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Instant Reaction: Cybertruck Blast Suspect Identified · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news, the Mitchropolitan Police Department
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  Speaker 1: of Vegas holding that press conference, FBI agent responsible for
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  Speaker 1: that division that area. The Vegas Sheriff also basically, of course,
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  Speaker 1: covering what happened when a Tesla cybertruck exploded outside the
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  Speaker 1: Trump Las Vegas Hotel. That was hours after a deadly
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  Speaker 1: attack in New Orleans, French Quarter on New Year's Eve
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  Speaker 1: that killed at least fifteen people, injured dozens. The cyber
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  Speaker 1: truck explosion, killing the driver and injuring seven others. But tim,
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  Speaker 1: now we know the driver, We're getting more information about
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  Speaker 1: what happened leading right up to that explosion.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the Las Vegas Police have identified a Matthew Leiveelsberger
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  Speaker 2: as the suspect, but they still need to get DNA
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  Speaker 2: to identify the suspect. The suspect did have a gunshot
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  Speaker 2: wound to the head before blast. The sheriff did note
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  Speaker 2: that he believed it was self inflicted, but has yet
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  Speaker 2: to be confirmed. Las Vegas Police Carol also not aware
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  Speaker 2: of any other subjects in this case.
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  Speaker 1: I think what's also key as these two two incidents
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  Speaker 1: happened so close to one another in terms of timing
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  Speaker 1: that connections. Not ready to rule in, not ready to
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  Speaker 1: rule out, is what we heard from that press conference.
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  Speaker 1: Comment made that very strange similarities with the case in
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  Speaker 1: New Orleans in terms of what happened in Vegas. The
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  Speaker 1: motivation unknown for the cyber truck blast at that Vegas
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  Speaker 1: Trump Vegas Hotel. That coming from the FBI, no ideology
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  Speaker 1: leading to either the President elect, nor to Elon Musk
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  Speaker 1: nor to Tesla, So there is still more to be known.
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  Speaker 2: You should know Tesla staff is planning to arrive this
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  Speaker 2: afternoon to assist with the probe. We just heard that
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  Speaker 2: from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. The FBI also
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  Speaker 2: saying that the blast is being investigated globally, but there's
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  Speaker 2: no current evidence connecting the subject to a terror group.
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  Speaker 1: But I still say, will say just one last point
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  Speaker 1: that confident. At least we're hearing from the Las Vegas
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  Speaker 1: Metropolitan Police Department that they are confident in the safety
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  Speaker 1: of their community. At this point, let's get to the
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  Speaker 1: broader security implications for the United States. Nick Wattams is
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  Speaker 1: back with US National Security Team leader at Bloomberg News.
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  Speaker 1: He joined from our DC Bureau. A lot going on.
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  Speaker 1: We continue to get some more elements to this story,
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  Speaker 1: more information, Nick, But what are you hearing from your
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  Speaker 1: sources or from the US security and intelligence areas and
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  Speaker 1: departments about where this goes, or what are the many
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  Speaker 1: big questions that maybe are still out there.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it looks like the biggest question now has essentially
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  Speaker 3: been answered, which to a lot of people's mind was
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  Speaker 3: what was the connection between these two incidents. Obviously during
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  Speaker 3: the press conference there you heard the sheriff say that
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  Speaker 3: there were certain similarities, but officials are now saying essentially
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  Speaker 3: that they see no direct connection between these two attacks.
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  Speaker 3: There had been some reporting that the two suspects there
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  Speaker 3: were both obviously US military veterans, may have overlapped briefly
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  Speaker 3: at a base in the United States during their time
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  Speaker 3: when they served. But for the moment, that looks like
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  Speaker 3: it was a little bit of a false trail and
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  Speaker 3: there was no though that was you know, a lot
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  Speaker 3: of people's immediate instinct. The other thing that really struck
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  Speaker 3: me from that press conference was them saying they are
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  Speaker 3: looking globally so trying to figure out what putting each
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  Speaker 3: of these attacks in their context. Obviously, there was the
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  Speaker 3: New Orleans attack, the suspect had an Islamic state flag
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  Speaker 3: in his car. Authorities said no such indication on the
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  Speaker 3: Las Vegas one, but it looks like authorities are not
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  Speaker 3: ruling out the possibility that, you know, these may have
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  Speaker 3: not been loan actors, that they might have had some
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  Speaker 3: support network.
