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Central Park Explosive Appears Homemade; 13 Suspects Arrested in Istanbul Attack; Clinton, Trump Will Soon Announce VP Picks. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired July 3, 2016 - 17:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[17:00:01] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I am Brianna Keilar in Washington. And we have breaking news, sources telling CNN an explosion in New York's Central Park may be more sinister than originally thought. We know that at least one person was injured in this blast. Witnesses say severely. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And saw his friend standing there panicking, ran up the hill, and found the young man laying on the rocks, his foot is all but detached. He's stepped -- his friends claimed he was just walking on the rocks and stepped on something. There was a divot in the ground. There was actually it looks like a divot where there was an explosion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN's Sara Ganim has been following the latest on this. She's joining us now on the phone.

And, Sara, there was confusion at first that this may have been a firework. But that doesn't appear to be the case anymore. What are you finding out?

SARA GANIM, CNN INVESTIGATIONS CORRESPONDENT (via phone): That's right, Brianna. What we know is this. About 11:00 this morning in Central Park, witnesses heard some kind of explosion. An 18-year-old man we know who is from northern Virginia stepped on something in the park. And there was this explosion. Whatever it was severed his leg above the ankle. We hear from witnesses that it was a pretty nasty injury.

Sources telling CNN's criminal justice reporters that this does not appear to be a fireworks type of device. Two other young men who were with the victim were questioned but are not considered to be suspicious. They're not under investigation at this point. So that leaves us with this.

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force is now assisting testing what they found at the scene. They're not necessarily considering this a terrorism case at this point. But they're testing what they found at the FBI's bomb lab just because those experts, those agents, their expertise can be used to figure out exactly what this was, given that this is such an unusual case. The nature of this incident not something that obviously we see every day.

So there's obviously still a lot of questions, a lot more investigating that needs to be done. And we're awaiting some of those details now, Brianna, from the NYPD here on the scene in Central Park. They're expected to update us within the half hour. Also important to note, you know, it's a holiday weekend, there's a lot of people here in the park. It is not closed. They're keeping the park open at this point. There is a section of it here where this incident happened that's been cordoned off as investigators continue to examine the scene. But at this point the park has remained open and honestly you're not in this specific area, you wouldn't know that anything has happened here today -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Sara, thank you so much.

And we are -- you see this podium, this is what Sara is talking about, this press conference that we're awaiting here in about a half hour or so from the New York Police Department as they test that -- the remnants, at least, of whatever caused the explosion.

Joining me now to talk more about this situation is CNN senior law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes and CNN law -- pardon me, CNN law enforcement analyst and retired NYPD detective Harry Houck.

Tom, to you first. We don't know exactly what this explosion is, but the concerning thing is that law enforcement officials tell CNN it has IED components. And a witness says the victim appears to have stepped on it. What does this sound like to you?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, we don't know yet, Brianna. There's so many possibilities here. They've cordoned off the area to keep other people out so the investigators can work. And you have probably the finest bomb technician investigators in the world in New York City. From NYPD to FBI, ATF. They're outstanding. They work very closely together all the time.

And I would expect them to gather the evidence, analyze it, and be able to come up with some idea of what type of device it was, what triggered it, and, you know, go from there with the investigation. So we'll await the report from the police commissioner, you know, hopefully soon.

KEILAR: All right, I do want to let you, guys, know because we are getting in some new information. Law enforcement sources are telling CNN that this appears to be some kind of homemade explosive material that was left in the area. And this is interesting because the male whose foot was severed was not involved. That is what sources are telling CNN. His friends were also cleared. Police believe that he stepped on the material and it exploded.

So, Harry, what is your impression of what's happening here?

HARRY HOUCK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I'll tell you, Brianna, you know, the fact that the park has not been evacuated tells me they know something they're not telling us yet. That because -- you know, especially it's Ramadan, we've had attacks in the last two weeks. You know, the first thing the police would think, let's get everybody out of the park because we don't know if there's any more bombs laying around. OK.

[17:05:03] Now the fact is that the police have not done that. All right, so I tend to think that they know exactly what's going on here and that we're going to find out in the press conference -- but you know, they probably feel very secure that there are no other bombs in the area and that's why they haven't closed the park. So that's the only thing I can think of right now so I think we're going to get some news from the police department when they come out in a half hour or so saying that was the only bomb and this might be a firework, I'm not sure, nobody really knows. But not evacuating the park is a big signal.

KEILAR: And is that something they could do? Right? So they haven't done it yet but isn't that something they could choose to do? And --

HOUCK: Sure.

KEILAR: Look, and Harry, just explain to people the difficulty of closing Central Park on the Fourth of July weekend. I mean, this -- could you even do it?

HOUCK: Right, well -- I know, but if people's lives are in danger, if they believe there are other devices laying around the park, the police department can do it. We got a large police department. Probably like no cop on vacation today, all right? Everybody's out there. You know, anticipating just in case something happens. So they can just bring police into the park and they can evacuate. There's a precinct in that park, there are task forces around.

