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Trump Assassination Attempt. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired July 15, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: With respect to the Republican National Convention, the plan has been in place for -- in development for 18 months. This is a responsibility that not only the United States Secret Service shoulders, but we work with our federal partners, and state and local partners to ensure the safety and security of the Republican National Convention, the Democratic National Convention, and each and every campaign event.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Secretary, just finally, you said changes will be made an independent review will happen. This cannot happen. Do you expect or would you want to see people lose their jobs over what has just happened?

Donald Trump had a near death experience. One man is now dead, and two more people were shot, seriously shot and wounded and recovering now in a hospital.

BOLDUAN: Kate, I have full confidence in the leadership of the United States Secret Service. An independent review will make factual findings and recommendations based on those findings, and I look forward to studying those findings and recommendations and acting accordingly.

BOLDUAN: Secretary, I was literally just handed this. We have new reporting coming in from CNN's Whitney Wild that says a spokesman for US Secret Service tells CNN, the agency did not personally sweep the building where the attempted assassin shot former President Trump, but instead leaned on local law enforcement to conduct security at that location. Are you OK with that?

MAYORKAS: Kate, let me make two points. Number one, and let me repeat that we will defer to an independent review of the facts to determine what those facts are, and make findings and recommendations based on it, number one. Number two, in campaign events historically and now, including the conventions themselves, we work collaboratively with our federal partners as well as with our state and local partners.

These are very significant undertakings, and we work seamlessly and closely with our partners across the national security, Homeland Security enterprise. I am going to defer to the independent review, and we will take those findings and recommendations and act on them accordingly.

BOLDUAN: Do you have any plans to speak yourself with former President Trump or his campaign in light of all of this?

MAYORKAS: Kate, President Biden, as he communicated to the American people, has been in touch with former President Trump. We are in close coordination with the Republican National Convention through the United States Secret Service to understand the threat landscape, to understand the security posture, and to take any recommendations and act on them.

This is a mutual relationship. Communication works both ways. We are in close touch with the protectees whom we are responsible for. That is how the United States Secret Service operates historically and in an ongoing basis.

BOLDUAN: Secretary, thank you very much for coming on this morning as so many questions and so much is still unknown. But in the midst of it, as it is still unfolding, thank you very much for coming on, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.

Coming up for us, how will the assassination attempt impact the message of both presidential campaigns today, tomorrow, and in the weeks to come. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:36:11]

BOLDUAN: All right, so we have some brand new video just coming in showing another angle of the moments before the attempted assassination on Donald Trump. As we're going to watch this video together, it's about a minute long. You can see the video moving around. You can also -- let's listen in together so -- you'll see it and let's listen to what they say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, look, there he is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Officer?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look up here, he's on the roof (inaudible). Right here, right on the roof. Right on the roof right there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: I mean, you could hear it. The way it's described is the crowd there, as you can see, spotted the gunman more than a minute before the shooting. And you can see them -- hear them calling out for law enforcement to try to draw their attention to it.

Just remarkable in seeing how this played out and how close he was. Some 400 to 500 feet from Donald Trump, and we know what happened in the minute after that.

Joining me right now is Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware. He's also a Biden campaign co-chair. Another angle, we know what happened when we see -- after that video, senator. But seeing that and seeing that gunmen climbing onto the roof and hearing people around trying to call out for law enforcement, it's still shocking.

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Kate, that is a shocking video. That brings home just how lucky we are as a nation, that we are not waking up to a genuine tragedy in Butler, Pennsylvania. It is incomprehensible that a young man with a rifle, with an AR style weapon was able to get up on a roof and get that close to the president, and get off several shots before he was killed by a Secret Service sniper.

He was just inches away from killing former President Trump. I am so grateful that he failed in that. We all need to reflect prayerfully on the loss of life by Corey Comperatore, I believe. I hope I'm pronouncing his name correctly, a volunteer fire chief and father of two who died at a political rally protecting his children and the others who've been injured.

Look, Kate, I've been to plenty of events with presidents. The Secret Service does often rely on state and local law enforcement to help expand their perimeter. But it's hard for me to understand how a roof that close, that accessible, was not secured. And the Homeland Security Committee of the Senate, under the leadership of Chairman Gary Peters, has already announced they're going to conduct an oversight hearing.

You just had Secretary Mayorkas on who said they will be conducting a prompt, independent investigation of what is obviously a security failure. But I also think, Kate, it's important to reflect on President Biden's Oval Office address last night where he urged all of us to bring the temperature down.

