. does the a family? talking to family members and people he worked with? did you hear anything i know anything? scouring social media. to depose something? sometimes when we see these events posted on social media. or they have said things in the past. the other thing that is quite a kill your, i don't want to say it is bothering me but peculiar to me that he chose 3:15 a.m. to do it. you would think there would be people earlier in the day and maybe it was harder to get to the site or heavier security. but it seems odd to go towards that time. just something i'm curious about that his elected that specific time.

instead of the peak hours of new year's eve. if this is someone who's looking to do sadly mass carnage, i'm just peculiar on why that time? did something happen during his evening that caused him to do this? but i think we will look at some new plan this, it seems extremely intentional and they put a plan together. did this individual do any kind of reconnaissance? what do i mean? they went to the site and they scripted out. maybe they were earlier. do they know the area? are they a local to the area? why did they picked that site? often when we see incidents like this they look for a lot of people, a dense population of people and one small area. a media presence, eyes they want to be seen. and that is pretty much what they got. we know that new orleans police department heavily secures is event based on the press conference from what i heard and i think they had about 300 plus police officers present so they really did secure the area. they did have barricades but i

think what are starting to see is that events like this and based on what we saw in germany, something very similar , the christmas market where we had some of the drive through a christmas market and plow through the crowd and cause mass casualties and injuries. i think what we may start seeing now is the hardening up of locations like this. >> okay. sorry, evy. looking at the live images i wanted to call our attention to the scene this morning. it is 7:34 a.m. local time in new orleans as this investigation gets underway almost 4 1/2 hours now after the incident took place. i want to play a bit more for viewers who maybe just joining us from that press conference we heard from local and federal officials, just about an hour ago. let's listen in to the police superintendent, and kirkpatrick. >> this event started at about

3:15. it did involve a man driving a pickup truck down bourbon street at a very fast pace and was very intentional. this man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could. it was not a dui situation. this was more complex answer is based on the information we have right now. >> she went on to say, evy, that this driver crashed and then opened fire on police officers. and he shot two police officers , who she said were in stable condition but cannot provide additional information about their conditions. again, there are more than 30 others who are injured, taken to local hospitals, multiple hospitals in this triage moment. and she said it is believed most of the people who were injured were not tourists but locals. of course, this is a

busy time of year in new orleans and there will be a lot of locals and tourists participating in events plus there is the sugar bowl in new orleans tonight, as well. what does that tell you about what investigators already know when she described it as very intentional behavior, trying to run over as many people as possible, and the fact this person opened fire on officers. >> i think right away what you hear, and you know this person is doing this that they went in with any intent to harm and hurt and kill. but they also went with an intent to die themselves. i think we can kind of lean that way knowing that because you know if you're going in and you crash a vehicle and you are armed and get out of the vehicle and you get into a shootout with police, people know you're going to get shot back at and this is where you get that term, suicide by cop. when individuals go in and there is an understanding, my life is going to end and that they want it to end in such a

way. when we see these events we don't usually tend to catch the person and usually the person does not survive, they either do a self-inflicted wound or police are the ones who take the shot. there is no clarity yet on how this person -- we know the person has passed away and we know they were killed and we don't have clarification yet on whether it was by police were self-inflicted so we are still standing by to hear about that. but that is the first thing that comes to mind.>> and this person knows there was one to be a heavy police presence presumably. police and law-enforcement in advance had said they would have all hands on deck, 100% of the police force who would be on duty as well as 300 officers specifically called in for the new year's eve activities in this very busy part of new orleans for in fact, that is exactly what the police superintendent said, 300 officers were there last night

and the driver going around barricades to drive into crowds of people. is there an operational reason, evy, that they would not be giving us more information about the suspect? and who this individual is? >> i think they want to be careful. you don't want to say anything that is not accurate or you want to verify, verify before you go on local television in front of the press and give information. i think to doing the right thing. one of the things with law enforcement is they want to get out and give information but they also want to make sure they are giving the right information. in addition, we said this is an ongoing investigation. they are trying to clear a few things and you don't want to give out information in case maybe there are other actors. maybe there are other individuals connected and you want to make sure that as you are releasing information it is okay to release that information, that information is accurate and correct. you also don't forget we have our victims and we want to make sure the family members know

that they have been informed before the hear about and on the news. there are so many things. you are only looking at four hours. did they find any notes left by the suspect? by the individual? they want to check these things. what is sad is if you had an individual who is going in, and again, the motive will be interesting to see, it sounds a little insensitive, interesting. to understand what the motive is. is this a motive of someone going through something personally? if so, what causes you if you are struggling to actually harm other people in the process? or is this a person who ideologically wanted to send some kind of message? something has happened to them and they are upset about something. any kind of an issue or something going on and they chose that this event to make their statement. to let the world know how they feel. that is another thing

they are trying to figure out. what are we dealing with? >> are you surprised that this fbi special agent in charge at the press conference says specifically, this is not a terror event? >> i am surprised she said it is not because that sounds very final to me. i would've thought she would've said we don't know. could they change it? they could, but that sounded very final and i would be curious, you know, we will find out in the next conference that they will hold. why she chose to say that. it does sound definitive. to me it lands of the have some clarity in, you know, this is not really terrorism, and unless there is some kind of mistake or maybe perhaps she misspoke but we do not know that yet for>> the next press conference is at 11:00 a.m. local time and that would be noon eastern time and i want to bring in nbc's white house correspondent gabe who is standing by with more on how the white house has been briefed . what can you tell us?

>> good morning. we learned within the past few moments that president biden has been briefed on this incident in new orleans and the white house has been in touch with the mayor's office in the city to offered support. the white house reiterates that the fbi is already on the ground supporting local law enforcement and that president biden will continue to be brief throughout the day. we don't know at this point whether the president might speak publicly about this incident throughout the day, of course. he is not just the commander-in- chief he is often the consoler in chief in times like these and right now he is in wilmington, delaware, after attending a private wedding ceremony last night and ringing in the new year in delaware. as for where we are in west palm beach, florida, president- elect trump through a party at mar-a-largo last night. we are currently after his transition team to see if the president-elect has any comment on the new orleans incident but so far we have not heard back. >> i know it is a developing situation with little information. we are all waiting on presumably the white house and other officials to have more

information than their sharing publicly at this time. but has there been any change in plans for the president during this holiday time? given this event? >> no. at this point, there has been no change to the president's plans but he is in touch with his national security officials and yes, this is very early on in the investigation and federal officials are very cautious with their language at this point. again, the white house saying, the fbi which we heard from in the press conference, is working with local officials on the ground. we have no indication that president biden is changing his plans in any way. but, again, we are learning that information as it comes in on the number of deaths and potential motive here. something a national security official at the white house is watching closely. >> gave gutierrez, thank you and keep us posted as you learn more information from your end. we have new video in coming from our nbc news new orleans

affiliate, and i have to warn you it is blurry because it is graphic. and you can see, even though it is blurred that there is a lot of carnage on the street. a lot of damage from this truck that plowed into crowds of people. the police superintendent saying very intentional and trying to run over as many people as possible. at this hour we know at least 10 people are killed and at least 30 others injured and transported to the hospital following this event. that they again said was a man hell-bent on creating carnage and the damage that he did. a direct quote from the police to superintendent, as investigators, local and federal are now on the scene and evolved. i want to bring in ken dilanian who has worked his sources .

