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FBI Investigating Possible Attempted Assassination Of Trump; Authorities Identify Suspect At Trump's Golf Course. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired September 15, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:29]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And we're back with CNN's special live coverage. I'm Kaitlan Collins alongside my colleague Wolf Blitzer. We want to welcome our viewers in the U.S. and around the world as we are covering our breaking news today in this hour, as the FBI now says it is investigating what appears to be an attempted assassination attempt of former president Donald Trump.

Yes, just two months after the last attempted assassination of the former president. We are told he is now safe. He is back at his Mar-a- Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. This comes out after about 1:30 this afternoon. Police were notified that shots had been fired in his vicinity while he was golfing at his club in West Palm Beach, Florida. That is just across the bridge from where Mar-a-Lago is.

As of right now, a suspect is in custody and just a short time ago, we heard from authorities with an update on how all of this situation played out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF RIC BRADSHAW, PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA: 1:30 this afternoon a call came out, shots fired. That was called in by Secret Service because we're in constant contact with them all the time, we were notified of that and we had units here that immediately seal off the area. Fortunately, we were able to locate a witness that came to us, and said, hey, I saw the guy running out of the bushes.

He jumped into a black Nissan and I took a picture of the vehicle and the tag, which was great. So we had that information. Our real-time crime center put it out to the license plate readers, and we were able to get a hit on that vehicle on I-95 as it was headed into Martin County. We got a hold of Martin County Sheriff's Office, alerted them, and they spotted the vehicle and pulled it over, and detained the guy.

After that, we took the victim, I'm sorry, the witness that witnessed the incident flew them up there and he identified as the person that he saw running out of the bushes that jumped into the car. Now, in the bushes where this guy was is an AK-47 style rifle with a scope, two backpacks, which were hung on the fence that had ceramic tile in them, and a GoPro, which he was going to take pictures of. So those are being processed right now. The Secret Service agent that

was on the course did a fantastic job. What they do is they have an agent that jumps one hole ahead of time to where the president was at and he was able to spot this rifle barrel sticking out of the fence and immediate engaged that individual at which time the individual took off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All that coming from Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, the Palm Beach County sheriff.

Law enforcement officials, Kaitlan, have not yet named the suspect who was taken into custody on Interstate 95 after this apparent assassination attempt and it just happened two months after Trump was wounded in the ear. A lot of us remember, we saw it live here on CNN, surviving an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. The U.S. Secret Service shot and killed the gunman in that incident. The FBI says it is now in charge of this investigation in Florida.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is joining us right now.

Kristen, what more are you learning about this incident involving the former president?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we're for piecing together what we know from that press conference and what we're being told by officials on background, on the ground who are familiar with what happened. So what we're told is this afternoon, Donald Trump was on his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. That's the Trump International Golf Course. He was with donor and allies, Steve Witkoff. They were traveling between the fifth and sixth golf hole when they heard shots.

Now, what we also have been told is that essentially Secret Service had an advanced team ahead of them, several holes. And that is who engaged with the suspect that they saw firing off when they saw that rifle. And I will tell you that it is also the campaign or at least advisers to the campaign who are -- feel the same way that that sheriff felt in terms of Secret Service behavior and what happened.

Remember, when that assassination attempt happened in Butler, there were a lot of questions as to why they did not engage with this gunman sooner. We know now that Secret Service, based on that press conference, did engage once they saw the rifle in the brush just off of the golf course.

[18:05:04]

Now it's not clear exactly how far it was from that rifle to where Donald Trump was. But as we've heard during that press conference, the sheriff himself saying that with that kind of rifle, which was an AK style rifle and a scope, it didn't really matter the distance. He was still close enough. So certainly within the vicinity we had been told by sources and obviously we've now heard from the FBI that they believe that Donald Trump was the intended target of this suspect. You see there, he was found with these backpacks, a GoPro and this long- range style missile.

Donald Trump, as we've noted, is back at his Mar-a-Lago club after being held for several hours at that golf club as they were searching the scene, as they were making sure it was secure, as they're making sure was secure for him to travel in that motorcade. It's only about 12-minute ride from the golf course to Mar-a-Lago, but they still had to secure the streets, make sure that it was safe for him to travel.

I'm sure John Miller really speaking about this later, but these law enforcement officials have said that they need to make sure there's not a second gunman, that there's not a second target, that there's not anyone lying in wait. We saw this same thing happened with Butler when Donald Trump went to the hospital and then we didn't know where he was after a lockdown for several hours until he ended up at the airport.

