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Source: Gunman Spotted At Rally Site Hours Before Shooting; Adam Schiff Calls On Biden To Step Aside In 2024 Race; DNC Moving Forward With Biden Virtual Nomination, Email Obtained By CNN Says No Voting Before Aug. 1; Rep. Jared Moskovitz (D-FL) Discusses Biden Lashing Out At Moderate Lawmakers In Tense Weekend Call & Trump Shooter Alerted As "Suspicious Person" Before Shooting; Sen. J.D. Vance Makes First Official Campaign Appearance. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired July 17, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:33:55]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We're learning new details about that would be assassin and what he was doing before he opened fire on former President Donald Trump over the weekend.

Law enforcement officials tells CNN that the shooter was spotted at the Trump rally site about three hours before the shooting.

Police began keeping an eye on him after he passed through the magnetometers with a rangefinder. That's a device often used by hunters that resembles binoculars.

Investigators aren't sure where he went after he left the secure area. But this photo, obtained exclusively by our affiliate, WPXI, was taken of the shooter at least 26 minutes before shots were fired.

We want to get to CNN's Danny Freeman, who is outside the shooters home in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. He has more on the investigation.

So, Danny, tell us more about this photo and why an officer felt compelled to take it?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Listen, Boris, these photos that we're about to talk about really start to paint a larger picture not only of what was in the mindset of law enforcement officers leading up to that fateful moment when Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on the former president.

But also it shows a larger picture of what happened and after the fact.

[14:35:09]

So let me just describe this. So you can see this is the photo. It's a profile photo of Thomas Matthew Crooks.

And the reason we understand that local law enforcement were the ones who actually took this photo was because they had seen him acting suspicious around these metal detectors.

And he had, as you describe Boris, a rangefinder. Like you said, it's used by hunters. It's used by other sharpshooters. And the purpose is you can use that to determine how far away a given item or location is. That was enough to put him on police's radar.

And then, I should say, this photo was provided to us by affiliate, WPXI, and they also provided other photos found after the shooting.

We see here a photo of the cell phone that Thomas Crooks was allegedly carrying, and also a transmitter that was nearby the cell phone as well. And also a bicycle and a backpack that was found nearby that local police believed to be connected to Thomas Matthew Crooks.

So again, we're all getting more and more of the picture of not only what happened, just leading up to those moments, but also that law enforcement was aware and was looking for Thomas Matthew Crooks or at least keeping an eye on him prior to him opening fire -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: And Danny, you also have new details about the gunman's actions on the day of the shooting from his father.

FREEMAN: Yes, that's right. So we had learned a number of things earlier in the day from law enforcement sources that, for example, Crooks had called off from work, saying that he had something to do. That's what supposedly told his boss.

But now we've also learned that his father has told investigators that he thought his son was going to the rifle range. We've been talking about that all week, that he belonged to a rifle range. And that that was why he actually took the gun with him.

Well, then once Thomas Crooks, the son, had been missing and his father had not heard for him for many hours, that's when his father called police and reported him missing around 11:00 p.m. about five hours after the shooting took place.

And then this is when some of the pieces started to come together.

And I'll remind you that we learned earlier in the week that one of the ways that law enforcement agents were able to identify Thomas Crooks to begin with was the connection specifically with the rifle and his father because the rifle used in this shooting was purchased by his father.

So, again, Boris, we're getting, bit by bit, a clearer picture of what Thomas Crooks was doing that day. But at this point, we still do not have any sort of idea what motivated him, the shooter himself, to go out there and pull the trigger -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: Yes, one of the biggest unanswered questions thus far in the initial investigation.

Danny Freeman, thanks so much for the reporting.

In just a few minutes, the Justice Department and Homeland Security are scheduled to brief lawmakers on the assassination attempt. We're following updates on that from Capitol Hill.

And while Republicans put on a show of unity at the convention here in Milwaukee, some Democrats are in a bit of a revolt. Ahead, more on a contentious call between President Biden and lawmakers.

And the internal polling that has some Democrats wanting to replace him as the nominee. We're going to talk to a Democratic lawmaker about that in just moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:42:52]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Congressman Adam Schiff is now the most- prominent Democrat to join calls for President Biden to drop out of the 2024 race.

In a statement, Schiff says, quote, "I have serious concerns about whether the president can defeat Donald Trump in November."

And that, quote, "It is time for him to pass the torch."

