Return to Transcripts main page
Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Biden Addresses Nation from the Oval Office; FBI Says Shooter's Motive Still Unknown, Investigation Ongoing; Secret Service Says No Plans to Tighten RNC Security. Aired 7:50-9p ET
Aired July 14, 2024 - 19:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: All right, and we are just a few moments away from that Oval Office address. Our breaking news coverage continues now with AC 360.
[19:50:50]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Good evening.
We are about 11 minutes away from President Biden's Oval Office address to the nation, a day and a night since the near murder of Donald Trump, the most serious attempted presidential assassination since Ronald Reagan was shot and less than a day from the Republican Convention in Milwaukee, where CNN's Jake Tapper is tonight.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Anderson, former President Trump arrived here in Milwaukee this evening to lingering concerns about safety and security here at the convention.
Later today, the Secret Service said it will not tighten security here, specifically, they say they will not bar firearms from the so- called soft perimeter, which lies just beyond the hard security zone and controls around the venue here, even though yesterday's would-be assassin, Thomas Crooks managed to set up a rooftop sniper's position in just such a zone with a clear shot at the former president, just about 150 yards away.
COOPER: And Jake, we are learning more in the wake of the shooting, of course, at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, just north of Pittsburgh, which killed one spectator, seriously wounded two more.
Today, Pennsylvania's governor revealed that the man shot to death by a sniper was a firefighter. His name was Corey Comperatore. He died shielding his wife and two daughters from gunfire.
TAPPER: And Anderson, we also learned that the FBI believes that the dead gunman acted alone, that he used an AR-style rifle purchased lawfully by his father and now, they are trying to determine the motives behind his sick and twisted act.
He was 20 years old. He lived just south of Pittsburgh, worked at a nearby nursing home. He was described by a co-worker and former high school classmate as a "the sweetest guy," someone who "seemed happy."
COOPER: Well, much more to learn obviously about him.
We will, of course, have much more throughout the hour on the investigation and repercussions and be joined by presidential historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin who has written about and lived through the terrible string of the assassinations and attempted assassination starting in Dallas in 1963.
Right now, as we wait to hear from President Biden, we are joined by House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Mr. Speaker, thanks for being with us tonight. What are you hoping to hear from President Biden tonight?
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): Well, it is a dark time in the history of the country. This is a dangerous time and we've been suggesting that all elected officials from the president on down really try to draw the country together.
We need a unified message. We need to turn the temperature down and I think it is a time for moral clarity. I mean, I think everyone in elected office has a responsibility in all of this and we need to remind this country that we are all together.
There is no place for this rhetoric that has heated up the political environment and it leads to this kind of action and we all have to do our part. So I hope that he will take that seriously.
COOPER: How do you think that happens? Because this is something that is happening on all sides of the political aisle from Democrats, from -- certainly from Republicans. How does that happen?
JOHNSON: Look there are offenders on both sides, of course. We've got to get back to civility in this country.
I mean, I am one that tries to work on that in Congress. There are others as well, but here is the thing. I mean, it is an objective truth that Donald Trump is probably the most persecuted and attacked political figure in history. Certainly among presidents, maybe at least since Abraham Lincoln, Civil War era, and that takes a toll.
I mean, when my colleagues go out, Democratic colleagues and say democracy will end, the Republic will be in an emergency stage if Donald Trump wins for president, it is just not true. It is another election.
And when they say that kind of rhetoric and they heat did up like that, there are people out there that take these things to heart and they act upon them.
Politicians are not responsible for that, but we do have a responsibility to be responsible. I mean, we are not asking for much. Let's just dial the rhetoric down. Let's have a vigorous debate. That's what our country is built upon, but we have to see one another as fellow Americans and not enemies.
COOPER: I do want to point out just for fairness, I am not doing it to get into an argument about this, but the former president himself has also used that kind of rhetoric. He said on June 27th, Joe Biden is a threat to democracy, a threat to the survival in existence of our country itself. That's certainly the same kind of language you're talking about.
[19:55:10]
JOHNSON: Listen, everybody is prone to overstatement, okay. I mean, a few days ago earlier this week, I mean, Joe Biden actually said, we need to put Donald Trump in the bullseye. I mean, right?
I don't think either of those men meant to imply anything beyond just rhetoric, but the point is the rhetoric has consequences when you have a heated environment and you have political division in this country like we have.
In the age of social media, everything is amplified and everyone can go on and turn the dials up every day. We need to work on bringing that down so that we can have thoughtful debate and we can have policy debates and discussions and not all the rest of this.
COOPER: It is extraordinary that this was able to take place. Obviously, there is a failure somewhere of law enforcement, unclear who at this stage. But the fact that a shooter was able to get a high position that close with a line of sight on the former president at a major event like this is shocking.
JOHNSON: It is shocking and I've called last night for hearings. We are going to do this as quickly as possible, get the answers that the American people deserve.
What happened here? I mean, I think pretty clearly there was a security lapse at least and we need to find out, for example, why were drones not used just in the area? I've not gotten a satisfactory answer on that yet. I mean, that seems pretty obvious that you would do that so you could see people on rooftops.
This one from the vantage point of the stage was just seemingly an easy thing to monitor and they didn't. Of course, we've all heard the eyewitness accounts of people on the ground who saw a guy with a gun on the rooftop. Why wasn't it stopped sooner?
Lots of questions. We have more questions than we have answers but Congress is going to get down to the bottom of this.
COOPER: Speaker Mike Johnson, I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you -- Jake.
JOHNSON: Thanks, Anderson.
TAPPER: Anderson, we are just about five minutes or so away from when President Biden is supposed to deliver his address to the nation. As soon as we are told, we will bring that to our viewers and listeners live.
With me here in Milwaukee, CNN political commentators Ashley Allison, David Axelrod, David Urban, also CNN chief national correspondent, John King.
John, what did you make of what Speaker Johnson just said?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think he is absolutely right in saying this is the time for everybody to step back and be Americans and a reprehensible thing happened yesterday and it is a moment of reflection.
You do hear, I think Anderson's question was right in that no matter what your politics, no matter what you do for a living, whether you sit here like us and we are on live television sometimes, and occasionally, your tongue gets out ahead of your brain, we should think about what we say.
Whether you're a postman, whether you're having political debates at the office, you should think about what you say because words matter. And I think we see from time to time at horrible events like this, this one is on a bigger scale obviously because it is the former president of the United States in the middle of a presidential campaign. But Speaker Scalise, kids in schools, let's not forget kids in schools.
Somebody -- something happens to somebody that makes them step over the edge. It might be different circumstances in different places, but something happens to somebody that get them to step over the edge. And I would -- when these things happen, there is a lot -- it should be policy conversations.
