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Suspect In Apparent Assassination Attempt Faces Two Federal Gun Charges; NORAD: Russian Military Aircraft Detected Off Alaska Coast For Fourth Time In Past Week; TikTok Battles U.S. Ban In Federal Appeals Court. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired September 16, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:40]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: It is 8:00 p.m. in London, 3:00 a.m. in Beijing, 3:00 p.m. here in Washington.

I'm Jim Sciutto. Thanks so much for joining me today on CNN NEWSROOM. And let's get right to the news.

We're now more than 24 hours into the investigation of what the FBI is calling an apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. And a profile of the suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, is now emerging in greater detail. Routh made his first court appearance today.

Yesterday afternoon, the Secret Service spotted him pointing a rifle at Trump from the bushes of Trump's Florida golf club. We now know the weapon was the Soviet SKS style rifle with a range as well as the school that put the former president within reach, says law enforcement.

New police body cam footage shows Routh's arrest, which is just the latest run-in with police for him. We're now learning he has an extensive rap sheet in North Carolina, including pleading guilty in 2002 to felony possession of a weapon of mass destruction, which we understand to have been a fully automatic machine gun.

Trump was unharmed from the incident. It's not clear if the alleged assailant fired any shots. The former president, however, quickly has sought to blame his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris and what he calls communist political rhetoric.

President Biden made clear once again this afternoon as he has repeatedly that he condemns any political violence in this country.

Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No place in political violence for political violence in America. In America, we resolve our difference peacefully. It solves nothing, and just tears the country apart. We must do everything we can to prevent it and never give it any oxygen. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: CNN chief law enforcement analyst John Miller has the latest for us.

John, we've learned a lot of details in last 24 hours, but though, of course, there's a long way to go. I want to ask second about what we know about the profile of Routh himself. But first, what have we learned about the circumstances as to how and how -- for how long he got into this position where he was within 300 to 500 yards, perhaps a firing shots at the former president?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, interestingly, in the federal complaint filed today charging him with federal violations of the gun laws by being in possession of a weapon as a convicted felon, one of the things that the agent pointed out in the affidavit was that cell phone tracking shows that he was in the area of that place where he took -- where he was allegedly preparing to possibly take that shot from -- from basically 2:00 in the morning until 2:00 in the next afternoon.

Now we have to drill down into that, meaning at that exact spot. Was he laying in wait or was he in that area scoping out, where was the place I could get through the bushes. Where is the fence line that would put me in line? When you look around that area, there's a gas station, there's a library, there's a Burger King, there's -- there's a post office, there's a large open parking lot.

So there were a lot of places just on the other side of the street for him to be in that area, do his reconnaissance before he picked the spot to lay in wait.

SCIUTTO: Okay, let's talk about Routh himself. We've reported that he had a criminal track record. What do we know about his social media postings because it appears that he was all over the place politically, which is not necessarily out of character when you come across folks like this, which I think what you could say reasonably as an unstable, unstable past?

MILLER: So, Jim, I think you hit it on the head, which is when you go through his social media postings. There's a lot about Ukraine. He puts himself forward as a person who's there recruiting for and trying to help Ukraine. But he also shows an interest in Taiwan, in Palestine as he refers to, are trying to find it on the map. He seems to identify with the perceived underdogs in different international battles.

But more interestingly, he reaches out to the president of North Korea. He reaches out to message is to Biden, to Hunter Biden, to Eon Musk, asking for a rocket ship. So that he can use it against Putin.

[15:05:02]

What he seemed to be looking for was, for someone to answer him, you know, someone that would validate his perception of self-importance as a player, and I guess if you get into the profiling of past assassins, almost half of them, 38 percent say that they were in it, if not all, but in part for notoriety. The fact that he had a GoPro with them as he was allegedly setting up that shot may indicate that he wanted to, he wanted to commit this act and then be able to show the movie version. So we're still getting through that.

SCIUTTO: Before we go, and again, this is something that there's still a lot of questions to be answered, was the security cordon around Trump sufficient, especially in light of a previous attempt on his life, just two months ago?

MILLER: Well, you can't argue with the idea that it detected the shooter in advance of the president former president being there, and that it resulted in his being captured. But you have to put yourself in the shoes of the Secret Service and the Palm Beach County sheriff and the West Palm police and everybody else, which is if you look at the aerial map which we've shown so many times of the vast expanse of that golf course.

