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Latest On Assassination Attempt On Donald Trump; President Joe Biden Speaks After Briefing On Trump Assassination Attempt; Law Enforcement Sources To CNN: Shooter Had Explosive Material Inside Car And Residence; How The Attempted Assassination Of Trump Unfolded Minute-By-Minute; Trump Now Says He's Going To Milwaukee Today. Aired 2-3p ET
Aired July 14, 2024 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:00:08]
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: I'm Kaitlan Collins, live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the site of the Republican National Convention that is scheduled to start this week. Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world as we are continuing to follow our breaking news as we learn more information about the shocking assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania last night.
Any moment now we do expect to hear from President Biden at the White House after he was just briefed by his top national security advisers in the Situation Room that includes the director of the Civic Service and the FBI.
We will bring that speech to you live when we hear from President Biden as we will be monitoring what he learned in that briefing and any the announcement he has.
And all of this comes as we are learning also new details about the shooter and the FBI investigation that's now underway. Law enforcement sources are now telling CNN that the gunman, who has been identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, also had explosive materials inside his car and his residence.
He lived about 35 miles away from the scene of that rally in Bethel Park, that's near Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. He opened fire from a nearby rooftop outside of the venue. He was ultimately killed by Secret Service agents.
And today, investigators continue to search for a motive and also to find out how the gunman was able to get close enough to the former president to fire shots at him.
Moments ago, we've learned more about how the former president is recovering. We saw him land last night after he was taken to Butler Memorial Hospital. He was then flew to New Jersey on his plane.
We saw him descend the steps unaided, surrounded by Secret Service agents and we have now learned from CNN's Kristen Holmes that Ivanka Trump is with her father at Bedminster currently.
All of this comes as he is recovering from that stunning shooting and preparing to head here to Milwaukee where he says he's going forward as planned. He will speak later this week at this scheduled Republican convention. He is supposed to announce his vice-presidential pick.
There are a lot of fast-moving developments and we're covering them all with our correspondents.
Evan Perez is covering the investigation aspect of this. Danny Freeman is near the home where the gunman lived, but I want to start this hour with CNN's M.J. Lee, who's live at the White House where we are expecting to hear from President Biden.
M.J., obviously, he was just started about 1:30 p.m. He is a little bit delayed now. What are you hearing from White House officials about what we should be expecting.
M.J. LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kaitlan. We are about to see the president speak for the second time since this assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump yesterday.
Remember the president cut short his visit to Rehoboth and came back to Washington, D.C. overnight so that he could receive a full briefing by the various law enforcement agencies.
And we know that he spent a part of this morning in the Situation Room with the heads of the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the director of the Secret Service, the head of the FBI.
So when the president speaks in a few minutes, we do expect that he could hopefully shed a little more light into this ongoing federal investigation into what happened yesterday and particularly, we'll be listening closely to see whether he says anything specifically about the role of the U.S. Secret Service and why such a massive security breach was even possible at an event featuring the former president.
But Kaitlan, the ongoing federal investigation into the events of yesterday aside, we certainly also expect that the president will seize this moment to send a message to the nation about how political violence of any kind is completely unacceptable in a country like this.
This is of course a theme that the president has spoken about a lot. It has really been central and has been a through line in both his presidency and his candidacy as well.
And obviously, you know, we are just four months out from the election and you are in Wisconsin because you're on the eve of the RNC. So there's no denying that politics is really looming large over everything.
And we have seen the Biden campaign and the Biden team take some immediate steps to avoid doing anything that might be even perceived as being overtly political. We've seen scheduling changes, the president's trip to Texas tomorrow
has been postponed for now. The vice president's trip to Florida is also being rescheduled. And we know that the Biden campaign has paused all TV political ads and any kinds of outgoing messaging that is political in nature.
One thing that I'm being told is that the president is going to move forward with that NBC News interview that was planned for tomorrow. Initially, it was supposed to take place in Texas, that trip again has been postponed, but I am told by a White House official, that the interview will still go on, Kaitlan.
[14:04:51]
COLLINS: And M.J., I should note we just -- while you were speaking and delivering that report, we just got the two-minute warning from the White House. So in less than two minutes, we are expecting to see President Biden walk there into the Roosevelt Room where he is expected to speak.
This is the first time we're really hearing from him since we've learned more about this attempted assassination. Last night he wasn't -- they weren't even calling it that yet. He said he had an indication of what he thought it was, but he was still waiting to learn more from officials.
And we know he got a briefing last night. He's had that briefing this morning. What are we hearing from other officials there at the White House about the status of this investigation?
LEE: Yes. And Kaitlan, we know from our reporting yesterday that basically as soon as the president found out that this incident had happened at Donald Trump's rally, he was eager to deliver a message to the nation.