what are you learning this hour? >> what i can tell you is that two federal law enforcement officials are telling us that the suspect is a dead. they have not clarified how that happened whether he was shot by police are committed suicide, but the suspect is dead at this hour. and the fbi is taking the lead in this investigation and investigating this matter as a potential act of terrorism. of course, you heard during the news conference the mayor of the conference by announcing that there was an act of terrorism and later the assistant special agent in charge of the fbi's new orleans division appeared to contradict the mayor and say, that it was not terrorism. the fbi has a very specific definition of terrorism and they need to render the motive before they can make a determination. but clearly they are taking the lead because they are investigating this as a potential act of terrorism and as you just said the police superintendent said this man set out to kill as many people as possible and was hell-bent on carnage and rode the truck over and passed various in order to do the maximum amount of damage and the fbi taking the lead and officials and

authorities urging people to stay away from bourbon street, which is a big deal, at this time of year with a football game planned. lots of festivities. it is of big moment for the city of new orleans, as a rundown and try to figure out what happened. they are trying to determine the identity of this actor and any potential ties and social media profiles he may have had and that is ongoing right now. >> our local affiliate has been on scene reporting authorities are looking at a suspicious package in the nearby area. we also heard from the fbi special agent in charge that there was some kind of improvised explosive device they were investigating. do we know anything more? a >> we don't know the details but that is significant because i am not aware of a previous incident like this that included a vehicle attack combined with shots fired and a

ied. that seems to be a new thing in the annals of the attacks and unfortunately, we have seen a number of these vehicle attacks, one 2017 in times square in new york city and that was an isis inspired attack that killed seven people and one in germany at a christmas market. but none of those involved this combination of vehicle, gun and potential ied. but we don't know the details of whether that was a viable device. >> that is what the special agent in charge that was part of the investigation at this early stage. ken dilanian, stay with me and evy poumpouras stay with me. i want to play some eyewitness sound we are getting from the scene and let's listen. >> first of all, you were here last night and can you tell me what you saw beforehand? >> before hand it was people having fun. i mean, there was a lot of people and a lot of police presence but never thought anything like this -- i did not feel in danger yesterday at all yesterday. >> reporter: when you walk through the barricades were not

up? >> no. the metal barricades were not up. just the standard plastic ones. there were police at the entrance, a lot of police, the metal barricades were not up. >> reporter: are you surprised that something like this happened? >> of course i am surprised. but i don't know why they are still letting cars go through bourbon street, even last night. which i was there and still at midnight and 1:00 in the morning there were cars driving by even though there were people walking all over the streets you had to dodge cars. i don't think they shall at any vehicles and to i think is to be blocked off at night time because something like this could happen. >> reporter: you walked out and tell me what you left? >> it was all about 2:00 a.m. and my wife and i were little tired so we went back to the hotel. i wanted to get peace about two blocks over at 2:30 and it took about 20 minutes to make it and i walked back at about 3:00 a.m., i guess when this happened. luckily for me my hotel is a block over and luckily i missed it. >> reporter: when you woke up this morning, what was your first thought? >> i woke up just to see the news and stuff and every cycle

channel had it. i mean, cnn, nationwide. i could not believe it that it is happening here. literally, a block away from the hotel. as soon as i stepped out, you cannot come out and it is an active crime scene and i cannot come anywhere and i had to come back this way to come back down to see what is going on. it is incredible. >> an eyewitness on the scene in new orleans french quarter following a horrific event, mass casualty incident event early, early this morning. at the end of new year's eve celebrations around 3:15 local time when a truck plowed into a crowd of people, killing at least 10 and injuring at least 30 others and let's bring in emilie ikeda who has been tracking the latest. bring us up to speed on what we know right now. >> reporter: the police superintendent calling this a very tragic and very intentional . describing how around 3:15 a.m. a man in a pickup truck purposely drove around their kids that were not sure what

kind of exact barricades they were. and drove very fast down the iconic bourbon street. and she said, "trying to run over as many people as he possibly could. once the driver had crashed he began firing shots outside of his vehicle towards officers, hitting two officers, porting to police, who we learned are in stable condition. this horrifying, terrifying incident killing 10 people according to police and several dozen others had been transported to local hospitals, area hospitals. as a colleague ken mentioned, two federal law enforcement officials telling nbc news that the suspect is believed to be dead . it is not clear the circumstances leading to that and the fbi who is leading the investigation is looking into this as a potential terrorist attack. the fbi also said they are looking into a number of improvised explosive devices found nearby. our affiliate

capturing video of robotics teams being deployed on the ground. they were talking about the heart of the french quarter, bourbon street, bourbon and canal street, where it is a tourist hotspot and there are tens of thousands of people walking to new orleans for the sugar bowl planned for later today, but the police noting that it is believed that the majority of the people impacted by this horrific event are actually locals. the governor tweeting earlier today, and horrific act of violence took place on bourbon street. urging on the the scene to avoid the area. the white house has also been briefed on the tragedy but a number of outstanding questions remain, any potential motive in this incident, we don't have information on the suspect identity at this time. we are expecting a news conference in a couple of hours and we will follow that closely.>> thank you. stay with us. with president to our affiliate and they have a report on the scene where they are telling us there was a suspicious package that investigators are looking into. >> reporter: they found one

right on the corner of bourbon and orleans were by the tropical aisle by which is a huge landmark for people wanting to party during mardi gras, new year's eve, other events of the french quarter. but again we have heard two small detonations from the special operations rv that came onto the scene. down the street that you're looking at right now. and we will continue to follow and monitor the situation. >> fletcher, keep us posted. there are multiple scenes. the one on bourbon street where 10 people have been tragically killed and at the hospitals, several local hospitals, umc, baptist, hello, more than 30 people taken to area hospitals and we should point out this is where one of the biggest celebrations of the biggest days in new orleans. we are a tourism city and the french quarter -- >> we listened him briefly to the end of that on scene report. and what we were told by the reporter is he heard a sound that sounded like a firecracker and then someone saying, fire

in the hole to as officials are investigating what was expected to be a suspicious package as they were framing it according to our local affiliate. wdsu . we are not sure what they found if it was the improvised explosive device that we heard fbi officials referred to earlier in a press conference with local and federal authorities. you can see the scene , with multiple law enforcement on horseback earlier today and the crime scene tape all around that area. we know that officials are urging people to stay away from the french quarter this morning. the initial accident happening at bourbon and canal, according to city officials but the other area where there was this reported suspicious package or suspicious device was in a nearby block at bourbon and orleans. according to the local reporter