And what it would have taken to ring it with the police perimeter, and think of all those other places the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, the gas station, the Burger King, the library, the school, Donald Trump is at an unscheduled, unannounced event and there isn't really time for someone to plan. And yet this person somehow knew.

But how do you lock down an area that large? So the protection worked. The question is, can the protectee really afford to put himself out in the open for that much time in the future?

SCIUTTO: Yeah. Fair questions. John Miller, thanks so much.

In the next hour of federal and local law enforcement authorities will give an update on their investigation. So far, Routh, the suspect is facing two charges, possession of a firearm, while a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number which law enforcement said was, quote, unreadable to the naked eye, that makes it more difficult to trace it, how we got it. We do expect additional charges has policed learn more. And at the same time, prosecutors did ask for pretrial detention arguing that Routh is a flight risk and therefore a danger to the community.

For more on that proceeding, CNN's Paula Reid is outside the courthouse for us.

So, Paula, walk us through what happened in what is really a preliminary court appearance. I'm sure there will be many more to come.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFIARS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, we've already had two more on the calendar, Jim, but this was his first appearance before a federal judge here in West Palm Beach. And was interesting about this, is there are no cameras inside federal courts. All the details we're getting are from our colleagues who are inside.

They said that his hands and feet were both shackled. He was wearing dark prison scrubs and he really didn't say much at all. Not much is required if even during this hearing, he was asked a series of questions by the magistrate judge and our colleagues report that he nodded and said, "Yes, judge," to a few of these questions.

But this hearing was the first one where he learned, Jim, the charges that you just referenced that he is facing the possession of a firearm from by a convicted felon and the receipt of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

Now, we fully expect that additional charges will be filed. The next hearing that there will be here at this courthouse will be his detention hearing this next Monday. And there were expect prosecutors will argue that he should continue to be detained ahead of a possible trial, and we expect they will argue that he is not only a risk to the community but also a flight risk. And then after that on September 30th, he will be arraigned.

SCIUTTO: How quickly do expect more charges for what I imagined would be somewhere in the category of threatening the life of the presence of a former president?

REID: So this is where it gets tricky. You make a great point. These are initial charges. We expect more because this investigation is barely 24 hours old. There's a lot of outstanding questions, but I think people would expect that he might be charged with some crime related to former President Trump, attempted murder or assassination. And first only have to work with what is in the federal code.

But also, at least one state based attorney who has been involved in this case says it could be difficult to charge him with anything specifically related to the former president because of the distance between the two and a more successful case could be focused on the alleged actions that he took when it comes to the Secret Service, that could be a stronger case, but they need to gather as much evidence as they can, Jim. They need to talk to all their witnesses and understand just how much evidence do they have to support charges.

But I fully expect before that arraignment at the end of the month, we will likely see what is called a superseding indictment, which would be an indictment that would include additional charges.

[15:10:02]

SCIUTTO: Paula Reid, thanks so much.

With me now to discuss the broader security issues here is former Secret Service agent Keith Wojcieszek.

Keith, thanks so much for taking the time.

KEITH WOJCIESZEK, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: Thank you, Jim. Appreciate being on today.

SCIUTTO: So as you heard us just a few moments ago, the cell phone data suggests the suspect was in the vicinity of the golf course four close to 11 hours before he was spotted poking the end of the rifle through those bushes there on the court. One member of Congress told CNN that this particular spot was popular for paparazzi attempting just to take photographs.

Can you help us understand the challenge of protecting Trump at this particular venue? As I understand it, there is no fence around it. You have others playing on the course at the same time. There are highly trafficked roads around it as well.

WOJCIESZEK: Yeah. You make a point there. And again, thank you very much for having me on, but securing an area like that, which is public, there's really like, you know, said, no offense, no security perimeter. It's a ruling perimeters.

So this was an off the record, trying to go in there to play golf and the Secret Service did it, right? They did everything right. They learned from them mishaps earlier, 63 days prior, and then adjusted and they have security details in the front and behind of the protectee, which is standard what we do. So moving what they did and identifying for security risks of that quickly and engaging without thought and making sure that the protectee is safe, is phenomenal.

