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New Details on Suspect in Assassination Attempt; Investigation into Assassination Attempt; Congressional Task Force Wants Secret Service Briefing; FBI Investigating Second Assassination Attempt. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 16, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Several women of color, several black women, Letitia James, and others, it's including Kamala Harris, here's what she said about them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA LOOMER, FAR-RIGHT ACTIVIST: Now, you're going to elect me. And I'm going to lock him up. We're going to get Trump. Like the way they talk in their little DEI Shiniqua (ph) voices. And it's just very piercing, very irritating sound. They all have - they all have the same voice. I'm talking about Kamala Harris, Letitia James and Fani Willis. Like all of the like meritless DEI Shiniquas (ph) talk the same way. It's very obnoxious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Why is Donald Trump hanging around with this woman?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Because he's lost the plot. He's completely lost the plot. This is repellent to the very voters he will need. There's no reason for this. She's disgusting. She's also a lunatic and a huge drag. And not the first drag, by the way. I think J.D. Vance is the first drag on his ticket that was a bad decision. This is the next one.

SIDNER: All right, S.E. Cupp, thank you so much for being here.

CUPP: Sure.

SIDNER: Appreciate you.

The next hour of news - CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: A new picture just released of this suspect connected to the apparent assassination attempt of Donald Trump. The new photo of the moment that he was taken into custody by police along a Florida highway. More on that.

Donald Trump's response, telling his supporters he will not surrender his campaign. Now fundraising off of this terrifying close call. His plans for today. And moments from now, a fact-finding hearing gets underway into the

tragic implosion of that Titan submersible. You'll remember this horrible story. Where they are now - where they are now in the search for answers some 15 months later.

I'm Kate Bolduan, with Sara Sidner and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SIDNER: We begin with breaking news. Police just revealed the suspect in the apparent second assassination attempt on Donald Trump was driving his daughter's car when he was detained.

Also moments ago, police released this brand new photo of the suspect just moments after he was detained.

We are also waiting to see if formal charges are filed today.

CNN's Carlos Suarez leads us off this hour.

I understand that the Palm Beach County Sheriff just spoke again. He talked about what was going on before, how difficult it is to secure this, and there weren't enough officers in place. What are you hearing from him now?

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right.

Sara, good morning.

So, the sheriff of Palm Beach County was on Fox News just a few minutes ago and he provided some additional details about what unfolded at this golf course here behind me yesterday afternoon. Ric Bradshaw said that 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh did not get off any rounds. Again, he said he did not get off any rounds because the Secret Service acted so fast. He said that at the end of the day, quote, "the system worked."

He also added that Routh is being held in a federal a holding facility at this hour.

Here now is a little bit more about what the sheriff just told Fox News about things here yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF RIC BRADSHAW, PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA: Trying to figure out if he had a place locally that he was staying. It appears that the last place of his residence was in Hawaii.

So, we're checking to see what his flight schedules were, if he had any traveled plans to get here. The FBI presently is over at the scene. We've provided an area for them to do their forensics. We've got the road blocked off so there's no traffic in there.

But right now it's a matter of gathering some more forensics if we can and checking to see where the gun came from. Just do some cleanup.

BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX NEWS HOST: Is he talking?

BRADSHAW: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SUAREZ: Of course - of course there are still plenty of unanswered questions at this hour, including just how this 58-year-old even knew that the former president was on the golf course here behind me. It was not on his schedule yesterday. And we're told that the former president decided to go golfing at the last minute.

Sara, we know that the director of the Secret Service is in Florida and that he is expected to meet with law enforcement officials and investigators here on the ground. He is also expected to meet with former President Trump. And it is our understanding that the director of the Secret Service will get a tour of the golf course here behind me at some point today.

Sara.

SIDNER: Carlos, I just wanted to go back to something you said earlier about whether or not there were shots fired, because that's what had been reported over the weekend. What did you learn, again, that there - there were no shots fired? The FBI got to him before that - or the Secret Service got to him before that?

