we have cnn counterterrorism analyst, phil mudd, and cnn military analyst, general mark hertling. general, i want to start with you. what did you hear from general dunford yesterday that surprised you or stood out? >> not much surprised me, alisyn. i think he actually did a very good preliminary brief or an interim brief in terms of what was going on. he gave as much information as he could to the press. remember, his priority is getting information to the family and to his bosses, in that order. and then the press comes third. and i know the press wants a lot of information, journalists want to find out what happened, but he wants to get it right for the family, first. i've been in situations like this before. if you get it wrong, if you tell the family something inaccurate, in the way things developed when their loved ones are killed, it's really hard to walk it back. and we owe the truth to the family more than anyone else. so wherethat didn't surprise me all. he gave the absolute details that he could, and it was very insightful. the thing that did surprise me, though, was whe

. >> let me bring in phil mudd. it goes back at least to 2014 when the isis spokesman said if you are not able to find an ied or a bullet, single out the disbelieving american, frenchmen or allies, slash his head with a rock, run him over with a car or throw him down from a high place or chokeen or poisoned, as we know there have been several vehicle-related attacked since then on bastille day in nice, france, at least 84 people were killed in that truck attack so if this is in fact an isis-related or isis inspired attack, there is a history? >> there is a history, going back to mid-2014, are you looking at the height they've gained in iraq. we saw people from the united states going over in particular to syria for training, going back to mid-2014 and beyond isis started to lose ground. they lost ground rapidl this year, this isn't a sign of strength, them reaching out and telling people to use knives and vehicles, one of the factors is individuals inspired by isis who three years ago music able to go for training f

we have phil mudd and alice stewart and kirsten powers. alice, i'll start with you. maybe john kelly remembered the speech wrong and to his earsary hearing the congresswoman talk about how the process went by so quickly was inappropriate, but to -- in her defense, she was telling the story she said because it speaks to the respect that our congress has for the fbi and the men and women who put their lives on the line every day. she said that. she told the whole story of how quickly the process went through because we have so much respect for the fbi. it's hard to look at kelly's description and watch the nine-minute speech and think that's a completely accurate description. >> look at, here we are four days later and we're taking one full speech, one portion of it possibly out of context, just like how this thing started. a call to a grieving widow. one portion of it possibly taken out of context and here we are still talking about this. i do want to say this, the big story today is the response from the white house with regard to asking about this clarification. i d

phil mudd is joining us, a former cia official. former official at the fbi as well. phil, i take it you were there in that exact area earlier today, is that right? >> that's right. evidence i'm here in new york. i teach up here and that's my running route in the morning. looking at that route right along the hudson river is a lot of people running like me, bicyclists, people walking their dogs. it's a heavily trafficked area for the people on the west side in the urban element of manhattan to try to get some fresh air. you're going to see a lot of pedestrian activity and bicycle activity when presumably a man mowed down so many people. >> once again, this is still early. we are getting information from our sources. the fbi is clearly in charge of this investigation. phil, you used to work at the fbi in addition to working at the cia. the fact that they are in charge now and eyewitnesss heard the driver shouting out allahu akbar, god is great, in arabic, that clearly suggests that this almost certainly was some sort of act of terror. >> it suggests it. that's not a fac

phil mudd you used to work at the cia. how does that look to the u.s.e committee, the russian involvement for example. >> this is intelligence 101. the first thing the russians are doing is vulnerability assessment. for them the trump team is a target and determining what the vulnerability is. in this case it's easy. as dana was saying, the vulnerability is dirt on hillary clinton, whether it's approach to donald jr. or another advisor. they're going to say why don't you meet with, as we know, an attorney who spoke with don junior and then at the back end of this, there's a simple end of the story going to the departure of mike flynn to the administration. there's a cost to that kind of cooperation with the russians. we'll give you stuff but we want the relief of sanctions we know mike flynn left because of a a conversation with the russian ambassador potentially about relief of sanctions. so this is intelligence 101. >> papadopoulos is pleading guilty to making a false statement to the fbi. we saw these documents, read them all today. he's cooperating

suicide first and then decided to take a lot of people with him. >> is this an act of terrorism, phil mudd? >> i'm not sure yet. i think people might jump to that conclusion. let's understand what an act of terrorism is, wolf. an act of terrorism indicates that someone had political intent. they're trying to send a political message. for example, in my world of terrorism an isis person bho wants to protest american involvement in syria, we don't know what happened here but you could make a supposition, a guess for example maybe he lost a lot of money on this trip and this was a point of vengeance, until we understand mindset, determine whag the motive was to get to the question of whether or not there was terrorism involved we can't solve without mindset. >> i think that's one of the frustrations people have when events like this happen is we don't automatically -- this is terrorism by everybody else's definition. it's just the legal definition in the united states is problematic when you see something like this happen. >> everybody, stay with us. we're standing by for a news conference. t