Just yesterday, Schiff was warning of a wipe out for Democrats in November. And now new Democratic-funded polling obtained by CNN shows Biden losing ground to Trump in 14 key states, including five states that Biden flipped to win the White House back in 2020.

A separate poll out today finds confidence in Biden is also slipping. Only three in 10 adults are extremely confident or somewhat confident in his mental capacity to serve as president.

CNN's M.J. Lee is at the White House for us.

M.J. has there been any reaction from the White House to this statement from Schiff or what is really quite stunning polling here?

M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, Brianna, after that assassination attempt on Donald Trump on Saturday, we had seen the public calls on President Biden to leave the race really come to a halt.

Clearly, everybody was sort of absorbing the shock and processing what had happened. But here we are. Now it is Wednesday, some several days later.

And it is abundantly clear that the concerns about President Biden and his candidacy have not only not gone away, but they really appear to be getting worse.

You mentioned Congressman Adam Schiff. Now, one of the most prominent Democrats to publicly call on President Biden to drop out of the race.

And the concerns are very real with donors as well. You mentioned that polling before. That was polling that was funded by some Democratic donors that are clearly trying to get at a sense of what the extent of the damage has been since the president's disastrous debate performance on June 27th.

But in the meantime, the president himself is publicly completely digging in, saying that he's not going anywhere. And in addition to that, we now appear to have the president suggesting that he believes that he has some time to turn things around.

This is what he told BET.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:45:01]

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you notice, whether it's young blacks or young whites or young Hispanics or Asian-Americans, they've never focused until after Labor Day.

I mean, the idea they're focused intently on the election right now is not there.

The point is we're just getting down to game time now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: And, Brianna, ever since that terrible debate performance, the president has basically insisted, look, I just need to get out there. I need to show voters that I really can do this.

But we have been in close touch with so many of our Democratic sources and it has been a resoundingly sort of consensus coming from so many of them.

Saying the interviews, the public appearances over the last few days have really not helped. "Getting worse," is what one Democratic lawmaker just told me this afternoon.

KEILAR: And despite all the bad news, the DNC is moving forward with plans to virtually nominate Biden before the convention. Tell us what you're learning there, M.J.

LEE: Yes, the DNC is full speed ahead with its plans to virtually nominate the president before the party gets together in Chicago next month in August. This has caused such an uproar.

You know, just so everybody knows, obviously, the party's nominee is usually formally nominated at their party's convention in person.

The DNC has had this system in place for a virtual roll call for the president for a while now because of issues related to the president being able to get on the ballot.

These issues she's have since been resolved, but they are saying that they are moving forward with this anyway.

That has created so much backlash from certain Democrats who basically feel like, why would we nominate President Biden any earlier than we have to when clearly these questions about whether he should continue running have not at all been resolved.

KEILAR: All right. M.J., live for us from the White House, thank you for that report.

And in the meantime, CNN is learning of a contentious weekend phone call between Joe Biden and some House Democrats. And the details show just how dug in the president is and also how resistant he is to entertaining some valid concerns about how his debate performance has eroded some key support.

Sources say, at one point during the call, President Biden lashed out in Congressman Jason Crow, who is a moderate Democrat, after Crow said bluntly that voters are concerned about Biden, especially on the world stage.

The president reportedly told Crow, who is an Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, that he knows Crow is a Bronze Star recipient, like his son, Beau, but that he, Crow, quote, "didn't rebuild NATO after that.

The call only grew more contentious as Crow pushed back, telling the president the voters aren't seeing him that way. And that's when Biden told Crow, quote, "I don't want to hear that crap."

And said the Congressman could walk away if he wanted, to which Crow said he didn't want to walk away. But Biden, angry, replied that Crow should just walk away.

Our sources say that Biden also had a tense exchange with Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania. Houlahan reportedly telling the president that she was concerned about his standing in a key county in her battleground state.

But Biden pushed back and suggested he didn't believe her. Houlahan then told Biden that she had polling to back it up.

And according to our sources, Biden responded by telling Houlahan he'd send her talking points of everything that he's done for Pennsylvania and reminded her that he had married a Philly girl.

Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz of Florida.

Sir, thank you so much for spending a little time with us this afternoon.

Were you on that call?

REP. JARED MOSKOWITZ (D-FL): I was on that call.

KEILAR: So you we're -- Chrissy Houlahan saying that she has polling that shows he's in trouble. And the president's response is to say that he'll get her talking points.