So that's why the cameras were scrambled and almost immediately we saw the president get in front of the cameras then deliver remarks to the nation. They were very short, but he made very clear that he feels strongly that this kind of political violence just has no place in this country.
Now, hours later, because the president has been here back in Washington, back at the White House. We are again just hoping to get a little more insight directly from the president himself on how that federal investigation is going.
Given all of the folks that I just mentioned earlier, the heads of the various law enforcement agencies that have been briefing him in the situation room, we very much hope that we can get a little -- and here's the president, so I'm going to toss it back to you.
(CROSSTALKING)
COLLINS: And M.J., here's president. Here's the president. Let's see what he's got to say.
(START OF LIVE EVENT)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good afternoon.
Last night, I spoke with Donald Trump. I'm sincerely grateful that he's doing well and recovering. And we had a short but good conversation.
Jill and I are keeping him and his family in our prayers.
We also extend our deepest condolences to the family of the victim who was killed. He was a father. He was protecting his family from the bullets that were being fired, and he lost his life. God love him.
We're also praying for the full recovery of those who were injured. And we're grateful to the Secret Service agents and other law enforcement agencies who -- and individuals who risked their lives literally, for our nation.
As I said last night, there is no place in America for this kind of violence or for any violence for that matter.
An assassination attempt is contrary to everything we stand for as a nation -- everything. It's not who we are as a nation. It's not America, and we cannot allow this to happen.
Unity is the most elusive goal of all, but nothing is important than that right now -- unity.
We'll debate, and we'll disagree. That's not -- that's not going to change. But it's going to -- we're going to not lose sight of the fact of who we are as Americans.
Look, Vice President Harris and I were just briefed in the Situation Room by my homeland security team, including the director of the FBI, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the attorney general, the director of the Secret Service, my homeland security advisor, the national security advisor. And we're going to continue to be briefed.
The FBI is leading this investigation, which is still in its early stages. We don't yet have any information about the motive of the shooter. We know who he is.
I urge everyone - everyone, please, don't make assumptions about his motives or his affiliations.
Let the FBI do their job, and their partner agencies do their job. I've instructed that this investigation be thorough and swift. And the investigators will have every resource they need to get this done. Look, as this investigation continues, here's what we're going to do.
First, Mr. Trump, as a former president and nominee of the Republican Party already receives a heightened level of security, and I have been consistent in my direction to the Secret Service to provide him with every resource, capability, and protective measure necessary to ensure his continued safety. Second, I've directed the head of the Secret Service to review all security measures for the -- all security measures for the Republican National Convention, which is scheduled to start tomorrow.
And third, I've directed an independent review of the national security at yesterday's rally to assess exactly what happened. And we'll share the results of that independent review with the American people as well.
And, finally, I'll be speaking more about this tonight at greater length from the Oval Office.
We must unite as one nation. We must unite as one nation to demonstrate who we are.
And so, may God bless you all. And may God protect our troops.
Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, when you spoke to President Trump yesterday, what did he tell you, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President -- (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President do you regret --
(END OF LIVE EVENT)
[14:09:49]
COLLINS: You just heard from President Biden speaking there at the White House after receiving a briefing from his top national security officials. You saw Vice President Harris, Attorney General Merrick Garland at his sides as he was talking about the briefing that they just had in the Situation Room.
First, he talked about the conversation that he had with former president Donald Trump last night. He said he was genuinely glad for his safety and the fact that he did survive this assassination attempt.
And the president also offered his condolences to the family of Corey Comperatore. That is the man who was killed attending that Trump rally. He's a father of two daughters and his wife talked about how he dove to protect them and shield them as the chaos was breaking out at that rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The president also made some news there, as he said, that he is taking several steps here in the light of what happened.
He said one, that they already talked about the increased protection that is afforded to Donald Trump, not just because he is the former president of the United States, but also given he is the presumptive Republican nominee. President Biden said that will stay in place.
He also said that he has directed the Secret Service to review all the security measures for what is happening, where I'm sitting right now at the Republican convention. This site here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin already heightened security here, but the president says he's directed the Secret Service to review those measures and to make sure they are up to par.
Lastly, and this may be the most important, is he is telling them and directing them to conduct an independent review of the security and the measures that were taken leading up to that rally in Butler, Pennsylvania as there are major questions coming about how someone could have gotten this close to the former president of the United States where he was able to fire shots in his direction.
It's not clear who is going to be conducting that independent investigation, but those are the questions we have right now.
I have M.J. Lee at the White House, Mark Preston is here with me in Milwaukee. M.J., let me start with you and what President Biden was announcing.
I mean because that was news there in saying that there is going to be an independent review that he is scheduling with the Secret Service of how those security measures were put in place for that rally in Butler, Pennsylvania?