let's discuss if with cnn political analyst, david gregory and phil mudd.ey announced they were going to have this press conference that got our attention, surely there must be a bombshell they're going to announce. to my reporters here, it sounded like a status report. to your investigative ear, what did you hear? >> i respect both these guys, i wanted to throw my shoe at the it. v. >> why? >> there's a simple reason. who can investigate this with great investigative capability, including the frenorensic capability. that's the fbi. he also has the authority to go to the department of justice. who should be looking at whether there's cooperation with facebook to identify these ads? whether we need legal kifr cover to create that? how election officials can be warned of any information showing up during an election in 2020, and the big question, whether the federal government has the capability of tell american people live you're getting worked. that's congress. congress now is talking about collusion. i think that's robert mueller's inbox. how much did they

phil mudd i appreciate it jewel et art.at the concert how he took a truck and use to do to save people bringing them to the hospital. fothere's a seriousy boomers virus out there that's been almost forgotten. it's hepatitis c. one in 30 boomers has hep c, yet most don't even know it. because it can hide in your body for years without symptoms, and it's not tested for in routine blood work. the cdc recommends all baby boomers get tested. if you have hep c, it can be cured. for us it's time to get tested. ask your healthcare provider for the simple blood test. it's the only way to know for sure. want sure!ck? alright, looks like we've got chips, popcorn, pretzels? pretzels! plain, sourdough, spicy, sesame, honey mustard, chocolate covered, peanut butter filled, this one's in german, it says, "reindfleisch?" plain. great. so what are we gonna watch? oh! show me fall tv. check out the best of the best hand-picked fall shows on xfinity x1, online, and the xfinity stream app. thirsty? >>> in the midst of this horrific act of viol

phil mudd, i want you to weigh in on it as well. he also yesterday, the chief of staff, john kelly, a very honorable man. he did condemn the fact that the condolence call that the president had made to the family, to the widow of that slain u.s. soldier, that had become politicized. >> he's right. look, everybody's wrong in this case. the president's wrong. the chief of staff is wrong. and the congresswoman is wrong here. we have one person who we're talking about who initiated this and that's a dead man who is 26 years old. how many times did his name come up today? how many times. we have people now saying, including the press secretary, we can't question a four-star general. the question about what happened with the family of that dead soldier didn't come up today, but the question of whether we could talk to a four-star general did. all of these people need to focus on one thing. serving the family of a dead officer by accusing each other of things like, in the case of the president of the united states, not grieving as well as

. >> i'm interested in what you think, phil mudd.ou're not only working at the cia, but you worked at the fbi, as well. what do you think mueller is up to by calling in these now former white house officials. >> well, first, i don't think he's building a case. and if you walk into this investigation, you want to ask fact questions. give me a timeline of what happened. give me your understanding of everything from what the president did, with the former fbi director to whether you ever heard any gossip about engagement among officials, with russians. the most fascinating piece of this to me, wolf, is the fact that the interviews are taking place now. that gives us an indicator that the special counsel is making progress in the investigation toward an end line. the reason is simple. you do not walk into one of these conversations with the central player like priebus or like sean spicer, without knowing some of the answers already. for the simple reason, i'm not guesting these guys are lying. i'm saying, any subject you want to talk to,

for now phil mudd, thank you as always. >> thank you. >>> now to this. a u.s.arine caught in a mini war zone, his words, unable to fight back as a sniper takes aim at people simply enjoying a country music festival. the unarmed marine veteran did the only thing he could. he stole a truck, drove it into the gunfire, and took the most critically injured to the hospital, saving more than two dozen lives. that hero is with me now. taylor winston, thank you so much for being with me. and thank you for your service. thank you for your service to this great country. take me back to sunday night. you were out dancing with your girlfriend and you start hearing these shots. everyone keeps saying we thought it was a rote r&r from a helicopter or fireworks. what did your instincts tell you at that time? >> initially it did sound like fireworks. it's pretty common at these festivals and shows. but the second burst sounded a little more familiar and i was more concerned and looking around. but there was no indication by the crowd or staff or anyone that anything was wrong. a

let's bring in phil mudd, our cnn analyst. phil, ammonium nitrate reminds me of the ammonium used in the bombs at the federal office building in oklahoma city. why would he have it in significant quantities in his vehicle in las vegas? >> we've got a lot of clues here, wolf. there's one bottom line, and that is this is an open criminal investigation. we're not just looking at what happened. we've got to have questions about whether somebody else knew. ammonium nitrate, that's fertilizer readily available. it's not explosive by itself, but if you combine with fuel oil, something common in basic improvised or homemade terrorist devices, we've seen around the world in terrorism one of the basic questions, did they find a laptop in the house and was this man researching how to build an improvised explosive device with ammonium nitrate, we've got at least by my count 34 weapons, that's weapons both mesquite home and at the hotel. we know despite the fact neighbors were talking about this man as reclusive that he communicated with hi