SUAREZ: That's exactly right. So, according to the sheriff of Palm Beach County, Ric Bradshaw, he said, and I want to quote him here.

[09:05:02]

He said that the 58-year-old did not get off any rounds. Again, he did not get off any rounds because the Secret Service was able to act so fast. Again, those are the words from the sheriff out here who is confirming that the 58-year-old did not fire any rounds at the former president. And that, in fact, it was the Secret Service that it appears may have opened fire, anywhere between four to six rounds.

Sara.

SIDNER: OK. Really good information.

Carlos Suarez, thank you so much for joining us with those new details.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now, CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller, and CNN's senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem.

And full disclosure, John, you were on the phone 30 seconds ago backstage. I always get interested when you are working your sources right before you walk on. So, you know, what are you hearing? When might we learn what they now know? JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: That

is the question. So, the answer we have in hand is, he is scheduled for a 10:00 a.m. - the suspect is scheduled for at 10:00 a.m. appearance before a federal magistrate in the federal court in West Palm Beach.

Now, what does that mean? It means almost nothing. They scheduled everybody for a 10:00 a.m. appearance and that's so that the prisoners are produced and then they get to it when between the magistrate and the U.S. attorney, they are ready.

So, what we don't have. We don't have what the charges are. We haven't seen a complaint. He will be arraigned likely on some kind of federal complaint, which is short of an indictment by a grand jury because it's showing that they have probable cause. But that's where we're going to be looking for the details of, what did they find in the car? What did they find, if anything, that they might disclose in that document in the phone and so on. So, we're waiting for that.

And the clock is ticking, which is, they have 24 hours basically to do that appearance after they're holding him. And there would be some debate as to when did that clock start, from the moment state authorities turned him over to the federal authorities, or from the time he was taken into custody.

But we're likely to see a court appearance today.

BERMAN: All right, Juliette Kayyem, you say that Donald Trump should be outraged. The American people should be outraged by this. Why?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. Well, this is a - this assassination attempt. The second in a very short time period is reflective of a threat environment that we've all been talking about leading into this selection. We will - we have, and we will debate the cause of it and promoting it. But it has now led to an attempted assassination of Donald Trump by a person who, from all accounts, we don't know how he got here. He is not particularly violent in his postings. He's got some stuff about Ukraine. Once the Butler assassination attempt happens, we're sort of curious, you know, did that - did he become a copycat after that?

But, you know, we talk about political violence. Is that the left or is it the right? I think now we just - we're just talking about violence. That this is where we are.

I'm outraged. Everyone should be outraged. And - but it's on us. I mean it's not - you know, we can - we can say the Secret Service should have done this, or they should have had a security perimeter there.

Look, at some stage it's - it's - you can only play defense for so long. So, this is part of a larger issue that we need to address as a democracy, all of us, including Donald Trump, who - who could have been a victim of it just yesterday.

BERMAN: John, the Secret Service director - acting Secret Service director going to Palm Beach. He spent a lot of time there. To what end?

MILLER: Well, first of all, when I was in law enforcement, I always found it important to go to the scene. If you weren't at the scene right away, go to the scene later because if this is going to become a recurring issue, the questions are, where was he, how far from the president? Where was the Secret Service? Where was that encounter? It can be described to you, but unless you go there and do that walkthrough and get an actual feel for it, it's hard to kind of build, could we have done something differently? Should we have done something differently? If we did everything right, how did it come together, because I've now been to the site.

One of the criticisms against Kimberly Cheatle, the former director, before she stepped down was, that she didn't immediately go to Pennsylvania and, you know, have the entire walkthrough.

So, this is the Secret Service leaning forward and saying, you know, let's - let's get these answers, because we know these questions or coming.

BERMAN: Juliette, let's talk about golf for a second here. And I don't mean to be trite at all because Donald Trump likes to golf a lot.

KAYYEM: Yes.

BERMAN: And a lot of presidents have golfed and presidential candidates golf. Does this change the way that the Secret Service will protect these people while they are golfing?

KAYYEM: Well, I think what it's going to change is to focus on the place rather than the person.