LEE: Yes. Kaitlan, you know, these remarks that we just heard from the Roosevelt Room from President Biden really struck me as the president wanting to send a message to the nation that he very much understands from his position here at the White House, the seriousness and the gravity of the situation, and really the shock that the nation has gone through ever since the events unfolded yesterday.
And I say that because these remarks were incredibly brief. Even though we know that he was just coming out of a lengthy briefing by all law enforcement agencies in the Situation Room, he actually didn't present a lot of details, didn't go into details at all really other than to say that he is committed to the federal agencies conducting a full and swift investigation.
And he also at one point emphasized and this I thought was really noteworthy that there is nothing that they know right now, nothing he can share right now on the motives of the would-be assassin. And he said, quote, don't make assumptions about his motives or his affiliation. That to me struck me as the president really wanting to temper everyone's rhetoric around the events of yesterday and temper the speculation that, of course has just been so ramping on social media and elsewhere.
He understands the situation and the moment that we are in. and I think this was a president that wanted to just get out of the cameras one more time to say there is a full investigation that is ongoing, even if he couldn't share a lot of the details. And certainly this sounds like the situation where there are no big conclusions yet. He made clear that the investigation is unfolding and that he is going to basically stay on top of things.
I think the fact that you pointed this out yourself, Kaitlan, that he is talking about an independent investigation into the role of the U.S. Secret Service. That is so important because those are some of the biggest questions coming out of yesterday, again, as we were talking about before, how is it possible that there was such a massive security breach at an event featuring the former president.
COLLINS: M.J. Lee, thank you for that summary of those remarks there from the president.
Mark Preston is here with me. And Mark in addition to the news that he made about the independent investigation that he wants to conduct it, and also the review of the security measures of where we're sitting right now, which as you know, are very extensive.
The president also just spoke to the current political climate and was talking about, we must not lose sight of unity being the most important overall. What stood out to you?
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Unity is an elusive -- an elusive goal. And he hit the nail on the head. The fact of the matter is we are very much, you know, a divided nation at this point. And I only think that this has heightened it.
I mean, we're going to see both political sides that are going to, y k, dig in for their, you know, their reasons. And there's going to be a little bit of a clash.
You know, the concern I have Kaitlan about security specifically is not necessarily what happens in here. I mean I think everything here is going to be fine. There is so much protection here.
[14:14:48]
PRESTON: I wonder what's going to happen out in the city. I wonder if there's going to be a lot of MAGA protests or supporters who come to the city just to be here, just to be part of this, this historic occasion.
At the same time, we know there's going to be a lot of anti-Trump protesters that are going to be here in the city and just seeing those two clash, I think could -- could be very ugly.
COLLINS: Yes, which also speaks to the importance of hearing from people like President Biden and former President Trump, which we have heard from both of them. Trump last night in his statement, talking about taking down the temperature in what this looks like going forward and you know, President Biden said we'll debate, we'll disagree but that's not going to change -- he said we're not going to lose sight of the fact of who we are as Americans. I mean --
PRESTON: Important, right? You know, the whole idea is and obviously today has got to be a day spent on focusing on what happened yesterday to try to understand it as we -- as we make the turn into Monday.
But for the Republican Party, for the nation let's let them have their convention. Let's let Joe Biden be the Democrat and the Democrats go out and fight against whatever Trump is trying to push. That's what we are as Americans. We can't allow one person on a roof who's 20-years- old to entirely disrupt, you know, our political process.
And I just hope that we're able to take this and to really strengthen who we are as people and to move forward.
COLLINS: Yes, an important message there and we'll see what Donald Trump says the first time we hear from him.
Mark Preston, thank you for that.
Also joining me now is Charles Ramsey. He is the former Philadelphia police commissioner and also CNN's senior law enforcement analyst. And it's great to have you here because I want to get your take on two things we heard from President Biden.
But the first one being this independent review that he is ordering from the Secret Service into the security perimeters of last night. What does that look like? Who would conduct an independent review of the Secret Service.
CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, they need to have someone with a high level of credibility. The president's absolutely right. This has to happen and it has to happen as soon as possible.
There was a major security breach, period. There's no way a potential assassin should get that close to a protectee or anyone else for that matter. Somebody dropped the ball.
I mean, you know, you listen to the reports and they're saying, well we saw a suspicious guy outside the perimeter. Well, what did you do? Did you stop them? Did you question them. Who's watching the rooftops? Do you have a person on the roof? Do you have drones?
I mean there are a lot of unanswered questions and somebody has to take a deep dive into it, but they need to do it sooner than later.
You've got a major convention starting tomorrow. A month after that, you've got to Democratic convention. And then in-between, you've got a lot of campaigning by both the president and the former president and their vice presidents.