. >> phil mudd, how long do these investigations take, and is it fair to say it's too soon to know what happened? >> well, let's break this down into two-pieces. are there some facts that are known or mere facts that are known? obviously, yes. let's remember the other piece of this. the intelligence business of this is understanding the adversary. the adversary is a small isis group of people. and the intelligence you use could be anything from human sources to drones within the organization. it's not clear to me we will ever fully understand what was going on in the isis cell there. we have facts now, but for people to say to fully understand, we have one side and we won't fully have the other side. one quick comment. in the united states and in las vegas, nevada, you had cameras everywhere. you had law enforcement everywhere, and days more than a weekend we're still changing a time line you think would be known within 24 hours. this stuff isn't easy, don. and we can't even get it right in the united states sometimes. >> i'll give you the last words. >> niger is an isolated country. it

. >> let's bring in phil mudd on that point. not being concerned about who you hit but how many and giving this monster the best chance of firing as many bullets and hitting as many people as possible. phil, how does it figure for you? >> a couple things we need to think b. lots look at the visible. we know he was familiar with vegas. we know he was a gambler. he didn't presumably know the victims. he knew that that event was going to happen and he chose that hotel to hit that event. a gambler goes down to the strip and shoots people up, i have to believe it is something that happened to him that happened when he was gambling. but i want to know what his google search was, when did he make the refbatiservation, was n his phone, did he survey beforehand, i want his visa card history to know whether he ever checked into that hotel before or another hotel, whether he was traveling at other venues to buy dinner. there is a whole picture around i think the authorities would have already known. the sheriff said yesterday within 48 hour

so let's discuss with james gagliano and counterterrorism analyst phil mudd.ere an intel agent for a while. what do you hear in this deposition of this man in his own words? >> that he is blaming somebody else. fall. it's not my fault. it is someone else's fault. one of the avenues of investigation is why did he shoot so many people? and i'm coming to the conclusion that this isn't about an external demon. it's not about republicans, it's not about democrats, shooting white people, black people or muslims. he had inner demons in his mind that we have to understand now. they relate to how he blamed somebody else and how he wanted to kill somebody else for an internal mental problem he had here. when i saw that deposition, i'm looking at this saying, we have a classic guy who says whatever my inner demons are, they're not my fault. they're somebody else's fault. i think that is a significant segment we just had here, alyson. >> james, what did you hear? >> to phil's point, it seems the more we learn about the gunman the further we get away from determining what

. >> a few other things we know, phil mudd. two of those shots reached a fuel tank at mccarron airport. didn't blow up or anything. it hit it. whether it was meant to or not, we don't know. and he left a note with numbers in his room that the sheriff says is not a suicide note, not a manifesto. >> he has an operational plan we're not aware of. he looked at other locations. chicago, illinois. we see now potentially a separate target at the airport. we know he was a meticulous -- >> this is not a closeup, but they found a note highlighted there. >> if you look at his background, a meticulous guy in terms of how his family talks about how he was playing the numbers on the slots, meticulous in terms of planning this operation. let's put those two together. meticulous guy. he is looking at potential multiple targets. i think it is an operational plan. this is everything i'm thinking about. this is how i'm going to execute is it. i suspect we will realize as the feds say and the cops say, it is not a manifesto, not a suicide note. he

we have cnn counterterrorist phil mudd and jeffrey toobin jeffrey toobin, you've had a little less than 24 hours to marinate on all of this. >> and marinate i have. >> yes, you have. >> as big as yesterday was, perhaps the most important thing we heard all day was the prosecutor in court in the sealed transcript from early october saying this is just a small part of what we have. and i think that has to reorder what our investigation is. certainly the manafort indictment was expected. i don't know if the gates indictment was expected but certainly the other case zplsh papadopoulos. >> was a total surprise to me and everyone else. and also the substance of that guilty plea is so closely related to the core of mueller's investigation. >> let's drill down on that. >> yes. >> first, the procedure question. why did they unseal it yesterday? you really should read these koumts if you want to know what you're talking about here. and it certainly is a cooperation agreement with papadopoulos, no question. the suggestion by releasing this yesterday is that he's somehow related to the other two ge