So actually having that roller permanent perimeter is difficult. Now, if this -- I know there's a lot of communication going back and forth about should they have more protections, should they have different protection because of the threat assessment that's something I think Director Rowe has to look at, where are we on these threat assessment to identify who needs what and understanding the current threat. Now, this is again, a second attempt on his life and 63 days having that security perimeter, the Secret Service did it perfectly this time. And I think we all need to applaud him and realize we have the confidence of back to the Secret Service.

SCIUTTO: But the fact is, I mean listen, I don't want to question their work here and yes, the end the result was they spotted this potential shooter before he was able to fire shots. But that's pretty close, is it not, 300 to 500 yards? I mean, a well-trained person with a rifle -- a long rifle like that could conceivably have gotten a shot on target. I just wonder what the standard of successes right? Because that's seems too close for comfort.

WOJCIESZEK: Yeah, and I completely understand that perspective, but understanding that 300 yards, that is a chip shot with it with a scope for sure, especially with a rifle such as the AK-47.

Now what I think we need to understand is how that security perimeter was put in place and what the protocols were? No, I think, you know, Direct Rowe, will come out and actually identify maybe it wasn't a direct side. He had to turn around a corner or it wasn't really that big of a threat as we think it is. I think that's that were going to have to find out exactly where he wasn't relation to were the were the former president was to identify should this have been identified earlier?

You know, the one thing that does have me raise a little bit of an eyebrow is what you had said earlier about his geolocation, putting him in the vicinity. You know, where was he an emphasis, and you can tell you can hammer it down. Now, that's something id like to find out more to actually decide what the risk was. SCIUTTO: And you raise a good question. Was it a clear shot? I mean, 300, 500 yards could have been other things in the way, right? I mean, the hills and the course, et cetera, exactly.

WOJCIESZEK: And we all played golf, yet there's always hills, there's bunkers. I live -- I live in the bunkers, so it all depends on the terrain, too.

SCIUTTO: You raised a point about the fact that because Trump is not a sitting president, he does not have the same detail or perimeter as a sitting president would have. Given the current threat environment the degree of, well, violent political discourse in this country, but the fact that he was targeted just a little over two months ago is there a mismatch? Does that have to be reconsidered?

WOJCIESZEK: A hundred percent, right? Things have changed. And let's -- let's think about President Obama's first campaign. They saw an elevated threat and they did something about it.

With the current landscape and what's going on with security issues, two assassinations in 63 days, to meet that sets up a red flag. So I think they need Director Rowe and I'm sure he is going to go back and say, okay, let's re-evaluate. What do we need to do to equal success here because we've do -- we need to expand that perimeter bridge. We need to add at different individuals, and not only for Trump, but for everybody.

We need to understand that the geopolitical powers at play here to make sure that these people are safe.

SCIUTTO: No question, and of course, the availability of the weapons that were seeing in each of these incidents as well.

Keith Wojcieszek, thanks so much.

WOJCIESZEK: Thank you, Jim. Have a great day.

SCIUTTO: Well, still ahead, how President Biden and Vice President Harris, Trump's current competitive course in the election are responding to the arrest of Trump's suspected would-be assassin.

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That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Both President Biden and Vice President Harris quickly condemned the apparent attempted assassination of the former president. Biden speaking in Philadelphia short time ago, repeated, political violence is never a solution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: There is no, and I mean this in a bottom, those, you know, we many of you do, no place in and political violence for political violence in America, none, zero, never.

I've always condemned political violence, and I always will in America. In America, we resolve our difference peacefully, the ballot box, not at the end of a gun. American suffered too many times the tragedy of an assassin's bullet.

It solves nothing and just tears the country apart. Must do everything we can to prevent it. And never give him any oxygen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Well, President Biden also said that the Secret Service needs more help, and he called on Congress to respond to those needs.

CNN White House reporter Camila DeChalus joins me now.

Kamala, Biden unequivocal as we heard there in his condemnation of political violence. We've heard quite similar from Harris as well. It's been a consistent message just for some time. I wonder how they plan to respond going forward.

CAMILA DECHALUS, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right. President Biden spoke to reporters earlier today and he really stressed that Congress needs to provide more funding and more Secret Service -- more resources to Secret Service, in order for them to do their job.

