welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king in washington. frank james is now a suspect in that new york city subway shooting. a massive man hunt that now includes u.s. marshals under way this hour. as new yorkers are back riding the subway. new york police say james, a 62-year-old black man, is the shooter who turned 36 street station in brooklyn into a trauma ward, and he is still at-large this hour. police are now analyzing a huge volume of evidence from the scene. 33 shots fired, two smoke

grenades, a hatchet, fireworks, and more. and we just learned officials found no explosives or additional weapons in that u-hal u-haul rented by the suspect. the new york subway chief now says police have three angles of mr. james entering the subway system. part of what raised alarms among police officials, james posted videos on social media in which he talks about mass shootings, race, and violence. the shock of the shooting still very fresh today. you see it here. people spilling out of a train car, dodging bullets, blood splattered on the subway car, on the platform. ten people were shot in all, incredibly all are expected to survive. let's get straight to the scene. jason, what is the latest? >> reporter: well, the investigation this hour, john, still very much focused on following up on leads that may

in some way hopefully lead to the whereabouts of frank james. so what investigators are going to be doing is following up on anyone who may have known him, may have known places where he'd like to hang out. in addition to that they'll be looking at his previous addresses. we know he has a previous address in philadelphia, the same city where he rented that u-haul van. also following up on an address in wisconsin as well. in addition to that they're taking a very close look, john, at his social media presence, his profile there a lot of disturbing videos, things he had posted on social media including talking about mass shootings. he uploaded a video just on monday on youtube just a day before the shooting where he talked about killing people. in addition to that something about his background he posted a video where he showed a nyc id card and in addition to talking about his state of mind he posted some sort of a video in

the past about having posttraumatic stress. once they looked through all of that, that might provide investigators with some sort of lead for the motive for the shooting. the focus on trying to find out something about where this man might be at this point. we do know the u.s. marshals have joined the search along with the fbi the nypd as well as a number of other agencies. john? >> jason carroll with important new reporting. thank you very much. let's get some expertise and insights now. the former fbi special supervisor agent and the former. priority number one is where. what tools do you try to use? they found the u-haul at the scene. no additional weapons in that. what are you using, credit cards, past addresses, still in the new york area or how far

could he be by now? >> great question, john. what are we using? his credit cards. right now his associates, his family, his friends, anyone that knows him is being interviewed. they're asking to track and trace via a third party phone, executing warns for residences he lived at in the past, what they can find to try to id him. from a physical surveillance looking at plate readers, ez-pass. if he came in from philadelphia with that u haul van, the verazzano bridge which takes you into downtown brooklyn where he boarded the train, the n train. looking at ez pass, plate readers, maybe he had another vehicle that was preplanned.

he might be in the wind going the other way. we can't rule out that he may be looking to do another attack. we can't eliminate the possibility right now. >> there was a key shift overnight. he was a person of interest yesterday. they found the u-haul keys on the scene, found the van outside. he was a person of interest. then they crossed an vorn investigative line using the definition suspect. how do you get from point a to point b there? >> that's a line partly for public consumption. you don't want trial by media. there are high-profile cases when they name someone as a suspect, turns out to be wrong. if you look at the resources to hunt someone like this, think of a spider web around a human being. a debit card, a credit card, you can't rent a car, you can't go to a hotel. you can't go to friends and female, email, text, anytime you get on a device it's identified with you. they will go up on you.

this individual's ability to fill a tank of gas, to go into a hotel and say i want a room is limited. the web gets tighter and tighter, john. >> that assumes you don't want to get caught, a glock 9 millimeter, two nondetonated smoke grenades, a hatchet, and the youtube videos. as an investigator what stands out to you? what were you most interested in finding out who is this guy and what comes next? >> his mantra. all those items he posted on social media, back to the pled guilty convicted bomber of the attempted 2010 bombing of times square he left a manifesto. 2012, the attempted bomber of the federal reserve in new york city.

left a videotape manifesto. to the bomber of the 2016 chelsea bomber, chelsea, new york, that being, he left a written mais pocket e used electronic methods. these are people who wanted to espouse and let the world know what they were up to, what their motivation was and in some cases, and this might be mr. james' attempt knowing he's going to get caught. that's why he may have left all those items there. his weapon, his box of pyrotechnics, his key, credit card. there's reason behind that and motivation and to establish a platform for the world to understand what he was politically trying to gain as a result of this attack. >> now you're in a complicated investigation, the suspect is at-large trying to pull off a mass violent event.