That is all systematic. It is all customary when something like this happens, but of course this circumstance, there's nothing customary about it at all because we are talking about, as you've noted, the second assassination attempt on the former president in the same matter of months. It has shaken a lot of those people around him up, and they are obviously asking a lot of questions. One of the main questions is how exactly did this suspect know where Donald Trump would be.

It's important to maintain and to understand that Donald Trump is not the current sitting president. He doesn't have to put out a schedule every single day. He doesn't travel with a pool that knows his whereabouts at all times. He is a candidate and he has security, but this was not an event, golfing at his West Palm Beach golf club, that was on any sort of external schedule. In fact, he's been traveling a lot with the campaign, travel at his very various properties that there were several people I've spoken to who didn't even know that he was in Palm Beach, Florida, this weekend, that he would be playing golf.

And these are people who talk to him on a regular basis. So while the preliminary conversations I'm having with advisers and the people close to him say they are very happy with the way the security was handled, we know that after these shots were fired, Donald Trump was whisked away in a golf course by golf cart by a second set of security agents who -- Secret Service agents who put him into the club, again, that was secured down, there are still a lot of questions as to how exactly the suspect knew where Donald Trump was going to be and when.

BLITZER: All right, Kristen, thank you very much. Kristen Holmes, reporting, doing excellent reporting for us. Appreciate it very much.

Kaitlan, back to you.

COLLINS: Yes, Wolf, and as we're breaking all of this down, hearing from officials during that briefing, we have our law enforcement analyst with us.

And Jonathan Wackrow, I want to start with you because obviously a lot of focus has been on the Secret Service since what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, two months ago, and now today, officials there at that briefing were praising the Secret Service for how quickly they acted here that it was an agent who almost unbelievably was able to be advancing Trump on the golf course to see the barrel of that rifle sticking out of the bushes and was able to engage with this person before Donald Trump obviously got to that hole as he was planning to do.

And when you look at the Secret Service that's around Trump, it's obviously been ramped up since Butler, but is it at the level that a current president has? How can you tell us what that looks like?

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, I don't want to share too much around, you know, what the full protective structure is of the president of the United States because there is a lot of national security structures that are built into that position. But former president Trump has had a significant enhancement to his protective detail, both in the women and men that surround him on a day-to-day basis but also in terms of the advanced agents, the technology that's applied to, you know, protecting the former president.

You know, we've seen some of these things visually. We've seen some of the protective enhancements such as the ballistic glass that is now with him on all outdoor public events. You've seen an increase of the size, I think, Kaitlan, you talked about the detail earlier. You have noticed that there have been additional agents that are surrounding the former president. So what you're seeing is actually the protective structure moving closer to the vice presidential level which is a significant enhancement from what the protective model typically is for former presidents such as, you know, former president Obama or Bush or Clinton.

You know, it is really a new model for the Secret Service, but it's a model that has to be put into place because I think, as Wolf, you had mentioned earlier, the threat environment surrounding Donald Trump, both from, you know, domestic threats as well as this overarching foreign threat from the Iranians, necessitate this level of enhancement. And really for the Secret Service, this is unprecedented.

[18:10:11]

COLLINS: OK, but, Jonathan, can I follow up with you on that? Because here's the question I think a lot of people watching are going to have, which is, two months ago, what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, happened. It's not just obviously the fact that we saw Trump came within an inch of his life that day, but also what we do know about the increased threat from Iran that has been directed at Donald Trump, at his campaign, at his family that we know of.

I think a lot of people will look at this and say, why are they still letting Donald Trump go out on a golf course that has a perimeter that as officials said there once someone is in those -- in the shrubbery surrounding this golf course, it's incredibly difficult to be able to spot them. There's three roads that surround this golf course there. And I think some people may look at that and say, this is someone who golfs regularly. It's very clear when he has left Mar-a-Lago and gone to the

international -- to the Trump International, the golf course, about 15 minutes away. So it's not like someone wouldn't be able well to know that he's there. And so how does Secret Service approach something like that?

WACKROW: Well, listen, you know, as we're hearing from reporting and, you know, I'm sure the Secret Service starts divulging more information around how the shooter was identified, there are specific protocols that have, you know, been in place for the former president when he is golfing and that structure has since been enhanced even more with additional agents. Again, today, the model worked where those agents that were flanking in advance of the president, their role specifically is to identify this type of specific long-range threat.