You know, why do you think the president is dismissing what appear to be some valid concerns backed up by data? MOSKOWITZ: Well look, I'm not going to talk about the details of those calls. I will confirm that there we're some tense exchanges with members.

I will give you kind of an overall viewpoint of kind of the back-and- forth exchanges.

I'm deeply concerned that the presidents circle, the people who are working around the president, who, quite frankly, have kept him in a bubble for some time, are also not giving him the facts and the polling data on the ground.

They're not showing him what we're seeing in our districts, what we're seeing in the polling and the movement. And in fact, the consistency of that polling. And if it was consistent, it's only in a downward trend.

And so look, you know, these discussions are ongoing. That's not the only call that has happened since then. But, you know, that is the concern that's going on right now within the Democratic House caucus.

[14:50:00]

KEILAR: The conditions that we're laid out by the Biden campaign, according to our reporting, for his considering stepping aside we're poor performance in fundraising, in interviews and polling.

Do you think that the president is meeting his own metrics?

MOSKOWITZ: Well, they -- three for three on that one, if those are the guidelines that they're setting.

But look, you know, the president will have to make that decision on his own. You can't force a president out of his race. He's going to get there.

But ultimately, we're trying to defeat Donald Trump, right? And right now, this has become a referendum on Joe Biden for the last several weeks since the disastrous performance.

Donald Trump's had an unbelievable streak of luck both in the courts and, thank goodness, you know, ducking an assassination attempt, a heinous attempt, an attack on democracy by a domestic terrorist, in in my opinion.

But we need to settle back down and realize the compare and contrast between the Democratic agenda and the Republican agenda, especially with the doubling down of J.D. Vance. With that pick, women's issues are clearly on the ballot in November as they we're on the ballot in the midterms of 2022.

KEILAR: I do want to talk to you about that assassination attempt. You are on the House Oversight Committee and there are some important developments there.

But I do have one more question for you about the politics of this presidential race, which is that we also have some new reporting today about DNC plans to move forward with a virtual roll call and nomination of Biden ahead of the convention.

So that it's et well before the DNC starts August 29th. It's -- you know, it's kind of like getting legally -- August 19th, I should say. It's kind of like legally getting married before the wedding, sort of a comparison there.

Originally, they we're going to do this because of that Ohio requirement for him to be on the ballot. But that concern has been dispensed. Do you worry about this move to rush things?

MOSKOWITZ: Yes, I don't know why we're bringing back the policies of Covid to do the virtual nomination process. I mean, this clearly had to do with when we were -- when the dates of the convention were set versus when the states were setting their process.

But, you know, that -- I think that ship sailed well long ago. This was set well before the debate that they we're going to do this virtual nominating -- nominating process. So it has nothing to do with what has transpired.

But look, I think, you know, again, the data is the data. And look, there are three races going on. Obviously, it's the race to defeat Donald Trump, which is extremely important to reelect Joe Biden.

And then there's the race for the House. And the race for the Senate. And there are a lot of folks out there, myself included, saying, look, we want -- we want -- we've got to defeat Donald Trump. That's the number-one goal.

But at the same time, if we can't do that and Donald Trump happens to win the election and the country is going to give Donald Trump the wheel, we've got to make sure that there are breaks. And that's why winning the House and the Senate is also equally as important.

KEILAR: Turning now to the attempt on former President Trump's life this past weekend, do you think the Secret Service director, Kimberly Cheatle, should resign?

MOSKOWITZ: What I can tell you, there's a report now that, after agreeing to come to the Oversight hearing on Monday, which, by the way, should be a bipartisan hearing because, at the of the day, it happened to be Donald Trump, but it could have been Joe Biden. It could have been one of my colleagues. So the politics of who it was doesn't matter to me.

There was an assassination attempt on a former president. That's an attack on our country. It's domestic terrorism. And America's enemies are loving what's going on in this country with Americans fighting Americans.

And so the hearing on Monday is important to get down to the failures. I'm a mile away from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, my high school in Parkland. And after we -- after the shooting and we investigated the failures,

the sheriff of the county was removed from office due to the lack of training and the lack of response by officers.

And so there has to be accountability. You can't just have a failure where a president -- a former president almost gets assassinated and there's no accountability.

That's what Americans hate sometimes about the federal government is that when they see things that go wrong, almost no, no accountability.

And so I'm hearing now that she may not come after agreeing to attend the hearing on Monday. I can tell you, if she doesn't show up on Monday, absolutely, she should either resign or be fired.