I covered the White House for 10 years. It has been a long time since I covered the White House, but I covered the White House for 10 years. I was never at an event with a building like that where you didn't see snipers on all the roofs.
TAPPER: Yes, that was a surprised me.
KING: That's just one -- when I saw this, the diagram and there was no sniper on that -- there were snipers on this roof, but not that roof. That is 101 from those days.
But in terms of the tone of the country, it is hard, it is hard. There is a Convention Hall behind us. Conventions are, they should be about red meat and about great political conversations and about great policy conversations.
But at a moment like this, I hope everybody, whatever your perspective, would just take five minutes and just think, what do I want to say? What animates me most? And maybe should I be a little bit more careful about my words?
TAPPER: There really is a dehumanization that we've seen in politics long before yesterday, whether it is people mocking when Senator Rand Paul was assaulted, people making fun of Paul Pelosi. Some big wigs in the Republican Party making font of the serious assault on Paul Pelosi, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband.
It is a time for everyone to dial it back. DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I would just -- there is no doubt about it, but we live in the age of social media where hate and outrage and conspiracy theories are actually profitable and we've seen politics sort of mirror that.
And this is a huge challenge for the country and listen, I give the speaker credit because I think his tone as speaker has been different in a way, and I think he deserves credit for that, but the reality is that there are things you can't erase.
[20:00:07]
I mean, we all remember January 6th. We remember the president's rhetoric then. Just a few weeks ago, he retweeted a tweet in which Liz Cheney was accused of treason, and it said re-Truth if you want televised military tribunals. And he did. So I think the speaker should talk to the president as well because he has done his share to put us where we are.
TAPPER: David?
DAVID URBAN, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Yes, I was just going to say, look, Axe, you and I will disagree on this. There's no excuse -- that's like blaming the victim a little bit here, right? Like so somebody gets assaulted, you blame the victim, well, she shouldn't have been wearing that outfit or that man deserve to being hit by a car or whatever.
TAPPER: He's not saying that.
URBAN: Indirectly he is. But you know, you got to condemn this act, you got to condemn it outright, right? There's no justification for it.
AXELROD: David, I've condemned it from the very beginning. I abhor that, there's no place for that.
URBAN: But you can't --
AXELROD: But I don't say -- it's also not true.
URBAN: You can't say January 6th is the reason the president almost got killed yesterday.
AXELROD: Did I say that?
URBAN: You kind of did.
AXELROD: I said the speaker said we have to lower our voice and I'm suggesting that he should speak to his own candidate as well.
URBAN: And I agree. And we should speak to lots of Democrats, lots of Republicans. The president of the United States had some rhetoric, heated rhetoric.
AXELROD: Well, let's start, let's do this. Let's start by not putting words in my mouth.
URBAN: OK, well, I'm not.
AXELROD: OK. All right.
URBAN: I'm just saying January 6th --
TAPPER: Let me bring in Ashley for one second.
URBAN: OK, but I just want to say, January 6th did not cause what happened.
TAPPER: I don't think he was saying that.
AXELROD: And nobody said that.
URBAN: OK.
TAPPER: I don't think he was saying that.
Ashley, I mean, we have right here --
URBAN: Well, we're still friends. Look, we're still friends.
TAPPER: Yes. And it's words, it's words, it's not violence, but it is a reminder that people in addition to watching what they say, maybe people need to listen.
ASHLEY ALLISON, FORMER NATIONAL COALITIONS DIRECTOR, BIDEN-HARRIS 2020: Yes, I saw someplace someone said our muscle for listening has atrophy, that we always need to have the hottest 140-character tweet, and you got to get out there first. I am still struggling to make sense of this moment because I've said it this morning, like Donald Trump and I have politics are not the same and all but --
TAPPER: Here we go. Got to interrupt. Here's the president.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My fellow Americans, I want to speak to you tonight about the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics, and to remember, while we may disagree, we are not enemies. We're neighbors. We're friends, coworkers, citizens. And most importantly, we are fellow Americans. And we must stand together.
Yesterday's shooting at Donald Trump's rally in Pennsylvania calls on all of us to take a step back, take stock of where we are, how we go forward from here. Thankfully, former Trump is not seriously injured. I spoke with him last night. I'm grateful he's doing well. And Jill and I keep him and his family in our prayers.
We also extend our deepest condolences to the family of the victim who was killed. Corey was a husband, a father, a volunteer firefighter, a hero, sheltering his family from those bullets. We should all hold his family and all those injured in our prayers.
Earlier today, I spoke about an ongoing investigation. We do not know the motive of the shooter yet. We don't know his opinions or affiliations. We don't know whether he had help or support, or if he communicated with anyone else. Law enforcement professionals, as I speak, are investigating those questions.
Tonight, I want to speak to what we do know. A former president was shot. An American citizen killed while simply exercising his freedom to support the candidate of his choosing. We cannot, we must not go down this road in America. We've traveled it before throughout our history. Violence has never been the answer, whether it's with members of Congress in both parties being targeted in the shot, or a violent mob attacking the Capitol on January 6th, or a brutal attack on the spouse of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, or information and intimidation on election officials, or the kidnapping plot against a sitting governor, or an attempted assassination on Donald Trump.
There is no place in America for this kind of violence or for any violence ever. Period. No exceptions. We can't allow this violence to be normalized.
You know, the political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It's time to cool it down. And we all have a responsibility to do that. Yes, we have deeply felt strong disagreements. The stakes in this election are enormously high. I've said it many times that the choice in this -- we make in this election is going to shape the future of America and the world for decades to come. I believe that with all my soul. I know that millions of my fellow Americans believe it as well.
And some have a different view as to the direction our country should take. Disagreement is inevitable in American democracy. It's part of human nature. But politics must never be a literal battlefield and, God forbid, a killing field.
[20:05:03]
I believe politics ought to be an arena for peaceful debate, to pursue justice, to make decisions guided by the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. We stand for an America, not of extremism and fury, but of decency and grace.
All of us now face a time of testing as the election approaches. And the higher the stakes, the more fervent the passions become. This places an added burden on each of us to ensure that no matter how strong our convictions, we must never descend into violence.
The Republican convention will start tomorrow. I have no doubt they'll criticize my record and offer their own vision for this country. I'll be traveling this week, making the case for our record and the vision -- my vision of the country, our vision. I'll continue to speak out strongly for our democracy, stand up for our Constitution and the rule of law, to call for action at the ballot box. No violence on our streets. That's how democracy should work.
We debate and disagree. We compare and contrast the character of the candidates, the records, the issues, the agenda, the vision for America. But in America, we resolve our differences at the battle box. You know, that's how we do it, at the ballot box, not with bullets. The power to change America should always rest in the hands of the people, not in the hands of a would-be assassin. You know, the path forward through competing visions of the campaign should always be resolved peacefully, not through acts of violence.