Now the question --the follow-up question is going to be and the Secret Service will need to address this is how was the outer perimeter, how is this shooter able to get to that outer perimeter, an area that, you know, should have been identified as a vulnerability previously. Again, if you are able to get line of sight from the fence line into the golf course where the former president is in this threat environment, that needs to be addressed fully.

And Kaitlan, as you may remember back in 2017, there was a CNN crew that was actually filming the then president of the United States, you know, golfing with a clear line of sight that then was blocked or mitigated by a box truck, but -- so the thought that you're seeing inside the golf course from the exterior, this isn't the first time this has happened. So there are some questions that the Secret Service will have to answer for that but at the end of the day, the protective model that surrounds the president worked.

You know, we saw that happen and more the point, that communication, the immediate notification by the agent that, you know, shots were fired, that there was a suspect, that communication was immediately picked up by local law enforcement who were able to carry forward the immediate action of, you know, setting up a perimeter around the golf course and then getting the witness to identify exactly the vehicle, the tag number, and bringing a successful resolution to, you know, the immediate threat.

BLITZER: Jonathan, it's Wolf. I just want to follow up on one specific point. Over the years I've covered the Secret Service quite intensely, and I know there's one level of security for a sitting president of the United States. Another level of security for a former president of the United States, like Barack Obama or Bill Clinton or Donald Trump for that matter right now.

But there's another level of security for someone who maybe a former president, who's also the presidential nominee of a major party, a Republican presidential nominee right now. And that's a much higher level of security than just for a former president. Is that right?

WACKROW: Yes, absolutely. Wolf, I think right now, we have to put into context, we are in uncharted territory right now with the former president. We are seeing -- you know, no one could predict that we'd have two assassination attempts domestically against the former president. The Secret Service, you know, was, you know, for a long time, they were a little bit on their heels, you know, trying to address this new and dynamic threat environment around the president.

Now they're leaning into it with more assets, more agents. They were applying as much as they can to ensure that the former president is safe. We're seeing -- you know, physically, we're seeing the control measures that are around the former president significantly enhanced as I said. It's coming closer to vice presidential, like sitting vice presidential level protection. But there still is more that needs to be done. Again, you know, we came very close to a disaster today, and that is way too close.

Again, the model has to be changing to the threats that they're facing day in and day out now, both from domestic actors and potentially hostile foreign actors.

BLITZER: Excellent analysis, Jonathan. Thank you very much.

[18:15:02]

John Miller is with us as well, our law enforcement analyst.

John, I assume security is going to be beefed up for all of these major players right now, not just the former president who's running for president once again, but the sitting president, the sitting vice president, who's the Democratic president presidential nominee, and some other high ranking federal officials.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, it's hard to increase security around the sitting president. As Jonathan described earlier, that's quite an incredible security package. Nothing is left to chance. And that descends as you go down to lower officials including candidates.

The difference with Donald Trump at this point is the security he is receiving is about as close as you would get to the presidential package for somebody who's not the sitting president because of the intelligence on the Iranian assassination plot, because of the assassination plot that happened in Pennsylvania, and I think this will bring it up yet another level.

What you're seeing, though, is basic assassination tactics. We haven't seen a successful sniper killing of a president of the United States since Lee Harvey Oswald in Texas, and President John Kennedy. But what we do know about these assassins are, you know, I think technology has changed this a lot and it comes to bear here. But we've also seen the personality profiles done by the threat assessment people at the Secret Service.

That behavioral analysis unit at the FBI tells us that about 70 percent of these people, you know, their main goal is to hurt the person that they're attacking. About 38 percent is their main goal is notoriety, and 12 percent are anticipating they're going to get killed in the process. So when you look at that GoPro camera, that could tell us a lot, especially if it was rolling and streaming during this incident.

BLITZER: Yes. That GoPro video camera is a significant development. Indeed, we'll have much more on that coming up.

All right, John, everybody, stand by. We're going to take another quick break. Our breaking news coverage will continue right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:22:01]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News. BLITZER: And welcome back to our special live coverage of the breaking

news this evening. We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. The former president of United States Donald Trump is safe and secure at this hour following what the FBI is calling an apparent attempted assassination. The second such threat posed to the former president in just over two months. And a suspect is now in custody -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Yes, Wolf. And we're hearing from investigators who say that as this transpired, Secret Service agents fired at the suspect in the bushes outside of Trump's golf course just before 2:00 this afternoon. It was actually about 1:30 at the Trump International Golf Course. That's in West Palm Beach, Florida.