But if she comes on Monday, we need to do a thorough investigation to find out all the details. And then the chips can fall where there -- where they may.

But there has to be accountability for what went on over the weekend.

KEILAR: She was subpoenaed, as we understand it. Is that your understanding?

MOSKOWITZ: Yes, she has been sent a subpoena because, after agreeing to come on Monday, all of a sudden, there was some waffling on whether or not she would be able to attend. I support that subpoena, by the way.

[14:55:01]

KEILAR: All right. Congressman, thank you so much. Really appreciate your time this afternoon.

I do want to go now to Milwaukee where J.D. Vance, the Republican vice-presidential running mate on the Trump-Vance ticket, is now speaking at his first campaign event.

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH) VICE-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I just want to say a few things now. First of all, we have -- we have some press in the background for the next 10 minutes here. So I have to be careful. I don't want to give anything away from what I'm going to say tonight.

I joked with the president that I'm very excited about this evening, and I don't plan to screw it up. But if I do, it's too late. He made that pick, right?

(LAUGHTER)

VANCE: It's official now.

(LAUGHER)

VANCE: We're going to get out there and try to fire up the crowd tonight and make the case, a very easy case to make, but an important case to make that we have got to reelect President Donald J. Trump to the White House, right?

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: Now, what we'll do here is talk a little bit about -- about what is at stake in this election. I'll talk a little bit about what I'm going to try to do as his running mate.

And I'll talk a little bit about why the Biden presidency has been just a fit. It's been such a complete failure.

But what I'll first -- what I'll do after my remarks actually is try to take some photos and hang out, if you've got anything I'm going to sign.

You guys are going to hear me speak tonight for much longer time. You're going to hear me speak today. And I'd like to get out and actually visit with you a little bit, so hopefully you're ready because I love to just talk with people and answer some questions and take some photos.

But, you know, I keep on thinking to myself, what's the best way? And this is part of what I've been going through as I think about what I'm going to say tonight.

What is the best way to articulate why it is that reelecting President Trump is so important. And they're all of these different sorts of spins that you could take on it.

One is you could say, with apologies to our friends back there, the media has lied more aggressively and slanderously about a guy --

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: -- and he keeps on coming through it. He keeps on persevering. He keeps on fighting.

President Trump has taken everything that they've thrown at him and he's come out stronger and the country has come out better for his service. We should be grateful to them. And I know that all of us in this room absolutely are.

But, you know, it's -- the way that we saw that, the contrast between the lie that the media tells about President Trump and the man that all of us actually know.

Of course we saw it in really, really stark definition on Saturday. Because I'm sure that all of you had a similar reaction to me. You see the video. Your friends start telling you that, oh, my god, they just shot the president.

And then when I first saw the clip, I was worried. You know, you saw him go down and I didn't know what was going on afterwards. I was so terrified that we had just lost a great president. But it would be an unbelievably terrible thing for our country in that moment in time. I was just so, so afraid for him and so afraid for our country.

And then, of course, he stands up a minute later, after they shot him -- they literally shot him -- and he raised his fist in the air and he says, "fight, fight, fight."

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: He fires up the crowd.

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: But this is where the media was really dishonest. And I think they really miss what the man is made of. Because after he literally got shot, came with it and millimeters of losing his life in the service of this country, what did he do?

I remember what I did. I was pissed. I was -- as soon as I knew he was OK, I felt relief. And then I was like, I cannot believe an assassin tried to take down the president of the United States. I was mad about it.

Was he mad and angry? He called for national unity. He called for calm. He showed leadership, my friends. That the media keeps on saying they want somebody to tone down the temperature. Well, Donald Trump got shot and he toned down the temperature. That's what a real leader does.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: There's another spin on the contrast, again, between Joe Biden and Donald Trump that I think it's important to take on.

You know, President Trump obviously is one of those successful real estate executives in the history of our country. Of course, the Trump name became synonymous with -- with luxury and with beauty in the real estate world.

And Joe Biden, of course, likes to pretend that he's just Scranton Joe. I don't think Joe Biden knows much about what he is or isn't these days.

But, you know, the guy who actually connects with working people in this country is not fake Scranton Joe. It's real President Donald Trump.

[14:59:54]

Because they know --

(APPLAUSE) VANCE: Because they know that he has their best interests at heart. He knows -- they know that when he was president for four years, groceries and gas and energy and housing were --