These people need to be protected. We cannot have a recurrence of something like this, period.
COLLINS: Yes. And he just came out of a room with the Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle and was in there with her. I mean, obviously we have not heard a lot from the Secret Service. They've confirmed initially the casualties and the victims who were critically injured. Then they reaffirmed that Donald Trump was not denied any request for additional resources.
But the Secret Service was not present at that briefing last night with the FBI special agent and the Pennsylvania state police. And so there are still a lot of questions that obviously there's some investigation going underway. Everyone understands that, but it is important for them. How important do you believe it is for them to be out there and be transparent about what happened here?
RAMSEY: They need to be there. I mean, there's no excuse not to be there. I realize this is a tough time, you know, and I've run to police agencies. You have tough times. That's more important for you to be out front when you're in those tough times.
Personally, I think the investigation should not be an internal investigation. It does need to be independent, which means to me, someone from outside of that agency ought to be the person sharing that particular effort to make sure that its transparent, to make sure they have uncovered everything they need to uncover.
I have a suspicion. They already probably know some of the things that broke down that didn't go well. It doesn't take long to kind of figure that out. The question is whether or not now or are they ready to really come forward with information? Do they have all the facts to verify to make sure that whatever theories you're working on right now actually turn out to be accurate ones that can be then shared with the public and lead to real change in terms of the security posture.
Because apparently it wasn't working. It certainly didn't work yesterday.
COLLINS: Yes. And obviously put Donald Trump within an inch of his life, which is just a terrifying circumstance.
RAMSEY: Literally.
COLLINS: The other thing President Biden said as he was -- he was -- he was speaking directly to people. And obviously we've heard a lot of conspiracy theories and misinformation pushed online in the hours since this assassination attempt happened.
He spoke and said, let the FBI do their job when it comes to determining the motive yet. He said they weren't ready to say anything. Obviously that -- how long could that take for them to figure that out as we're learning more about explosives, who this person was, what they were like at school. How long could it take for them to determine a potential motive here?
[14:19:53]
RAMSEY: Well, I'm not a profiler. I don't know if it'll take that long. They've got a lot of experience. The FBI is very good at this sort of thing. And they will take a deep dive and do a full psychological profile of this individual.
Just from what I'm hearing right now, he kind of falls into a category that we've heard before. You know, he was bullied, the loner, and so forth, access to a high-powered weapon. All those kinds of things.
But the whole point of that is to learn from it so that when you identify in the future potential people that are capable of doing these kinds of things, you can identify them early on.
Again prevention is the whole thing, you know. We don't need something like this to happen again. And it doesn't matter if you're Democrat or Republican. All of us should be outraged of the fact that an elected official or potentially elected official, former president was targeted for assassination.
That should not happen in the United States of America, period. And anything, any of us can do to prevent that from happening in the future and certainly our elected officials and activist and even media personalities need to tone it down.
You've got a lot of people out there that are mentally unstable and they hear all this rhetoric and they take it upon themselves to do something.
That is -- that is a huge part of the problem. It goes beyond establishing perimeters and having snipers in place and all that sort of thing. We've created an environment now where violence is something that we can actually expect to happen. And that is incredibly unfortunate.
COLLINS: Yes. An incredibly dangerous environment as well. Police chief Charles Ramsey, thank you for joining. Everyone else as well for your reports. Mark Preston, M.J. Lee.
Ahead, we're going to look into that investigation and where it stands right now because we are learning new details about the shooter.
That's after just a quick break. Stay with us.
[14:21:40]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: We're continuing our live coverage of the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump last night at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
We have just learned from the former president himself posting on Truth Social that he will be coming here to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I am now, which is the site of the Republican convention this week. He is going to leave Bedminster in the next hour.
He said he considered delaying his trip by two days, but he says he has decided he cannot allow a shooter or potential assassin to force change to scheduling or anything else. He says, "Therefore, I'll be leaving as scheduled for Milwaukee at 3:30 p.m. today."
Now, of course, this is coming, he has been recovering there at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey. His daughter, Ivanka Trump is on hand, according to CNN's Kristen Holmes.
And all of this is coming as we're learning more about what it was like at that rally yesterday, where the former president was on stage just for about ten minutes before the shooting began.
A mother and a son who are just a few rows in the front of the attendees who were there say it was too close for comfort. Donna Hudson and her son -- so they almost made the decision to actually sit higher up in the bleachers.
We have now learned, of course, from Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, that one attendee Corey Comperatore was killed. He's the father of two daughters and his wife said that he dove on top of her and one of those daughters as the shooting and the chaos was unfolding.
Two others were critically wounded. We have not heard an update on their condition, but were following all of this incredibly closely.