You know, we're blessed to live in the greatest country on Earth. And I believe that with every soul, every power of my being. So, tonight, I'm asking every American to recommit, to make America so -- make America -- think about it. What's made America so special? Here in America, everyone wants to be treated with dignity and respect, and hate must have no safe harbor.
Here in America, we need to get out of our silos, where we only listen to those with whom we agree, where misinformation is rampant, where foreign actors fan the flames of our division to shape the outcomes consistent with their interests, not ours.
Let's remember, here in America, while unity is the most elusive of goals right now, nothing is more important for us now than standing together. We can do this.
You know, from the beginning, our founders understood the power of passion, so they created a democracy that gave reason and balance a chance to prevail over brute force. That's the America we must be. An American democracy where arguments are made in good faith, an American democracy where the rule of law is respected, an American democracy where decency, dignity, fair play aren't just quaint notions, but living, breathing realities.
We owe that to those who come before us, to those who gave their lives for this country. We owe that to ourselves. We owe it to our children and our grandchildren.
Look, let's never lose sight of who we are. Let's remember we are the United States of America. There is nothing, nothing, nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together.
God bless you all. And may God protect our troops.
TAPPER: President Biden, speaking from the Oval Office, talking for about six or so minutes.
CNN's Dana Bash is joining the panel along with John King, Ashley Allison, David Urban, and David Axelrod.
Dana, what do you make of the president's speech?
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, he did what he needed to do to try to calm the very real anger, fear, tension that has been spreading throughout the country since what we saw yesterday, just 26 hours ago. I did think it was interesting that he didn't back down from the call for continuing with the core of democracy. I know we've seen a lot of Republicans blame him, blame Democrats for warning about the end of democracy.
He certainly didn't say that. But he talked about the tenets of democracy and the need to continue the discussion and the real debate using words and not anything else, and focusing on the end goal, which is November and the ballot box.
TAPPER: Ashley, what do you think?
ALLISON: I thought it was a good speech. I thought it was important. I agree that I'm glad he did not back down about what is at stake in this election and democracy. That's why we have elections so that people can give a point of view. He also was able to draw a story about the varying attacks that many people, whether they're Republicans or Democrats, have faced with political violence, whether it be the attack on Donald Trump today or around Paul Pelosi, or when students have been killed at schools or in synagogues, and they have right-wing manifesto language and the reason why they're doing it.
[20:10:11]
We must call it all out. And I think what I was saying before he gave the speech is, we're talking a lot about unity and standing together, an American, part of what that looks like is giving your perspective, but then truly listening to what somebody else is saying and instead of having a comeback as soon as someone says it, maybe ask a question and say, why do you think that? That's how you have a conversation. That was what I taught my students to do when they were in school, when they were getting arguments with one another.
So if you just bicker back and forth, we just are -- we're wasting time and putting lives at risk. And so now is the moment for us to all to rise up as adults, to show the coming generation how we can actually move forward, but we have to do with honesty and truth, too.
TAPPER: David, what would you make?
URBAN: I think the president did a good job. He looked presidential, gave a good message, reminded Americans that part of the people who stoke the dissent in our country are foreigners who want to see this exact thing --
TAPPER: Literally people across the ocean, like Iran, China, Russia. Right.
URBAN: President Xi, right, the IRGC, the Russians, these are the folks that want to see our country implode and fail. They relish the fact that Americans are fighting Americans. This is what they live for. And so for us to join together in moments like this, for the speaker, for Governor Shapiro today, for those people to rise up and say, this is a time for unity. We all need to look at ourselves and do a better job, be a better America.
This is a chance to be a better America and I applaud the president for saying that, taking that and saying it, and hopefully everyone goes back to their camps and really tries. I mean hopefully on the stage this week we're going to see a message of unity and a little -- you know, of looking for our best angels in America.
TAPPER: It was interesting because President Biden, David Axelrod, basically said the Republicans are going to attack my record. I'm paraphrasing here, but like -- and that's fine. That's what Republican conventions are for. And I'm going to go out and give my vision of the country, almost like a, not that he -- not that anybody was waiting for it, but almost a permission structure, yes. Let's have the democracy.
AXELROD: Yes, you're right, they don't need that. I think they --
TAPPER: They're going to do it anyway.
AXELROD: They're more than willing to comply. But listen, I think there are a couple of things here that we -- you know, just from a standpoint of what he was trying to accomplish. I think first of all, he was trying to fill the role that presidents should in a moment like this. This country is in distress and he wanted to speak to that distress and I think he did a good job of that tonight.
The second thing he wants to do is subtlety paint a contrast because one of the questions on people's minds tonight is who can calm this country? Who can stabilize it? Who can bring us back from this abyss that we reached the other day? And I think that with his words, he is trying to say this is what I am committed to. This is who I am. And in some ways he's inoculating against what we might see in the next four days in terms of attacks.
But, you know, in those aspects, let me just say one other thing. I know what's going to happen now, though, as we talk about calm and respect for each other and so on, right now on social media, people are going to pick up on some of the words that he garbled.
TAPPER: He said battle when he meant ballot. He said battle box.
AXELROD: Battle -- yes.
TAPPER: And he meant ballot box.
AXELROD: He said former Trump instead of former president Trump and so on. But I hope that they don't lose the spirit of his remarks in that but this is the problem we have today because that's how people -- many people digest information. You know, it's on TikTok, sorry, Dave. It's on TikTok. It's on Instagram. And it comes in small bites to support memes. And that's something the president has to come back.
TAPPER: On the matter of the -- before this horrible event yesterday, there was this big debate going on just to remind people what things were like in the before times where, you know, Democrats were discussing whether or not President Biden was the best person to be at the top of the ticket, and John, you have an interesting take in that this horrible event almost in a way kind of pushed those issues aside at least temporarily.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It hits the pause button. David is right, some of those Democrats who think the president should -- you know, should step aside and say I'm not capable of serving four more years, they will. Probably not immediately. Social media is a meaner place, but the elected Democrats, the activists who are trying to get the message to the president, you're not going to do it right now. This is a moment where it is refreshing to hear Speaker Johnson right
here, you know, Republican, Democratic partisans, the president of the United States, saying, everybody take a step back, everybody take a breath. How long will that last? Mark me down as somewhat skeptical. In part, in part because the president is right, this is a ceremony, this is a tradition, this is a vibrant, rich, necessary part of our democracy, these conventions. Will everybody triple check their speeches at this one and then the next one? I hope so.
[20:15:01]
But the thing that fascinates me is after months and months and months of a campaign that was relatively static, now we have these two giant events, almost unfathomable events. One, the attempted assassination of a former president of the United States at a political rally, trying to get his job back. Again reprehensible and just, wow, I mean, questions about law enforcement, but also questions about the mood, the tone, the coarseness of the country.