And when he was specifically asked, what resources, what they need, he said personnel, they need the more funding to hire more people and the Secret Service's federal agency has said for quite some time now that their staffing levels are not where they need to be and that there's a virally understaffed.

So that is a message that you're going to hear Biden say time and time again, especially during this time when this agency is tasked with providing protections for former presidents, as well as the White House and other personnel that they really need the funding to do their job, and especially around this time where this is now the second failed assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.

[15:20:18]

They're going to have Biden and also Harris really speak out condemning this political violence, but also distressing that the Secret Service needs to be provided with these resources for them to effectively do their job.

SCIUTTO: Camila, thanks so much.

Well, the former president that is Donald Trump is directly and quite publicly blaming President Biden and Vice President Harris for the apparent assassination attempt. He says, their rhetoric helped fuel political violence directed at him. He accused Biden and Harris have using highly inflammatory language, which the former president was using such language himself. At the same time, he called Harris the real threat during an interview with Fox News digital. CNN's Kristen Holmes, she covers the Trump campaign.

And, Kristen, I mean, listen, this was the worry, right? That Trump would again, and it's not the first time point the finger at his political opponents here. There is, of course, no evidence and we've seen the president and vice president very quickly condemn both this apparent assassination attempt and all political violence.

I just wonder when you speak to Trump campaign officials, if they believe that rhetoric leads to violence, what's their response to pointing out that they are using angry rhetoric as well? Did do they acknowledge that that might create an atmosphere that would lead to violence directed at their opponents?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's not something that's going to acknowledge and particularly not right now. I mean, one thing I do want to point out here is it's a completely different response than we saw in the aftermath of that first assassination attempt at Butler, Pennsylvania, where we saw Donald Trump come out and say that he was calling for unity. He wanted to unite the country.

Now that was short-lived. He then moved onto blaming the Biden administration, but it has been a slow rollout since that not assassination attempt. This was obviously much more immediate blaming not only Joe Biden, his administration, but Kamala Harris as she is now at the top of the Democratic ticket making this incredibly political.

You are right. We do not have any answers, but it is also true that the country is incredibly divided and there is divisive language all around and clearly, there is potential for political violence as we've seen, as we've tried to figure out what the motive of the suspect was as the details are starting to come out here. And when it comes to Donald Trump and his political and vile and at times violent or incendiary rhetoric, of course, we don't believe that's going to stop.

Donald Trump has does made this a way that he has campaigned since 2015, and it doesn't seem as though at any point it's going to end. So whether or not they acknowledged it, this is clearly another way you to spin this part, this second apparent assassination attempt into politics to create a kind of excuse and saying that it was 100 percent political rhetoric of his opponent on surprising.

But, of course, as you said, we still don't have any answers as to why exactly this person chose to show up.

Now I will note one thing that has been very interesting to see as the difference in the campaigns reaction to the secret service response. They have been very pleased with the fact that the secret service engaged with this suspect on the golf course because of course, as you will remember in that first assassination attempt, one of the biggest complaints that we were told from Trumps team was why didn't he engage with the shooter? Why didn't Secret Service engage with the shooter?

Now, as we speak, we are told that Donald Trump is expected to be meeting with the Secret Service, acting Secret Service head, and they are going to be having a conversation about what transpired yesterday. How this was able to happen and potentially even what needs to happen, security-wise in the future, we are waiting to hear from our sources on that to see if they're going to change any sort of protocol as they move forward right now, I'm told by his staff that they continue to campaign, that he's going to continue to go to all of the events he had planned for this week, in Michigan, in Washington, D.C., and Uniondale, New York, as well. But we'll see if this conversation moves the needle at all.

SCIUTTO: Kristen Holmes, thanks so much.

Let's go to our political panel now. Molly Ball, senior political correspondent for "The Wall Street Journal", Ron Brownstein, senior political analyst for CNN, and senior editor at "The Atlantic".

Good to have you both on.

Ron, well, to both of you. This is -- this is a bad time. I mean, let's be frank, two attempted assassination attempts, apparent attack -- assassination attempt. The FBI is still calling it for the second one in the span of a little over a couple of months. Just how precarious is the political dialogue in this country right now and the threat of political violence, Ron?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, look, I mean, these two assassination attempts really are just the most visible element kind of the tip of a much deeper iceberg.