The police department is very well aware that they can get all those people out of the park when they have to get them out. So the fact that they're not getting them out of the park tells me that they feel pretty secure.

KEILAR: Tom, it's so confusing because you have law enforcement sources saying that the male whose foot was severed was not involved. So -- and I know this -- I'm not asking you to mind read or sort of be a psychic here. But that tells you that -- I think it would tell you, right, that this gentleman and the other two young men that he was with, that they would have been very surprised by what happened and police believe they have nothing to do with this.

FUENTES: Well, if that's true, then -- you know, that they actually believe that, which we don't know that for a fact, and usually in a situation like this, the first reports coming out are not accurate. But let's just say that maybe that's true and all three of these individuals are believed completely innocent, clear of any involvement in this, then I agree completely with Harry, get people out of that park.

You still have a couple of hours of daylight left in New York City, get them out, because it could be worse after dark having people all over that park. And they can certainly do it, they have the manpower, they have the facility. So we don't know what the police know, as Harry mentioned. And I think that hopefully they know more than we do. And have a good reason for not clearing that park out.

KEILAR: Harry --

(CROSSTALK)

HOUCK: That's real interesting to me, the fact that this guy stepped on the bomb and it went off. Like a Bouncing Betty, like the type of bombs we used back in Vietnam days. But the fact that he had stepped on the bomb, it's -- you know, was this device put there specifically for somebody to step on it and blow up? And if that's really true, then the police got to get those people out of the park, you know, if that's really happened.

So -- you know, I'm not so sure if the police have cleared these three people yet. I -- there would be a lot of the questions of these people -- that man whose foot was blown off.

FUENTES: Yes, exactly. And also the report --

KEILAR: Certainly there are and we'll await -- we'll await that press conference. I'm sure that's something that they at the very least are going to be asked about.

Tom, go on.

FUENTES: I was going to say, who would hide a landmine, let's say, amongst the rocks where you would have no idea anybody would ever climb down on those rocks because that was an earlier report we heard that the individual that was injured was climbing down the rocks. If you want to inflict damage or kill someone, you would put that landmine on the main path or very close to it so you're assured that somebody visiting that park is going to step on it and set it off.

KEILAR: OK, well, so what else could it be then?

HOUCK: It's also Fourth of July. I mean, a lot of people, in my experience, make bombs on Fourth of July. You know, not to kill people, but just to blow stuff up. You know, and to make noise. So there is a distinct possibility that these guys were somehow -- or one of them were involved in doing that. And the thing went off. I mean, he fact that -- you know, the story that I'm walking by and I step on this bomb and it goes off -- is a little leery to me. And we're going to find out, now that they have the bomb experts looking at it and seeing, well, was this the type of device that you can step on and it can go off?

And if they found out not, then we need to talk to those three guys again and you know, and talk to them a lot closer to find out what really happened.

KEILAR: Yes. No doubt. And gentlemen, stand by for me. Tom Fuentes, Harry Houck.

We are now expecting this press conference to take place really here in the next several minutes. We're going to get a quick break in and we'll be monitoring that podium to see if the NYPD comes out to talk about this explosion that actually severed the foot of a young man in Central Park.

[17:10:04] We'll have more in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Now we are following some breaking news. In Central Park, an 18-year-old male injured. You see him there on the left side of your screen. Being carried away on a stretcher. His foot severed by some sort of explosive device. He and two of his friends were there in the park. According to sources he stepped on something and it then exploded.

Right now the NYPD is testing this. They do not think it's terrorism but they're testing this at the bomb lab to figure out exactly what this device is.

And on the right side of your screen, this is a podium. We're expecting a briefing really any minute now from the NYPD. We're going to continue to monitor that. When the NYPD starts speaking we will break out of whatever we're covering and go back to see exactly what's going on. So many unanswered questions in this Central Park explosion that has injured this 18-year-old.

I want to turn now to presidential politics and Hillary Clinton's big task for the week. It's putting that three and a half hour meeting with the FBI over her private e-mails behind her and replacing it with a much better headline. She has a very good shot at doing that because this week Clinton will campaign for the first time with President Obama. They're going to be in the battleground state of North Carolina.

And then she heads to Pennsylvania with Vice President Joe Biden as rumors swirl over who she is going to pick as her running mate. I spoke with one of the names rumored to be on Clinton's VP short list, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. Here's how he responded when I asked him. You'll see a pretty simple question.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Two weeks ago you said you were not being vetted to be Hillary Clinton's vice presidential running mate. Is that still the case? Have you, has your staff, provided any personal documents to the Clinton campaign?

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D), NEW JERSEY: You know, at this point, I've answered this question, talked about this. I'm just referring questions about the vice presidency to the woman that's going to have to make this decision you should talk to the Hillary campaign. But what I do know is that on the Democratic side there are many fabulous candidates. People that could really be strong vice presidential candidate --

KEILAR: That is not a no, sir. That is not a no.