I want to bring in CNN's senior justice correspondent Evan Perez, and also CNN's Danny Freeman, who was near the home of the gunman.
Danny, let me start with you because this has been a lot of questions and you heard President Biden himself talking about this just in the Roosevelt Room a few moments ago, saying, give the FBI some time, be patient as they are trying to determine the motive of this shooter.
You're learning more about his background. What can you tell us?
DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kaitlan. We're learning more about the shooters background here in the neighborhood in Bethel Park where he lived. It's a little bit south of Pittsburgh.
But let me actually say before I get to that Kaitlan, I really want to address one of the other things that President Biden spoke about and also that Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro spoke about and that you just mentioned right now and it's that man who was killed at the rally.
We just heard from Governor Josh Shapiro a little while ago. He said a few different things. First, he said that he is encouraging people to take the temperature down, to rise above the hateful rhetoric that exists in search for a better, brighter future.
But then he turns to that man who was killed. That's Corey Comperatore. He also made an announcement just a little while ago in this past hour that all U.S. flags and Commonwealth flags will be flying at half-staff today in honor of Corey, who he described as a father, a loving husband.
And he actually recounted a conversation that he had with Corey's wife describing him as a hero.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D-PA): Corey was a girl dad. Corey was a firefighter. Corey went to church every Sunday. Corey loved his community. And most especially Corey loved his family.
Corey was an avid supporter of the former president, and was so excited to be there last night with him in the community. Corey dove on his family to protect them last night at this rally. Corey was the very best of us. (END VIDEO CLIP)
FREEMAN: Now Kaitlan, to your original question, I mentioned I'm here in Bethel Park. Again, we're just south of Pittsburgh, about 35 miles south of Butler where the Trump campaign events took place.
This is where Thomas Matthew Crooks lived. There has been a pretty decent police presence in and around this area of this neighborhood all throughout the day as investigators continue to search for clues, to search for that motive.
[14:29:49]
FREEMAN: But we were actually able to speak with another student who went to the same high school as Crooks in the past few years.
And this student, his name is Jason Coler (ph). He said that while he wasn't in any of the same classes with Crooks, he said that this is a student who he would see around the hallway with no facial expressions, just really bland expressions on his face and also said that he believed that Crooks had been bullied because he was not really part of any in crowds, saying to us in an interview just recently that he felt that Crooks had a target on his back in school.
So, again, we're still waiting to hear if any of that may have led to what investigators are trying to find out, what was the motive, what led up to the shooting. But as you heard from even the levels of President Biden, still no public information as to what caused Crooks to go up on that roof and shoot at the former President -- Kaitlan.
COLLINS: Danny, have we heard from any of his family members?
FREEMAN: So CNN reached out to his father last night when we were trying to, frankly, on our end, trying to confirm the identity of this potential shooter.
We were able to get in contact with the father, but at the time, he was frankly trying to figure out what was going on in this entire situation himself and he was at the time waiting to hear back from law enforcement. We have not heard much more from him since.
But we do know that the gun was actually traced back to Crooks' father, Matthew Crooks. That's actually how law enforcement was able to identify the shooter in this situation, Kaitlan.
COLLINS: All right. Danny, if you hear more, keep us updated.
Evan Perez is also tracking the other part of this investigation, that federal aspect of this.
And, Evan, obviously, you heard Biden just mentioned that the FBI director was in the Situation Room with him. We saw the Attorney General Merrick Garland standing behind his shoulder what else are we learning about how -- what they've determined now that we're closing in, getting close to being 24 hours since this attempted assassination of Donald Trump. EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the fact Kaitlan
that we have a shooter who is dead, makes this a much more complicated investigation for the FBI, because now there's no one to interview, right? So they are going through the normal police work, which is going through every facet of this former shooter's life, going through everything that he may have written. There is no -- so far, they've not found any indication of social media or anything that might explain what happened yesterday or what led up to yesterday's events.
We do know that at the scene there they did when they did an initial search, they did find some explosive material both in his car and at the home where he and his family resided. So that's one of the precautions that were being taken us tonight as the investigation was under getting underway. But one of the parts of this that I think is -- we're going to learn a lot more about in the coming hours is certainly how close the police were in trying to stop this shooter.
We know for a fact that from witnesses that there were multiple people who are trying to get that law enforcement's -- law enforcement's attention. Law enforcement themselves saw him. They saw him near the magnetometers, whether the Secret Service screens people going into the rally, they saw him, they thought he was suspicious looking, and they watched him and they also shared that information with Secret Service.
Now the question is, you know, how did he end up on that roof without being noticed, and, of course, fired off those shots before the tactical team, before the counter sniper team from the Secret Service finally shot and killed him? That's one of the big questions that remains at this moment.