And it happens in the middle of a conversation about, can we get the president of the United States to step aside and not seek reelection 15, 16 weeks before that election? The pause button has been hit on that. And I suspect President Biden has probably now turned that volume down until after this convention because you're not going to do it at this moment publicly. There were people debating whether it was time to go public because they understand what the Democratic process would be. And so they want to start yesterday, not tomorrow on that process.
I believe the horrible event over the weekend, I almost regret talking about in the context of the political calendar, but it happened in a campaign year, will pause that conversation or at least turn the volume way down until after this convention.
TAPPER: Dana Bash, believe it or not, you and I were sitting at that table in Atlanta, Georgia, for that debate, the presidential debate that prompted this serious discussion by Democrats about President Biden. That was only 17 days ago. Two weeks and three days ago. Pretty incredible. But that discussion I suspect is still happening even if not as loudly and as public.
BASH: It is. I was just talking to a Democratic official before coming here. The discussions are still happening. There is definitely more of a pause, as you said, in part because I think the number one reason was because of what happened yesterday, but also because of the way that Democrats view President Biden's performance at the press -- the NATO press conference.
TAPPER: Thursday night, yes.
BASH: Thursday night, at the rally that he held in Michigan on Friday night. Those two events have gone a few steps to allaying some concerns, maybe not in the donor class, maybe not in the strategist class, but I'm told by, you know, some in the grassroots, particularly where he was, in Michigan. And so that's not nothing, and I do believe that he didn't give this Oval Office address in order to sort of further that. That certainly isn't an intention. I really -- I'm not naive, like he really is president and felt the need to be president in this moment as David said. But it doesn't hurt in his quest to try to allay concerns about him and about his viability.
TAPPER: One of the things that we've really seen in earnest from President Trump's defenders, though not from President Trump or his campaign, is finger-pointing that this happened to him, this horrible assassination attempt happened to him because of Democrat A or Democrat B or the corporate media this and that. And again, we don't know anything really about the motives behind the sick twisted behavior of this would-be assassin.
We don't know why he did it and yet we see this, and in my -- from my perspective that is as much a part of the problem as -- or it's part of the rhetoric issue.
URBAN: Yes, you know, John or Ashley said this before, right, just because you can tweet and send something out immediately doesn't mean you should. Sit back. There's no pressure. Nobody wants to hear from everybody what you're thinking in your head. So I think some of those things that were sent out and said in the early moments were particularly unhelpful, right? I mean, nobody knows what the motive was behind this young man's actions. I mean, he probably has some mental hygiene issues, and let's wait and see once this investigation unfolds.
Again, these are the things that our enemies like to stoke, right? Like to see division in our country. Let's wait, there's going to be an investigation. There'll be plenty of time for finger-pointing about who's to blame. But I think that you could say, to put a blame on a Republican or a Democrat, politician's words or what they did made a person do something, I think that's a pretty far stretch.
TAPPER: There will be an investigation, David Axelrod, and we will find out what inspired, incited, what this twisted young man, what was behind it.
AXELROD: We may find out. I mean, I'm mindful of this -- remember this mass shooting in Las Vegas.
TAPPER: Yes.
AXELROD: And we never found out what the motive was.
TAPPER: Right.
AXELROD: This in some ways it does seem to fit the pattern of other incidents we've seen where, you know, loners, young men who were in distress had a weapon and used it for reasons that were part of their struggle. But who knows what the reason is here, but to David's point, we sure don't know. And to your point, and one of the problems we have in our politics is our first instinct is to weaponize everything.
[20:20:09]
TAPPER: Yes. AXELROD: Everything, issues, comments, horrific incidents like this.
And that is the hardest thing to brittle because, again, we have this social media culture where you get, you know, you get clicks and followers for being angry and outraged, and for advancing these theories and maybe some political advantage or perceived political advantage. How do we defeat that? And that's really what our -- if you want to lead, lead on that, lead that discussion. That's what we need.
URBAN: I mean, like you said, the speaker, his speakership has been built on civility.
TAPPER: Yes. No --
URBAN: And he should be lauded. He has been a very moderating, calm and restraint voice in the Republican Party. And a lot of (INAUDIBLE) were coming here tonight and saying we need more civility, more unity.
TAPPER: And Anderson, one thing that we've heard from both former president Trump and President Biden is we don't know what happened and why this happened. We don't know the motives. Both President Trump and President Biden have said that there's a lesson there for every one of us. Let us wait for the information to come in. The act itself was horrific enough without us blaming anyone other than the sick twisted shooter.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And spin 26 hours since that assassination attempt, and still there is so much still to learn.
Let's talk about the investigation that is ongoing. CNN's Whitney Wild joins us now with more on what authorities have uncovered so far and what they're still trying to learn.
So, Whitney, where do things stand right now?
WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, there are many questions to answer. I think notably the Secret Service has not come out to answer those questions. They have not taken questions. There was a press conference earlier today, notably the director was not at that press conference, although she had been at previous similar press conferences. So big questions for the Secret Service.
They are further, Anderson, there are major questions about the security perimeter. So what I can tell you is this building where the shooter had shot former president Trump was outside the security perimeter. So the question in that moment becomes, was it checked and was a local law enforcement officer assigned to the building?
Anderson, when I went through this incident with several members of law enforcement, they looked at the proximity of that building, just 150 yards from the podium, and where the former president was speaking and were alarmed at how close that building was and that it was outside the security perimeter. So those are the big questions, Anderson. And moving forward, what we continue to press are sources on is in what way this building factored into the security plans. So for example, did they look at it and decide for whatever reason it did not present a vulnerability, for example? Was it locked? Was it impossible for someone to get inside? And in
what way that factored into the overall security plan? So certainly many more questions on that -- Anderson.
COOPER: There were claims made yesterday that that request for more security for the former president had been denied by the Secret Service. I know a number of people came forward yesterday saying that is not the case. I just want to follow up any more news on that today.
WILD: We continue to ask questions about that. But for the moment, Anderson, the Secret Service is vehemently denying that. This is a statement from the Secret Service's spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi. He said this, "There was an untrue assertion that a member of the former president's team requested additional security resources and that those were rebuffed. This is absolutely false. In fact, we added protective resources, technology, and capability as part of that increased campaign travel tempo," Anderson.
COOPER: And, you know, will there be any more federal protection added for the Milwaukee convention?