BOOKER: That is exactly what it is. It's telling you if you have a question like that, please direct it to the Clinton campaign. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Not sure we actually need to direct a question to the Clinton campaign. It sounds pretty clear by what the senator is saying what's going on there.

[17:15:07] And on the Republican side, Donald Trump is reportedly adding a new name to his list of possible running mate. A source tells CNN Iowa Senator Joni Ernst is being considered. It's unclear whether Ernst, who is a Tea Party star, is actually interested in being Trump's number two.

This coming as another of Trump's rumored VP candidates, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, talks openly about the job prospect.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: I suspect if it did come to anything, we'd have to have a very, very long talk and then depending on that talk, Callista and I would have to sit down with Donald and have another long talk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Let's bring in our panel now to talk about this. We have CNN political commentator and anchor for TIME Warner Cable News, Errol Louis, Emily Tisch Sussman, a Democratic strategist. And panel, stand by for me, let's go to this press conference in Central Park.

DEP. CHIEF JOHN O'CONNELL, NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT: -- today was assigned as the duty chief. Going to give you some facts and figures. A lot of this is preliminary and subject to change.

So at 10:52 a.m., three males aged 18 through 20 jumped off the rock behind me. As they did an explosion occurred injuring one of the victims. The male was transported to Bellevue in serious but stable condition.

The explosion that could have been an experiment with fireworks or homemade explosives. We do not have any evidence of a constructed device or commercial-grade fireworks. We believe this could have been put here as some sort of experiment.

We will be expanding our evidence search with our vapor wake dogs to look for any pertinent to our investigation. We will continue canvassing for additional video and witnesses who could be helpful to our investigation.

At this time we have no evidence that this is related to terrorism. There are no specific credible threats corrected at New York or the July Fourth celebrations. It is not unusual for the public to make or try to create homemade fireworks around the Fourth of July which is completely unadvisable.

It also should be noted that the victim and his two friends, we don't consider them to be part of construction of this object. (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

O'CONNELL: It was behind us on the path. It was secreted next to a rock. It was almost like it was hidden, but it wasn't where somebody ordinarily would have stepped.

(INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

O'CONNELL: His foot landed on the device. It should be noted that his two friends didn't get injured. So it was concise, right to the point where it was. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) speak to the -- we're not even going to call it a device (INAUDIBLE).

LT. MARK TORRE, NEW YORK BOMB SQUAD COMMANDER: Good afternoon. So as the chief alluded to earlier, this is a time of year when typically we will see a lot of experimentation. Explosive experimenters, if you will. Their goal is to make a loud noise, maybe make a flash. They like to make noise and sort of play with fireworks, and it's even better if they can make their own. So we are not finding anything consistent with a constructed IED. This is clearly explosive material. But there's nothing to indicate that this was an explosive device that was placed or put in this area with a specific intent to harm any individuals.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) this time of year, have you ever seen anything like this?

TORRE: We've seen a lot of experimentation with homemade fireworks. I've been with the bomb squad since 1993. I have never seen anyone step on a shock-sensitive explosive material but we have had shock- sensitive explosive materials utilized in other ways. Nefarious ways. Not by stepping on -- I'm not going to go into how they could be used. So the answer is yes, we have seen shock-sensitive homemade materials utilized.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

TORRE: I'm not going to answer exactly how I would arrive at that conclusion. But there is some forensic evidence that indicates that it was not meant to go off by somebody stepping on it. It may have not gone off at an earlier time and was just left there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) a day? Do you have any sense?

TORRE: Yes, I was going to say it was there longer than a day but beyond that I can't really nail that down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

DEP. ASST. CHIEF MICHAEL GALA, NEW YORK FIRE DEPARTMENT: Deputy Assistant Chief Michael Gala, G-A-L-A, Manhattan borough commander. Around 11:00 this morning we responded to the park for a report of explosive device. [17:20:02] When our units arrived they came across a male with a

traumatic injury to his left foot. As the NYPD secured the area, our members applied a tourniquet to the victim, stopped the bleeding, stabilized and packaged the victim, removed him to Bellevue Hospital. The last report from Bellevue Hospital was that the victim was undergoing surgery. And at this time we're continuing to maintain both an EMS and fire presence on the scene to support the NYPD as they continue with their investigation. Thank you.

(INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

GALA: The last report from Bellevue Hospital was that he was undergoing surgery and his condition was stable.

(INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No other devices that may have been left?

(INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

O'CONNELL: Yes. We did a video canvass. We sent down a lot of detectives. We have seven vapor wake dogs and -- sorry, seven dogs, some of which are very special, the vapor wake dogs, they're checking the park for any further explosives.

(INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TORRE: Ma'am, clearly I would say that this is somebody that had knowledge of chemistry, but you don't have to be anything more than good with computers to get enough knowledge of chemistry to be able to create some of this type of material from readily available materials, unfortunately.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a crime stoppers number?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. We're interviewing anyone who had any information today going back to a few days. If you had seen anything suspicious that you might think it's relevant. 1-800-577-TIPS. Please call, it will be kept confidential.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One more question?

(INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TORRE: So I use the term experiment because quite frankly there are a cadre of people in the world who like to experiment with explosive materials. The reason why you see fireworks displays all goes back to people like that, that do it in a professional fashion. There are people that do it in an amateur fashion, but it doesn't make their material any less dangerous. So explosive hobbyists, fireworks, pyrotechnician hobbyists, that's where I'm going with that.

(INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TORRE: Yes, sir. Lieutenant Mark Torre, T-O-R-R-E, commanding officer, bomb squad. KEILAR: All right. That is a press conference by the New York Police

Department.

A young man earlier today, his foot severed by an explosion. He jumped off of rocks along with two of his friends and ended up severely injured. We just heard from the NYPD. They don't think that this young man or his friends had anything to do with this. Perhaps just in the wrong place at the wrong time it appears.

And I want to bring back now our CNN senior law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes. We also have retired NYPD detective Harry Houck, and we have Errol Louis who's an anchor for TIME Warner Cable News.

OK, so, Harry, this is -- this is interesting. And I think maybe one of our questions has been answered, right, which is why are they not closing off the park? Because this is sounding more like some sort of freak homemade fireworks accident than perhaps something even more nefarious or something that would be like a fashion IED, right?

HOUCK: Right, exactly. This happened at 11:00, right? We're talking six hours already since this happened? They've had a chance to look at that bomb and say, OK, it's not made of C-4 or any other kind of explosive, most likely. All right. And they're looking the way the whole bomb was put together, they're probably, you know, saying to themselves, well, OK, listen, this is some kid might have done something like this. Might have left it there the last time he was there. Tried to -- like the police had said, maybe he tried to get the bomb to go off, it didn't go off, so they let -- you know, they just let it lay there and then this kid stood on it.

Now apparently the police are pretty adamant that these guys aren't involved in it at all. So now it's -- they're going to focus on, is there any way they're going to be to trace anything found in that bomb or its remnants to be able to try and identify the perpetrator who left this bomb there? And by them doing a canvass in the park, going through the area, going back around the same time tomorrow when they think the bomb might have been put there, they'll find out, you know, people that are in the park constantly, walking their dogs, something like that, or running in the park, hey, did you see anybody in this area? And they'll probably go from that.

And you know, it seems like -- the first thing to me was that the park was not evacuated. Then they probably knew, you know, how much -- what happened here.

[17:25:10] KEILAR: Yes, that maybe they didn't think that this was something -- I mean, obviously a terrible, terrible incident. But maybe they didn't think that this was something that had wider ramifications.

Errol, you're a veteran New York City reporter. And one of the things that I thought was interesting there listening to NYPD and the bomb squad director was that they said, part of it is the timing, that this is near July Fourth, that there are a lot of people who experiment with making amateur fireworks. Obviously not recommended. We're seeing perhaps some of the effects of that here. But just describe -- I mean, is that something that you know that goes on in New York City or that you would see sort of fireworks-related accidents around this time?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Sure, sure. It's tragic, it happens every year. What people can do is hop in their car and in about 90 minutes you can be in Pennsylvania where they have very different laws regarding fireworks and people will fill up their trunk with all kinds of illegal fireworks and drive back into New York and start firing them off.

I mean, I was out with my wife just last night in Brooklyn. And you know, it was extraordinary that some idiots had taken a whole bunch of pyrotechnics and were just firing them off over a row of parked cars and there were sparklers and flares shooting every which way, smoke all over the place.

Unfortunately, we do not have a culture, even after the multiple terrorist attacks that we've survived here in New York. We do not have a culture of publicly shaming or calling the cops on people who do this stuff. It's just pretty much accepted that if you don't want to be around a lot of loud noises, you stay in your house or you leave town for the weekend. But this is far from unusual for somebody to go ahead and do this.

And just to emphasize what Harry said, I'm about 100 yards right now from Central Park here in the New York City bureau for CNN. And as I was parking and walking over here, there's no sense of alarm whatsoever. There were horse carriages, you know, taking passengers and riding through the park. It's been sort of a casual, typical weekend, holiday weekend, in every respect. So unless the NYPD is seriously off their game, and I doubt that, this is something that is the kind of one-off that's part of this unfortunate culture of people experimenting with stuff that they don't understand and can't really control.

KEILAR: I want to bring in -- I want to bring in CNN justice correspondent Evan Perez. He is on the phone joining us.