. >> let me bring phil mudd into this as well. you used to work at the fbi and cia. why after all of these years they seek this last-minute effort to prevent these documents from being released what potentially -- what kind of information could be contained there? >> wolf, i'm going to bet this is about protecting people. it's not about whether there's a plot that the american people don't understand. it's people. back after this assassination, you can guarantee that the fbi and cia were talking to everybody they knew overseas in countries like russia, cuba, mexico, about what happened and whether they had information in these foreign governments about the assassin. those conversations might have been with government officials and might have been with paid informants. some of those informants are alive today and the concern that the cia would have would be releasing identities of the informants. it's not that simple, though. what do you tell a child, we're going to reveal that your day was a spy for the cia? and finally, information. what if there is information rele

counterterrorism analyst phil mudd.ames, let me pull up for everybody the timeline as we now know it, as the authorities have now released. 9:59 p.m. on that fateful night that's when the security guard, jesus campos was first shot. 9:59. at 10:05 then the first shots are fired on the crowd by the gunman. then at 10:12 -- 13 minutes later, officers on the 31st floor hear the gunfire above them, they're still trying to locate where the guy is. the first breach is at 11:20. how does this timeline change the investigation, in your mind? >> it doesn't necessarily change it, alisyn. obviously there's been a lot made about the fact that there was an interchanged -- security guard's appearance and when the gunfire started. we know those things have been interchangeable. my view of it is this. las vegas metropolitan police department, the fog of war, all the chaos going on, error -- erroneous reports. i give them the benefit of the doubt, the fog of war, uncertainty in those situations. what i would love to see them tighten up

what's difficult to phil mudd's point, both ceasing on this moment as a way to prove on her side, donald trump is this air table, evil person who doesn't think of the widow and on his end, well, i did everything better than everyone who has -- >> we'll have a lot more on this development. a very painful and emotional development. i want all of you to stand by. another moment we're following, president trump's national security team is raising the alarm about north korea's rapidly advancing nuclear capability. cnn's brian todd is joining us with this very disturbing development. what can you tell us? >> just a short time ago, general mcmaster said we're in a race to solve this short of military action. they are out tonight with stark warnings of where this crisis is headed and how close kim jong-un is to being able to deliver the ultimate threat to the united states. stern warnings tonight to north korea's kim jong-un and about his regime from two of president trump's closest aides, from his national security adviser, a veiled threat. >> he's not going to except this regime. he won't acce

. >> phil mudd, to you the idea of the explosive left in the vehicle, and based on what the sheriff said does it seem to you that there may be some idea in this person's mind that they had some sort of exit strategy? or idea of moving elsewhere? >> there's a scum characterisku characteristics about the explosives that i feel curious. ammonium nitrate that could potential will be be used with other materials for a back pecuniary bam bom. why did he acquire that and never use it? there's a reference to tannerite. art probably knows more about that but that can be cinematic, dramatic. you put a small amount of that in a place, pop it with a rifle, you get a large explosive effect. did he want to use that over time in some location to create a diversion? the answers about those explosives i think will help us on a couple of questions, anderson. one is what the sheriff was talking about, did he want to escape? did he have other locations he was thinking about? and two, why did he acquire t s materiel and not use it? was there a trigger that led him to choose that target and location before he

. >> phil mudd said earlier, from an intel perspective, this is kind of 101. the russians accurately identified their soft spot. they want dirt on hillary, and they're responding to that. papadopoulos responded to it, trump junior responded to it. they never got, as far as we can tell -- >> you're assuming the conclusion of the investigation. we don't know that. >> well, that's right. >> but now we're getting out of the weeds and down to what's really important. we have seen in these indictments and we see from what mueller is now doing and we really have a roadmap. we are looking at what he is building a kind of case of a conspiracy to undermine this country's electoral system through communications with a foreign government. it's a conspiracy case about collusion. and in this -- one of the most fascinating elements of this is there is a sentence in the indictment of papadopoulos in which it is revealed that in april of 2016 he heard from this russian london professor that there were thousands of e-mails about or from hillary. this is months before we had any

. >> phil mudd, to you the idea of the explosive left in the vehicle, and based on what the sheriff said, does it seem to you that there may be some idea in this person's mind that they had some sort of exit strategy? or idea of moving elsewhere? >> there's a couple characteristics about the explosives that i feel curious. ammonium nitrate that could potentially be used with other materials for a backpack bomb. why did he acquire that and never use it? was there a trigger that led him to pursue not building a bomb? there's a reference to tannerite. art probably knows more about that but that can be cinematic, dramatic. you put a small amount of that in a place, pop it with a rifle, you get a large explosive effect. did he want to use that over time in some location to create a diversion? the answers about those explosives i think will help us on a couple of questions, anderson. one is what the sheriff was talking about, did he want to escape? did he have other locations he was thinking about? and two, why did he acquire materiel and not use it? was there a trigger that led him to choose