you're worried there could be another one. jason carroll talked about the card he had from an educational program. addresses in philly, addresses in wisconsin. so you have new york city, new york state, federal and now philadelphia and pennsylvania, authorities all involved in this plus probably more, right? >> you think about the number of things you have to look at and the number of people and think of every credit card, every person he's spoken to, friends, family, neighbors. that's an investigative for every location. even the minor details, are there fingerprints that don't belong to him? if you look at the years of data, phone calls, emails, et cetera, the investigative volume is huge. >> one of the reasons they were able to identify him as a person of interest and now, of course, changed to suspect is video. you mentioned the potential of

video when he's passing through toll booth areas. there are several angles of him coming into the system. >> they have overnight identified three perspectives on the wanted -- the fellow who is wanted for this crime coming into the station. again, our video has been for the nypd and they continue to come through other video trying to track him through the system of new york. >> important to have video of a person entering the system. you can confirm this individual did enter the system and this is a person we're looking for. what now? how do the camera assets that are everywhere in our society come into play in an investigation once you talk about exiting the station?

>> huge. all those videos are very important in order to piece the time line together and reverse order. we know what time the incident occurred, what time he entered the subway system via kings highway in brooklyn, and will piece that together with other cctv, atm cards, monitor doorbells, and tie that in with license plate readers and ez pass readers over the verazzano bridge. why that's all important it establishes a good time line but it also gives you a good identification on who this individual is. to go back to 2014-2015 of the boston bombing, the boston marathon bombing in 2014, they were caught because of cctv video. they were referred to as black cat and white hat. that's what they were wearing. investigators now they were not only a person of interest but our suspect. that will give the american public a good idea what this

individual looked like and will start the tip lines and phone calls coming in. >> peter licata, grateful for your important insights as we follow the track of the investigation. cnn now live on the ground outside of the hospital where the victims of the brooklyn subway shooting are being treated. how vulnerable mass transit might be. throughout history i've observed marketshaped by the intentional and unfoseeable.

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wrong with him. he said there was urine in the seat, don't sit there. and so i took that as, you know, almost a courtesy. >> cnn's alexander field joins us outside nyu hospital. help us understand what more do we know about the victims and survivors here? >> reporter: john, look, there were 29 people who were hurt, extraordinarily all are expected to recover. that is extraordinary given the fact the shooting lasted two minutes and 40 or 50 people according to eyewitness who is were on the train who had literally nowhere to run to and nowhere to hide once the shots started to ring out. many of the shots obscured by the thick cloud of smoke billowing through the train car. a lot of the passengers said they were disoriented, couldn't figure out what was happening, hearing loud pops. they thought it was fireworks but quickly realized it was something far more serious. a 27-year-old man booarded the

train. he said he was sitting next to the shooter. here is how he describes what happened. >> i walked in, i sat down and the guy next to me, i had a glimpse of his face. all you see was black smoke bomb going off and then people rushing to the back. a pregnant woman was in front of me. i was trying to help her. i didn't know there were shots at first. she said i'm pregnant with a baby. i hugged her and the bomb burst continued and i got shot in the back of the knee. this makes me never want to ride a train ever in my life. >> reporter: we can certainly all understand not wanting to ride a train after this. another woman who was on the train talks about seeing the blood stains on the ground when some of the passengers started to really understand the extent of what was happening. many of those injured were injured in the rush to safety but, john, ten people were shot, seven of them males, three females, and five of the injured were children. as young as 12 years old, just

riding the train to school on what should have been a regular morning, john. >> alexander field, grateful for the live reporting. it is remarkable nobody has life threatening injuries. breaking news with our jason carroll. police put the investigation together, jason, what are we learning? >> reporter: a real key part of this investigation, they have linked the gun found here at the scene of the shooting to frank james. indeed, it was purchased by frank james. this gives some background and some insight into how that -- how frank james moved from a person of interest to a suspect because apparently once investigators, once police decided they could definitively link the gun that was found to james and they could elevate how they categorized him from a

person of interest to, indeed, being a suspect in the shooting. investigators are also telling us that they're learning more about his purchases including the gas mask. remember, john, many of those who were out here during that horrific shooting saying the suspect was wearing some sort of a gas mask. well, investigators now say that frank james did, in fact, purchase a gas mask from ebay or something linked to his ebay account. so that's a second part of the puzzle here. the nypd continues to talk to witnesses, to talk to known family members of james. they have executed search warrants. again, all in an effort to try and find him. john? >> jason carroll, appreciate the hustle on the breaking news. police now linking that gun saying it was registered to the suspect, frank james. jason, thank you so very much. we'll stay on top of the investigation. next, we go live to ukraine. new satellite images show a major russian armor buildup in the east.