Evan, what are you hearing?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, just on the precaution the Joint Terrorism Task Force which is led by the FBI there is part of this investigation. They're helping the NYPD figure out exactly what the issue is. There's obviously a very strange incident where you have someone who's walking along or just enjoying the park on a holiday weekend, and they end up getting really severely hurt. So it's not a very normal incident.

What we know at this point is that it doesn't appear to be any kind of an IED where somebody -- it doesn't have the components where someone was trying to essentially cause harm, to -- you know, carrying out an act of terrorism. We know that that is at this point what FBI and what the NYPD have determined. But obviously there's still some testing to be done. They've taken it back to the lab, to test to see what it's made from. It appears perhaps as folks in the press conference said that it might

be some kind of an experimental device. We see that this time of the year because of the Fourth of July, there are people who are trying to build their own fireworks, and unfortunately people get hurt every year because of these types of things.

KEILAR: Yes. He said maybe they -- he seemed to indicate that it's not unusual right now for this time of year for someone to either experiment with fireworks or explosives in general because they can get their hands obviously on other fireworks and try to build things.

PEREZ: Exactly. And I think as --

KEILAR: I heard the bomb squad say --

(CROSSTALK)

PEREZ: Talking about it as well because it is this time of year where you -- where simply you just have to drive across the border to Pennsylvania and it's a short drive from New York City and you can get a lot of things that you can't get in New York City.

I'm in Washington right now and a lot of this stuff is illegal. You can only pretty much get sparklers in Washington, D.C. But you don't have to go very far in Virginia or in Pennsylvania to get a lot more -- frankly more dangerous things.

KEILAR: Sure.

PEREZ: And we see it. I mean, just I'm here in Capitol Hill in Washington, and down the street from us is a park where every year people get all of these very, very big fireworks, things that you normally see on the National Mall, and they just are playing with it. And things go wrong all the time.

[17:30:03] People get hurt every year and they do it every year.

KEILAR: Yes. You see it all over Washington, D.C.

One of the things the bomb squad representative said was that there doesn't seem to be -- and he wouldn't get too much into details, Evan, but he said the forensic evidence is showing that actually this was not something that was meant to explode with someone stepping on it. So it sounds like -- we had heard a report there may be IED components, it sounds like that is not the case, right, Evan?

PEREZ: Exactly, that is not the case. One of the first things they did was to check to see whether there were any components that indicated someone was -- as you've seen with some of these bombs, you know, you see with IEDs, sometimes people put screws and pieces of metal in there to inflict the most damage. That is not what they found here. They found instead something very rudimentary. And trying to figure out exactly what it is that's now the work of the bomb technicians because, you know, they deal with all these types of things and they can try to figure it out. But yes, just as a precaution, you know, they wanted to make sure that

it was not an improvised device of some kind that was intended to inflict harm like you saw in the Boston bombing and then so many other terrorism cases. And by the way, they've talked to these young help, people who were part of his group. The man who got injured and his friends. And it appears that they've had nothing to do with this, they simply just were at the wrong place at the wrong time.

KEILAR: Yes, and we heard them say this was a concise explosion. This young man was with his friends. He jumped, only he was injured, his friends were not injured.

Tom, hang on for just one second because we do have sound from a couple of witnesses who describe what they saw. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And saw his friend standing there panicking, ran up the hill, and found the young man laying on the rocks, his foot's all but detached. He stepped -- his friends claimed he was just walking down the rocks and stepped on something. There was a divot in the ground. There was actually looks like a divot where there was an explosion.

SARA BORDEN, WITNESS: I have no idea what it was. It sounded like a cannon. So that's why I thought it was like a Fourth of July thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: It sounded like a cannon. And even she, Tom, thought it sounded like something hiving to do with the Fourth of July. These are the sounds that the people are very familiar with this time of year.

You were trying to make a point earlier, Tom?

FUENTES: Well, I would like to know -- you know, you have several components of explosive device and I'm not a bomb expert, I prefer to stay away from them as much as possible. But you know you have the chemical material of the -- of the explosive stuff that was in it. And they'll be able to determine that pretty quickly. But the key factor is how does it detonate? And that's what I find the most unusual in this case is that there has to be some way to detonate it, either there's a liquid component, you step on two liquids, they mix and they trigger it, or you light it with a fuse.

And a lot of the injuries that people get over the holidays when they're trying to make their own explosive is when they light the fuse. The fuse is too short, they didn't do it right, and it blows up in their face or in their hands. And so I don't know -- I'm not familiar with a device other than war material with claymore mines or something where you can step on it and detonate it. And that sounds -- that makes to it me sound very suspicious.

KEILAR: Yes, and they seem to indicate that they did not believe this to be shock-sensitive explosive material. I'm going to stand you guys by for me for just a moment. Tom, Harry,

and Errol, thank you. Let's stick around, please, so that we can talk a little bit ahead. We're going to get in a quick break and be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:36:33] KEILAR: In Baghdad this weekend, terrorism and death on a scale that we haven't seen for nearly a decade.

