Residents on edge after attacks on MI Synagogue, VA college

0:00Say you've always wanted to have a backyard oasis. Here's the thing, if you get smart with your money, you can do things like that. With Empower, you can start making the most out of your money, so you can go out and live a little. Isn't that why we work so hard to have some fun with our money? So use Empower and get good at money, so you can be a little bad. Join their 19 million customers today at Empower.com. Not an Empower client paid or sponsored. Hello, I'm Ozempic. And I'm other GLP ones, kind of like him. Hey, are you shaking a maraca? Nope. I'm shaking the pill version of Ozempic, which no one should ever do except in ads like this.

0:32A nice disclaimer. Hey, thanks. Ask your doctor about which FDA-approved uses of the Ozempic pen or pill may be right for you. Call 1-833-OZEMPIC or visit Ozempic.com to view the medication guide and learn more about Ozempic semaglutide tablets, 9 mg, and Ozempic semaglutide injection, 2 mg. There's a pill version of Ozempic! Welcome to The Beat. We are tracking the breaking news on two tragic attacks today. First, FBI and local officials are imminently planning to hold a briefing on the synagogue attack in West Bloomfield, Michigan. A suspect driving a car into Temple, Israel. A suspect died after a confrontation with security officers, one of whom suffered minor injuries.

1:13At this hour, we have no reason to think anyone else was hurt. The situation under control, and we're awaiting that briefing. Also today, really just quite a few hours earlier, a gunman opened fire at Old Dominion University in North Fork, Virginia. One person killed, two others hurt, the gunman now dead. He had served in the Army National Guard and was previously convicted on attempting to support ISIS. The FBI is now the lead investigative agency investigating this as an act of terrorism. The shooter has been identified as Mohamed Baylor Jalloh. In 2016, Jallo was arrested and pled guilty for attempting to provide material support to ISIL.

2:01I'm joined now by Mark Santiem, his now investigative reporter. He has been covering the synagogue attack for us today. And Mark Claxton, retired NYPD detective, who can weigh in on both of these incidents. Mark, when you look at that link to a past terror history, what do you see here?

2:23Mark Klaxon, yes, sir. That happens. Yeah, it does. The common link is the sense of what's going on around the world and a lot of the activity that's going on abroad. and the difficulty that our Federal Bureau of Investigation, our federal enforcers are having with timely, efficient, effective intelligence gathering and dissemination as well. That's an ongoing problem. And given the fact that there's been some significant changes in the manner in which they operate and a lot of the personnel have a tremendous amount of experience and gathering intelligence information and analyzing it and thereby allowing others to plan and plot how to best secure ourselves, we're in a quandary, we're in a bad position and feeling especially vulnerable given today's events and what could happen moving forward.

3:30And Mark Claxton, how do authorities look at something like this in the wider context of a war with Iran, multiple countries involved. Unlike, say, some past examples, this president has not sort of gone out of his way to give a great or clear doctrine. He hasn't, pursuant to that, said much about whether we're in this for reason A, B, or C. If you look at President Bush, talked a lot initially about how the United States was not at war with Islam, didn't view it as a religious war, etc. I'm just curious about that broader context. And then with your background, how the authorities look at that and look at people like this who have previously been tied to what they have as whatever, a misshapen pseudo-religious terror agenda.

4:22I think the law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies are going to be methodical about assessing what each individual incident actually is and what evidence comes out that can support the position that these things are directly related to the actions, the military actions abroad, and those items that you mentioned. I think it's a methodical investigation that's required. It's one that's going to be engaged in. And really, I think the general concern is whether or not we still have in our federal agencies the expertise, the knowledge base that has served us well for many decades in dealing with what is currently our situation.