. for those who may be familiar, we know there are multiple potential crime scenes at this moment. i want to bring in ken dilanian who has been continuing to work on getting more information. ken, you reported is believed the suspect is a deceased and that the fbi is looking at this as a possible terror event. why did fbi get involved so early in this investigation, do we know?>> we don't know and we have not heard specifically from the fbi about that. but they would take the lead on something where there are indications that it was an act of terrorism and that appears to be what is going on. it is very suggestive that they have taken the lead. i know the assistant special agent in charge that this is not a terrorist event. i am asking questions of sources about why she said that. i am being told the fbi is

investigating this as a potential terrorist attack. and they are running down every lead to determine what this person's potential motive was. as you said, the mayor and the police chief, the mayor call this a terrorist attack in the police superintendent said this person intended to kill as many people as possible, and was -bent on carnage. and use that pickup truck to run down and kill at least 10 people and injure 30 others. and then got out of the vehicle and shot at two new orleans police officers, wounding them. and we are told the suspect was killed. i don't know the details of that whether he was shot by police or whether i was a self-inflicted event. the suspect is dead we are told and they are investigating this as a potential terrorist attack. >> stay with us. i want to bring in robert. as you listened to what we are learning this morning, what is top of mind for you? >> the first thing that came up was the fact that we had an event like this just before christmas in germany.

so, don't know if again any intelligence led to anything. intel was passed to germany about groups talking about using the vehicle as a weapon. don't know if that indicated anything with the u.s. but in fact this could be a copycat and that could have put the idea in someone's head, if they're thinking about it, and you know, planning announces them. i would have expected though, an event like this to have better barricades. we heard from one witness saying that the barricades they talk about really were not vehicle barricades. new york city uses garbage trucks and dump trucks to block roads so you cannot get a vehicle in at all. it will have to come out what they're talking about with barricades, but the first thing that came to mind was events in germany, maybe better planning but now the sugar bowl being down there, you have a huge event where people are going to be walking to it and gathering

outside. tailgates, college things. they will not be able to figure out if this was an isolated planning sell or just a one person's mind, before the game starts. i think the fbi will probably have to bring in some outside agents from outside of new orleans. the jttf to secure that event and i think new orleans peaty will probably call everyone in, because they have to assume that even if it is not a planned event that this again maybe a triggering event, someone else to do something. i think it will be tough to get into the sugar bowl and i think people going to the sugar bowl want to see it being very tough to get a vehicle and so they can feel a bit safer when they get there. but it is one to be a crazy time in new orleans on many different aspects and the other big games today, you have three other or two other big games in college football, the rose bowl, and another one.

everyone has to kind of look like this and it may not be a connected terrorist plot even if it is terrorism, but it could be the trigger event for someone to get some notoriety like when we see school shootings and happening soon after he gives them some ideas. i think they will really have to lockdown those events for vehicle access. >> you expect it will be increased security at many different places at venues and events as we move forward throughout today and i assume that beyond that, also the super bowl, in new orleans coming up in february. rob, you mentioned the possibility of a terror event and there was back and forth earlier on that in the mayor calling it a terror event and the special agent on scene saying it is not a terror event. they are obviously still investigating what the motive is and how will they go about determining the motive?

>> i think that the mayor saying it is a terrorist event is a definition and putting terror into people. is a connected to some person wanting to use terror to get the word out? i don't know yet. that is where the fbi said, it is not a terrorism event and i think what she meant was, we don't have any connection of this person being in, you know, a plot with anyone else are getting it from say isis that talks about using this online. and i think she is just being very cautious in that. because now what you will start seeing is emergency search warrants coming out on -- was a phone with him, getting into his electronics, his emails and his computer. getting a search warrant at his house and taking all electronics. to see if he is communicating with anybody else about this, even if it was, you know, a

group say on discord, one of these encrypted chat groups. was he talking to anyone? that then may want to do this themselves? is there any connection possibly to the groups that we are talking about in germany. again, it is all going to be emergency search warrants on whether there is something bigger or even if it is not a planned event or other people in the chat talking about it and now they may have the idea that they want to go ahead and do this to other -- like you said, there are so many big events in the next two months with college football, nfl playoffs, super bowl. all having large crowds. vehicles are one of the most effective tools. doing it with their vehicle. and we've seen it before. >> all right, rod, please stand by. it's the top of the hour. i just 'swant to reset for thos who are just joining us on this new year's day. thank you for nibeing here. i'm ana cabrera in new york, and we are continuing to follow

breaking news. tia deadly vehicle attack in ne orleans early this morning around 3:15 local time where investigators say a man driving a pickup truck plowed around barriers into crowds of people, trying to run over as many people as possible, according to the police superintendent on scene. this morning, we can confirm, according to authorities, at least rdten people are dead andt least 30 others are injured and hospitalized. and now, we're told that a man who was in that pickup truck crashed and then opened fire on police officers with two police officers hit, also taken to the hospital. the police superintendent saying they were in stable condition this morning as this investigation is well under way with both local and federal law enforcement involved. the fbi taking the lead and the fbi official that we heard from earlier saying there was an improvised explosive device

found. we have reporting from the scene from our affiliate wdsu of police on scene what they called a suspicious device. let's listen to that. >> we were cleared off of lebourbon street. we're on dauphin right now in orleans. we heard the bomb squad scream, "fire in the hole" and we heard what sounded like a firecracker going off and we heard it again. another "fire in the arhole" an another detonation, which sounded like a firecracker going off. these aren't huge detonations. some of the residents are out watching right now, following what's going on. there were people on the balconies earlier, but again, because of this investigation, leading to potential ieds in the french quarter, we have seen police doing massive sweeps here with the gloves searching trash cans, searching under cars, everywhere here in the french quarter. teams of police officers, we showed you that live on tv,

coming through, looking for suspicious packages or anything out of kathe ordinary. they seem to have found one right on the corner of bourbon in orleans right by the tropical isle bar, which is a huge landmark for people wanting to waparty during mardi gras, new year's eve, other events in the french ewquarter, but we have heard two small detonations from the special operations rv that came on to the scene down the street that n you're looking at right now and will continue to follow and monitor the situation here. >> again, that was our reporter from wdsu, our nbc affiliate there in new orleans on scene. this was literally just within the last 15, 20 minutes where he says 1it appeared that they ha set off some kind of device that, what he described sounding like firecrackers and someone yelling "fire in the hole." joining us now, as we continue this breaking news coverage is frank figliuzzi, former fbi.