You're in Milwaukee later tonight, the Republican Convention starts, and it's my hope that this will last more than a day or two, that we will, in fact, both parties, both of our conventions, and all of us who are elected, do a better job of being better role models for our country, of not just reflecting or amplifying the division in our country, but showing how we can have differences of views, differences of political perspectives and agendas, and yet speak of each other in more respectful tones and recognize just how horrifying a moment this is in our modern American history.

[08:40:08]

BOLDUAN: President Biden calling on Americans in that Oval Office address to cool down the rhetoric. Donald Trump has talked -- has said in an interview, he's torn up his speech, which was going to go hard after President Biden and the administration, and now he wants to focus on unity in his speech at this convention on Thursday.

But, senator, you're getting at it a little bit. It's a tough question because if past is prologue, there's not a good chance that this sticks. How do you really bring about and keep hold of that unity?

COONS: Kate, this is a challenge that I've worked on now for years with bipartisan partners. Senator Cornyn and I introduced a bill that would reinvest in the teaching of civics and in helping high school students, college students, civics organizations across our country teach how to reduce conflict. There are grassroots organizations across our country encouraging

people to put down the cell phones and get off of social media, and get out there and roll up your hands, and roll up your sleeves, and get busy in the hard work of respecting each other and hearing each other. I'll remind you that President Biden, in his inaugural address, called on us to see each other not as political enemies, but as Americans with just different perspectives and views.

And I do think that's hard work. I think it calls on all of us to reflect that there have been too many close calls. Kate, this shocking event in Butler is just the latest in a string that have happened in recent years.

We saw an attempt of kidnapping and assassinating Governor Whitmer of Michigan, an attempt to murder Speaker Pelosi that resulted in her husband being hospitalized. My own close friend, Jeff Flake, was standing next to Steve Scalise when he was shot in an assault in our nation's capital.

So words have consequences. Folks who are deranged or at the margins, or have trouble managing their anger in too many incidents have been inspired by heated rhetoric. And so, my hope is that the convention in Milwaukee, the speech by our former president, will follow the lead of President Biden, who has reached out to former President Trump, and that many of us in the Senate will do the same.

And reach out and demonstrate how we can work across the aisle to sustain a more positive view, and to sustain the sort of nation we need to be. We have to better than this moment.

BOLDUAN: And leadership is -- that is what is going to be most required right now in order to even possibly pull that off. In the midst of also continuing to campaign in what is will and always is a hard fought presidential campaign, these are very difficult, delicate moments that we have found ourselves in as a country and as we're looking at our politics right now.

Senator Coons, thank you so much for coming on.

Coming up for us, Donald Trump set to make a crucial announcement soon here in Milwaukee. As soon as today, we may learn who his running mate will be. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:46:26]

BOLDUAN: In the wake of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at his rally in Pennsylvania, leaders across the political spectrum are sounding alarm, saying America's heated political rhetoric has to change. The temperature must cool down.

One sign of that, Donald Trump says that he's completely rewriting his convention speech with a focus on national unity now. Axios is also reporting that he ordered aides to not allow convention primetime speakers to change their remarks to dial up the outrageous over the shooting.

One Republican who will be speaking on this convention stage behind me this week, South Carolina Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace. And Congressman Mace joins me now. Thank you so much for joining me, congressman. I really appreciate your time.

We heard -- let me read a quote that we heard from Donald Trump, his first reaction and what -- and the impact that this attempted assassination has had on his outlook going forward. He said, I had all prepared an extremely tough speech, really good, all about the corrupt, horrible administration, but I threw it away.

I want to try to unite our country, but I don't know if that's possible. People are very divided. President Biden called for that unity as well last night. What did you think of Biden's remarks last night, first?

REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): Well, I think it's very important that all of our leaders right now talk about unity and bringing people together. What I saw Saturday night in the moments after the shooting, I was out in public, everyone, Republican, Democrat, Independent. This has been a unifying moment for Donald Trump to unify the country.

What he showed in the minutes after the shooting was courage, was leadership and strength. And this is our moment as America. And quite frankly, now that we've had almost two days since the shooting, I was very angry in the first few hours of this thing, very angry. But now, I've never been more proud to be an American because I'm seeing what Donald Trump is doing to unify the country. I'm hearing it on the streets from people of all political stripes right now. This is a moment for our country.