5:13And I think there's reason to be concerned, and I'm sure folks will continue to be concerned, given that there seems to be escalating tensions abroad, and that could bring in other other individuals, other entities into this already very tenuous and dangerous situation. So it's a severe, vulnerable feeling for the nation and one that requires expertise in the law enforcement and intelligence community. And stay with us. Mark is here in our newsroom. What is your reporting finding today? All right. We're following up on West Bloomfield, the attack that was on Temple Israel, The latest, what we're catching, what we're being told, the suspect drove a truck through the doors and was driving through the hallway of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield.

6:03They have a security team. Retired law enforcement, we're told. Retired law enforcement opened fire. At least nine shots were fired. The suspect was killed. One person was injured. That was a member of the security team. He was actually hit by the truck. We're told he was knocked unconscious. He's expected to make a full recovery. Right now, the investigation is going through trying to learn more about the suspect, about a possible motive. We are told by law enforcement sources that investigators may have found explosive materials in the vehicle, not necessarily a functional IED, but components.

6:37So they're looking at that. The ATF is on scene, as well as the FBI, working with local police. We're expecting a briefing shortly from Sheriff Michael Bouchard. He's from the Oakland County Sheriff's Department. Sort of bring us up to speed on just what is happening. But incredibly, no children. There were children inside. There was a half day parent teacher conferences. There were no no children were injured. No employees. I'm told by people on the ground, some of the employees from Temple Israel took off. They ran to other businesses. Those businesses sheltered in place. The community sort of coming together, taking care of people.

7:08But again, right now, the focus is on the suspect. What was the motive? This investigation is really just beginning, Ari, in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Yeah, you mentioned we've got eyes on that briefing when it does happen. And you say motive. What are they looking at when it is at a synagogue? So motive and targeting a synagogue is obviously one of the investigative questions. questions. Absolutely. And we know that anti-Semitic crime is on the rise. It's been on the rise. Law enforcement sources believe Temple Israel is one of the largest synagogues there in Metro Detroit. They believe this was specifically targeted.

7:44This was also less than an hour away, Ari. Back in September, there was a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, in Grand Blanc, Michigan, that the suspect drove a truck into the church during service and opened fire. And it's again, about an hour away from there. So looking at this, looking at attacks on faith-based locations, we know the NYPD, we know LAPD. I was talking to Los Angeles police. They've been monitoring, they have police departments across the country monitoring what's happening in West Bloomfield, Michigan today. They're taking measures, moving assets to protect synagogues and other places across their cities, because obviously what's happening here in West Bloomfield, Michigan, a very quiet, peaceful community is resonating throughout the country tonight.

8:29And it's very early days, of course. We'll see what we learn as we go. But same question to you on a different attack, but one that involves the potential overlap of issues in the Middle East and religion and Islam and Judaism. How do authorities ferret through that? Whether this is something that was planned anyway or already in development, or does this relate to the moment we're in right now. We are a country that's carrying out operations in the Middle East. You're absolutely right. And so just speaking with law enforcement sources, they're going to go through the suspect's social media. They'll go through and speak to any family members, neighbors, see if there were any comments made.

9:06You remember since the Iran war, since the Middle East conflict, we have seen a shooting in Austin, Texas. And looking at those sort of the background of that, that investigation's happening. Old Dominion you have, you had the IEDs, the alleged IEDs that were thrown in New York City that didn't go off. So there are multiple investigations now and law enforcement from across the country sharing information, the FBI, you have federal, state, and local working together to share information to see what is and was the motive in some of these attacks. Mark Claxton, we spoke about the other attack today, but your views or anything you want to add on the synagogue attack?

9:47It's just important that people should be aware that there has been a history of federal authorities sharing sensitive intelligence information with houses of worship and other sensitive locations too. So I'm sure there'll be an increase in information sharing, and that may have actually been helpful in the synagogue making the determination to have its own security force there. So you never know, but that's very valuable, that information shares. And it is ongoing with the houses of worship, schools and other sensitive locations as well. And again, to you, Mark Claxton, what do you say to people out in the country who have to go about their lives and we move piece by piece off the evidence?