We know from a local sheriff who spoke to "The Washington Post" that actually won one sheriff's deputy tried to get onto that roof, saw that the shooter and the shooter turned and pointed the gun at them and it appears that that is reason why the deputy left that one perch where he might've been able to do something about it. Again, this is part of the chaos and some of the explanation of how this happened when it did yesterday after 6:00 p.m. in Butler, Pennsylvania -- Kaitlan.
COLLINS: Wait, Evan, just be clear, a sheriff's deputy saw him and the shooter pointed his gun at the sheriff's deputy?
PEREZ: According to the local sheriff there in Butler County, that one of the -- one of the local sheriff who was alerted to his presence there, tried to get to that rooftop where he was perched and tried to do something about it and it appears that the shooter pointed the gun at him. Again, that's something we're trying to confirm. That's what he told "The Washington Post".
But, Kaitlan, I mean, we've heard now from multiple witnesses that they were trying to alert law enforcement about him and that he was up on that roof. It appears that that's when the snipers took him out just seconds after those shots were fired.
COLLINS: Evan Perez, I know you're following all the developments. Thank you for that.
And ahead here, we're going to look at a timeline of how all of this unfolded just within moments of Donald Trump taking the stage, we're getting his rally. We're going to talk about how this is having impacts here, also on the Republican Convention in Milwaukee, and big headlines that we're learning today, as we have now confirmed, that former Governor Nikki Haley is expected to speak at the convention this week.
[14:35:11]
Initially she had not been invited to. This is a notable change. We're reporting on what's behind that.
And also in the next hour, we could see the former president, the first time since last night as he leaves since Bedminster golf club coming here to Milwaukee. A lot of details. We are following every inch of this story. We'll be back after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Welcome back to our live coverage here from Milwaukee as we are continuing to learn more about what happened in the lead-up to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania last night.
CNN's Tom Foreman takes a look exact timeline of this attack.
[14:40:05]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Six o'four Saturday evening, before an adoring and roaring crowd, former President Donald Trump steps to the podium, seven and a half minutes later --
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Take a look what happened --
FOREMAN: Pandemonium amid a series of sharp pops, Trump touches his ear and ducks. Three seconds later, Secret Service agents are swarming into shield him and security snipers have opened fire on the would-be assassin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It seemed initially like firecrackers went off.
FOREMAN: As chaos erupts among the attendees --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's got a gun! He's got a gun!
FOREMAN: -- one rally-goer sees another man has been killed despite the rescue efforts of bystanders.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then jumped to the bleachers, steer clear in the bleachers and then I helped carry the body of the man down au the bleachers and I took them to attend behind the bleachers. We put a towel over his head, but he is deceased.
FOREMAN: It all happens fast, 30 seconds after the first shots ring out, the podium's microphone catches Secret Service agents coordinating Trump's evacuation from that stage.
SECRET SERVICE AGNET: Hold, hold. When you're ready. On you.
FOREMAN: Then just over a minute after the violence started, the all clear.
At 6:12 p.m. the agents rise with Trump and try to usher him rapidly away, but he says --
TRUMP: Let me get my shoes. Let me get my shoes.
FOREMAN: Shortly after, he's on his way to a safe vehicle. But he tells agents to pause again. He turns to the rattled crowd and what will become an historic photo.
Soon, pictures starts surfacing of what appears to be a dead gunmen on a roof, not more than 500 feet away from Trump's right side as he stood on the stage. And the much more methodical police work begins.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need the public's help anyone who was on scene, who saw anything.
FOREMAN: As the FBI and partners start piecing together who the assailant is, how he got there, whether he acted alone and ultimately, why he fired -- an investigation that certainly will go on for months into a violent explosion of seconds.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN (on camera): We know so much more now than we did in those frantic moments. But it is the unknowns that will keep this going for so long and the investigations, the unknowns about whether anybody else was involved in helping plan this attack or facilitating it, and whether or not anybody else should be held accountable for not stopping it -- Kaitlan.
COLLINS: Yeah. It's amazing to see just how quickly it all unfolded. Tom Foreman, thank you for laying it all out for us.
And that shooting was just two days before the Republican convention was set to get underway here in Milwaukee. That's what most of the Trump campaign had been focused on, is what that was going to look like, speeches, his vice presidential pick, all of that has been upended by what happened last night on stage in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Here to talk about the implications of it all, Scott Jennings, CNN senior political commentator, and also the former special assistant to President George W. Bush, and also David Axelrod, a CNN political commentator and former senior adviser to President Obama.
Obviously, so much has changed we thought we would be talking about 24 hours ago, David Axelrod, let me start with you because President Biden gave those brief remarks with the vice president and the attorney general flanking him. He did announce he's giving a rare Oval Office address tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
What's he going to use a moment like that? What would you advise him to use a moment like that?