A car bomb in a packed shopping center Saturday night killed 125 people, many of them children. Another bomb earlier today also took casualties. The group claiming responsibility is ISIS and it's not the only attack they say they've carried out in recent days. Last Tuesday, bombs and gunfire at a major airport in Istanbul, 44 people dead. ISIS claiming that. Friday night in the capital of Bangladesh, gunmen stormed a cafe, they killed 20 hostages and two police officers. And ISIS says their people did that as well.

CNN senior international correspondent Nima Elbagir is in Istanbul for us.

Nima, ISIS is now claiming three mass slaughters of innocent civilians in the span of a week. What does this say about the organization and that they're adopting this perhaps more classic terrorism model instead of fighting on the front lines for territory?

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is absolutely a manifestation of what they threatened back in May when the ISIS spokesman came out and said, don't think because you defeat us territorially that that means that you have gained victory. And that is what they've been working towards since then, trying to prove to those potential recruits and those potential followers, really in terms of their brand that the loss of territory trying to pretend that that loss of territory didn't diminish them as an organization.

And so whereas a Paris or a Brussels is now increasingly difficult to achieve because you have this high level of security in Paris around the European football championships, and Istanbul attack gives them an ability to hit softer western targets like tourists going through the airport, without that kind of outlay.

And what we're seeing is with this movement of the attackers in Istanbul coming from Raqqa, that they're using -- they're marshaling those resources from the ISIS HQ inside Syria towards achieving this kind of broader impact. But of course the reality is that they do need a territorial footprint because that has been ISIS' major recruitment tool. That's what's differentiated it from al Qaeda. That's what's allowed it to build its brand.

So they're really banking a lot, Brianna, on this new iteration of ISIS. But really in a way it is a return to those old terror tactics that we saw from al Qaeda, that we saw from Al Qaeda in Iraq, and ISIS seems to be trying to reclaim that territory.

KEILAR: Nima, these 27 people who have been arrested in Istanbul, in Turkey, linked to the attack, some of them actually had court appearances today. What happened?

ELBAGIR: We understand from the Turkish state semi official news agency that they have now been charged with being part of a terror organization and they will stand trial. What's really interesting is that only three of those 13 that will stand trial are foreigners, the other 10 are Turkish citizens. And that really gives you a sense of the bigger picture here which is that ISIS is trying to use these homegrown networks now.

We saw that in Bangladesh. All of the attackers there are -- were Bangladeshi citizens. And of course in Iraq the use of Sunnis which they have been using for some time now to go into Shia territories. And here in Turkey.

This is the new iteration of ISIS, using these homegrown networks, trying to siphon what foreign fighters they can get through those increasingly secured borders but going for maximum, maximum impact to try and regain some of that brand momentum, if you will, Brianna.

[17:40:14] KEILAR: And also with us now, we have CNN intelligence and security analyst Bob Baer.

So, Bob, tell us about the timing of these attacks. Obviously we are in the holy month of Ramadan but you're also seeing these attacks on more secular Muslim countries and this does, though, appear to be ISIS, the Islamic State, taking aim at predominantly Muslims.

ROBERT BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Brianna, I think at the basis of all this is backlash. It's backlash having lost Fallujah, Ramadi, the Islamic State is on the retreat. And these people look at the world in very apocalyptic terms. And they think they can either strike back at places like Turkey or Bangladesh or even today in Ramadi, they were firing rockets at Iraqi army and killed, according to the press, 13 officers.

So they are very much -- this is politics of despair. They think they're on the verge of extinction and they will strike at whoever they think their enemy is. First is United States, second is Iran, the Iraqi army, even the Turkish government which sides with the United States. So none of this should come as a surprise. And I think if one day we take Mosul you'll see more of a backlash in more places.

KEILAR: Bob Baer, thank you so much. Nima Elbagir, thank you to you as well.

And a quick break. We will be back live with our breaking news on an explosion in Central Park.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: We're continuing to follow breaking news out of New York City's Central Park. Police say an explosive went off there, severely injuring one person. It actually severed the foot of an 18-year-old.

[17:45:02] And this appears to be some type of experimental explosive device. That is what police are saying. The material is being tested right now by the FBI. They want to figure out exactly what it is. And police are searching for more witnesses, possibly anyone who took video in the area at the time to try to find out exactly what happened.

CNN's Sara Ganim has been following the very latest on this. She's joining us live now from Central Park. There was some confusion, Sara, at first that this may have been a firework or perhaps it was some type of explosive device designed for nefarious purposes. But it doesn't appear to be exactly either of those anymore. What are you finding out?

GANIM: That's right, Brianna. Just moments ago NYPD saying essentially they're continuing their investigation. They're not sure exactly what this is. They're being very careful. They are not calling this a device of any kind. In fact, a law enforcement source telling me that preliminarily they believe it was something contained within a plastic bag. That's the assumption that they're working off of right now, that this could be some kind of experiment or homemade type of material that may have been left here in the park. They say that this is the time of year that they often see the public trying to improvise, make their own kind of homemade explosive devices, sound- making devices, or things like fireworks.