10:31There's a lot we don't know yet, but about precautions people can take if it feels like anecdotally or otherwise, we could be in a heightened security environment and we read and there's other articles, again, to be clear, unrelated so far to this today, but we've seen other reporting and intelligence about potential wider threats that could emanate from Iran or how people are feeling. How should people go about their lives? I think people should pay attention and just be mindful that you want to act and go about your lives based on facts and those things that have been established clearly and not a rumor and conjecture.

11:05And I think, as always, we should remain vigilant and aware of our surroundings on a daily basis. And given the times that we are in now and the actions abroad and some of the religious hostilities back and forth, it is imperative now that we really place an additional emphasis on being aware, situationally aware, and make sure you have your plans in order. If there are some emerging plans that can be helpful for you and your family in the event that there is some kind of emergency response that has to take place. Yeah. Thank you, Mark Claxton. Mark Santee has been covering this for us. We are watching that briefing room.

11:47As you saw, we will bring viewers that briefing on this important event today live when it happens tonight. Coming up, we turn to Iran. We have two experts there. We're back in 90 seconds.

12:08We are awaiting this press conference on the synagogue attack in Michigan. You're looking at a live set of pictures here out in West Bloomfield. They have been preparing, as you can see, to have the authorities come out. We will bring that to you live when it happens. Well, we turn now to the Mideast. The strikes there have been threatening economic upheaval. Donald Trump claimed that this was all wrapping up. He started the week trying to calm the oil markets with words, but they are reacting to a lot more than words at this hour. Overnight, we saw the images that sent shockwaves across the global markets.

12:41These are oil tankers on fire in the Persian Gulf after Iranian strikes. It has also stopped ships, of course, from reaching the crucial Strait of Hormuz, the key waterway, which is about 20 % of the world's oil supply, moves through there. 19 tankers and cargo ships have been attacked. International Energy Agency says the war is now causing the biggest ever oil market disruption. However you count it, it is big. Biggest ever, biggest in a decade. Donald Trump trying to downplay what the markets clearly see as important. Now, Iran also has a new supreme leader who is making his first remarks today, and he's talking about keeping that crucial oil strait closed.

13:23The attacks occurring after Trump urged captains to show some guts. Trump claims falsely when you look at the very videos of the reality here in the real world, he claims the Straits where you see these very dangerous fires burning, he claims they're safe. The Straits are in great shape. We've knocked out all of their boats. They have some missiles, but not very many. I think we're in very good. We're in very good shape. the straits are not in good shape oil prices are up again they're hovering around a hundred dollars per barrel gas price is up as well rising 60 cents per gallon since trump began this attack on iran within the last two weeks i'm joined by brian katulis who's worked at the national security council the state department and the pentagon he is with the middle east institute welcome thanks for having me harry uh how bad is it in the strait there for the oil markets and how foreseeable was this?

14:22It was entirely foreseeable. Iran has signaled for decades that it would actually take the measures that it is currently taking. And we don't seem to have a contingency plan to deal with what has been effectively the shutdown of this crucial waterway that has 20 % of the world's energy supplies going through it. So it's baffling to me that we're at this moment right now, given all of our military power and our might. And I think it's a consequence of President Trump not actually having a clarity of objective about what he's trying to do with the use of military force in Iran right now. You have how much the war is also costing,$11 billion in just these first 12 plus days.

15:07And that estimate doesn't include the cost of the operation, like building up the hardware and personnel. So this this ticket price is going to go up. I want to show in that context Donald Trump and how he talks about or tries to frame what this is. Take a look. You just said it is a little excursion and you said it is a war. So which one is it? Well, it's both. It's both. It's an excursion that will keep us out of a war. You've said the war is, quote, very complete. But your defense secretary says this is just the beginning. So which is it and how long should Americans be? Well, I think you could say it both.

15:48How should we understand that? Again, it's part of his confusing game that he plays. It's sort of like that game of three card Monty, where street tricksters try to take people and their money from them. And it's really baffling to me because the situation has actually not gotten better over the last few days. And Donald Trump actually might want to think about releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files to distract people from how bad this war is going because it's hitting people at home. It's hitting in their pocketbooks. And I just filled up my gas tank a few days ago. I think a lot of Americans are hurting.