thanks so much for being on with us this early morning. also with us, rob d'amico from the fbi and ken dilanian. i didn't say your official title right there, but appreciate you all being here and being part of what we're reporting this morning, this mass casualty ssevent in new orleans. frank, since we haven't heard from you yet, we just heard from that reporter there's this r improvised explosive device tt has become part of the equation for investigators. your thoughts about that and what you believe investigators will be doing right now. >> so, first, just to take you into the kind of decision making that goes on with this, the fact that they've decided to do a controlled render safe move to detonate whatever it is, and we have to be careful tohere, we don't know if these were viable devices yet. they'll try and figure that out. but that thought process of even deciding to do that is often fraught with some tension between agencies and within

agencies ndabout, hey, the tech guys and the scientists would rather have an intact device. they really would. they want to see fingerprints and dna, and they want to see how it was constructed, but on the other hand, you've hegot public safety, and you don't necessarily want to haul, even though there's equipment to do t that, you don't want to haul a live device to the laboratory. that goes on. that discussion, by the way, went on way back with a couple of bombs near the dnc and rnc headquarters, the unsolved case in washington, d.c., before january 6th. capitol police used a water cannon ceto disrupt those devic, and some in law enforcement have metold me they wish they had an intact device to look at because the forensics were gone on that. something to think about. the other thing is, ken dilanian has said the fbi seems to have taken the lead here. if that's really accurate, and i'm sure ken's hagot that sourc, that is significant. we can't brush over that, ana. they don't do that lightly. they do it when there are signs

of, of course, a federal violation, but more likely because there's some sign of terrorism. that could be domestic. that could be international. they just could be acting in an abundance of caution, feeling like, look, we've got the most resources on the ground, and we're just going to do this right, and you know, we've often been told in the -- when i was back leading field officers, hey, you've got to assume something like this is terror and act like it is and until you prove it's not. >> and frank, two federal officials tell nbc the suspect is dead. how does that change the investigation into motive and how authorities determine whether this was a lone wolf attack? >> you know, surprisingly, you have noto assume that a suspects not going to talk and is going to lawyer up, so you could argue that if you assume that, then the fact that the suspect is deceased doesn't necessarily impact how you go about the investigation. the first order of business in something like this is always to

determine whether there were other players. that's -- you know, do we have a cell? was this someone who has been handled, has been recruited, groomed? are there other things that are going to happen later this evening? that's always the goal. dead suspect or not. but now, you know, it's -- at least the suspect hasn't fled. you've got -- you can i.d. the suspect. you can take the prints. you can find family members, criminal records, all of that going on right now, even as we speak, if they have identified this person, and they may not have had an identity on him at all, but if they have, somewhere, there's an fbi agent and an assistant u.s. attorney thinking about an affidavit for a search warrant. where does he . live? where are we going? what's the next place to hit? by the way, since we have ieds in this picture, when you plan that approach to that residence or storage locker, you have to assume there are explosives for you there. >> warob, does this look like t type of attack that would require extensive planning?

>> well, planning in that i think you look at it, he had a vehicle, and then first time we've vekind of seen a vehicle turn into a gunfight and now an ied, so planning enough that he thought of the event, but it's not hard if he lived in that area, knowing that's a huge event atwhere people are on the street. he gets the n idea of the vehic, and he wants to arm idhimself, knowing he's going to come to a ngconclusion at a certain point and probably be engaged by police, and he wants to have, obviously, engage them and then y,the last one being ied, and i think the ied probably makes the most time. i don't think he got the ied -- idea in his head within a week and made it. he probably either was looking at it for a while, was looking at videos, how to do it, and then maybe started doing that. so, i think the ied is probably the longest planning besides, hey, i'm going to get in this

vehicle, and i'm going to bring a gun. ied kind of indicates it's probably a little bit longer than objust a recent thought, b again, he could have been thinking this for a while, just in his head, going online, looking at some of the ideas. maybe ofthe event in germany planted it, that he wanted to execute it, or he had been reading online and something added to that, or he just, you know, again, it could have been he just had this original thought and he has no o connection, but that's what the fbi is going to be looking at very swiftly, trying to figure out if, in fact, he was talking on some type of discord chat group or something, and if he was talking to others about it that may be looking at it as we talk about it earlier, at other events around the country. >> there's obviously a lot we still don't know, and law enforcement has not confirmed that that what they're calling improvised explosive devices directly connected to the vehicle that lydrove into peopl killing at least ten people and injuring 30 others.

we are hearing from an eye-witness who says that vehicle drove 8 to 10 blocks down bourbon, and we are told he went around security barricades. frank, hundreds of officers were deployed for new year's eve celebrations. what does this say, frank, about how hard it is to protect an area like this on a big holiday when they're doing everything they can to prepare? >> yeah, and look, even germany, with a history of this happening at their christmas markets back in 2016, they had an attack, it was 2deadly, and they decided change the security posture at stheir christmas markets, and even rkstill, we just had one, d what did the bad guy determine was his point of entrance? it was a medical rescue entrance that has to exist. you have to -- you can perimeter all you want and harden the perimeter, but at some point, there's got to be a way for first responders to get in and

out and the injured to get in and out and that's what they pointed at in germany. here, i don't know the details, but i can tell you this. i was on with alex witt yesterday around this time, and we talked about new year's eve security, and i said, look, new york city's locked down.s nypd is the best at major events security. they've done this year in and year out. they've got drone squadrons up in the air and helicopters and undercover officers, and they've nailed rcdown the manhole cover and the post office boxes have been removed from the streets. it's -- if there's something that's going etto happen, i sai to alex, it's going to be at a softer target, and for whatever reason, this seemed to be a soft target for this person. >> again, added security last night, added security because of the sugar bowl tonight. we got a statement, by the way, from the sugar bowl organizers and officials. it says the sugar bowl committee is devastated by the terrible events from early omthis mornin.

our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. we are in ongoing discussions with authorities on the local state and federal levels and will communicate further details as they become available." rob, what kind of breakdown do you think we could see now in this investigation between the fbi, the satf and local a authorities, and how could that affect tonight's security plans? >> i think they're going to have to separate out tonight's security plans from this event. there's not going to be time to figure out if someone else is involved or if this might be multi people. they're going s to have to assu the sugar bowl, it could be a linked thing. so, you always want to go cautious. t so, i'm sure that the securit around hathe sugar bowl is goin to increase dramatically, and i think you're going to start looking at real barricade to prevent vehicles from getting in. as frank ftalked about, new yo has it flocked down. they use garbage trucks, dump trucks. you cannot get a vehicle into

where people are gjust walking around. and i think that's jwhat they' going to have to do around the sugar bowl. i think priority-wise, you're going to have to separate this investigation from the events at the sugar bowl. the investigation now, again, the physical evidence is going to be new orleans evidence response teams collecting that. you want a smooth chain of custody for all this event. if chit turns out it's just a state or local murder investigation, again, you want to be able to hand off the evidence back to new orleans police department. but it's going to be a joint effort. they're calling everyone in. it's taking a lot oiof people. they're going to have to separate it out between the two, and most likely just have incident commanders focusing on their thing. o you don't want someone to have to wado both of these. obviously, the chief and the commissioner and the fbi s.a.c. will have to look at both of them, but it's going to be splitting up the teams to take

on what they need spto. >> everybody, stay with me, and also joining us now is bobby mcdonald, a retired supervisory special agent with the u.s. secret service..s bobby, your initial thoughts on this ongoing and developing situation. >> well, good morning, ana, thanks for having me again. again, an awful way to start 2025, and i agree with my wi colleagues' comments that they have indicated earlier about the venue, the way that this happened, the way it's going to be investigated. i look at this from a little different angle, being event security specialist, and what was put in place for this type of event. new orleans handles a lot of big events a lot of the year. they have mardi gras. they've done super bowls. they do large conventions and things of that nature, so they are an thagency or a city that handles a lot of people. it's unfortunate that there may have been some areas here that this individual was able to circumvent the security barriers in heand around this area, whic was housing a lot of people on new year's eve and caused a lot of damage and death.