You're looking at the map right now. That comes after agents spotted this person holding a gun and in the bushes, they could see the barrel of it pointed out through them near where the former president was playing golf. Investigators say that the suspect was just a few hundred yards actually from the former president and was equipped with an AK style rifle that had a scope and two backpacks and also a GoPro camera mounted on the fence.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office says the suspect has not yet spoken to investigators, but is in custody. We're continuing to follow all of this.

Sunlen Serfaty is live at the White House for us.

Sunlen, officials there, obviously President Biden, Vice President Harris also being briefed on what has just happened this afternoon at Donald Trump's golf course in southern Florida.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kaitlan, both President Biden and Vice President Harris have been briefed on this incident and Vice President Harris condemning political violence and also noting that she is certainly glad that the former president Trump is safe. We are also hearing from her running mate Tim Walz echoing a lot of those sentiments and also so adding that violence has no place in America. It is not who we are as a nation.

Now, as you said, the president himself has been briefed and that's something that we saw quickly be released within 45 minutes of the Trump campaign alerting press to this incident. We heard from the White House that the president and Vice President Harris has been briefed. We are also hearing from Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer. He was briefed by the acting Secret Service director today and he noted the quick response and applauded the quick response of the Secret Service, and also said that the perpetrator must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Florida Republican congressman, meantime, a member of the Trump Assassination Task Force that notably was formed after the previous assassination attempt back in July in Butler, Pennsylvania, he says that he will recall on U.S. Secret Service to brief them on Capitol Hill this week, and Kaitlan, probably the first of many members of Congress who will ask for the same -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Sunlen Serfaty, thank you for that report. Wolf?

BLITZER: Kaitlan, our panel is still with us. So Charles Ramsey, Jonathan Wackrow, John Miller, and Andrew McCabe.

[18:25:02]

And Andrew, let me start with you. We're told now the FBI, you're a former deputy director of the FBI, is now in charge of this investigation. Walk us through what's going on.

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Sure. So that's the FBI has primacy, as they say, for investigations of incidents, of terrorist incidents here in the United States and also assassinations so this is all very clearly spelled out in presidential directives that date back into the 1980s.

What they're doing right now, Wolf, is trying to consume as much information as they can possibly find about this individual. So they are likely preparing search warrants for any location they can tie to him his residence. Maybe he has a work location that they know about, if he has any storage facilities or things like that, they're going to want to look in those as well. They are likely interviewing people who know him, parents, spouses, family members, work associates, and friends, things like that.

When they execute those search warrants, they're going to be looking for devices that might contain electronic evidence. So devices that he used to search the internet, devices that he used to access social media, to send text messages or phone calls or e-mails to friends and associates, all of those things will be seized and then search warrants will be served on the companies that provide the services to those devices.

So they want to know everything he's written. Everyone he's talking to. And they want to take that information and build a timeline as to what exactly he was doing in the hours and days and weeks leading up to this event. And everything they collect that falls into that timeline all that stuff could likely be used as evidence at trial if this person decides to fight the charges against him. We know that he'll be facing state charges. We heard from David Aronberg, the local prosecutor. And then I think it's likely that he'll face federal charges as well. We haven't heard from the U.S. attorney's office in Miami just yet,

but I expect that within the next 24 hours, we certainly will. And I would expect to see this person charged.

One thing, Wolf, that I think is really important to remember. And we've had some comments about it so far. It's going to be really interesting to see exactly what this person knew when he went to the fence line with a gun and his GoPro and all that other stuff. If he knew that Trump was golfing and there -- would be coming around that kind of northeastern corner of the golf course at that time and so therefore, he was waiting essentially at the end of the next hole, next hall. That's a very troubling thing because it raises all kinds of questions as to how did he gain access to that information?

It's also possible that he didn't know any of that that he may have just taken his chances and thought, you know, Trump talks about golf on the weekends all the time. Maybe I'll just go out there and see if he shows up. So these are two, you know, kind of opposite ends of the spectrum on that fact. And where he ends up falling on that spectrum is going to be very important to assess the nature of the threat that he posed and that may be others involved with him who might still pose.

BLITZER: Yes, that's such an important part of this FBI investigation that's underway right now, Andrew. How did he know if he in fact did know that Trump was going to be playing golf at that golf club on this Sunday afternoon? There was no public announcement about what Trump was doing, no advance word to the media or anyone else. Did he have inside information? And that's something I'm sure the FBI is going to be investigating very, very carefully.