They don't have anything at this point to indicate that this was an IED sort of device. They're staying away from that word. Being very clear to members of the media here just moments ago at their press conference that they are not calling this a device and they have no reason to believe that it's consistent with a constructive IED or anything that points to nefarious intent or terrorism, nothing to point to the fact that anyone was potentially trying to hurt anyone.

Now here's what happened. About 11:00 a.m. this morning, there were three young men from northern Virginia. They were on these rocks behind me here in Central Park. People often climb up on these rocks often on weekends, often on holiday weekends, nice days. You can see people up on the rocks here behind me in Central Park. They apparently jumped off the rocks and one of them landed on a material on a substance, and that's when this explosion happened.

And one of the men was very seriously injured. His leg, according to witnesses, very seriously injured above the ankle. NYPD saying that he is right now in surgery and that he's in stable condition but very serious condition. The police in the last several hours have been canvassing the area. They brought in dogs to make sure that they are confident they can leave the park open, that the public can remain in here, that they are confident there is nothing else like this still in this area.

They're also doing a video canvass, there are several parks -- several cameras in this park, in this area, which they are now going back and looking at, to see if they can figure out how this material got here, who may have left it there, and what led up to this to give everyone some more answers.

One of the very first things police said was, we know you have questions, we do, too. They simply don't have all the answers just yet, Brianna.

KEILAR: And I heard them say that this device could have been there for more than a day. So certainly they have, Sara Ganim, a lot of video to go through. And we know you'll be following this. Thank you so much.

We'll be back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:51:44] KEILAR: Donald Trump is adding a new woman to his list of potential running mates. A source tells CNN that Iowa Senator Joni Ernst is being considered by the Trump camp. Now it's unclear whether Ernst, a Tea Party star, is interested in being Trump's running mate.

Let's bring in our panel. CNN political commentator and anchor for TIME Warner Cable News, Errol Louis, we have Emily Tisch Sussman, a Democratic strategist and Clinton supporter, and we have Scottie Nell Hughes, national political commentator for USA Radio Networks, and she is also a Trump supporter.

And, Emily, first to you. Should Clinton supporters be worried that Trump may be considering a female running mate like Joni Ernst or like Governor Mary Fallin?

EMILY TISCH SUSSMAN, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: I don't think people should be -- I don't think supporters should be nervous about it. As a woman, I do think it would be very exciting that our only options going to the presidential would either be a woman in the White House or a woman vice president. I think that's very exciting and be wonderful. But as far as people who are supporting Clinton like myself, look, I don't think that there is anything that Trump can do at this point -- I don't think whoever he picks as a vice president is really going to change the trajectory of this race and really going to change the impression that he has.

I think if anything, having a woman on the ticket with him would make some Republicans who are looking to feel more comfortable with him, to try and hold their nose and vote for him, I think they might find it a little bit more appealing because look what his track record publicly has been publicly with women so far. Nobody can say that his track record with his wife and his past wives have shown a very large respect for women, and with his own daughter who seems to be the woman who's closest to him, he said he thought he would date her if she wasn't his daughter, which is just bizarre.

But, I mean, you know, all of those things aside, his policies aren't good for women. So there's very really little that he could do to add to the ticket to really change that dynamic.

KEILAR: Scottie Nell, I know you want to respond to that. Have at it.

SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well, exactly. But you know, here's the funny thing about it. If he was to pick a woman as VP candidate, he would pick her not because she was a woman. Something that it seems like the Democrats are obviously Hillary Clinton pandering when she talks about people like Elizabeth Warren that the Democrats like to tout.

I'm not going to sit there and say it's exciting, that I'd be excited as a female to have a female as a president or vice president. I'm excited about the candidate and what they can do for America, because we're not sexist within the Republican Party like Emily seems to think. That he would put this female on, whether looking at Marsha Blackburn, you could be looking at Joni Ernst, you could look at several great females that are strong within the Republican Party. They're strong not because they're female but because of what they've accomplished within their own precedent and what they've actually done while they've been in office, not because of what their gender is.

KEILAR: But, Errol, I mean, I want you to comment on this. The discussion about Elizabeth Warren, and we'll actually listen to something that was said earlier today in just a moment, but the discussion based around Hillary Clinton considering Elizabeth Warren, is it exciting Democrats because she's a woman or is it exciting Democrats because she is liberal?

LOUIS: Well, I think you've got a little bit of both. I mean, you're applying, Brianna, a sort of traditional analysis, which is appropriate, I think, for a vice presidential candidate, which is, can they bring in a constituency that the candidate wants some help with? Can they help unify or bring in a faction of the party or make faction of the party comfortable that otherwise was not, or can they help win an important swing state?