>> what more could have been done to protect that area? >> well, as i think rob said, new york has this down to a science with respect to using sanitation vehicles and snow plows and heavy, heavy barriers that don't allow for people to circumvent those if put in properly in various places. new orleans, i think, has a little bit of a more party atmosphere with respect to not locking itself down. bourbon street has a party atmosphere most nights of the year, and that may be something that's contributing to how they secure that area. obviously, the officials in that area felt it was secure.el obviously, the individual that caused this problem was able to circumvent those barriers and that security apparatus and cause some serious harm last night. >> there's the forward-facing, what can we do to protect other events? there's also otthe investigatio into, what happened, how could it happen? who this individual is. is this somebody who was solely

working alone? did they have support in any way? what are the number one, two, three questions that investigators need to answer immediately? t >> yeah, i think what you're going to see down there, and as my colleagues indicated, their going to be working backwards now if they have been able to identify this individual, see what's been going on in his life, how did he get this g weapon, what is his background with respect onto explosives? what -- is he from the area? has he been in and around the area watching what's going on and how to potentially circumvent the security? is he having mental health issues? is he on or off medication, alcohol problems? we're going to be talking to his family, friends, looking at his social media to see if there were any indicators that we could have seen or may have missed that led him to this ho situation. wle t what type of advanced planning did he do? was he there scouting the area? is he from that area, or is he from out of town? did he come into town to check out what the e area was like in

order to do these nefarious acts today? a lot s of moving parts still going on here. we're still very early in the investigation. i think we've seen a couple of plconflicting statements betwee the mayor, the fbi, and the police commissioner, so those things are going to have to be rattled reout and see what's gog on there, and good communication agencies moving forward, especially with the super bowl about a mile away from that bourbon street area tonight for a championship or a semifinal game.a >> right. there's the super bowl coming up and then tonight is the sugar bowl, which then could tell us who's ldgoing to be in the colle playoff semifinals. tonight's game between georgia and notre dame. do you think there's any chance they would postpone that game because of this? >> again, not being in that field, i guess the comments that were just made by the committee in the statement, i'm sure they're looking at it, and i'm sure they're talking about it. do we want to have a very heavily sports joyous event

going on a mile away from where a horrific event happened this morning? i'm sure they'll vecome to a decision that's right for the he teams, right for the city and right for the fans that are there. i'm not sure i know the answer of which way they would want to go on that. >> of ofcourse, there's that coming up. there are family reunification efforts. let me bring back frank figliuzzi. bfrank, officials didn't share information about all of how they're dividing and conquering this morning, but i do wonder, given how wide the crime scene could be, the types of logistical challenges you think they're working through right now. >> well, you've raised a good issue, ana, with regard to family reunification, even notification. now, it's still -- we're only just a few hours from this event, and i think there are going to be people, unfortunately, who are wounded seriously, and who are deceased, and we're not quite sure how to contact their next of kin. and that's a horrible thing. you can only imagine friends and family not -- realizing now that their loved one has not called

in, hasn't come back to the hotel, where are they? frantic phone calls to the police. they've got to set aside -- and new orleans pd has this in mind, a place to go where we're going to have family assemble. might be a hotel, could be a nearby church. they'll designate that publicly, tell people to go there. hospitals are going to be pressed into service to keep track of whoever they've got because that's another thing in erterms of logistics, which hospital did my loved one go to? all of that going on. then, working out division of labor. joint command center. joint operations center will be set up, and then all the agencies will go there. decision makers will be in one place together under one roof. you'll have a joint media. you'll have a joint intelligence center as that comes in and investigative results come in. the fbi will overlay its automated mass investigation system so that as leads are

covered, they can go check, yep, we got that. that person talked to that neighbor. that person ertalked to this witness. and you'll see actual teamed up teams, which i really like, so that y the pd is teamed -- the detective is teamed up with an fbi agent. an atf agent is teamed up with a marshal, everybody working together. they quickly write up the report. it gets fed kiinto an electroni system so if somebody says, did we cover that phone call about a, you know, a red car, suspicious red car yesterday? yes. we did. we got that. here it is. that's going on right now. >> we're looking at live images right now from new orleans near the crime scene. n again, it is an hour earlier there than us here on the east h coast, so 8:19 local time. it's been five hours since that pickup truck reportedly drove into crowds of people who were celebrating new year's eve and welcoming in year 2025 right

now. you can see the streets are pretty much barren, still broken barriers, it appears, in the middle of the ststreet there.he it's all cordoned off with law enforcement now scouring the scene and working to piece together all the evidence that they tcan collect on the scenec for those who may be just joining us, we can tell you this all began, again, at 3:15 local time. a man driving a pickup truck down bourbon street. we're told at a very fast rate of speed, very intentional behavior, not an accident, and as the police superintendent described it, he was trying to run over as many people as he could. he left at least ten dead and 30-plus injured. they said that man then fired on officers after crashing the sh vehicle. two police officers were shot. they were in stable condition as of ina couple hours ago. police urging everybody to stay away from bourbon street right now as they try to piece

together exactly what happened and how this happened. they did say there were at least 300 officers e on scene last nit in this very area to protect the people who were celebrating on new year's eve.ho a driver went around barricades when he plowed into all the people who were participating as the police chief described, "he was hell bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did." now, the fbi is involved in this investigation, taking the lead, we are told. we heard from an fbi special agent in charge of the region, alicia duncan. she, at the egmoment, said it w not moconsidered a terror event although our sources telling nbc news that they are investigating the possibility of it being terror-related, but that has not yet been confirmed, so still have not determined the motive. they've also talked about an improvised explosive device that was found nearby. authorities say they were trying to iedetermine exactly what it ,