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  Speaker 4: So that's still a big unknown that we're looking into.
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  Speaker 2: What surprised me or was What really struck me nick
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  Speaker 2: during this press conference, especially compared to the one we
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  Speaker 2: saw with the FBI and other law enforcement officials out
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  Speaker 2: of New Orleans earlier today, was that in New Orleans,
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  Speaker 2: officials were very quick to say this was terrorism. It's
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  Speaker 2: being treated as terrorism. We didn't hear that from this
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  Speaker 2: press conference this afternoon. How do you read into.
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  Speaker 3: That, well, a very orny and sensitive issue, how these
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  Speaker 3: attacks get labeled terrorism or not. I would suspect that
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  Speaker 3: the reason for the New Orleans attack being labeled that
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  Speaker 3: way was they found that Islamic state flag in there.
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  Speaker 3: There was a lot of conflicting information, of course, going
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  Speaker 3: around in the run up to that, whether the suspect
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  Speaker 3: was a migrant had come from abroad, when in fact
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  Speaker 3: we learned he was a US citizen, had served in
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  Speaker 3: the army for many years. But you know, when you
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  Speaker 3: see that flag, that Islamic State flag in the car,
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  Speaker 3: that's a pretty telling indication.
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  Speaker 4: Of course.
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  Speaker 3: The big question there again is was this suspect inspired
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  Speaker 3: by the Islamic State, essentially self radicalized, as has happened
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  Speaker 3: with some attacks in the past, or was this some
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  Speaker 3: bigger operation or part of some bigger operation by the group,
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  Speaker 3: which we do have indications has sort of come back
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  Speaker 3: after the punishing campaign by the US to essentially eliminate it,
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  Speaker 3: that there has been something of a resurgence. However, at
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  Speaker 3: this time, I mean again stressing there is still so
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  Speaker 3: much we don't know.
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  Speaker 4: About either of these attacks.
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  Speaker 3: I think in the case of the New Orleans when
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  Speaker 3: there is no immediate evidence that this was planned or
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  Speaker 3: orchestrated with the Islamic State, which still has a toe
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  Speaker 3: hold in Syria, and all indications suggests that the suspect
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  Speaker 3: there had essentially been self radicalized.
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  Speaker 4: But we're still trying to answer all those questions.
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  Speaker 1: No, absolutely, and Nick, you know, I feel like we
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  Speaker 1: do have a fairmount more answers as you are laying
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  Speaker 1: out and as we just heard in that press conference.
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  Speaker 1: But what's top of mind for you in terms of
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  Speaker 1: kind of the big question that still needs to be answered.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think, you know, really there's the very interesting
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  Speaker 3: fact that both were military veterans. At a lot of
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  Speaker 3: issues are coming to light about the about the background
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  Speaker 3: of the New Orleans attacker and the strain he had
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  Speaker 3: potentially been under at home. We know a lot less
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  Speaker 3: about the attacker in Las Vegas, though, I did think
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  Speaker 3: it was also very interesting from the press conference there
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  Speaker 3: that they said, hey, you know, they believe the effectiveness
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  Speaker 3: of the bomb was not a sort of in keeping
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  Speaker 3: with the level of experience. They thought that the suspect
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  Speaker 3: there had, which I think is obviously an indication, as
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  Speaker 3: officials have said that he was a special operator in
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  Speaker 3: the US military. So but certainly the fact that both
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  Speaker 3: appear to be American citizens, both army veterans, one we
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  Speaker 3: know served in Afghanistan. We're still trying to get details
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  Speaker 3: of the Las Vegas attackers military record, but there are
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  Speaker 3: some similarities there that really begs some big questions, and
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  Speaker 3: we're going to be trying to figure that out over
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  Speaker 3: the next couple of days.
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  Speaker 1: Right that one response by one of the officials at
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  Speaker 1: that Vegas press conference media conference comment made that very
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  Speaker 1: strange similarities with the case in New Orleans what happened
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  Speaker 1: in Vegas. So still some more answers that, Well, we'll
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  Speaker 1: all be looking forward to it. Nick, really appreciate it.
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  Speaker 1: Nick Wadhams, he's National Security team leader right here at
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  Speaker 1: Bloomberg News, joining us right there from our bureau in
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  Speaker 1: the nation's capital.
