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Trump Injured In Assassination Attempt At Rally; RNC To Go On As Planned After Trump Rally Shooting; RNC to Go On as Planned after Trump Rally Shooting. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired July 14, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

EVAN VUCCI, ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOGRAPHER: -- take him off that off the side of the stairs and into the SUV waiting for them.

[08:00:03]

So I just waited to see, you know, what I could get.

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: And so, Evan, we just have a few seconds left in the show. I want to say thank you very much for joining us this morning.

Let's put Evan's image back up on the screen, if we can. Again, Evan was telling us how he went. This is another one of his pictures, but that one there is the one that has immediately become the iconic and defining image of this moment in our history and in this presidential campaign.

I want to thank our panel for being here. I want to thank all of you for joining us. I'm Kasie Hunt.

INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY with Manu Raju starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. I'm Manu Raju.

This morning, former President Donald Trump is waking up at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club after surviving an assassination attempt at his rally in Pennsylvania yesterday evening.

As you can see from this new video overnight, Trump is okay this morning. He says a bullet pierced part of his ear as he is speaking to a crowd filled with thousands of supporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATER: That said, take a look at what happened --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Trump was quickly rushed offstage and taken to the hospital, and authorities said a person in the crowd was shot and killed. Two others were critically injured and the shooter is dead.

Overnight, the FBI identified the suspect as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Investigators say he fired multiple shots from an elevated position just outside of the rally. They say they're still investigating the motive.

The big questions: how could this happen? Why did this happen? And what does it mean for an already hugely consequential campaign?

And just moments ago, Trump saying on Truth Social that he'll speak in Wisconsin this week, the site of the Republican National Convention, and he writes, it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening. We will fear not, but instead remain resilient in our faith and defiant in the face of the wickedness.

Now, President Biden is back at the White House after rushing back from Delaware. He addressed the nation and spoke with Trump last night, and he'll be briefed later this morning.

Now, this all comes before the start of the Republican national convention tomorrow, where Trump is expected to announce his vice presidential pick.

So let's begin with CNN's Alayna Treene in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Alayna, you were at the rally when this shooting happened. What more have we learned about this suspect overnight? And what happened yesterday?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, I'll start, Manu, with some of the details. We have learned about the gunman. So the man that authorities have identified as the attempted assassin of the former president is 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. He lived in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bethel Park. That's about 35 miles from Butler, Pennsylvania, where we are now and where the rally was last night.

Now, we have learned from public records that Crooks was a registered Republican, but he had recently donated to a Democratic-aligned political action committee. And also, CNN had actually was able to get in touch with his father, Matthew Crooks, who had told us that -- I'm going to read this for you -- he said, quote, he was trying to figure out, quote, what the hell is going on, but also said that he wanted to speak with law enforcement before sharing more.

Now, Manu, following the rally, my team and I immediately went to the building where we know where we learned that the suspected shooter had been on the roof and had shot several rounds into the rally location. I'll just tell you from -- from what I saw on the ground, it was remarkable to see how close that building was to the actual venue, even though it was outside of the perimeter. There was a little fence that circulated around the perimeter of the rally venue. It was 500 feet or so from the stage where Donald Trump was speaking. So it was pretty striking to see.

Now also during the rally, just to give you a sense of what I saw, it was absolute chaos. It was about a little after 6:00 p.m. when Donald Trump had taken the stage. He has barely been a few minutes into his speech when those shots were fired.

Everyone had immediately dropped to the ground. You could hear people screaming, Secret Service telling people to get down, and then you saw, of course, Donald Trump surrounded by Secret Service, putting his fist in the air and yelling "fight" as he was escorted off of the stage.

Now, I had an opportunity to speak with many of the rally's attendees following after we were all escorted out of the venue. I want you to take a listen to what one of them told me, Joseph Meyn. He had a very harrowing experience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JOSEPH MEYN, TRUMP RALLY ATTENDEE: The man in the bleachers, kind of to the right of me in the bleachers, took a gunshot wound to the head, was killed. It was just complete pandemonium. Like every, you know, there was a bit of a delay, like there was a lot of confusion, but immediately, you know, it seemed like more gunfire erupted.