16:22And what I fear is someone who follows the Middle East and talks to people in the region every day and several times a day, that there is no clear end in sight. There are attempts at back channels. There are attempts to sort of lead to an off ramp here. But what we have is strikes without strategy, a strategy to actually make our partners safe, make our troops safe and make even Israel safe. And you need to have that bigger long term end goal, which we don't have. Right. The strikes are incapacitating part of Iran's ability to hit out. And beyond that, what is the United States air war like? I mean, presumably they have these plans over a certain amount of time.

17:04We mentioned your credentials and working on both Pentagon and diplomacy side of this. Do they run out of targets? What is the plan if this is kind of the stalemate and Iran is taking it? I don't think they have a plan here in terms of the political end state. For certain, our top general, General Kaine, he has a clearly precise objective, which is to eliminate Iran's capacity to impose a threat on its neighbors. That's a pretty tall order when you think about the drunks that they have, when you think about the ballistic missiles. The Gulf states were hit with more than 3 ,000 of these projectiles over the last two weeks or so.

17:43And they've been pretty resilient, you know, and we've hit them quite a lot. But Iran has many more drones, and we have much more expensive military hardware. So I'm not sure they've thought through this. And there is some risk if you consider the possibility that we might want to get any nuclear material that could be left over, because that was one of the rationales for this war. and there is still material there. It was not obliterated. You can't do that from the air. You can't do that with naval assets. You actually, if you want to do that, you need to introduce someone on the ground to actually secure that, or you need to actually think about a diplomatic pathway with whatever remains in Iran.

18:21And so what do the off ramps look like for the U.S.? I think the first off ramp, and I hear this again from partners in the region, Arab countries, is that they're trying to talk with whomever exists in the regime right now today to figure out if there's some sort of cessation of hostilities. And remember, President Trump actually quite did this quite successfully in September, October of last year in getting to that ceasefire in Gaza, which was long overdue and the hostage release. So part of this is actually having, again, a clearly articulated end state. President Trump has said regime change at one point.

18:55Now he seems to walk back on it. You need to stick to something so that you can empower your team or to work with partners like Oman or the UAE or Saudis who talk to Iran every day to try to figure out if there's a way to de-escalate it. The key point here, Ari, is there actually aren't any very good military solutions in the long run. And this is what the countries in the region say. They don't like Iran. They don't like this regime. But they have to live in the same neighborhood with them. So I think what they're looking for is something that is a sustainable result, not this strikes without strategy and we're hitting things, but without a clearly defined end goal of what Iran or the region will look like.

19:35Yeah. Brian Katulis, thank you very much. As folks can see, we are monitoring the Michigan synagogue attack briefing there. We will bring that to you live. Coming up, Dylan Radigan, a veteran of this very network on Trump's economic problems and the energy crisis. That's next.

19:56Say you've always wanted to have a backyard oasis. Here's the thing. If you get smart with your money, you can do things like that. With Empower, you can start making the most out of your money, so you can go out and live a little. Isn't that why we work so hard to have some fun with our money? So use Empower and get good at money, so you can be a little bad. Join their 19 million customers today at Empower.com. Not an Empower client paid or sponsored. There's a pill version of Ozempic. Hello, I'm Ozempic. And I'm other GLP-1s kind of like him. Hey, did I hear there's a pill version of Ozempic?

20:28Yep, you sure did. Ask your doctor about which FDA-approved uses of the Ozempic pen or pill may be right for you. Call 1-833-OZEMPIC or visit Ozempic.com to view the medication guide and learn more about Ozempic semaglutide tablets, 9 mg, and Ozempic semaglutide injection, 2 mg. There's a pill version of Ozempic! That once was a magic. Sorry! At Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, we don't do fairy tales. We do real, like real adventures to Mars or real journeys into the future to see how imagination can really take us to strange new worlds. And real trips into the past where we meet heroes and legends way ahead of their time.