WILD: Yes. A source who's very familiar with the RNC planning says that there are going to be more federal agents added and they are going to be in a post-position. But what we heard from the Secret Service, as well as local law enforcement and Milwaukee, that security perimeter is going to stay the same. They are not broadening out the hard perimeter, but instead, Anderson, again, a source telling us who is very familiar with these plannings, that there are going to be additional federal law enforcement agents in post-positions around that area -- Anderson.
COOPER: All right. Whitney Wild, thanks.
More now on the gunman, CNN's Danny Freeman joins us from the Pittsburgh suburb of Bethel Park where the gunman Thomas Crooks lived.
So what do we know about this person?
DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, frankly, we did learn a lot more about this gunman in the late afternoon specifically from the FBI. And I'll just tick off some of the things that we have learned, not just from the FBI, but also from our CNN colleagues. First from the FBI, we now know officially that the FBI believes that this gunman acted alone, and that the FBI believes he had no history of mental illness.
Furthermore, over the course of the day, we've been reporting on this, CNN learned that this is a registered Republican who donated a small amount of money to a Democratic aligned group. We also learned from the employer of the gunman, which is just around the corner.
[20:25:03]
It's a nursing home that he was working as a dietary aide, and the nursing home said that frankly they had no problems with him and that he did pass a background check before being employed at that nursing home.
We also learned that he was ID'd from his father's rifle. This father was the owner of the rifle and initially after Secret Service neutralized this gunman he did not have any identification on him. Secret Service and other federal agencies were able to trace the rifle, though, found at the scene to his father. That was how they were able to identify the gunman here.
And then the last big piece of information that we learned today was that there were explosives found by law enforcement agents, both in the gunman's car and at his residence here in the Bethel Park area. It just all goes to show the scope of this investigation as folks try to learn what exactly happened here.
COOPER: Yes. All right. Danny Freeman, thank you. A lot more to learn.
With me here, former Secret Service agent Jonathan Wackrow and former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.
Jonathan, just in terms of that structure that the gunman was on, it was outside the security perimeter. Does that mean -- so what would that mean in terms of whose responsibility is it? Is it the Secret Service's responsibility to have somebody posted there? Is it local law enforcement? What is being outside the perimeter mean from a law enforcement standpoint?
JONATHAN WACKROW, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: Well, first of all, the Secret Service bears the responsibility for the security plan. They own it. They go in, they develop it through a threat-based methodology. I've talked about their methodology and how it's applied time and time again. So they own that -- the full accountability for this situation.
Let's talk about the secure perimeter. And when we talk about that secure perimeter, all we're talking about is the bifurcation of individuals that have been cleared through magnetometers so attendees, guests, it's really basic access control that is setting up the secure perimeter. That doesn't mean that the threat environment goes away once you go over that barrier. That threat environment extends out, you know, thousands of yards.
And every Secret Service agent knows that. Line of sight is -- mitigating line of sight is a basic tenet of every single side agent that's out there, whether you're new on the job or you have 25 years on the job. You need to eliminate that line of sight.
So there are some significant questions that need to be answered right now by the Secret Service as to why was this area of vulnerability -- and Anderson, it's important to note that by the fact that the counter-sniper teams were there means that in the preliminary assessment --
COOPER: And looking in that direction.
WACKROW: And looking in that direction. By the fact that they are there meant that there was a likelihood that someone made that determination that there was a likelihood that this long-range threat may present itself. So why on this day was that area left vulnerable and the final mitigation to address that threat was the CS teams. There's a lot of questions that need to be answered.
COOPER: We've also learned about a local officer who apparently -- it's clear from the videos, people we've had on our air, alerted local law enforcement that there was somebody on the roof. We've now learned that sheriff says a local law enforcement officer climbed up and was spotted by the shooter who pointed his gun at him and then the local law enforcement officer essentially sort of let go, drop down, wasn't able to engage with him because I assume he was just sort of peeking up from this.
I'm wondering what you make of that? And does the Secret Service then rely on local law enforcement to police that outer area?
WACKROW: I mean, so part of the security plan, the Secret Service can't do everything by themselves. They work with their law enforcement partners very closely every single day. We're doing it at the RNC right now. We do it on a day-to-day basis with, you know, all of our protectees. The instructions, though, of what you're asking of those local law enforcement officers is extremely important, right? What type of general or post orders were given, you know, specifically for that area to local law enforcement?
The fact that, you know, an officer had to climb up to that roof and then saw that threat should never have happened. There should have been officers on the roofs of those buildings. If they were within that danger close, you know, proximity, or at least that entire area should have been, you know, basically cordoned off and no one allowed near those buildings to even get up on it.
Again, this is about, you know, reducing that risk, it's risk management. And you have to be able to eliminate, you know, those threats and vulnerabilities right away.
ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: To Jon's point, the direction to those local officers is absolutely essential, right? They have to know what they're expected to do if they see something suspicious. In this case, as soon as they received a report from an attendee that there was somebody on the roof, particularly in a report that may have included the fact that the person on the roof was seen with a gun, that has to be radioed in to the command post immediately so that the Secret Service can then alert the counter-snipers or whoever is responsible for taking care of that threat.
[20:30:16]
So, you know, we don't know if that even happened here, if their response was simply limited to well, let's -- you boost me up and I'll take a peek over the roof.
COOPER: One of the eyewitnesses who talked to Erin Burnett in the last hour was saying that they had engaged the local law enforcement saying there's a guy on the roof and the local police were saying where. They were close to the building and therefore couldn't actually see what the people who were pointing to the guy could see because of the angle of the building.
MCCABE: Yes. I mean, it's just a series of really unfortunate decisions and it had that -- had that property, that point of vulnerability been addressed initially by simply posting one officer on that roof or even putting drones up in the area to give you a kind of a real-time feed as to what's going on. You know, we would not have been --
COOPER: And Speaker Johnson was pointing -- talking about drones and hasn't gotten an answer on that.
Andrew, just in terms of the investigation, the fact 26 hours now since this shooting, not much is really known or at least publicly known so far about this gunman's psychological history. I don't know if his father has cooperated yet with law enforcement. He had told the media he didn't want to talk to them until he talked to law enforcement. I assumed they've already interviewed him. There's a report that the FBI is trying to get access into his phone. How -- that's a difficult process, isn't it?
MCCABE: It can be quite difficult.
COOPER: To crack somebody's phone.
MCCABE: Yes. With the security that we now have on personal devices and the encryption that that security brings. It's not so simple as kind of brute forcing your way through a password. Is it may have been, you know, five or 10 years ago. So if they are struggling to get past the combination of the device and the operating system because it's both factors that make that challenging, that's why --
COOPER: It would be extraordinary if this person chose to do this, and there's no trail of a diary or, you know, I don't want to see manifesto to give it more importance than it really is, screeds, writing in a journal or conversations with somebody. I mean, everybody would leave a trail, don't they?