[09:10:02]

I mean we've all been saying that Donald Trump is different. He is - he is not a former president who just plays golf. He is now the presidential candidate. And it's just clear that his - the threat environment surrounding him is high. So focusing not just on the golf, but both his public events, as well as this was just a Sunday private event are important.

We don't know how the attempted assassin knew that Donald Trump was on his golf course. But if you're just in the area, anyone who's been around a security detail knows, it becomes pretty obvious when someone important is moving around. So he - we'll find out how long he had been in the area, how long he had - if he had been to the golf course before. But it's more than just about golf courses now. You can't - you can secure areas better. We know that. You can increase security perimeters. But it's going to take rethinking by the Secret Service and also discussions with Donald Trump and his campaign on - about his accessibility. Those are unhappy conversations with any candidate. But I think, you know, he got lucky again yesterday.

BERMAN: John, you had told me one of the first things they will be looking into is, was there anyone else involved? This is always one of the first things that people investigate here. Any new threads over the last couple hours in which way might that be leaning?

MILLER: I mean it's really going to boil down to the exploitation by the FBI's computer assistance - computer analysis response team on the electronic devices and then wherever he was staying. What are the papers there? What was in the car?

So, one of the things we're going to be looking at is, is there going to be anybody else in there? The likelihood, given the nature of these offenders, is generally no. But given the fact that, you know, an individual was arrested a week ago who came from Pakistan, who was tasked by the Iranian government to plot the assassinations of major government officials, it's a question they're going to have to go through. Who was he talking to, if anybody.

BERMAN: Take all those steps.

All right, John Miller, Juliette Kayyem, our thanks to both of you.

We are just getting word that President Biden is speaking about this, this morning. We will bring that to you as soon as that video comes in.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are demanding answers as new details have emerged about the apparent second assassination attempt on Donald Trump. We will talk more about that.

And it looks like there's bad blood between Donald Trump and Taylor Swift.

And right now, the first public hearing on the catastrophic Titan submersible implosion is underway. What we are learning more than a year after that tragic mission.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:17:17]

SIDNER: This morning, the congressional task force investigating the first assassination attempt against Trump is now calling for a briefing with the Secret Service about the second apparent assassination attempt that happened yesterday. Lawmakers say they remain deeply concerned about the threat of ongoing political violence.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is on Capitol Hill for us.

What are you learning?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara, keep in mind that this is a bipartisan task force and they were set up, as you referenced, over the summer as a response to the original assassination attempt against President Trump back in July in Butler, Pennsylvania. So now this task course, of course, expanding their probe and asking some real questions as to what exactly happened yesterday in West Palm Beach, Florida. They are calling for a briefing from the U.S. Secret Service. And in a joint statement last night, they say that they want to know what happened and how security responded. They say, "we are thankful that the former president was not harmed, but remain deeply concerned about political violence and condemn it in all of its forms.

Meantime, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, by happenstance, he was actually in Mar-a-Lago at some point yesterday afternoon. He said he spent a few hours with former President Trump. And he came out with a very strong statement this morning, saying, "Congress will be acting swiftly to look into this," and to recommend some solutions going forward on how to handle security better. Here's Mike Johnson this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): There's going to be reports and recommendations coming forward. And Congress will act swiftly. We need accountability. We must demand that this job is being done.

I think there are some - some really patriotic, great people working in the Secret Service. But it's the leadership. We have no faith. I have no faith in Secretary Mayorkas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And many members up here on Capitol Hill acknowledging some of the successes of the security down there in West Palm Beach and with the Secret Service to identify the potential shooter. But also having very real questions. How was this person able to have such close access to the perimeter, questioning the level of security around the former president. All of this, Sara, will certainly be addressed by that bipartisan task force going forward.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, Sunlen Serfaty, live from Capitol Hill for us today. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, joining us right now is Lanhee Chen, former public policy director for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, and Democratic strategist Ameshia Cross.

Good to see you guys. Thanks for coming in.