Kaitlan, you got more on this.

COLLINS: Well, and Wolf, that is -- that's exactly it, is the question of also about his schedule because he doesn't have the same kind of public schedule or huge, you know, White House pool traveling with him like he did when he was in office. But certainly we saw his motorcade coming back over the bridge as he was returning to Mar-a-Lago earlier. It's not discreet. You know where Donald Trump is and when he's going, if you're in that area and if you know this.

And I think that's the question, Chief Ramsey, is that if you take a step back and as this investigation is playing out and we're waiting to learn more about this suspect, the idea that two months after an attempted assassination of Donald Trump, that someone with an AK-47 was able to get within 400 to 500 yards of the former president of the United States is just mind-blowing. And that is I think the question everyone has right now is how this could be able to happen again, as Trump is obviously out on a golf course, probably one of the most difficult areas for Secret Service to secure.

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, one of the things that's going to happen is, as a part of this, there'll be a thorough debriefing and analysis of the security that took place, what worked, what could be enhanced? All those kinds of things are going to be very important. [18:30:10]

You know, Andrew mentioned something that I think is very important when he's talking about the search warrants and the seizure of electronic equipment. So, I mean, smart phones, computers, what -- I mean, they'll be looking to see if he was getting text messages, if he was sending text messages, all those kinds of things because you're right. I mean, how did he know he was going to be, you know, on the golf course today and be lying in wait.

I mean, it could be just random luck, but I'm not a big believer of luck. So, you know, that's going to be one question that's going to be very important to have answered. And right now, we don't know if he's cooperating with investigators or not. Hopefully he is. If he is then we'll get answers to a lot of questions. If he's not, then they're going to have to do a lot of digging in order to come up with some answers to those questions.

COLLINS: Yes. As of the last hour, we heard he was not yet speaking to investigators. We'll see if that changes in the minutes and hours going forward.

Chief Ramsey, everyone, thank you for that.

We want everyone to stand by because we are continuing to get new information and it seems even by the minute about what happened at Trump's golf course today and what the FBI is saying was an apparent attempted assassination of him.

We're going to take a quick break and be back with our new information in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:35:55]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News. COLLINS: And we're back with our live coverage. The FBI says it is now

investing getting an apparent assassination attempt, a second one of Donald Trump in Florida this afternoon. The former president is safe. He's back at his Mar-a-Lago beach club down there in Palm Beach. But this comes after just a second such threat that was posed to him. It was just over two months ago that that shooting happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, at his rally. What we know right now as of this hour, Wolf, is that a male suspect is now in custody.

BLITZER: And we also know, Kaitlan, that investigators are saying that U.S. Secret Service agents spotted a rifle barrel sticking out of a fence over at the Trump International Golf Course, at West Palm Beach, where the former president was playing golf around 1:30 earlier this afternoon. The agents opened fire on the alleged gunman who then fled. And investigators say they found an AK-47 style rifle, a GoPro video camera and two backpacks in the bushes.

The Palm Beach County sheriff says the suspect was arrested a short distance away up on Interstate 95. So far, he has not been named by law enforcement and has not yet given investigators a statement.

Joining us right now, CNN's Randi Kaye. She's live outside the Trump International Golf Course. Carlos Suarez is live outside Mar-a-Lago.

Randi, let me go to you right away. Walk us through, first of all, what you're seeing, what you're hearing, where you are.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, I can tell you that this is very much an active crime scene where we are outside Trump International Golf Club. But there has been steady stream of crime scene vans coming in and out of here from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department. So they are still actively investigating what happened hours ago inside that golf club. Also, this is Summit Boulevard here behind me, one of three very heavily trafficked areas that surround Trump International Golf Club.

And as you can see, there is no traffic here behind me at all. This boulevard is completely closed off. The area really still is, Wolf, essentially under a lockdown. There are police flashing lights and barricades as far as the eye can see. No cars except for the media and other law enforcement are getting in and out of this area. But this all went down, as you know, hours ago, there's 27 holes here at this golf club.

And between -- somewhere between the fifth and sixth hole, apparently, those Secret Service members, as you said, did spot the barrel of a rifle poking through the fence, and they were able to engage that apparent gunman and alleged gunman, and then were able to chase him down up Interstate 95, and apprehend him. So still so many questions, Wolf, at this hour. But one thing we do know is that there doesn't seem to be any threat to the community even though it is still under lockdown.