[15:25:04]

What we've seen over the last few years is an explosion of threats and actual attempts at violence really throughout kind of our civic life education officials, education boards, public health officials, local governments and attempted kidnapping and potentially assassination of the governor of Michigan. You know, I think we've talked about this before. I am still struck that right after Jan -- and, of course, January 6 itself.

Now, I remember right after January 6, one former Trump Department of Homeland Security official said to me that she feared we were moving into our own version of the troubles in Northern Ireland in which threats and realities of political violence would become kind of a backbeat.

And that is the direction that we seem to be heading absent I think a broader movement among all elements of society, business, civic, local government, philanthropic to condemn the unionizing rhetoric and to condemn political violence.

SCIUTTO: And let's remember, when -- not all rhetoric is equivalent, right? I mean, not all sides are the same kind of way. If you look at, for instance, the plot against the Michigan governor, you know, a lot of Trump allies who are questioning whether that was even true, right in the wake of that, despite the fact that there were quite a serious federal investigation. Molly Ball, so in the midst of this, Donald Trump today is blaming Harris and Biden, right? I mean, saying in Fox and in Truth Social posts. It's fair to say that doesn't help.

MOLLY BALL, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, WALL STREET JOURNAL: Quite probably not. I mean, he even said, you know, if they want to talk about inflammatory rhetoric, I can do it better than they can, which is not exactly turning down the temperature.

Look, you have two candidates responding very differently to this heightened climate in the country. One saying, you know, his basic political pitches, if you want, this, you know hate and division to go away, vote for me and we will defeat the enemy. And the other saying, let's turn the page, let's go to a better future. Let's put this behind us.

I really doubt that this ugly chapter of our politics, it closes itself no matter who wins, no matter which those arguments voters find more persuasive just because there are so many people in this country who have been persuaded that politics has existential stakes, that the nation may not survive and in those kinds of circumstances, there are always going to be deranged people who seek to take matters into their own hands and that's why we need a Secret Service unfortunately.

SCIUTTO: And, listen, driven by falsehoods and anger. I mean, we were seeing multiple threats in the town of Springfield, Ohio, based on a false story about immigrants eating pets, which J.D. Vance, as you saw on this network yesterday certainly not walking away from, Ron Brownstein. I mean, this is -- this is weaponization of words, right, with intent, it seems, and with effect.

BROWNSTEIN: Look, two things can be true. Donald Trump deserves to run for president without having to worry about somebody taking a shot at him. And Haitian migrants in Ohio deserve to live their lives without worrying about somebody taking a shot at them or launching a bomb threat against schools with, you know, elementary school students because of a false and racist story that Trump and Vance have concocted.

You know, Donald Trump has called his opponents vermin. He says, immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country. He describes Kamala Harris, who was basically a garden variety left of center Democrat, as a communist.

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

BROWNSTEIN: You know, in somewhere his, his mentor Roy Cohn, who was Joe McCarthy was right-hand man, is kind of -- kind of nodding.

It is extremely ominous and, you know, dangerous that Trump is facing these kind of security threats. But the fact that he is facing the threats does not absolve him of his role in furthering the divisions in the country and normalizing the use of political violence through the way in particular, he talks about the January 6 rioters as recently at the convention. Both of these things can be true at the same time. And again, the question really before voters as Molly was suggesting,

is do we want to continue living this way? And there may be no way to turn this off quickly, but there are degrees of how far we go down this path.

SCIUTTO: We should note, too, the rhetoric is tied to policy. I mean, his language against Muslims in the 2016 campaign led to a Trump Muslim ban, right? Which was later upheld by the Supreme Court. We should not assume that this is just window dressing or for fun.

I mean, I don't mean that seriously, but I'm saying that these often. I mean, the rhetoric you're instance, for instance, in Springfield is tied to a policy plan and a second term for mass deportations.

[15:30:05]

BROWNSTEIN: Right.

SCIUTTO: I do want to ask Molly -- Elon Musk posted what he later claimed was a joke this morning and then deleted the post saying the following, and no one is even trying to assassinate Biden and Kamala.

Listen, we all know you can't even hint at threats to presidents or presidential candidates. CNN has actually reached out for comment from the Secret Service as to whether it is investigating. I mean, Secret Service is investigating John Mulaney when he made a joke, right? I mean, so that so they investigate this thing because they take it quite seriously.