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there are several important developments today in the ukraine war. the leaders of poland and three baltic nations are in kyiv today there to show solidarity with the ukrainian people and with its president, president zelenskyy, who you see there. in washington the biden administration poised to announce new security assistance. this addition, we're told, in

the ballpark of $700 million. and new images from the battlefield include this, social media video showing what appear to be cluster munitions in kharkiv, more than 100 nations have signed on to a ban against using cluster bombs. matt rivers is live in lviv. what's the latest on the ground? >> reporter: well, john, what we're seeing especially out of a city like mariupol, for example, in the refugee crisis, internally displaced people continues to dominate the headlines. what we're seeing in mariupol, for example, is only a few hundred people able to make it out of the city. this as there's dueling propaganda campaigns between russia and ukraine. ukrainian officials would not call what they're saying propaganda but look at the destruction, look at the damage in this city more than 90% of the city's infrastructure damaged or destroyed at this

point. only a few hundred people this week so far able to make it out despite the fact that ukrainian officials say 180,000 people both in the city itself and in the surrounding suburbs need to be evacuated according to ukrainian officials. the russian state media claiming at this point some 1,000 ukrainian marines have surrendered. of course that is not something that could be verified by cnn at this point with ukrainian officials, john, saying that there continues to be fighting. the u.s. assessment is there continues to be a contest for that city that the people, the ukrainians fighting for mariupol have not yet given up. >> let's get a closer look at the shifting battle. retired brigadier general, thank you for your time. the battle is shifting. we've been talking about this for days. i want to show you the new

satellite images of russian forces. this is just across the border in russia. you see the armor buildup and a pretty large tanks, armored personnel carriers and other transportation vehicles coming in there and you can come across the border into ukraine and the convoys coming down. we're all expecting a major armor battle in the east. what does it east you when you see a buildup of that scope? >> we're seeing in belgrade trying to position 40 tactical groups to push down from the north into this key town that needs to be on everyone's mind is in the center and it provides access to luhansk, to dnipro and controls the entire central region. there is going to be an open

pitch battle on tank friendly terrain but that town is going to be absolutely key and the russians will do everything they can to push as much of those 40 battalion tactical groups into this town. >> i bring it in closer. when we saw the onslaught on kyiv, the ukrainians controlled that. crimea, you see the highways. if the russians can control this, ukrainians are trying to come from other parts of the country. also the railways as well as the highways but you have if you look here, russians in position in kherson in the south. these are forces already deployed in a base area there in kherson. in crimea the russians took, unlike the fight for kyiv when you're talking about the fight for the east the russians

already have a significant military buildup. what do they need to push them out as opposed to keeping them out? >> a race of logistics to push forward support from the north and the south that you just highlighted but the push of the ukrainians to be able to use their extensive rail network and also the river, the dnipro river provides a key access, a logistics asset the ukrainians can use. there is a race to push as much equipment down to kramatorsk. >> they are asking weapons suppliers how quickly can you produce more of the equipment going in, $700 million package coming oumt of the biden white house. that stuff mostly comes in this way, into ukraine. the fight is over here. what else -- what else can the

united states and the nato allies do and where else is there a different way to -- you talk about the logistics chal challenge, to get things to the east more quickly. >> if we get the authorization from congress. we are spending $300 million a day on the war in iraq. thus far $2.4 billion, another $700 million. that's still less than ten days of the war in iran. we need to get as much equipment over there, talking about artillery, m-1 tanks that could be positioned in poland and other places to push t-72s into ukraine. talking about s-300s, air defense artillery systems, more drones like the switch blade drone we've talked about before. we need to make sure the ukrainians can leverage technology to their advantage. they have a technical edge on the russians and we need to make

sure industry continues that trend. >> one of the things i want to brip the pictures of the russian forces back into play. a lot of people have talked about we haven't seen anything like this since world war ii, meaning this many armored vehicles, this many tanks moving. the ukrainians say what they believe will play out in the east will be as brutal as the tank wars, the ground wars of world war ii. do you believe that? >> absolutely. i think it will be a pitch battle, open terrain. true, long fields of fire from the russians but long fields of fire from the ukrainians. it's about pushing as much heavy equipment, artillery, tanks, helicopters, drones to enable the ukrainians to take the fight to the russians. the key town of krematorsk will control eastern ukraine. >> general, i appreciate your insights. up next for us juggling crises foreign and domestic, president biden accuses president putin of