Officials are saying that even though there's -- they know that the parents were concerned, there's an elementary school in the area, there's a public library in the area, they said you'll be able to get your children to school and there isn't any immediate threat right now. But as I mentioned, certainly a lot of questions. Who is this gunman? What was he doing here? How did he get to the fifth, somewhere between the fifth and sixth hole apparently?

We know he didn't go through the front gate here at Trump International. There's heavy security and law enforcement there at that front gate. So that was not going to happen for him. So it's unclear how he got settled in that area, what he was planning to do. We know he had those two backpacks, the AK-47 style rifle, according to law enforcement, as well as a GoPro. So still, Wolf, despite the investigation in the early hours, still many, many questions as we go forward tonight.

BLITZER: And we will continue to check back with you, Randi. Thanks very much.

Kaitlan, back to you.

COLLINS: Yes, we also have Carlos Suarez on the scene outside of Trump's club in Mar-a-Lago, it's about 15 minutes away from where Randi Kaye is.

And Carlos, obviously, we heard earlier as all this is happening this afternoon the Trump campaign headquarters is also in West Palm Beach. One of their major offices. It was locked down because staff was on the scene as all of this was happening as there were reports of shots fired, and people were still trying to figure out what exactly was going on.

What can you tell us? And I should note that lockdown has since been lifted I'm told by sources. But what can you tell us about the security presence where you are right now and what you're seeing?

[18:40:05]

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kaitlan. So it's important to note that a lot of the security measures that we're seeing outside of Mar-a-Lago they were put in place after the first attempted assassination that took place in Pennsylvania. Southern Boulevard, which connects the mainland and Palm Beach is open at this hour, though there are two command posts that have been set up by the sheriff's office.

They are right now not stopping any cars that are trying to get out on to Palm Beach. There is a small island that sits between the mainland and Palm Beach, that is normally open to the public. And so folks are able to park their cars there and get a look at the property. However, that has been closed by law enforcement. And so folks are not able to stop there. And then once you get on to Palm Beach, there is a road, South Ocean Boulevard, that runs along the perimeter of the Mar-a-Lago resort.

That again has been closed since the first attempted assassination took place. It is closed every single time that the former president is at his property. And so only folks that live in the neighborhood or that are visiting someone who lives in this neighborhood are able to get out onto Palm Beach.

We're about 10 to 15 minutes from where Randi Kaye is, where this incident took place at the golf course. And it took us a little bit more time to get to this location from there because, as Randi mentioned, there are several streets that have been closed as this investigation unfolds. And so for us to get from that location here, we kind of had to go through some different side streets just to get out east from where this took place.

The last time that we were at this location was in late July, that was when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid a visit to the former president. And we saw these type of similar security measures that were in place at the time then. They have carried over into today.

And in fact at, Kaitlan and Wolf, we're being told that before the former president made his way back to Mar-a-Lago after this incident at the golf course, it appears that he may have been held up a bit because authorities were still trying to make sure that the perimeter of that golf course was safe. But then also the roads that he was going to take, again, 10 to 15 minutes from here were also safe for him to travel -- guys.

COLLINS: Carlos Suarez, thank you so much for that report. Stand by because, Wolf, we do have some breaking news right now. I want to get to CNN's John Miller. We did not have a name of the person who was in custody earlier. Obviously, law enforcement had it, but they were not revealing it to us at that time.

But, John Miller, you've been doing some reporting. What can you tell us?

MILLER: Well, we've been working with the name for some time to develop background on this individual. The individual who's in custody is Ryan Wesley Routh. He's born in 1966. He is 58 years old. He has been living in Hawaii. He is a construction worker in North Carolina.

When you look at his background, on the criminal side, he has what appears to be eight arrests mostly for minor offenses but in his social media, he goes deep into his self-proclaimed involvement in the conflict in Ukraine. His efforts to recruit soldiers and bring them into the country. His claims that he has been there possibly as a fighter. So they are looking and digging deeper into his background.

And of course, one of the things they are looking at is, what is the motive? And what was the purpose of not only this alleged attempt to assassinate former president Trump, but also to record it on a GoPro camera if not stream it for what purpose. Is it propaganda? Does it have to do with one of these issues or conflicts he's been interested in? Is it tied to the Ukraine? All of these still open questions now, but we are beginning to get a layered picture of the individual that they have in custody.