MCCABE: To some degree. We're a little bit desensitized on this issue because it is so common that mass shooters leave some sort of an official statement and they leave it someplace wanting it to be found after they're dead. But not all of them do that. And of course, the best example is Stephen Paddock, who is the Las Vegas shooter, whose motives and intents were never determined through a multiple year investigation.
I think it's likely that will learn more about what he was thinking about. Maybe these sorts of searches he was conducting online. Hopefully if he was interacting with other people and sharing his views we'll understand who those people are and we'll have an opportunity to investigate them as well.
But you've got to get into those electronic devices first. You've got to look very closely at things like social media. You've got to talk to family, friends, relatives, people who he interacted with at work. It's a slower process than -- I mean, it takes longer than 26 hours.
COOPER: Yes. Andrew McCabe, Jonathan Wackrow, thank you so much.
Jake is back next with more of a look ahead to the convention and later presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin joins me, ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:37:41]
TAPPER: President Biden speaking just moments ago from the Oval Office. He said, quote, "We can't allow this violence to be normalized," and that, quote, "It's time to cool it down." The remarks coming the night before the four-day Republican National Convention here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It's expected to attract tens of thousands of people, both pro-Republican and not so much. Yet an official with the Secret Service says there are no plans to tighten security.
Senior crime and justice correspondent Shimon Prokupecz joins us now from outside where I am in Milwaukee.
Shimon, what else is a U.S. Secret Service saying about security?
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you said, Jake, right now they feel that they have everything they need to keep the convention safe and certainly keep everyone safe. And we're starting to see some of that already tonight. I've been here since yesterday and finally today we're starting to see some of that here.
I want to show you, you know, these fences that they're starting to put up all across the downtown Milwaukee. We're starting to see some of these trucks that they're bringing in. Here you could see. And what's really happening at these checkpoints, at these areas, they're bringing in a lot of out-of-state officers. These are officers here from Indiana State Police. On this side, there are more fences.
This will be a car check, a place -- a checkpoint for vehicles and you see there's New Jersey State police here. So throughout the night, certainly we're expecting to see an increase in security here, especially because Donald Trump is now here. He's not far from here. He's staying at a hotel about 20 minutes or so away. The other thing is we're going to start to see that many of the roads around here start to shut down.
They're going to close to pedestrians. They're going to close it to other vehicles. So right now, the Secret Service says they have no plans to increase security. They expect to keep things the way they are. They have a plan in place and they expect to keep it the way it is. They see no reason right now, even after what happened on Saturday, Jake, to increase security, which sort of was a stunning moment today in the press conference that they finally had today. They didn't want to answer any of the questions about what happened on Saturday and really they didn't answer even any questions about the security here, except to say that they have everything in place, they've been working on the security here for quite some time and everything is in place. And they feel that it's good enough at this point.
[20:40:06]
TAPPER: And there's this area called the soft perimeter outside the arena itself. And firearms are permitted in the soft perimeter. Tell us more about that.
PROKUPECZ: Yes. So Wisconsin, Milwaukee, you know, this area is an open carry state. I mean, you are allowed to carry weapons here. Of course, if you meet the various criteria. So if you have a weapon and you open carrying that's fine. And also the state allows you with a license to carry concealed weapons. So it's pretty open. The gun laws here are pretty lax. This has some local officials, the governor certainly concerned, questions are raised today with the Secret Service if there was anything they can do, even with the local police.
And essentially, there's not much they can do about it. And so people, if you have a firearm and you bring it here, as long as you're out of some of the more restricted zones, the red zones or anywhere closer to the convention center. You'll be allowed to carry that weapon.
We sort of saw this also, you know, I remember in 2016 being in Cleveland, we saw that in Cleveland as well. So it's something that a law enforcement here is certainly prepared for. And the Secret Service is prepared for, but despite all this, Jake, and despite what happened on Saturday nothing with security here is changing.
And I also think it's significant that when we finally did hear from the Secret Service today, they refused to answer any questions about what happened on Saturday. I mean, they have a lot of questions they need to answer. They put up the local Secret Service official who's been running and coordinating security at the RNC. But it was really interesting because the Secret Service director is in town. She's here. She's in Milwaukee.
And despite that, she never showed up at the press conference and that is likely by design. I mean, they just did not want to answer questions about what happened on Saturday.
TAPPER: Shimon Prokupecz, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
Back now with our team here in Milwaukee. And look, let's talk about, let's set the scene for what we're going to get tomorrow, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Conventions, Democratic Republican, reform party, whatever, are full of red meat, and it is not a place where you go to hear nice things about the other side. And I expect this will be no different. But do you think what happened, the horrible events of Saturday are going to have any impact at all on what we hear from the speakers here?
KING: I think they're going to have a giant impact. And I think some of it presents opportunities to the Republicans if they do it right because whether you like it or not, and Democrats at home are going to disagree, but one of the arguments anyway, Donald Trump is strong. Joe Biden is weak. Donald Trump is vigorous. Joe Biden is not. They're going to use what happened over the weekend.
Sounds like a harsh word, but I think it's true. Donald Trump has already put out fundraising posters with a sign that the Secret Service wrapped around him and his fist up. They're going to use it on this stage. They also, Jake, have a tremendous opportunity. The election is 16 weeks from Tuesday. Donald Trump is ahead. Donald Trump is ahead a little bit. The national polls or it's tied if you would say no clear leader in some of the national polls.
But it's almost time to set the national polls aside unless there's a huge swing in them and just go state-by-state through the battleground states. This is why Democrats are so nervous. Trump is ahead by three points, five points, sometimes six points in the battleground states, sometimes it's one or two. But he has several paths. I can give you several viable path for Donald Trump to get to 270. I can give you one, maybe two for Joe Biden at this point.
So if they use that stage correctly to talk about the cost of living, to talk about the personal contrast if they think that's a strength for them, to talk about issues that matter to the American people, they can take them modestly that they have now and make it a bigger lead. And that will put a lot of pressure on President Biden, not only heading into his convention, but dealing with the continuing if maybe turned down for a few days conversation about whether he is the party's best candidate.
AXELROD: That would be the right thing to do. That would be the smart thing to do. And, you know, they've been doing -- the campaign itself has done very, very smart things. Where the president has gotten -- where the former president has gotten off the rails is when he gets into the politics of persecution and so on. And so how he handles this horrific thing that happened over the weekend in this convention and how others do is important.
If it is lashing out I think that that will be a mistake. If they joined in the calls to unify and he offers himself as a strong leader to do that, now there'll be a lot of skepticism about that among those who don't like him for reasons we've talked about. But he can really help himself here. You know, this is -- you know, the old expression, go big and go home. This is go big and go far.