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another escalation in president biden's characterization of president putin's conduct in ukraine. this one as the president also blamed the russian leader for a big problem here at home. >> your family budget, your ability to fuel up your tank shouldn't hinge on whether a

dictator declares war and commits xhen side half a world away. >> let's start with the international part of that first. vladimir putin is the villain but increasingly for inflation, political problem here. let's start with the international part, the president talked to reporters later and said that is my personal opinion. the international lawyers will decide if it meets the test but we've seen this increasingly, his personal disdain. >> this is an escalation of the rhetoric. we've called him a war criminal, say he shouldn't be in power. genocide is a word the white house had not been using until yesterday. i thought it was interesting that while he made clear this was his personal feeling, they were being clear there's a legal process but he's not walking away from it.

he thinks this is the case and is going on. >> which puts pressure on the united states government -- >> a very clear message to putin, to other allies about how joe biden is feeling. >> let's listen to the escalation because it's at the end the president adds to the domestic issues. this has been building. >> i think he is a war criminal. a man who, quite frankly, i think of as a war criminal. for god's sake, this man cannot remain in power. >> your family budget, your ability to fill up your tank shouldn't hinge on whether a dictator declares war. >> that part yesterday is interesting in the sense that inflation is a major problem and it's hugely a political problem because he's in charge at this moment.

putin's price hike, he calls it, that's true, gas prices have gone up because of the war in ukraine but it was a problem before the war as well. >> and that's the thing. you've heard this message from democrats going back two weeks, the putin price hike rhetoric. you're right, it does create a villain. however, democrats are in charge. and that is who is getting blamed by voters for these price hikes both at the pump and at the grocery store and every faction of their life. they were promised a return to normalcy after covid, after two really hard years and it hasn't happened and whether or not it's completely joe biden's fault, that is up for debate, particularly democratic voters would say, no, that's not true. it's falling at his feet, at the democrats' feet because they

control washington. >> some argue the biden spending, the stimulus, including larry summers, but the base of it is the global economy shut down during covid. the numbers, to your point, the democrats are in charge. this is the consumer price index for march to march, if you will. all items up 8.5%. or you can look at it this way, whether it's fuel oil, gas, hotels, air fare. that's are all things you encounter every day. maybe your wages did go up but they probably didn't go up as fast as the prices went up. >> wages are up, jobs are up, the white house wants to point to that. people buy milk every day, drive by a gas station every way. you look at polling, prices are the number one thing people are looking at, prices, the economy, the biggest concerns for voters and republicans who are feeling

optimistic have been disciplined about hammering biden on this, really putting a lot of pressure on democrats. so part of what you saw yesterday, the other thing that happened in iowa the president announced this effort to try and lower gas prices or another move to try and help with gas prices. they're trying to find any way they can to get at this. >> this is why you see this road show where he's in iowa, will be in north carolina, is supposed to address inflation there and talk about manufacturing. trying to sell what they are trying to do to mitigate these problems. >> options are limited. >> showing the early part when he said inflation would be transitory, that hurt him. now showing i get it, i'm trying to do everything i can. it may not be enough to do anything quickly. we shall see if it works. up next a brand-new book including fascinating new details of donald trump's big lie including an inside look at his failed effort to persuade

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some fascinating new details today about just how donald trump believed he could pull off his plan to overturn the 2020 election results. trump planned it this way. first get georgia's governor to

recertificate and then trump could get supporters to follow suit. details are included in a new book "this will not pass: trump, biden and the american future" by jonathan martin and alex burns. trump detailed his thinking to others including the top senate republican mitch mcconnell as he tried, the former president, tried to enlist others to help his scheme. manu raju, in trump's view brian kemp was the first domino. if he could flip kemp, the other pieces would fall into play. >> this is right after the election, right after he had been called for donald trump to have lost the race, that joe biden won. in trump's mind then and now there was widespread fraud, the election was stolen, joe biden did not win and they needed to do something to change that. what he told leaders in this call according to the book is

brian kemp was key, that brian kemp had to decertify what happened here and then as a result of what happened in michigan and pennsylvania they would follow suit and he tells the republican leaders, mitch mcconnell and others, that he had spoken in two other states and had some assurances they would also follow suit. mcconnell didn't respond and said we have to focus on georgia, the senate race happening on january 5th. it was clear he wanted the candidates to listen to him but they didn't. >> this is from the book, setting this up to blame the governor and the secretary of state, he's always setting up somebody to blame it on. the effort to flip brian kemp, of how mitch mcconnell was part, trying to flip everybody, help me, help me, help me. didn't work. >> mitch mcconnell since then,