BLITZER: John, let me just follow up on that Ukrainian aspect of this. If this individual was in favor of Ukraine and wanting the U.S. to help Ukraine. At that debate that Trump was specifically asked if he supports Ukraine, what would he do as far as Ukraine is concerned, and he was very, very vague on his level of support for the Ukrainian government. So it's presumably that's one area of investigation.

What, if any, connection to Trump's position on Ukraine could have played in this attempted assassination? Is that what I'm hearing?

MILLER: And that will be, and there has been much discussion, and you know, you and Kaitlan are very familiar with this about Trump's claims that he -- that Ukraine would have never happened if he were here, that he could end it within a couple of days if he were reelected. But there's been much speculation that that has less to do with support of Zelenskyy in that war than his desire to go a different direction.

[18:45:07]

So could that be a motive from somebody who has been proclaiming on social media that they are committed to that fight and committed to getting soldiers and committing to getting support for them? Some of the things we have read through involves his call to get former Afghan fighters and to funnel them into the Ukraine so there is apparently a significant interest there. Now, whether that is the motive is really secondary in the immediate sense to law enforcement because their primary job right now is let's lock this down.

Let's figure out what the charges are going to be. State charges as the state's attorney indicated, a detention hearing to make sure this individual is kept in custody. Federal charges to follow based on what the U.S. attorney and the FBI bring forward, and then motive will come behind that. So we may not expect to hear a lot about that in the immediate sense, but it'll be of great interest to us and we'll keep digging into that.

BLITZER: Do we know, John, if the suspect served in the U.S. military where he may have been trained to use a firearm?

MILLER: We don't see that yet. But we do have claims in his social media that he has been overseas fighting in Ukraine, which would explain a couple of things. First off, it might explain his favoring the AK-47, the rifle that is most popular in Eastern Europe and, you know, Russia and those conflicts. But it also might explain the equipment. His setup the ceramic plates were body armor and so on.

But again, as you know, we're the early stages of this and peeling back the layers of his life, as Andy McCabe said, is going to mean going through all of his electronics not just what we can see front- facing on social media, but all of those things hidden behind it.

Coming from Hawaii, living in North Carolina, the vehicle he is driving apparently is registered to his daughter. She may live in the area but we don't have a handle on how long he has been in the South Florida area or whether he just traveled there to carry out this mission allegedly.

BLITZER: Yes, it's very disturbing.

COLLINS: Well, and John, how old did you say he was, John?

MILLER: He's born in 1958. I mean, I'm sorry. He's born in 1966, which makes him 58.

COLLINS: Well, and Andrew McCabe, when you're hearing that, the profile as we're learning more about this, John just mentioned the extensive social media postings that obviously investigators are going through. But also this is a person who has a criminal record. It's been arrested eight times. John said for minor offenses.

What else are officials looking into when it comes to something like that?

MCCABE: Well, it's really the whole picture they want, Kaitlan. They want to know not only where this guy was from and what motivated in this day, but like kind of what was his journey that brought him to this point because it tells us a lot about extremism. Generally, it tells us a lot about threat. The sort of things that, you know, for instance, in this case, Secret Service, maybe it needs to think more about in terms of the protection of the former president.

But look, the small clues like the fact that he's been arrested eight times, might mitigate against the likelihood of his having had significant military experience, also things happened after his military experience. It seems from the details that John has been able to provide the most really relevant piece or those comments about having served in Ukraine. That could form the basis of some sort of grievance or political or ideological philosophy that would put him -- could put him in conflict with the former president.

So that's something that investigators will dig into. You know, while it's not necessary to prove someone's modus to -- in the course of a prosecution, it can be very helpful improving their intent and intent is an element of every crime. There's always -- you always have to prove that the person you've charged intended to commit the crime that they've been charged with. Here, they're going to look for pieces of evidence that clearly lay out his reason for being in the bushes with an AK-47, looking at the golf course was because he was targeting the former president.

They're going to need to be able to prove that in order to convict him of attempted assassination but it is likely. If he's this prolific on social media and he hasn't taken the steps that are very advanced shooter might have taken to clean their social media accounts before they actually took some sort of action.

[18:50:06]

If he's left this stuff out there and it's still visible for the general public to see, there is going to be a lot of evidence for investigators to kind of sort through to understand exactly what was making him tick today.

BLITZER: You know, it's interesting, and I want to bring you Chief Ramsey into this as well.