And when America is strong, the world is strong. And I'm very much looking forward to hearing what Donald Trump will say on Thursday night during his nominating speech to bring the country together, because that's needed now more than ever.

BOLDUAN: And I did want to ask you about your reaction in the immediate hours after that attack, if you will, because you said, you were asked if you thought that Joe Biden inspired the attempted assassination of the former president with rhetoric, that -- with his rhetoric, and you responded with, absolutely.

Now, the motive we know and what drove this man to try to assassinate Donald Trump is not known. Why not wait until you have those facts?

MACE: Well, if you talk about rhetoric, hearing Joe Biden saying that we need to put Trump in the bulls-eye, being compared to Hitler for the last few years. And I'm someone who -- I'm a very outspoken Republican, and I get a lot of threats, and know that kind of rhetoric has real implications on real people's lives.

Everyone who's elected this sort of thing -- you don't want this sort of thing to continue. And I think it's really important as we bring the country together, acknowledge that these things have been said and that we're not going to continue to do this, that we want to bring people together.

And when I was out Saturday, minutes after the shooting out in my district, I saw blacks and whites, and Republicans and Democrats, Independents. People were pulling over their cars, stopping traffic, jumping out because they had something to say about our nation and about the shooting, and how we need to come together.

[08:50:05]

And this has been a moment for us. I'm rewriting my speech as well for Wednesday night because I want to bring people together. But we have to acknowledge that these things have been said to move our country forward. I do believe that.

And I think being angry is OK but we can't act on it. And now that we've had some time, how are we going to pull everybody together and unify? Because when America is strong, the world is strong. And we need to project that strength on the stage this week.

BOLDUAN: To that point, I mean, Speaker Johnson, he spoke out. You're talking about rhetoric from Democrats, but rhetoric from Republicans has also been angry and violent, and all sorts of those things. We don't even need to go down the list of things over time.

But my point is, Speaker Johnson was -- has been speaking out just the last 24 hours. And the way he said it is that, everyone, both sides of the aisle need to turn the rhetoric down, acknowledging in that Republicans need to dial down on the rhetoric as well, to bring that temperature down for the good of the country. And I think it's now up to like every elected official to answer, like what are you going to personally do to help in that effort going forward, congresswoman.

MACE: Right. And Mike Johnson mentioned that in our Republican conference call yesterday about the importance of dialing down the rhetoric. Many of us were angry. I was very angry in the hours after the shooting. But it is incumbent upon us.

Those who are public figures, those who are elected officials, those who have followers on social media, for example, that rhetoric does have consequences. And I've been a member who's called out rhetoric on both sides of the aisle ever since I was elected. And there is an enormous responsibility.

I feel that responsibility today as I'm rewriting my remarks for Wednesday night. I feel that responsibility as I hear from constituents. And I have a purple district. I have talked to Democrats, I've talked to Republicans, I've talked to Independents, and this is a moment for America to bring people together.

And that responsibility weighs heavily, not just on me, but I believe on members of both sides of the aisle. And we're seeing that it takes a little bit of time. We're only two days out after the shooting, but I believe you'll see more of that unifying message in the days, weeks and months ahead. Our country needs it.

BOLDUAN: It is very noteworthy. I'm hearing a very -- I am hearing that cooled down tone, if you will. I'm hearing a different tone today from you as well, congresswoman. Thank you so much for coming on. We look forward to hearing your speech on Wednesday on the stage behind me. Thank you.

MACE: Thank you very much.

BOLDUAN: We also -- of course. We also have these new details this morning about the security plans around the convention in the wake of the attempted assassination against Donald Trump. We have much more on that coming right up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:55:15]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: President Biden made a rare Oval Office address to the nation in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Trump. Biden urged Americans to cool down the political rhetoric saying "Politics should never be a literal battlefield."

On this first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, there is little doubt the tone of the event and the election has dramatically changed. Joining us now, CNN Political Commentators Jamal Simmons and Margaret Hoover. Thank you both for being here.

Let's just speak to that, Jamal. Has it completely changed the 2024 presidential rate, this assassination attempt on former President Trump?

JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, I hope so. I hope that things will change. But what we know about change is that people do change when something happens like a big -- that's big like this, but it requires work. It requires people to sort of continue to make the effort. Well, I hope Donald Trump continues to not go into some of the rhetoric and maybe others.