So, Lanhee, you have, once again, a renewed conversation around - around another assassination attempt against Donald Trump happening on Capitol Hill. And also it also - the aftermath has been a conversation surrounding the political rhetoric that we're seeing in this election.

What does this scary incident do to the campaign and political rhetoric now?

[09:20:05] LANHEE CHEN, FORMER MITT ROMNEY PUBLIC POLICY DIRECTOR: Well, the level of political rhetoric, unfortunately, in our country has reached a state that I think is concerning on many levels. But the reality is that we've had political violence in America for many, many years. If you look back pass the decades, we've seen this happen. I think the question is how we respond as a people. How we respond in terms of whether we - we try to come together. You know, I'm not particularly optimistic. Unfortunately, that's going to happen. But the reality is, we have eached this level of political rhetoric that is deeply concerning.

I do think Congress needs to look into what's going on with respect to the protection around the former president. But this goes to broader issues I think we have with our political system, the level of rhetoric, that challenges created by that. I wish we could all take the temperature and dial it down a little bit. But I don't have a great deal of confidence it's going to happen in the last 50 days of a presidential campaign.

BOLDUAN: Yes. I mean, and we saw for, what was it, all of like 30 minutes, relatively speaking, that the tone calm down after the first assassination attempt.

Ameshia, Donald Trump is quickly - quickly sent out a message to his supporters fundraising off of this. Republicans are accusing Democrats of endangering Donald Trump here by casting the Republican nominee as a threat to democracy. They say that is what led to this. What's the right way for Democrats and everyone to navigate this now, do you think, not make the political environment worse, but still be able to draw a contrast. I mean that's what this election is about.

AMESHIA CROSS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: And that's what they're going to continue to do. I think that what was previously said was 100 percent accurate. We know that the Secret Service has been understaffed for quite some time. We know that these threats of violence have happened across multiple administrations, as well as those who run for office.

I worked on the Obama campaign. Once he got elected, he had to have more Secret Service than anybody else because as the first black president, he got threats, more than any president than we had previously seen.

With that being said, I think that there is a contrast to be made. We have to talk about Donald Trump and the threats of Project 2025. We have to talk about the target he put - he's put on the backs of Haitian-Americans and Haitian migrants and black people writ large with his comments about Haitian migrants eating dogs and other animals. I think that the rage-filled tweets, social platforms that he's utilized very negative language on, in addition to having -

BOLDUAN: Ameshia, let me just play this for you. We're actually hearing from President Biden now for the first time, speaking to reporters about this.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We thank God the president's OK. I think we got a full report so far (INAUDIBLE). But one thing I want to make clear, the service needs more help. And I think the Congress should respond to their needs if they, in fact, need more service (INAUDIBLE). So, that's what we're going to be talking about.

(CROSS TALK)

QUESTION: Are you saying they need more money or they need more personnel, they need more money? What kind of help are you saying that they need?

BIDEN: I think we need some more personnel. I think they may need - they may deciding (ph), whether they need more personnel or not.

QUESTION: Are you personally -

(CROSS TALK)

BOLDUAN: And actually hearing from the - from President Biden right there, guys, also shows a contrast - it comes - seeing President Biden right there actually shows a contrast in just the response. And I wonder kind of what that means.

I mean, Lanhee, you heard President Biden saying what the result here is the need for more - the result now needs to be more resources. The Secret Service needs more help, needs more resources, and that needs to be on Congress. But we just heard Mike Johnson speaking out this morning saying that it's on leadership, using the opportunity to go after the secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas. Like - it's like, this is a real problem and it's already becoming a political issue.

CHEN: Yes. And I think that the answer can be - can be all of those things, right? It can be both that we need more resources and more funding to ensure that protectees of the Secret Service remain safe. Whether that's former President Trump or, you know, you also have a historic candidate on the other side in the form of Vice President Harris. We've got to make sure that there's enough protection available to all of these people because this really shouldn't be an issue.