Chief, what jumped out at you from the details that John Miller is now reporting about this suspect?

RAMSEY: Well, I mean, there's a lot. First of all, now we have a name and an age and that's critically important because that we didn't have before. But facts like you just finished talking to Andy about, you know, his attitude toward the war in Ukraine, the fact that he claims he fought there and was recruiting people to go fight. Does that make it a motive? Not necessarily, but it's certainly something that's going to cause them to want to take a deeper look at that.

And again, the social media aspect of this, I mean he's 58 years old and does have social media footprint, not that older people don't, but, you know, it shows that he's very active on social media. He did have a GoPro, so he was planning on filming himself and he wanted to leave that behind in my opinion, if he had been successful. And so all these things are I think important clues.

But the most important clues are going to come from execution of those search warrants. Any evidence they're able to gather from his home, a business, interviewing friends, family, smartphones, all those kinds of things, that's where the evidence is going to really come from. And that's what they're actively working right now. And now that his name is out there obviously there's going to be a lot of interest in tracking down friends and relatives of this individual.

COLLINS: Well, and Wolf, just as we're reporting on this and we are getting new information by the moment, I also just want to report some more news that I'm hearing from sources, and that our colleagues have also confirmed, which is that in recent days, the Trump campaign was briefed by U.S. intelligence officials about new indications that Iran was planning to increase its attempt to attack former president Donald Trump and those around him.

We're hearing this from sources. This is something that was briefed to the Trump campaign. I should note, and I want to be very clear here, we don't know that this new intelligence in this new briefing that the Trump campaign got about this attempt by Iran to escalate its attack on Donald Trump is at all related to this second attempted assassination that happened today on his golf course.

But it does speak to the threat environment that is facing him and has been facing him for several months now. As we learned earlier this summer about these attempts, I'm told that this was related to both the physical and also a potential cyberattack, Wolf.

And I just want to get back to you, Andrew McCabe, on this reporting and while we don't know that has anything to do with what happened today, what it says about overall what the Secret Service and Homeland Security and officials are taking into account.

MCCABE: Kaitlan, what it tells us it gives us a very small insight into a very, very troubling, complicated diverse threats that are facing our political leadership today. And, you know, the fact that they've been briefed on these threats means that the intelligence community considers them credible and reliable, and things that they feel like the Secret Service and those engaged in protecting the former president really need to take action on.

And so this brings us back to the conversation we had a little a little while ago where we were commenting on how is it that this could happen two times in just a couple of months and that someone could get this close to the president from, you know, just kind of poking in from through the fence at the golf course. There is always attention between protectees and the protective service, particularly when the protectee is someone who's running for office.

They want to be available, they want to be within reach, and interacting with the general public. They don't want to typically project an image that looks, you know, fearful of threats and like hyper focused on security. On the other hand, the Secret Service that typically like the lockdown, every detail they possibly could, and never let the protectee in this case, the former president leave the house.

I mean, obviously, neither one of those extremes is going to happen. You have to find some sort of balance in the middle. But you could really see some changes in the way that Donald Trump conducts himself in the next couple of months as a result of this. And one of those could be, you know, not spending quite so much time on the golf course and places, in the wide open where you could really be accessed or seen, create those opportunities of line of sight, or you may see a massive bolstering of resources around the perimeter of that golf course.

[18:55:07]

If you put a couple of marked cars all along those four streets that border the course, you'd really cut down on a lot of the opportunity for anyone to sneak into that wood line and conduct some mischief. So this is only going to get worse as we get closer to the election. People who are compelled to act, whether they're lone actors or people who are driven by foreign intelligence organizations are getting -- they're in an increasingly compressed time period to conduct the actions or operations that they want to conduct. And so this is it. This is the fourth quarter. Every possible security element needs to be taken out of the toolbox right now and put to good effect.

BLITZER: Yes, I suspect that security is going to be really, really tightened at every event that Trump is going to be doing from now until November. All these public events that are going on given these past two assassination attempts.

Everyone, thank you very, very much. We of course are going to continue following all this major breaking news.

The FBI says it is investigating this apparent assassination attempt of Donald Trump down in Florida. The former president thank God is safe, now back at his Mar-a-Lago home -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Yes. I just want to thank everyone for joining us as we've been following this breaking news, Wolf, for the last several hours. Wolf Blitzer, in Washington.

Our breaking news coverage is going to continue. Stay here with CNN and Erin Burnett after a quick break.

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