21:12Real rockets, real astronauts, real adventure, all at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Discover something real. We're awaiting authorities holding a press conference on that synagogue attack in Michigan that we've been reporting on. You can see some action in the room. These are live pictures, but the authorities have not come out yet. As I've mentioned, this is a fluid situation given the attack earlier today. When they come out to brief, we will bring that to you live here on MS Now. I want to turn to the wider impacts of this Iran war and Donald Trump's energy crisis. The Iran attack has had many impacts, but some of the widest fallout that we're seeing is clearly in these energy markets.

21:55And for a discussion on this, I want to turn to a veteran journalist and expert in that financial department. Dylan Rattigan was founding host of CNBC's Fast Money Show, which specializes in the markets. He hosted a show on this network. He was a financial journalist at Bloomberg. And he's now an entrepreneur heading up reservations.com and Euphoria Sneakers. I can see you over the years there. Thanks for being here. My hair color has changed. Yeah. Well, the more things change, it won't change again. Well, so the thing is, so Fast Money was the big thing back in the day. And the centerpiece of it was the Straits of Hormuz.

22:31I mean, I can remember, you know, I don't know, this is too long ago, decades ago. And there would be this entire sort of dramatic thing, like as long as they don't close the Straits of Hormuz. And the reason there was never a war with a gun. As I had to warn everybody, we do have the start of this press conference. Let's listen to the authorities there in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. This community works together hand in glove. This community takes care of each other. And we have been communicating regularly. I have been texting the chief, not just in West Bloomfield, but every place that's got significant houses of worship, Jewish facilities, synagogues, temples, you name it, over the past two weeks.

23:11Obviously, what happens around the world sometimes affects us. So we have to think about it, be prepared for it. So we've been talking. I text actually the head of security from the temple two days ago and communicated some information to him. So the first thing the community should know is that we not just today work together. We work together all the time, our state, our federal and local partners. Number one. Number two, we train. In our world, preparation is important. We hope and pray it never happens, but that's not a strategy. Preparation is. So all of us have been training together for many years for active shooters or active assailants, mass casualty events.

23:51And tragically, we've had way more than our share. So that is ongoing and is in place. The third thing is important to note, no children and no staff were hurt. So we know there's evil in the world and we know they only have to get it right once. And sometimes they do. They may not come on anybody's radar and they show up, but what happens when they show up, that's where training and preparation kicks in. The security staff did an amazing job, an amazing job. And you'll get some of the details on that, but they stopped the threat. No kids, no staff were hurt. Now, there were some injuries and things that had to be taken care of.

24:33One of the head of security was taken to the hospital. He got knocked down by the car when it breached the building. And we've had 30 law enforcement officers taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation. So a lot of our folks from my SWAT team and other agencies are still in treatment because that building became engulfed in the car. And we'll learn all of that through the investigation, why it became engulfed in flames, what was the ignition source. And I think the ATF is taking the origin of that source and origin of the fire. But in any event, what it did, it caused terrible, terrible smoke in that part of the building.

25:13And so when all of our people collectively went in that building to search out the threat to remove innocent, a lot of them took in significant amount of smoke inhalation and they're at the hospital being treated. So I also know you're going to have a lot of questions. A lot of those questions can't be answered at this point because it's super preliminary in the investigation. You know, all of us have thoughts of maybe why this happened, but we don't operate in a world where we can presume something. We have to determine it through investigation and specificity. And that is a work that's in progress as we speak.

25:50All of us will work seamlessly together to get the answers, and then it will be called what it is. Obviously, it's a hateful, terror, terror, terrible thing, right? But what drove this person into action, that has to be determined by the investigation. We can presume, but we have to find those facts, and that's going to happen over the next days in time. So we won't be able to get into a lot of the evidentiary questions, but we're available to make sure the community understands that we are still on a very heightened platform. And the most important thing that I would tell the community, don't be afraid to call us.