[17:55:01] So, Joni Ernst, by the way, for the Republicans hits a couple of those buttons. On the Democratic side, Elizabeth Warren doesn't necessarily hit those buttons and that's because there's this fourth factor out there which is, is the presidential candidate at the top of the ticket comfortable with this person as their vice presidential candidate? Will they serve the function of attack dog? Will they be loyal? Will they be somebody that they can comfortably meet with every week for a four-year presidency without feeling undermined and so forth without feeling that they're being undermined and so forth?

And that -- that kind of personal chemistry question is one that we can't necessarily see from the outside, but I think frankly for Elizabeth Warren that's the strongest card that she's had -- that she has because Massachusetts, I think we all know was going to go Democratic anyway. I think the liberal faction of the party I think they're already comfortable with Hillary Clinton to a certain extent, despite what Bernie Sanders might think. And I don't know what else she's bringing that Hillary Clinton couldn't otherwise get on her own.

KEILAR: Well --

LOUIS: So I don't know that she's going to be much of a choice.

KEILAR: Well, let me suggest something she might be bringing. Let's listen to something she said while campaigning with Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Watch out because he will crush you into the dirt to get whatever he wants. That's who he is.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I must say I do just love to see how she gets under Donald Trump's thin skin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Because, Emily, Elizabeth Warren goes after Donald Trump in a way that Hillary Clinton feels like she can't but that she certainly doesn't.

SUSSMAN: No, that's absolutely right. Elizabeth Warren is very strong on the attack on Trump, and it really does get under his skin when she attacks him. You see him respond over and over, which is actually the worst thing for Trump, for him to be doing. Because the more that his character is revealed and the more that his temperament is revealed, the less comfortable people feel with him as commander- in-chief and as the president who would be overseeing the economy, or missiles, foreign relations.

The more people see of him, the less they like him, which is the thing that Warren really does bring to the ticket. Look, she is smart as a whip. And she is a rock star within the Democratic Party. So she would bring that. But Clinton looks like -- I mean, it looks like she's vetting a lot of really great candidates that would bring a lot there. I mean, I think Errol is right in saying that if you're looking to bring a piece of the constituency that's not necessarily there, Warren is a --

KEILAR: Yes.

SUSSMAN: Before there were Sanders, there was draft Elizabeth Warren.

KEILAR: Yes.

SUSSMAN: So that loyalty is very strong. That seat is there, but those supporters really are moving over to Clinton irregardless of whether Warren is the nominee or whether she's not.

KEILAR: I want to talk about this controversial tweet that Donald Trump put out there. It's of Hillary Clinton and it featured a six- pointed star which, obviously, that evokes the Star of David, and the same graphic appeared 10 days earlier on an Internet message board that was loaded with anti-Semitic conspiracies and neo-Nazi ideology. So before deleting the original tweet, Trump actually tweeted the same graphic with this significant alteration, a circle instead of a star.

Scottie Nell, what happened here?

HUGHES: Well, I think it's ludicrous to sit there and hold the Trump campaign accountable for a meme that was posted on a message board.

KEILAR: He tweet -- this wasn't a re-tweet. This was --

(CROSSTALK)

HUGHES: But now that you're even bringing it up that was posted on a message board, I mean, memes right now are across the board on both sides of the aisle --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: But he grabbed something, you're saying, and it just didn't occur to him and he put it out there?

HUGHES: Well, I'm -- you never -- first of all, you don't know -- first of all, it was this Saturday, it was a campaign. But we're looking at a graphic right now, so if you're going to be angry at Mr. Trump for this, then you need to go after Microsoft uses that same graphic. Playdough who uses that same graphic. This is -- if you want to go to the technical side, it's not the Star of David as many are sitting are pointing out, because the Star of David has to have two designated triangles. This is not what this is, but yet, if you want to sit there and try to cause hate, try to paint Mr. Trump as anti-Semitic considering he has Jewish family members --

KEILAR: Well, no, but if he made a mistake -- if he made a mistake, why doesn't he just say he made a mistake?

HUGHES: But -- but the thing is, he corrected it. It was not necessarily -- I personally would have looked at it and said, OK, that could look like it, but this just shows the politically correct society that we're in, and this is much ado about nothing. And like I said, the people that trust Mr. Trump and know where his heart is and knows that he loves Israel, that he -- he loves the Jewish people, his grandchildren are Jewish, know that this is just people trying to sit there and paint a false narrative of him being anti-Semitic, and I think it actually makes -- it actually cheapens the other side who's trying to paint it with false narrative.

KEILAR: And we are going to talk more about that. Thank you, guys, so much for chatting with me, Errol Louis, Emily Tisch Sussman, Scottie Nell Hughes.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

KEILAR: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I am Brianna Keilar in Washington, in for Poppy Harlow. And we begin with breaking news out of New York City where an explosion seriously injured a young man in Central Park. A witness says the blast left the victim's leg, quote, all but detached.