whether it's viable or not, and as we 'sbrought to you earlier this hour, reporter from our r,affiliate there on the scene, wdsu, was nearby when he heard loud sounds that sounded like firecrackers, and somebody, authorities on the scene yelling, "fire in the hole," so fiapparently detonating some ki of device there, but we're looking to get more information on that. we do expect an update from authorities, a press conference that they said will be at 11:00 a.m. local time, so about an hour and a half from now if i'm hadoing my math correctly, d i guess it would be two and a half hours from now, which feels like a lot of time, but i imagine, frank, in a situation like this, the time is moving very quickly for investigators trying to gather answers. do you expect a lot more information to come at that next press conference? >> i kind of like the fact that they're taking a couple hours here to -- before getting in front of a microphone and a

podium. i think there's a danger -- you have to strike a balance in these things. you want to get transparent. you want to get the public what they need to know. and they've made statements. but you don't want to get it wrong. there's a real danger of coming out too early and trying to fill time, and here come the reporters' questions that you really can't answer with certainty. so, i like the fact that they're going to gather their information. i'm sure it will be a multi-agency press conference where people explain the rules. let's also -- excuse me, the aldivision of labor and what th law is that's involved here. you also have to get the next of kin. you don't want them to find out that, yep, that's my deceased loved one. you don't want to find that out on a press conference. all of that taking place right now. and yes, i do think a couple hours from now, we should be hearing --co we better be heari more information than we have right now. the old adage in fbi management was, "don't call a press conference unless you have something to say."

that's where you can go south really quickly. >> and yet, i'm sure they don't want to give any information that they are not 100% sure about, given the high-profile nature of this and the gravity of what just took place. everybody, stay with me. let's go back to nbc's justice and intelligence correspondent, ken dilanian. i understand you have some new information, ken. >> that's avright, ana. a speaking of the fbi disclosing p information, we have a new statement from the fbi, essentially confirming what we have been reporting to you bimo of the morning. it says, "this morning, an individual drove a car into a vecrowd of people on bourbon street in new orleans, killing a number of people and injuring dozens of others. the subject then engaged with local law enforcement and is now deceased. the fbi is the lead investigative agency, and we are working with our partners to investigate this as an act of terrorism." so, again, this is what we have been reporting.s subject is deceased. fbi investigating this as an act of terrorism.

unclear why the special agent in charge this morning said this wasn't terrorism. probably being super cautious. they haven't -- this doesn't mean they've established that it was terrorism.st it means they are investigating that as a potential here, and they're trying to s run down th motive. they may doknow more than they' able ayto say. in the statement, for example, they didn't say whether this man was shot and exkilled by policer whether he took his own life. i've been talking to my sources in d.c. they don't know the answer to that question. but people on the scene know, by 11:00 a.m., we should be hearing a lot more and potentially an identity of this subject. >> okay. ken, keep us posted as you get more information. thank you. and let's go back to retired fbi agent rob d'amico. rob, that statement didn't tell us much more than what we already heard at the last press conference, but do you expect that if there was an ongoing threat, they would already be saying that? >> i do. i think, as frank said, you have to weigh what thyou're going to

release when, so if someone did this and wasn't deceased after, and they really are trying to find that person, i think the press conferences help a lot more because you're putting information out to find someone. the fact that he is deceased, and this scene is a static scene and not increasing, you need to take your time with the press conferences. in two hours, they should be inable to update certain things like frank talked about, and you talked about, segregation of bo work, why they may think terrorism is involved, but again, nothing proven. they have to come out with information on probably if he was killed by police officers. i think by then, they know that, or if it's self-inflicted. not that the crowd -- the public needs to know that, but everyone's going to be wanting information, so they'll weigh if they're going to release something. is it worth releasing it? does it help what we're doing?

does it help the people understand things? and i think they're going to s?have to start talking about, though, what they're doing for the atsugar bowl. that's going to be the event that a lot of people are thinking about going to, and thmaybe not going to, and they' probably talking, again, to the college football committee. you spoke, are they going to postpone this? i don't think they would. personally, there's so many moving parts in this. i think it would be difficult in doing that. and then, they have to really say what would they get out of it if they have enough resources to secure that event, i think that that's going to be the conversation they're having, but i guarantee those conversations are going tog,on right now. >> okay, rob, thank you. everybody, please stand by. we're going to squeeze in just a short break. much more of our breaking news coverage, a deadly new year's day attack in new orleans, leaving at least ten dead and 30 others injured. stay with us. or td and 30 others injured stay with us

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incident as an act of terrorism. we just learned attorney general merrick garland has now been briefed on the attack, as well as the president of the united states. new orleans police say the driver intentionally tried to run people over and that he then got out of the vehicle and opened fire on police officers, striking two. those officers are listed in stable condition. the fbi, just moments ago, confirming the suspect is dead. back with us now, former fbi assistant director frank figliuzzi, retired fbi special agent rob d'amico and retired secret service agent robbie mcdonald. thank you all for staying with us. i keep thinking about the fact that this could happen. frank, are you surprised that a car was able to go some eight to ten blocks down bourbon street on a night like this? >> i think -- i'm not surprised

that we have had this horrible event. what does kind of cause me to wonder is the length to which the car or truck was able to travel. how many people died or were injured along that lengthy course. now, i realize the speed might have been extremely fast, but police officers have to make a split-second decision here. am i -- is this an errant car? is there someone having a medical condition? ones they realize, no, this is not an accident, this is deliberate, it's often too late. and the suspect comes out of the car and engages the officers. so, people might be thinking, why weren't police shooting at this car? well, it's crowded. it's elbow-to-elbow crowded near bourbon street and the french quarter so split-second decisions, have i acquired my target? what's behind my target? is it worth shooting upwards at this car or not? it's a panic situation. and it's all -- i hate to say

this, but it's almost a positive that this ended with the suspect exiting his vehicle, reportedly, or this could have kept going, and they could have been chasing this truck all over the city. it's contained. it's a horrible -- it's a tragedy. we'll have lots of time to go through and hear the officers speaking about what they saw, what they did. the other thing we should talk about is the cameras that will tell the tale here. every major city in america, we all know this, right? we're on camera everywhere, and new york city, we learned, of course, during the hunt for the ceo killer just recently that there's something like 18 to 20,000 cameras in at least two of the boroughs that literally allow you to track a human, where they have gone, every block. in new york, they've assembled all that together into one big microsoft product that they call their domain awareness system. they can follow you. where did he come from? they'll figure out his point of

origin inevitably. >> we know suspicious package was nearby, was detonated. if it is indeed connected to this car attack, what does that tell you, frank? >> it goes toward more planning than a spur of the moment decision or a drunken decision, and i think -- i keep coming back to this because it's significant. we've now reported that the fbi is the lead agency here. and they're being very careful with the language, and it's important. they're saying, we're investigating investigating it as an act of terrorism. they didn't definitively say it is an act of terrorism, but i can't tell you how significant it is that they've made this decision seemingly immediately. what does that tell me? there may well be some evidence somewhere, and that ied question you just asked may play into this, because it goes toward advance planning and sending a message, and maybe there's something discovered in the car or on the person of the suspect