Tell me the impact of Elon Musk because and not just to this particular incident, but all these things, the pet eating, a whole host of memes and spurious claims to 200 million followers, right? And a guy with a lot of money who is donating to the campaign.

What is the impact of him on this dialogue, particularly 50 days from the election?

BALL: Yeah. I mean as you say, it's all fun and games until it isn't. And there is the very real possibility that something tragic happens. And so, the idea that I think a lot of, you know, Elon Musk posts like a guy with two followers who nobody is listening to, but its different when you have as many followers as he has and he's never really taken that responsibility seriously.

So, you know, he wants to have an impact on this election. He wants his support for Donald Trump to be helpful to Donald Trump. I don't know if it is when he is seen as, you know, such an irresponsible and extreme figure that he's engaging with this kind of stuff which isn't helping anybody, isn't solving anybody's problems.

And, of course, as you also alluded to, is false. There are threats against people at all levels of politics. I get threats, you get threats. We try not to talk about it because we don't want to give it a platform.

But this stuff is unfortunately pervasive and I don't think any candidate is actually unscathed by it.

SCIUTTO: Listen, the words of powerful people give people license, right, and he called the press the enemy of the people, right? You know, that had effect. He exhorted, don't take my word for it, Mitch McConnell said, he exhorted the January 6 rioters to the Capitol and they attacked the Capitol. We saw -- we saw the effects of that and here we are.

I mean, Ron, what gets us out of this, right? I mean, what gets this country on a better path? It's not going to disappear on a day, a week and a month.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, look, there is -- there is no short range -- there is no silver, I don't want to say a silver bullet, magic wand that makes this go away. You know, 80 percent of voters in each party. Now view the other party as an existential threat to their, to their values.

Look, I think -- I think what we need is a broad, civic movement to marginalize, and to kind of rule out of bounds either the acceptance of political violence or the use of dehumanizing rhetoric. You know, the least we should expect from business leaders and civic leaders between now and November is clear statements that violence in response to the election results is simply unacceptable, and dehumanizing elements of the population should be equally unacceptable.

It is worth noting, by the way, Jim, you know, to the extent the Haitians in Ohio are here under temporary protected status, that was a program created not by a flaming liberal, but signed into law by George H.W. Bush --

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

BROWNSTEIN: -- after an 89-6 vote in the Senate, that included Mitch McConnell, Chuck Grassley, Strom Thurmond, and Orrin Hatch all voting to create this program that J.D. Vance and Donald Trump are now essentially accusing the people involved in it being undocumented immigrants who are -- who are overrunning the country.

We need a kind of boundaries, and that is not going to be restored overnight. It may not be restored at all, but it's -- we're certain that it's not going to be restored unless people make more of an effort to do so than we've seen.

SCIUTTO: Well, you're getting the opposite, right? Because you have one candidate this election saying if he would have been stolen, which will be the second time that happened.

BROWNSTEIN: It will be the end of America.

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

Ron Brownstein, Molly Ball, thanks so much.

As we do go to break, we will let you know, we are anticipating an update from the Secret Service and other law enforcement shortly. We will bring you those comments as they come. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:38:05]

SCIUTTO: We return now to our top story, the second apparent assassination attempt in two months against former President Donald Trump. The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, now faces two charges with likely more to come. Those initial charges are possession of a firearm while a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Routh heard these charges in his first court appearance earlier today, in a courtroom just a few miles from Trump's home at Mar-a-Lago.

CNN's Carlos Suarez is in West Palm Beach.

Carlos, as we understand, the Secret Service, FBI, Palm Beach County sheriff, they're going to hold a briefing at the top of the hour. Do we know what they're likely to reveal at this -- at this press conference?

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, that is the big question at this hour is just how much more information we are going to learn from the FBI, the secret services well as the Palm Beach County sheriff's office. There are a number of outstanding questions out here, perhaps most importantly, is exactly just how this 58-year-old knew that the former president was going to be at his golf course here yesterday afternoon.