And there really ought to be questions asked about leadership as well. So, I think they both can be right. The challenge, of course, is that we all go to our respective corners when we have these conversations and it needs to be both of those things. It needs to be a serious examination of what's happening at the service, but also a recognition that in this really heated end of the campaign, we've got to make sure that everyone is properly protected and that the Secret Service is doing its job.

BOLDUAN: Let's talk about one of the issues you raised just before we got the tape in from President Biden, Ameshia, which is, you can - call it - call it an issue, called it a distraction, call it both, coming from the Republican side right now, continuing to push the debunked claims that migrants are eating pets in Ohio. I think - Republican Congressman Tom Emmer was just on with me, and I asked him if this focus that J.D. Vance and Donald Trump continue to have creates a problem for Republicans down ballot. This went on for quite some time. If you saw it earlier, this was - this was a back-and-forth between the congressman and I.

[09:25:02]

He did not directly answer the question. And it kind of ended up like this. Let me show you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: If this story of eating pets is completely factually wrong and is not true, you are OK with the story continuing and your candidate continue to talk about it.

REP. TOM EMMER (R-MN): I hope you start reporting on the problem that causes all of this, which is an administration Kamala Harris is responsible for allowing thousands of migrants here improperly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Not saying it's wrong, or that they should stop, or that it is a problem, Ameshia, but what does it do?

CROSS: In the immediacy, it makes life a lot harder for Haitians, Haitian migrants, and many Haitians that are here legally. But also for black people writ large because your average person can't tell the difference between a black person from Haiti or a black person from the United States. So, it puts a target on the backs of people of color, specifically black people, which I would argue was part of Trump and Vance's ideology to begin with. And we've seen that through a lot of the rhetoric that he's pushed, initially calling Haiti an s- hole country. We know about he feels about this place and its people.

But I think that the down ballot races will be affected. I think that the Republicans in leadership, in Congress, should be castigating this, should be calling it out. They won't because their commander in chief is Donald Trump. He is the head of that party. And if he goes with - if he goes down with it, they're going to go down with the ship as well. It is very dangerous. It is scary. It has caused the closing of schools. It has caused extra protection for civic centers, churches, things like that. There are people who are literally receiving death threats just for doing their jobs every day because they have black skin.

That is a problem and something that is ushered in by the right, by the Republican Party, those who stand by Donald Trump and his refusal to back away from these xenophobic, ignorant and, quite frankly, nonfactual stories he's telling about a group of individuals. It is something we should all be calling out. The mayor has called it out. The city manager has called it out. I don't know how much more we have to do to elevate the fact that Haitian migrants, Haitians in general, black people, aren't eating people's pets anywhere in America.

This is ignored. It is xenophobic. It is racism writ large, run by somebody whose campaign is determined to create divisions across this country, particularly those on racial lines. BOLDUAN: And, Lanhee, you are a - you are a policy guy. You were a Republican policy director for Mitt Romney's campaign. This - when you talk often about the need to lean on issues and lean away from distractions, what do you see in this?

CHEN: Well, the conversation about dog or cat consumption is probably not something that is going to drive a lot of voters, frankly, who are undecided to Donald Trump's camp. I think if he is going to win this election, he's going to have to do the same thing he did in the last couple weeks in the closing of that 2016 campaign, which is to focus on the issues that Americans are truly concerned about.

And poll after poll tell us actually that he has an advantage on the issues of the economy and immigration. But the more that he is talking about these issues rather than really focusing in on those, I think it does create a challenge.

And you mentioned the down-ballot campaign. I think it creates a challenge for Republicans down-ballot as well, whether in these crucial Senate races or in these very tight House races that will determine control of the U.S. House over the next several weeks. So, I think that the answer's quite clear in terms of where the focus needs to be if this campaign is going to have any chance of being successful this year.

BOLDUAN: Yes. The real question is, Lanhee, will it be focused there.

It's good to see you, Lanhee.

Great to see you, Ameshia.

Thank you both very much.

John.

BERMAN: All right, we've got new reporting on Iranian plots on U.S. officials. And we are waiting on the first court appearance this morning for the man connected to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:30:00]