or within the ieds itself that indicates we know this person. maybe they're on the -- they've been on the radar screen. there's something giving the fbi confidence to say, we've got to take this over now. >> walk us through the very sensitive process of determining whether this explosive device is a viable one or not. >> well, again, we always like to have an intact device. you get hair and fiber from that and dna tchlts . it's not that it's impossible to get it when the device has been destroyed, but it's better. the fbi and atf, of course, atf should be on the scene. i'd be surprised if they aren't. their experts are going to look at this, and what's really kind of interesting that not many people know is there's a -- the government keeps literally a warehouse full of ieds that have been rendered safe from bomb

scenes. across the middle east, people don't know that fbi and bomb techs were on scene in the combat theaters in iraq and afghanistan to take the ieds in any condition they're found in, bring them back to the states, and assess who made it -- they can tell you with regard to middle east terrorism, they can tell you, we know who did this. we've seen this bomb before. this is a signature assembly that we're aware of. or look at new techniques. so, there's experts that will have eyes on this device, and they'll tell us pretty quickly, this was an amateur, this could never have worked, it's a bunch of wires and pipes, but it's not a bomb. they'll figure that out pretty quickly, but then they get into the more sophisticated thing of, hey, did this guy really know what he was doing? did this come from someone we should really be concerned about in terms of bomb-make something >> stay with me. we have some new sound just in from a witness at the scene describing how this all unfolded. his name is jimmy.

let's listen. >> we were kind of finishing up the night, coming from bourbon towards canal, and there was a lot of commotion at the end, so we ducked off into a nightclub for a moment to let all that settle, what we thought was settling, and then within a couple of minutes of walking in, a group of frantic females run inside, push past security and hide under tables. and so, when we seen that, we live here, and unfortunately, our first thoughts were somebody's shooting or chasing them. so, we knew the club we were at, we ran upstairs. we knew they had a balcony. when we got to the balcony, it is not what we expected. there were -- it was the beginning of the mass casualties. dead right in front of us was

someone's mother, twisted, obviously deceased. we counted eight just from a couple of seconds of standing there. eight bodies. two looked to be at least alive. i wouldn't say survivable, but alive, and the other four were clearly -- very clearly graphically deceased. >> that is -- >> and -- >> -- a gut punch to hear. >> no one -- no one was around. like, after they were mowed over, not knowing anything, like, no one was helping these people. they wouldn't let us out. i have training, personally, and they just immediately locked us in there, and we could see some people did eventually go and start attending to the bodies.

one man, deceased, had tire tracks across his back, and then when someone turned him over, he had tire tracks across his stomach, and he was clearly crushed. the mother that was in front of us, she was just horribly disfigured. little girl that we had seen dancing as we were walking up the street was as flat as a pillow. i mean, it -- it just kept going. like, every eyesight, body, body, body. >> that was a witness at the scene this morning, jimmy. we just got new inches into the newsroom as well. this is an image of what is alleged to be the suspected pickup that was used in this attack, and we can show that now. again, this is allegedly showing the pickup truck used by the

attacker, white pickup truck. you can see now mangled in this image that we have. frank, just your reaction to what that witness described. >> so, not only, of course, is it a human horror that's been described here, but for me, what it speaks to is the deliberateness of this. the nature of the injuries he's described, that's someone who intended to absolutely take lives. this is not, you know, broken leg, it's not a broken arm. it's someone who deliberately wanted to drive over people and take their lives, and that, i think, also speaks to part of why the fbi may have said, hey, we have to treat this as terrorism. there's a deliberateness here that we cannot avoid. >> how will they determine for sure if it is terrorism? >> well, the first thing that's going on is, you know, just as we were covering this here on

new year's day, rest assured the intelligence community is coming in on what might have been their day off, and they're scrubbing even internationally, ana, all of the holdings, so the three-letter agencies are up. they're in the office. and they're checking the sources, technical, wire intercepts, human sources, around the world to see, did we miss something? is there some chatter out there about, you know, we did it? or anything like that? if they've got the identity of the person, then clearly that's being fed into the system. all of that will go into deciding, was this a lone actor or not? what's the motive here? let's not rule out -- here we are talking about international terrorism. let's not rule out domestic. don't know what this meant, and again, i also tell people as we try sometimes unsuccessfully to apply logic to lunacy, it may make perfect sense to this suspect what he did and why he did it. but don't be surprised if the

outcome is we don't know why he did it. we've been through his social media, talked to his friends and family. he's got issues, but we don't -- it's not making sense to us. that's also a possibility. >> and bobby, as you heard what we heard from the witness, as you look at that picture of that white pickup truck involved or believed to be involved in all of this, i imagine that is the focus of where a lot of investigators are right now, collecting evidence, at that pickup truck or talking to that witness. what do you think is the priority right now in terms of trying to piece together the motive, the planning, et cetera? >> exactly. they're going to be reconstructing the past here from what's been going on since 3:15, and as frank said, with this individual, prior, with social media and all that other stuff. what jumps out at me right away is the lessons we have to take from all of these incidents is any time we go anywhere, and i

hate to say this, you've got to be situationally aware of your surroundings. if you go not mall, to church, when you go to your office, to bourbon street last night, you've got to know how to get yourself out of a potential situation when it's happening, and it's happening realtime. so, in other words, you've got to have in your mind, should something happen here, how am i going to take care of myself and my family? police and first responders will end up showing up sooner or later and help with the situation. but it's a terrible state of affairs that we've really got to think about those things now, how to get yourself out of an immediate situation that is not moving in a good direction and you have to look out for you and yours and take care of yourself. >> i mean, just you talking about that makes me start to think. my wheels are turning. if i were down there in bourbon street, what would i have done? i mean, were there things people can do in future situations, high-profile events, big crowds that helps to position them in the safest place possible?

>> yeah, absolutely. let's take an example of you go not mall this afternoon and there's an active shooter situation in the mall. i know when i go to the mall, i seem to park in the same area all the time and go in the same door. you want to be able to know alternate -- alternative, excuse me -- options for you to get in and out of that area if someone was going bad. when you're sitting in the movie theater, take a moment to look at where the red exit signs are on the right or the left because if something's going on on the right, you're going to want to be moving to the left. it's terrible to have to think like this, but a little bit of preplanning and just a little bit of situational awareness of where you are maybe can be the difference life and death in a situation like what happened this morning. >> you never know when that information is going to be so critical. thank you for that. please stay with us. we have more eye-witness sound now i want to play. let's take a listen. >> being in new orleans, we have hopes of what it isn't, and that sounds crazy, but let me tell