[20:45:03]
ALLISON: You know, it was because there was no audience at the debate, people said that played into how Trump was able to actually stay more measured and Biden wasn't able to feed off --
TAPPER: He wasn't playing to a crowd.
ALLISON: The crowd, yes. Well, if you look behind here, they'll be playing to thousands of people who are his pure supporters that are going to help get him across the finish lie in November, and so perhaps to David's point, the script may be one thing, but if you get in the belly of the beast and people start egging you on to -- look, Saturday was awful. So you don't know what type of emotions will show up here tomorrow. And so the question is, do you stay on prompter or do you go off? And if what is --
AXELROD: No, you don't want to do that.
URBAN: Well, but also the president -- the former president is going to be up here for a short period of time and it's not going to be the entire convention. The entire convention is a scripted play to a large extent, right? They're going to talk about immigration. They're going to talk about the economy, crime.
ALLISON: But how?
URBAN: Let's take -- but those -- how is it that speakers would be three individual speakers who will hear be messaging, who shows up there and give the message? I think that the scripts are being scrubbed. They're being probably tuned a bit now. And maybe a little bit different.
AXELROD: It's a mistake, though --
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: It's a mistake to think that you're talking to the people in this room. You're talking to the country.
URBAN: Right.
AXELROD: And so you don't want to play to the room. You want to play to the people you're trying to persuade.
URBAN: There will be -- this will be a policy debate.
KING: Yes, but two quick things about that. Conventions are different now. It used to be you were talking to the television audience. Now you're using that stage to talk to the social media, too, and you'll have your radio row and your influencers and all that. So that sometimes changes who's -- certain people are not talking to the people on television. They're trying to do some other business.
The other thing, Jake, is that this is a great suspense here. Very rare that we'll show up convention eve and we do not know who the running mate is going to be. That's usually done at least a few days in advance.
TAPPER: David knows.
URBAN: I don't know.
(CROSSTALK)
URBAN: Shadow knows.
AXELROD: Yes. Write it down and we'll look tomorrow and see if you're right. Yes. President Trump has been accused at times of being a little lax in his handling of secrets. This one has been locked up tight.
ALLISON: Locked tight.
TAPPER: Pretty good.
AXELROD: Let's give him credit on that.
TAPPER: I have to say, though, one of the things that I've noticed about convention since I've been paying attention to them, which is quite some time, is they're also opportunities for the opposition to take the most extreme speakers, whether they're at 2:00 in the morning on Tuesday or primetime on Thursday, to take the most extreme speakers and the most extreme things that they have said and use that to paint the party as the party.
But now I remember this as far back as I think it was 1992 when Pat Buchanan was given a speaking slot, and he gave a speech that was widely criticized fairly or not as extreme, and that was used by Democrats to paint George H.W. Bush, who I think it's fair to say was not an extremist, as extreme. And there will -- there are going to be opportunities for Democrats and opponents of this party to do that. Marjorie Taylor Greene is speaking, I could go on and on.
URBAN: Yes, look, as John said, this is the purpose of these conventions, right? It's a little bit red meat for the base. It's a little bit policy discussion.
TAPPER: Right.
URBAN: It's a little bit theater, right? So you're going to have, you know, the Democrats have a little bit bigger star power at their conventions. But, you know, we'll have, you know, Kid Rock and others will be here for the Republican team and it's theater, it's policy, its spectacle, all kind of rolled into one.
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: Are you concerned at all about that, though, about whether the more extreme elements of the party lane --
URBAN: Of course. Listen, of course, as a Republican, I want our party to appeal to better angels. I want to be the best party. I want Americans to look at the Republican Party and say, these guys have the best ideas.
TAPPER: Yes, but Dave McCormick can't speak for five days, Dave.
AXELROD: But, you know, if -- in a well-run convention, the people who are running it should not be surprised by any words that are spoken.
URBAN: That's right.
AXELROD: They should see every speech. They should approve every speech.
KING: And just very quickly, where we are now, I mentioned that Donald Trump is leading in the race for the White House and has a chance to use this to boost that lead and to frame the debate heading into the final weeks. Republicans right now also believe they will take back the Senate, that they will hold the House.
And if you those things are happening, something we hardly ever talk about because we focused on Washington all the time. If those things are happening, if Donald Trump is winning rather convincingly, which in today's politics is two or three points in some states. And you're winning the Senate races, and you're winning the House races, guess what? You're electing a lot of governors and state legislative.
AXELROD: Yes.
KING: That's why Democrats are saying, Mr. President, please think again because they see the blow out --
AXELROD: Yes, if you look at states like Michigan, you look at states like Pennsylvania, where there are very narrow majorities in those legislative chambers, those are up for grabs.
ALLISON: But I just want to say to your point, the debate was 17 days ago and we have 16 more weeks.
KING: Right.
ALLISON: Who would have thought that yesterday would have happened? So we can go through these four days and even if this is the most disciplined, scripted convention, who knows what happens on Friday? I go back to 2020. We go into COVID, who knows -- who knew that George Floyd was going to happen and we have the largest -- and so we just live in a world where even when something big happens because of social media, the news cycle is just almost too fast to keep up.
[20:50:07]
And so it gives voters this whiplash, and so --
URBAN: But I'll just say again, to echo what Axe was saying, the Trump campaign and this cycle has been incredibly disciplined and I would suspect that this convention will reflect that same discipline.
TAPPER: The thing is, I mean, I think one of the things that Ashley was just getting at is like we have no idea what will happen.
URBAN: Well, you can't look around --
TAPPER: I think about the 2012 convention and I remember two things. The Romneys who were not happy with Chris Christie's speech and Clint Eastwood was speaking to a chair.
ALLISON: Right.
AXELROD: Right.
TAPPER: And he did not win. But by the same token, the 2004 Democratic convention, I think in Massachusetts was one of the best party conventions I've ever been. We heard and met state legislator from Illinois named Barack Obama.
AXELROD: Yes, I was there.
TAPPER: And -- you were there, and John Kerry also lost.
KING: Just barely. Just barely. Actually Democrats used -- I would argue, you're right. He just lost, but I would argue Democrats used that convention against an incumbent president to help, to help move the campaign. And if he had won Ohio, he would have been president of the United States. He just barely lost Ohio.
AXELROD: Conventions don't elect or un-elect people, but they are vehicles if they are coherent in delivering a message that is consistent with the message that people are going to hear from now to November, they're launching pads for a message and well see at the end of this week if they've accomplished that, if they've given a narrative that gives him the broadest possible reach or have they not. And, you know, so we'll be able to tell how disciplined they are.
ALLISON: You know, and also think about the 2020 convention. They were all on computer screens. You're going to -- and talk to a generation of voters who have never had the opportunity to vote, that for the first time will actually get a sense of what a convention actually is and not people filming in.