So he doesn't strike me as the do the work kind of a guy. So I really wonder and worry that after this week wears off, we'll go back to something else. Also, as I wrestle with this and I think about this, we've been through a lot over the last couple of years. We had the pandemic, which nobody really talks about anymore. We had January 6, where there was a moment from national unity. People died. The attack on the Capitol was a very big deal.

That's not really a factor very much anymore, sort of how we talk about things. We had a president who's been convicted of 34 counts. We don't talk about that. Joe Biden had a horrible debate performance, and that's even starting to fade.

So it makes me wonder if a month from now, we will still be talking about this horrific event the way we're thinking about it now. And I just wonder if Donald Trump and this event are a part of a new media environment where everything is just pounding us all the time and we just don't get the kind of import that happens. When I was a kid when Ronald Reagan got shot, and we talked about that forever. I don't know that we live in that kind of a media social environment anymore. And it distresses me as an American.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I want to pick up on the last event you brought up there, which was the debate, which was now several weeks ago, and the many calls among Democrats for President Biden to drop out of the race, Margaret. None have come since the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. That seems to have maybe frozen things where they are, no?

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think --

BERMAN: Do you think they'll stay frozen?

HOOVER: I think we're taking an incredibly appropriate moment as a country to pause, to come together, to pray for our country, for the victims, for the former president, for the current president, in a completely nonpartisan and apolitical way. And I think all calls about who should be at the top of the ticket on the Democratic side are appropriately frozen at the moment, John, because this isn't a moment for politics.

This is still -- it is only -- it's not even been 48 hours. And I do hope, to Jamal's point, we do heed this moment and we do really relearn, I think, what has become like a muscle memory in our politics and our rhetoric to ramp things up, and rather to have a calm, cerebral engage in the policy ideas, engage in an arena of ideas, which is the premise of a civil society.

Civil discourse is a responsibility of a civil society. And if we can do that and rewire these neural impulses away from heightened rhetoric that is belligerent and pugilistic, and towards a calmer place where we can try to solve problems and reason together, that will be the benefit.

I agree with Jamal. There is some question about whether this will continue. But for the moment, I think things are appropriately frozen to your point, John.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you about what we heard from President Trump, and we just heard from Representative Nancy Mace as well, who both said that they are going to redo their speeches and they're calling for, you know, to lower the rhetoric to stop this.

But you got to wonder when you hear the president saying this was going to be a humdinger of a speech, and then people on the Republican side trying to blame President Biden for some of his language, but not acknowledging the president's language. What did that humdinger of a speech tell you that it was going to be like before this happened, and the fact that they're having to tear up those speeches and rewrite them now, Jamal?

SIMMONS: Well, we know that President Trump, Jay-Z has a line, you was who you was before you got here. That's the thing about Donald Trump. He was this guy who was a pugilist, and he was going to fight. And we all expected him to do that.

We'll see if he changes his speech, how it really works out. I think that when we watch President Biden over the last couple days, I think he's reminded people of why they voted for him in the first place, because here's a guy who's showing leadership. He's reached out to Donald Trump, who's the victim in this case and made sure that he talked to him.

He's talking to the American people repeatedly. He's leading the national security team and all the legal experts to talk about in the situation room what's occurring. And again, talking to the American public and keeping all of us informed about this. And so, I think that's what people want, steady leadership and somebody who's going to put the country first and not put themselves own particular interests first.

And that's what I think we'd like to see from Donald Trump. Is this a moment where he's going to put the country first as well, I think that could help get us to a place where we can all figure out how we live together.

BERMAN: Quick last word, Margaret.

HOOVER: I couldn't agree with you more, Jamal. And to your point, the reason we take a pause is to really recalibrate how we move forward together and how we learn -- what do we learn from this moment, and what's going to transcend this moment. And so, I do hope we're all rethinking our rhetoric, the Republicans and the Democrats. I do think we use this moment to rise together as a country and above it.

SIDNER: Yes, it could be actually a beautiful moment for this country to see people sort of coming together.

SIMMONS: One quick last point. I think the other thing that President Biden has done, which is important, he's shown that when you win an election, you still have a responsibility to take care of those who've lost an election. You're not just the winner and the president of the people who supported you. You're the president of everyone. And I think that is something that President Trump should think about. If he is going to be reelected, he should be doing the same thing.

SIDNER: Jamal Simmons, Margaret Hoover. John Berman, so nice to be next to you today.

All right, thank you so much. A new hour of CNN News Central starts right now.