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So I think what he's going to try and do is speak to this need for national unity in the face of this for lowering of voices and so on. You know, I think he is working hard to play the role of president here, which has ancillary political benefits for him, but he wants to seize control of this moment and show that he is the national leader, and the way you do that is through an Oval Office speech.
COLLINS: Scott, what do you think that should look like?
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, he certainly should ask for people to settle down and to think hard about the way we're treating each other. I mean, it's a -- it's a scary time.
I think when you think about what happened to Donald Trump, I'm thinking about what happened to Corey Comperatore you know who got killed behind Donald Trump for nothing other than showing up to a political event to exercise his rights as an American to go to an assembly and have free speech. I mean, that -- that's why he's did, and I think for a lot of ordinary people, they're worried about, is this what our politics is going to be life for the rest of this year and for the foreseeable future.
So I hope Axe is right. I think he should ask for that. I think everybody should ask for that.
But right now, the mood among Republicans pretty sour and pretty worried and pretty angry about what's happened to their nominee and what happened to that, that rally-goer who had a beautiful family, and everybody's devastated for him.
AXELROD: And then died in service of protecting him. We will remind --
[14:45:01]
COLLINS: His daughter said that he threw them to the ground and shield to them essentially.
AXELROD: My first political experience was as a five-year-old going to a John F. Kennedy rally in New York City, and no one there would have thought there was any danger. I'm sure no one there thought there was any danger --
JENNINGS: No.
AXELROD: -- yesterday and that was a formative event in my life. I'm worried. It's -- this certainly was a formative event in that at firefighter's life and, you know, for his children, it's going to stay in them for the rest of their lives. So -- but look, the question for this convention is, are they -- is
the mood -- is the mood going to be one of unity? Is there a sense of a pulling back and pulling together as a country, or is it going to be a mood of anger? And if it -- if this convention projects and Donald Trump projects the spirit of unity and coming together it'll be much more successful, whether he can, you're trying to reel in forces that you've been covering for years and years and years.
That isn't the spirit in which I think people expect it to come to Milwaukee.
JENNINGS: But he has a chance to do it. I mean, he looks strong coming off that stage last night. He projected strength and he's running against someone who right now does not project strength. And I think the American people are looking for a president who can project strength and then use it for a good end.
And right now, using your strength, using your voice and using what's happened to Donald Trump, to me, it looks like unifying this country and talking about a future where we're not worried about getting shot at political rallies, and we're not worried about being at each others throats all the time. I sincerely, sincerely hope that's where we go with that.
AXELROD: But that's -- but --
COLLINS: What about the fact that Nikki Haley is coming? She was not invited. And last week, a few days ago when you talked to, there was no, they weren't even considering the possibility of her coming, and now, we have a source close to her confirming that she will be or should be speaking in this room behind us on Tuesday night.
Obviously, she had Donald Trump probably had the most challenging primary battle if I'm putting it in nice terms, there at the end --
AXELROD: Yes.
COLLINS: -- in terms of how -- how they talked about each other. What does it mean that she will have a speaking slot, a coveted speaking slot?
AXELROD: It's interesting that this news surfaces after the events of yesterday. And it will be interesting to find out whether that had anything to do with her decision to come, but she certainly is someone who can deliver a message of coming together that would be more consistent with -- with her politics so maybe that's the message that she's going to deliver. But again this is a big turn in direction from the kind of nature of the Trump campaign for a couple of years here.
So it is a chance for him to enlarge himself.
JENNINGS: Yeah.
AXELROD: And the question is, is he capable of seizing it?
JENNINGS: It's really a chance for him to leave Joe Biden behind. I mean, if you look at where Biden sits in the polling, 30s approval
rating vast majority of the country doesn't think he's up to another four years. He's sort of operating out of a position of weakness right now, people are unhappy with the job he's done. Donald Trump has all the leverage, all the capital in all the ability in this campaign right now to drive a message into really set the tone and set the contours of the rest of this year and leave Biden behind.
This is -- this is the week to do it. He could do it.
AXELROD: I think that's the reason why this Oval Office speech was happening tonight. I mean, I think it is the right thing for the president to do. But politically, I think he wants to see some of that leadership in this moment and demonstrate it.
And I think actually this could be an important speech for him.
COLLINS: It will be.
AXELROD: I'm sorry. I don't think he should underestimate how angry Republicans are with his rhetoric and with the rhetoric of a lot of people, Donald Trump.
COLLINS: I know.
AXELROD: And my opinion, he needs to speak to that tonight and he does not need to equivocate on it and he does not need to both-sides it. He needs to speak to his people tonight and say, no more Hitler, no more the country's coming to end, no more we're dissolving the constitution. That's got to stop. I think he can do it.