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  Speaker 2: From Washington, DC, now to Detroit. I want to bring
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  Speaker 2: in Bloomberg News Auto reporter Keith Notton for more on
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  Speaker 2: this and then some other Tesla news that we learned
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  Speaker 2: a little earlier today that Tesla's annual vehicle sales dropped
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  Speaker 2: for the first time in more than a decade, to
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  Speaker 2: spite a year and push that sent deliveries to a
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  Speaker 2: record in the fourth quarter. Tesla's shares selling off as
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  Speaker 2: a result. We're going to get to that in just
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  Speaker 2: a minute, Keith, but I do want to start with
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  Speaker 2: the news just moments ago that we learned from officials
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  Speaker 2: in Las Vegas that members of Tesla's staff are on
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  Speaker 2: their way to Las Vegas to assist law enforcement agents
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  Speaker 2: with finding information from this cyber truck that yesterday had
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  Speaker 2: an explosive device or explosive devices in it. I'm curious
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  Speaker 2: what types of information they can get from what happens
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  Speaker 2: inside of Tesla, what happens outside of teme Esla, because
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  Speaker 2: for people who aren't familiar with these vehicles, these have
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  Speaker 2: quite a few cameras recording at all times on the
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  Speaker 2: outside well for sure.
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  Speaker 5: So you know, modern vehicles, particularly Tesla's, are highly sophisticated.
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  Speaker 5: They have a lot of devices that record what goes
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  Speaker 5: on in the car, cameras being one of them. And
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  Speaker 5: so while they're not for the level of a black
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  Speaker 5: box on a jet or something like that, it can
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  Speaker 5: provide a lot of important information if you're doing an
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  Speaker 5: investigation like this. You know, we have two incidents yesterday,
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  Speaker 5: the one in Vegas with the Tesla cybertruck and then
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  Speaker 5: the attack in New Orleans on Bourbon Street, and that
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  Speaker 5: was with a Ford F one fifty lightning. I've been
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  Speaker 5: on the phone with Ford this morning, and they are
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  Speaker 5: also cooperating with authorities to provide them any information they
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  Speaker 5: can glean from that F one fifty lightning. So the
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  Speaker 5: way modern cars, particularly electric vehicles, so these are both
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  Speaker 5: electric vehicles, both rented from trurob anyway, and so they
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  Speaker 5: can provide all sorts of interesting and helpful data as
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  Speaker 5: this investigation goes on, I got to.
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  Speaker 1: Ask you, Keith. Okay, and again forgive us folks, because
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  Speaker 1: we're trying to be very careful here and really just
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  Speaker 1: talk about facts and stuff. But is it interesting that
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  Speaker 1: both were electric vehicles?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah?
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  Speaker 5: Well, I mean one way to look at that, And
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  Speaker 5: again I don't want to go too far into the
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  Speaker 5: speculation exactly, but electric vehicles, in the case of the
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  Speaker 5: New Orleans attack, they are powered by a battery that
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  Speaker 5: is very heavy that adds thousands of pounds of weight
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  Speaker 5: to the vehicle. So you know, if you're looking to
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  Speaker 5: maximize destructive properties, more weight will do that.
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  Speaker 2: Keith, what do you make of the Turo connection here?
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  Speaker 2: I think a lot of folks might be familiar with
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  Speaker 2: traditional places to runt a vehicle, but are now hearing
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  Speaker 2: about Turo for the first time.
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  Speaker 5: Right, And Turo, you know, it can be a little
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  Speaker 5: bit like automotive Airbnb. Sometimes it's individuals who are renting
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  Speaker 5: out their exotic cars. Turo has been known for exotics
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  Speaker 5: and for electric vehicles. We don't know, or I don't
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  Speaker 5: know the details of how these two were rented and
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  Speaker 5: where they come from. I know that in the case
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  Speaker 5: of Forward, from my conversations with them, they're trying to
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  Speaker 5: help with that, but it is it is a rental
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  Speaker 5: traditionally that has rented more exotic cars, different cars, electric vehicles,
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  Speaker 5: not your standard hurt zenatas.
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  Speaker 1: All right, kind of leave it on that note. Keith Nulton,
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  Speaker 1: thank you so much. Auto reporter at Bloomberg News joining
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  Speaker 1: us in Detroit.