KING: And to your point about the other speakers and issues, Democrats will be watching closely on the abortion issue, which they still think for all the questions about President Biden, there are issues they can use.
TAPPER: And the anti-abortion forces, the pro-life forces are very upset that the platform isn't -- no one has spoken on that. Anderson?
COOPER: Top of the hour President Biden speaking from the Oval Office said a former president was shot, an American citizen killed while simply exercising his freedom to support the candidate of his choosing. We cannot, we must not go down this road in America. Yet we have been down similar roads before, some leading to even darker places.
We want to get some perspective now from Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. Her latest book is an "Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s."
Doris, we turn to you often in difficult times in this country. So I'm glad you're with us tonight. Can you just talk a little bit, give a historical perspective about what happened yesterday. An assassination attempt to the campaign trail as a candidate, a former president, was giving a speech. This has happened before.
DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Yes, it has but many people were not alive when those other incidents happened. I happen to be only 20 years old in 1963 when John F. Kennedy was killed and then Lyndon Johnson was somehow able to go to a Joint Session of Congress not long after and talk about the most important memorial to John Lennedy would be the passage of his domestic program, which had been stuck in Congress. And it took us forward. It made the country feel that we were moving
in a good direction. Similarly, I was alive in 1968 when Martin Luther King was killed and Robert Kennedy went before a group in Indianapolis up a big rally of African-Americans and had to tell them that Martin Luther King had died but he said it in such an extraordinary way. He said he understood that there might be a feeling for hate, there might be a feeling for revenge.
He understood that because he had lost a brother, but he hoped that they would understand more importantly that Martin Luther King's life was lived for love and for justice. And it turned out that he was so effective with those words that, although riots went all throughout the rest of the country, Indianapolis was one of the few cities that stayed calm that night. And then of course only two months later, Robert Kennedy himself was killed.
America felt, as I know, having lived through the '60s that we were reeling, how could this possibly happen? And then we go many years forward and a lot of people weren't alive even in 1991 when in 1981, when Ronald Reagan was hit by his assassin potential, and he then was able to mobilize to his humor, his grace, and going to a joint session of Congress where the cheering went on and on and was able to put forward his economic program which then was able to get through because he was able to deal with that crisis.
So we've seen these times, but we've also seen that somehow, somehow good things came out of them. And that's what we've got to remember as we feel reeling right now.
COOPER: I also was thinking back to the assassination attempt on George Wallace.
GOODWIN: That one's so interesting to me. I've just been reading about it more and I had not remembered all the particulars of it but what happened is it was in 1972, he was running for president on a third party.
[20:55:04]
He was shot right in the stomach five times and was then paralyzed from the waist down. But what's important to remember is it changed his life. His daughter said that he became a born Christian after that. He then wanted to get redemption from the black community. He spoke about acknowledging that he was wrong about segregation. He took responsibility for the harm that he had done for many people.
And then he ran for governor and he won with 90 percent of the African-American vote and had a productive governorship, getting more voter registration among blacks, giving blacks a lot of appointments to the point where John Lewis, when finally Wallace died, gave an op- ed to "The New York Times" in which he said he had changed. And while he may never forget what he had been when he was a racist before that, you could forgive him because that was important because that's what the Civil Rights Movement was all about. Love and forgiveness.
So that tells you that some possibilities are there. Maybe people will change as a result of this. Maybe there'll be understanding that we need decency, we need compassion, we need empathy, we need honesty, we need truth. We need to talk to each other in different ways and it may sound naive to that, but sometimes in some people, things can change.
COOPER: I mean, President Biden and former president Trump both called for unity. Do you think that's possible? I mean, that yesterday's shooting can lead to that?
GOODWIN: I don't know. Unity is a funny word at a time when we've got conventions and an election going on because part of an election and democracy is for divisions to show themselves in terms of policy and arguments. But perhaps unity against violence, unity against a rhetoric that was heated up too much. I think it's encouraging that the president used tonight the Oval Office.
It's used very, very rarely. It's an important moment. It was used when John Kennedy was talking about the Cuban missile crisis. It was used when Eisenhower was defending his decision to send troops for Little Rock. It was used when Ronald Reagan had to talk about the challenge or crisis. Those were moments when the president fills a vacuum and using it tonight to talk about cooling down the rhetoric.
Perhaps president -- former president Trump will do the same in his convention. Speaker Johnson did it in comparison to Senator Vance and Senator Scott. Senator Scott talked right away about somehow that the attack was aided and abetted by the radical left and the corporate media. I mean, that doesn't help when a lot of people were yelling during this whole rally against the media as if it was their fault that some of this was happening.
So if we can get the major leaders at least to agree and maybe that will be what former president Trump talks about when he's there, then maybe just maybe those who want to talk in a more difficult direction will feel at least worried about hesitating if their leaders are not going in that direction.
COOPER: I know one of the things you want to talk about was, you know, prior to this assassination attempt the question of President Biden's decision whether he would stay in the race or not was obviously, you know, the major question of the day.
Do you think this has impact on that?
GOODWIN: I think what you were saying before in the panel makes sense that there's a pause and at this week that people will have to keep thinking about what's right. I mean, the pressures I think on President Biden will still be there. There'll be time to talk about it after we absorb this and after perhaps this convention goes forward.
What I was thinking about, always thinking about history was just thinking about if indeed President Biden came to the decision that he would withdraw, that he was going to go to LBJ's library tomorrow, although that's been postponed now, but LBJ does offer a way out with dignity, a way out with grace.
When he withdrew from the race he talked about the fact that he just wanted to use those remaining months for presidential duties, hoping to bring the war in Vietnam to a close rather than campaigning and the response was extraordinary. I mean, every newspaper had an editorial that he's done something for politics and principle, something for principle rather than politics.
He'd done something for an ambition for the country rather than himself. That in all of his 37 years, he had never sacrificed himself this way. He'd be remembered in the annals of history. And he felt when the North Vietnamese then agreed a couple of days later to come to the bargaining table that somehow maybe this was the happiest moment of his presidency. And then just showing how fate intervenes, how we know it happens time and again, the very next day while the plane was waiting to go to Hawaii for discussions to begin the peace talks and all of it was filled.
The White House Air Force One was filled with diplomats and people from the State Department and generals, et cetera, he gets the word that Martin Luther King had been killed. The mission was halted. It was postponed. The riots broke out in the cities. Bobby Kennedy was killed, as I said, and then that summer they go to the Democratic convention but the war still going on. Chaos reigns and Teddy White said that the Democratic Party had lost the election that very night.
But had faith not intervened, it might have been different. And that's what I think the panel has been talking about tonight. We have no idea these two huge events, the question about Biden's ability to have his health and his age deal with the presidency in the right.