COLLINS: Final thought, Axe.
AXELROD: Well, listen, I mean, Donald Trump has been the author of so much, you know, if I don't vote -- I don't win, we're going to lose our country. I mean, I mean I'm old enough to remember January 6. And so, you know to say don't both sides it I think ignores the reality of where we've been in our politics. There's a lot of culpability here, and I think more than a little falls on the guy who's going to be nominated in that building tomorrow.
COLLINS: And everyone, of course, is yearning for the temperature to be taken down, regular people aren.
David Axelrod, Scott Jennings, thank you both for being here.
We will continue to see what that looks like, how this impacts the tone of the speeches that we're hearing here on stage. We are continuing our special live coverage of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. We are looking at it, what it looks like in Pennsylvania, what it means for where Donald Trump was holding that rally, that all pivotal battle ground commonwealth last night.
We'll tell you more about the investigation as well for after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the attempt -- assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. That shooting happen just two days before a critical event in the presidential race, the Republican National Convention that is happening here right behind me in Milwaukee, where delegates and surrogates are arriving.
And also in a few hours, former President Donald Trump himself, he said earlier that he had considered delaying his arrival here in Milwaukee by two days, but decided he was not going to let an attempted assassin stand in his way.
I'm joined now by the pollster and communication strategist Frank Luntz.
And, Frank, obviously, it feels weird to talk about politics in a moment like this. I'll just be blunt because obviously we're learning more about the motive here and this shooter himself and the Secret Service, and potential shortfalls of this security lapses at that place last night.
[14:55:01]
But politics does matter here, does play a factor in this. And it is something that could have an impact in a real way on the race that is shaping up.
And just the conversation that I was just having with David Axelrod and Scott Jennings, Scott Jennings said that people should not underestimate the anger and the Republican Party after that attempted assassination of Trump.
I wonder if you agree with that and how that could impact this race.
FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER AND COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIST: I'll be equally blunt and it's frightening to me and it's something that you and I've discussed on the air live several times. It's been a message that I've been trying and failing to deliver to the country for the last three or four years. And it's getting more and more urgent.
I spoke as far back as three years ago about the possibility of violence coming into politics. We know from our polling than half of Americans were expecting potential violence because where we stand right now, we have fewer people who trust the electoral process, fewer people who think that their voice is being heard, fewer people who have confidence in the electoral institutions and the people who run them this is a crisis. And one side talks about democracy in how it's executed, the other side talks about democracy in terms of the electoral process.
We have to cool off. We have to calm down. I know in my focus groups, every time I address this, they go nuts and they do it either face-to- face or online. We are an agitated, irritated country right now. And I will tell you that this is not the end. This is potentially only the beginning. So I appreciate the directness of your question, and we have to hold
both sides accountable. Republicans need to call out other Republicans. Democrats need to call out other Democrats. It's easy to blame the other aside. Let's accept responsibility ourselves.
COLLINS: Yeah. When you look at that, you know, what I was -- what's kind of scary when you look at the recent Marist poll that came out and there is a small subset of people who believe political violence is sometimes warranted or necessary and I think obviously, hopefully, the vast majority of people don't feel that way and don't want to see that. But what does that say about the moment that we're in.
LUNTZ: Well, I watched the -- I watched the video and I know that you haven't drawn attention to it because its embarrassing and maybe he cant do it because of decency rules. But at the end of that, Trump shooting look at how many people is screaming at the camp putting up their finger in the gesture using four letter words, yelling at the media, these are people who don't accept that the media is a necessary component of democracy, who don't believe what they see, what they watch who rejected, and now they're feeling like they can say and do anything.
I urge you to cut that piece of footage to show your viewers because that clearly articulates and demonstrates just how dangerous condition is right now. I'll tell you, when I go to rallies, I do not get between the press and the people at a Trump rally because it's frightening to me.
And on the left, we saw what happened in the George Floyd demonstrations. Make no mistake: it wasn't peaceful. Buildings burned. People got hurt. People got really abused.
And this is happening on both sides of the electorate. It's happening all across the country and you're correct to point it out now because were going to address it. It's going to happen at this convention and the Democratic convention, because I'm afraid what the fall will bring.
COLLINS: Frank Luntz, I think a lot of people are after last night. Thank you for joining.
LUNTZ: Thank you.
COLLINS: We have much more in the next hour. A lot happening right now, including the former President Donald Trump is expected to leave his home in New Jersey. He is coming right here to Milwaukee, just one day after he was nearly killed at his rally in Pennsylvania. We'll be following that live and also developments out of the White House and the investigation underway at the FBI and Secret Service.
Back after a quick break.
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