since mid-december, december 15th when he declared joe biden had won the race, acknowledged reality, at that point in the aftermath he has not spoken with donald trump since. but trump and mcconnell were speaking a lot in the aftermath of the november elections. trump was still saying the election was stolen. i asked mitch mcconnell on december 1st, 2020, why he is not speaking out against trump's claims that he actually won the election when mcconnell claimed election integrity was the focus. why have you not spoken out amid the claims the election was rigged and stolen? >> as i've said repeatedly we have this government for the next three weeks for sure and what i'm focusing on is trying to accomplish as much as we can during this three week period with the government we have right now, there will be an

inauguration january 20th. >> clearly not answering there but what the book shows is privately there was a strategic reason he was staying silent and not calling out donald trump. he was worried trump would turn around and do something to sabotage the campaigns of david purdue, kelly loeffler in the run-off on january 5th to maintain the senate republican majority. trump could take them down, cost them the majority and the day before january 6th the insurrection at the capital. trump was peddling these things. >> here is more on mcconnell's mind-set on the book. everybody around him are trying to get him to do the right thing. two of the lawyers telling trump he could figure this out or mike pence could deny the election cockamamy, no legal basis.

they weren't the only two. he was hoping the voices of reason whoever they might be would get to trump. >> the voices in trump's ears and trump wanted to hear that said don't. >> looking forward to the book. vladimir putin says he will achieve his mission in ukraine. '. smart bankers. convenient tools. one bank with the power of both. chase. make more of what's yours. [♪] if you have diabetes, it's important to have confidence in the nutritional drink you choose. try boost glucose control®. it's clinically shown to help manage blood sugar levels and contains gh quality protein itto help manage hunger andlp masupport muscle health.s try boost® today. out here, you're more than just a landowner. you're a gardener. a landscaper.

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ukraine and russia are offering different takes on the prospect of talks to end the war. a top aide tells cnn just this morning talks are, quote, very difficult but he says they are ongoing. the russian president, vladimir putin, uses the term dead end and says he will win the war. >> translator: we have again returned to a dead end situations for ourselves and for all of us. the military operation will continue until it's fully completed and the objectives that were set at the beginning of the operation are achieved. >> jill, for anyone who was hoping vladimir putin will look for an exit ramp , i'm in this to win this. pretty sober. >> reporter: they are. john, i really think obviously he's talking to the world but this is a domestic argument. the war is not going well and is

a pep talk to the russian people. war will be okay because we're going to win in the end and then i think also he's trying to convince russian people those sanctions, which are really hurting the russian economy are hurting the west maybe even more than russia. there were messages, including the timing. he made those comments on the 64th anniversary, the first man in space and to remind russians we've done great things in the past. i think it's just trying to keep people behind him at this point. >> a fascinating point. >> president zelenskyy says let's have a prisoner swap and president zelenskyy says i have, in his view, somebody important to vladimir putin, someone who was under house arrest, a for er member of the ukrainian

parliament. they view him as a putin plant. is he important enough for putin to say you give me him, i'll give you back ukrainian prisoners of war? >> reporter: in the end i'm not so sure. people are dispensable in a very sad way but also it could be medvedchuk is not worth doing something that would undermine vladimir putin's main objective right now which is to try to take back the donbas, to take it over. there may be people he could trade that he really wants but my tendency would be that he's not going to do any deals. he'll just plow ahead. >> just plow ahead, you say. jill, one of the questions has been did vladimir putin miscalculate, did he think the west was divided, the french have elections this year, a new

german chancellor, you have today the prime minister of finland talking about a new report submitted to parliament about the question of would finland join nato. on russia's border. finland saying it, too, will drop its neutrality and think about joining nato. how will that go over with vladimir putin? >> he'll be infuriated. russia has already made some real threats against those two countries if they join nato so i think that's very serious especially finland. finland has been the simple for not being aligned and it does have a good relationship with russia to think finland would join nato would be really quite revolutionary and i think it would be very worrisome to

putin. >> as always grateful for your insights. we'll continue the conversation. thank you for your time today on "inside politics." i hope to see you back tomorrow. you can listen to our podcast. download "inside politics" wherever you get your podcast. big breaking news day. cnn continues its important coverage right now, dana bash picks up. enjoy your afternoon. hello, i'm dana bash in new york. ana cabrera is off today. two major stories this hour. the intense manhunt under way, now more than 29 hours after a mass shooting on this new york city subway. police today are naming 62-year-old frank james as a suspect. they say james unleashed smoke grenades inside a train car just before firing 33 shots. ten people