As you noted, Ryan Routh could face additional charges because of all this. We're being told that those two gun-related charges were filed as prosecutors sought to detain him as they continue their investigation. And according to the criminal complaint that was released as a part of his court appearance early this morning, Routh's cell phone data seems to show that the 58-year-old may have spent nearly 12 hours, 12 hours in the area where he was spotted by the Secret Service Sunday afternoon.

So we're talking about from about 1:59 in the morning on Sunday to about 1:31 Sunday afternoon. We're told that several bags were found here at the scene, including that SKS style rifle and a plastic bag that contained some food.

[15:40:02]

And we also got to look at some body camera video from the Martin County sheriff's office. It captures the moment that Routh was taken the custody about an hour north of where we are here in West Palm Beach. The video shows deputies kind of lined up behind this one car as they make their way closer to the car that Routh was in.

And according to the very same criminal complaint affidavit, deputies asked Routh if he knew why he had been pulled over and Routh, according to the sheriff's office, says that he responded in the affirmative and so, Jim, it's pretty clear that he seemed to know exactly why deputies were following him, Jim. SCIUTTO: So Trump is planning to be at the Alabama, Georgia, football

game next Saturday. I mean, needless to say, a giant event stadium holds more than 100,000 people so far, given this latest attempt. This will be a major challenge for the Secret Service. Any consideration of canceling his visit there?

SUAREZ: Yeah, that is a -- that's a pretty big observation that you made there.

So the former president did go to an Alabama game when he was in office. But so at the time when he traveled to this game, he would have had a complete a Secret Service detail befitting of a president. So we're talking about two different types of security details and a football stadium that as you noted could have more than 100,000 fans.

And so, it's still unclear exactly how the security approach is going to differ that we are being told that the university is making some accommodations for the former president, as well as some of the staff members. And, of course, his security detail, whether he ends up going to the game between now and the 28th, I believe because when that game is taking place, of course, is very much up to the former president -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Carlos Suarez in West Palm Beach, thanks so much.

To another story now, NORAD says that it intercepted Russian military jets flying near Alaska four times over the course of the last week. While NORAD says they were, quote, not seen as a threat, those Russian aircraft, it does mark a significant uptick in activity during a time of deep tension between the U.S. and Russia.

CNN's Oren Liebermann has been following the developments from the Pentagon.

I mean, this happens. I mean, you have this major exercise with Russia and China cooperating in the Pacific. How exactly does the Pentagon read these -- these close intercepts?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The Pentagon is effectively downplaying that this is some sort of an uptick in Russian activity, but you're absolutely right to point out that four in one week is a very unusual number. We've seen a couple a few days apart. We saw that actually earlier this year, I believe in February, but for in one week is a number we haven't seen in quite some time.

Still as you point out, the Pentagon told us last week that there were Russian exercises and they expected to see more activity, more of these types of flights according to NORAD, at least three of the flights were maritime reconnaissance or surveillance aircraft. But there weren't necessarily intercepts. There was monitoring.

The aircraft remained in the ADIZ, the Air Defense Identification Zone. So that's not U.S. airspace. That would be a very different story, they remained in international airspace and the Pentagon as well as NORAD pointed out this is not viewed as a threat to the U.S. homeland. Of course, it is something the U.S. is going to monitor whether it's

part of an exercise or not, whether it's publicly announced or not, the U.S. will keep an eye on this to make sure it remains. And the Russians keep it as is that it stays in the realm of an exercise and at least for now, Jim, that's how the U.S. is viewing it.

Certainly, you'll see the pictures of these. They are sometimes phenomenal and noteworthy pictures. But the U.S. very much viewing this as a Russian exercise and not crossing what would be a very dangerous and critical line there.

SCIUTTO: Oren Liebermann at the Pentagon, thanks so much for putting that context for us.

Just after the break, TikTok's future in this country is in question. A hearing today on Capitol Hill over a potential ban for what social media app.

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SCIUTTO: TikTok and the U.S. government are going head-to-head in a federal appeals court. The popular social media app is used by 170 million Americans and it's trying to stop a ban that threatens its very existence here in the U.S.

That ban in response to fears that TikTok's ties to the Chinese government through its parent company ByteDance could allow China's government to access American users' app data, such as which videos they have watched, liked, shared and searched for.

CNN's Clare Duffy joins me now.