you. this is, at this point, i know nothing. i know just -- you know more than i do. i'm waking up to it, and i'm in shock. >> so, that's somebody who lives in the area, did not witness what happened, but like the rest of us, everybody in shock this morning that here we are on new year's day welcoming in 2025 with a very, very tragic breaking news story unfolding right now in new orleans. at least ten people killed, 30 more injured after a pickup truck slammed into a crowd in the very busy bourbon street around 3:15 local time this morning. that driver, we are told, got out and opened fire on police officers who were there at the scene. two police officers were hit, said to be in stable condition at last check. i want to bring in retired atf special agent in charge, jim kavanaugh and also still with us, frank figliuzzi and retired secret service special agent bobby mcdonald. jim, just such a horrific situation. you and i have talked over many,

many tragic stories, unfortunately, mass shooting events. here we have a mass casualty event with a vehicle as the weapon here. are you surprised a r was able to drive at such a high speed for as long as it did there on bourbon street on one of the busiest nights of the year? >> it's just amazing to me. it strikes me as just a gross inadequacy here of the security. you showed a picture a few minutes ago of some police barricades. we don't know if those barricades were what the killer drove through. the picture there goes to show you how, you know, dump trucks or sanitation trucks that would have been allayed across bourbon street at either end would prevent a ford f-150 from getting in there. i own a ford f-150. they weigh about 4,500 pounds. but you see, even as this

elevated tool here, you know, it's an elevator or a boom truck, boom tool that's tracked, and they put that up there for police monitoring or cameras to watch. well, even that stops the pickup truck. so, a dump truck or a garbage truck or, you know, a sanitation public works truck easily blocks the street from a vehicle like this. and i -- i guess it wasn't there, because i mean, bourbon street is a very narrow street. i've walked down it many times. i'm sure others have. and you know, it just strains credulity that if what that guy went through was a wooden barricade and chain link fence, i don't know if that's the case but i don't understand how this vehicle even got in there. i think that's going to have to be addressed. but back to the attacker. yes, there's certainly a level of planning here, because he jumped out with a firearm and shot at the police officers, and

the fbi asac reported that he had an ied. so, it certainly has all the looks of terrorism. and they're trying to parse through that. that's what the fbi is stepping up to do. rough that that's what the fbi is stepping up to do >> as you point out, the ied, the crash scene itself, and of course, they'll be digging into any kind of documents, social media, digital footprint since we do know the suspect in this case is dead, presumably they have an i.d. on the person, although they're not saying just yet. i want to read the reaction we are now getting in from some of the officials there in the state. steve scalise, a congressman from louisiana, saying, "please join me in praying for the victims and their families, as well as our first responders in the wake of this horrific act of violence on bourbon street. we also are just hearing from the house speaker, mike johnson,

who is also from louisiana saying "a victor attack on innocent people celebrating the new year in new orleans this morning was an act of pure evil, and justice may be swift. for anyone who was involved, please join us in praying for the victims, their families, the first responders and investigators at the scene." we do know that merrick garland, the attorney general, has been briefed on this incident as well as president biden, and the fbi is taking the lead on this ongoing investigation, which, of course, also involves local law enforcement on the scene there in new orleans and bourbon street and scattered about as they continue this investigation. we have seen numerous examples of these vehicular ramming attacks over the years across the globe, even recently. frank, what lessons have law enforcement agencies learned in terms of preventing them or minimizing their impact? i think about, you know, when we have had mass shooting events at schools, for example, there's a new standard in how you respond.

is there a standard now in prevention for mass vehicle attacks and the like? >> well, all our guests, including jim, have spoken eloquently about where we are on this, and it's actually ironically pretty old-fashioned stuff. it's -- barricades do work. trucks do work. alternating -- what would have slowed this truck down and caused the drive to have to drive in a erpentine manner is if you altered concrete barricades on the street, left, right, left, right. and that entrance point, we have to find out, we don't know, but what was the obstacle to entry? whatever this was, whether it was a special entrance for first responders or emergencies, whatever it was, it failed. and so, you got to look at that. but i also point out that you could do a lot of things and still have a german christmas

fair incident. it's not perfect here, but yes, you can absolutely mitigate -- just like the thought process that's going on with regard to tonight's sugar bowl. you can mitigate this. you can push your perimeter even farther out so that if, god forbid, someone's going to detonate a device, it's happening nowhere near the stadium and around lesser -- less crowds. you can -- where you have your ticket taking, you can do complete searches. you see various kinds of concert and game security where people just quickly wand you, it's not taken seriously. you can take it much more seriously. it will delay your entrance, and so don't be surprised if they decide to go on with this tonight that they announce publicly, if you got tickets, come very early, because you will be patted down, and you will be wanded. all of that can happen. more undercover officers in the crowd than even usual. and i think all hands on deck

across federal agencies to help out tonight if they decide to go forward. >> and should people feel safe going to that game tonight? >> i think if the decision is made to go forward, it will be done with confidence. you can't -- if you lack confidence in your plan for tonight, then you can't go forward, and i think they can do it. they'll need even more help, maybe -- and by the way, they've already got all hands on deck. it's the sugar bowl. your state troopers are there. county sheriffs are going to be there. city police are going to be there. but i think now you may see a request for more federal agency. you need more bodies if you're going to be checking that crowd out. anybody wearing a device, anybody dressed inappropriately for the weather, whatever it is. facial recognition. a lot of us don't realize there's facial recognition at most of these stadiums, and that could be pressed into service, of course. >> guys, stay with me. i have a new statement now from the white house that we just received. president biden called new orleans mayor latoya this

morning to offer full federal support following the news that a driver killed and injured dozens overnight. the president has been briefed by leadership and his homeland security team, and he will continue to be briefed on this incident throughout the day. fbi is leading the investigation and is working closely with local and state officials. bobby, what is the white house role in all of this? what types of resources could come from the white house involvement? >> well, i think at this point, as you said, they've been briefed, and i'm sure that they are indicating to the officials down in new orleans that every asset available to them from the federal government will be provided, whether it's police, whether it's atf, fbi, whoever can help out with the situation, military, perhaps, with respect to what may be going on later today or continuing into the mardi gras time. i do have a big bit of

confidence that everything will go well tonight if they choose to play the game. the nfl stadium there, the nba stadium, which is right next door, both of those entities and sports leagues take security very seriously, and both have a very robust security apparatus that's in place for every game. so, if they do choose to go forward, i'm pretty confident that both of those venues will be in good shape for this evening's festivities. >> everybody, thank you so much for being with us. as we continue our special coverage, please stay close. we'll have much more of our breaking news coverage after a quick break. much more of our brkieang news coverage after a quick break. w eroxon gel, the first fda-cleared ed treatment available without a prescription. eroxon gel is clinically proven to work within ten minutes, so you and your partner can experience the heights of intimacy. new eroxon ed treatment gel. psoriatic arthritis symptoms can be unpredictable. one day, your joints hurt. next, it's on your skin. i got cosentyx. feels good to move. feel less joint pain, swelling and tenderness, back pain, and clearer skin,

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you are watching msnbc special coverage of a deadly new year's attack in new orleans. i'm ana cabrera reporting from new york. a heavy police presence on historic bourbon street after an attacking plowed a pickup truck