The case now in the hands of three federal judges. I wonder what the read is of where this courts going to go.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yeah, Jim, today, we heard from an attorney for TikTok and attorney for TikTok creators who have challenged this ban, and an attorney for the U.S. government defending the law. And they were only given about 15 minutes each to argue their case. But this hearing ended up stretching on for about two hours because of some pretty tough questioning from these judges especially for TikTok talk.

Essentially what the judges are going to have to consider here is, first of all, does this law violate the First Amendment rights of TikTok and its users and if it does, is there sufficient justification in terms of these national security concerns to allow that restriction on speech.

TikTok is certainly arguing that this is an illegal violation of the First Amendment for the app itself and its 170 million U.S. users. And the attorney for the company really hammered home on that point here. He said that for the government to crack down on the speech of a specific entity like this. It would need to face strict scrutiny and have a really real, real for

doing that. And because all we've heard essentially a from the government at this point is hypothetical concerns that the Chinese government could potentially seek to access U.S. user data from TikTok that doesn't meet that ban, that bar that it would need to meet to do that.

Now, the judges really sort of pushed back and questioning. They asked, why is this a violation of First Amendment rights? If TikTok app, the app could continue to exist in the U.S. just not under Chinese control.

Now, we're awaiting to hear what the judges will decide on this, were expecting this will take a couple of weeks because what these parties are hoping for is a decision that one side or the other could potentially appeal and go to the Supreme Court before this January 19 deadline for TikTok too by their face a ban or sale.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, it's a remarkable -- it would be a remarkable outcome. Not really, no precedent of this, is there?

DUFFY: Yeah, it wouldn't -- TikTok is saying that's the stakes here, that other online publishers, other platforms that have foreign ownership could also face similar restrictions, although the judges did push back on that day. They said there's a difference between ownership by a foreign entity and ownership by a foreign adversary like China, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Clare Duffy, thanks so much for following.

And we will be right back.

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SCIUTTO: Welcome back.

You are looking at live pictures of a podium there in Florida where we are expecting in just a few moments that update from the Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies on the apparent assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump yesterday afternoon. We will bring you those comments live once it begins.

Now the man detained in this attempted assassination or apparent attempted assassination as the FBI is describing it at this stage of these investigation has been identified as among other things, a staunch support of Ukraine.

Ryan Routh had visited the country and said in a 2022 video that he was willing to die in the war there. Ralph also criticized Trump and his self-published book on the conflict which he called unwinnable.

CNN's Clare Sebastian has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're piecing together a picture of an individual with an intense interest, almost an obsession with trying to help Ukraine. But all of his efforts ultimately seemed to have failed.

In a self published book released last year called "Ukraine's Unwinnable War", Ryan Routh admitted he was turned away from joining the fight himself because at 56, he was too old and had no military experience. After that, he turned his hand to trying to recruit foreign volunteers, setting up a makeshift recruitment center in Ukraine's Maidan Square which police later took down according to his book.

He even tried through extensive social media posts to recruit Afghan soldiers fleeing the Taliban, something one American citizen who served in Ukraine's International Legion told CNN, was ill-conceived to the point of being a security risk.

Both offices in Ukraine that handle foreign volunteer soldiers have told CNN he had nothing to do with them. The foreign coordination department of the land forces, even telling us he did reach out to them multiple times. But his ideas were, quote, delusional.

Now what is clear, though, is that his passion for Ukraine did fuel some of his disappointment with U.S. leadership. This made clear in an interview with "Newsweek" Romania, one of many interviews he gave about Ukraine.

RYAN ROUTH, SUSPECT: I've been dealing with Russia for my entire life, you know? We have one period where it was okay. Well, now, he led slip back into the terror -- terrorism. So, it's just -- the world needs to respond. You know, why world are not sending military is beyond me. We're going to have to all elect new leaders the next go around that have a backbone and have the fortitude to say, hey, we're not going to tolerate this type of behavior.

SEBASTIAN: Well, we don't know what he means by I've been dealing with Russia all my life, or exactly how he funded his time in Ukraine.

[15:55:05]

But his book suggests his inability to help did lead to a growing sense of frustration. He wrote, I'd given every ounce of motivation and energy that I could muster for Ukraine and came up empty handed.

Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.

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SCIUTTO: Thanks to Clare Sebastian for that report.

Thanks so much to all of you for joining me today.

I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is up next.