[08:05:05]

I couldn't figure out where that was coming from. And then, you know, there was a state policeman there, a -- I believe, a SWAT team, you know, showed up relatively quickly. They jumped those side. There was a fence. It was next to the bleachers.

They jumped the bleachers and started clearing the bleachers. And then I helped carry the body of the man down out of the bleachers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, Manu, Joseph had a particularly terrible experience, having witnessed the man who was fatally killed yesterday. I spoke with other attendees who had told me that they couldn't believe that this had happened in our country, that this is where the current state of our politics are, and were very emotional, throughout our conversations and so, we'll bring you more updates as we get them. But a lot of people just very upset and disoriented with what had happened -- Manu.

RAJU: Yeah, no question about it. Alayna Treene, we'll check back in with you as news develops later this hour. Thank you so much for that.

And now, I want to bring in Kristen Holmes.

Kristen, you've been speaking with Trump's team. What are they saying this morning? And what might we actually hear from the former president and see him again?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, unclear when we're going to see him again, but we did just hear from on Truth Social, which I'll get to. But when I'm talking to his advisers and aides, what I'm hearing from them is two things. One, they are shaken, but two, they are defiant.

So just to address how they are feeling, there are a lot of people I have spoken to who are very rattled. Remember, these are people who are with him all of the time. They believe that if any of the circumstances had been different, he could have been killed. They don't understand how this happened, how this could have happened.

And we know the campaign is addressing this. In a memo last night from Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, those are the two campaign heads, they sent this out to these campaign aides, essentially telling them that if they were in Washington, D.C., if they were in West Palm Beach, to stay away from the offices, they know this is an ongoing threat, reaching out to these campaign aides to offer assurances that everybody is going to be protected.

Now, when it comes to that defiance, that is something we've heard from Donald Trump's team before, whenever he has faced any kind of obstacle. But this is the first time I'm really seeing that kind of resolve from the people around him doubling down, saying that he is stronger than ever, talking about how brave he is, and really talking about how they believe this is going to impact the election, that this is going to be at the end of the day, positive for him to show that he is a, quote/unquote, fighter.

Now, I do want to say we've seen some of that defiance from the former president himself posting on Truth Social. And this is what he said: Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening. We will fear not, but instead remain resilient in our faith and defiant in the face of wickedness.

Our love goes out to the other victims and their families. We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed.

In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand united and show our true character as Americans, remaining strong and determined and not allowing evil to win. I truly love our country and love you all, and look forward to speaking to our great nation this week from Wisconsin.

Obviously, they're referring to the Republican National Convention. Now, he was going to travel in tonight or tomorrow morning. No word yet on whether or not that has changed. But we do know that he is at his Bedminster home nearby where we are right now.

RAJU: All right. Kristen Holmes, we're going to be assessing the fallout later in the show as well. Thank you for that report from New York.

And the investigation into the shooting is just getting started. To talk more about what we know and what comes next, I'm joined by Jonathan Wackrow. He's a CNN law enforcement analyst. He's also a former Secret Service agent.

And Juliette Kayyem, CNN senior national security analyst and former assistant secretary for homeland security.

Good morning to you both. Thank you so much for joining me.

Jonathan, let's start with you, because we know who the suspect is. So how are the investigators now going to try to piece together what his motive was?

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, listen, you know, the investigative phase that we're in right now is actually going to be conducted by the FBI because it is a criminal matter. The Secret Service is going to have a parallel investigation, really, around, mission assurance and trying to figure out what vulnerability was potentially missed. Was there a potential lapse in security in their planning to ensure that, you know, moving forward, that their protective methodology remains intact.

But from an investigative standpoint, the FBI right now is looking at, everything in this suspect's life, they were looking at all of their known connections. They're looking at all of their digital information to see, is this individual aligned to a particular ideology? Is -- are they politically aligned somewhere that or politically motivated, and they were trying to, you know, further, you know, some sort of aspect of that?

There's a lot of unknowns that you have just not come out with this, this, suspect right now, but what we do know is that they had access to a high powered rifle.

[08:10:03]

They had knowledge of the -- this site where they were able to get, out into an elevated position without drawing the attention of law enforcement. So there are a lot of questions from the investigative side that need to be answered and that that hopefully will get some of those answers quickly from both the FBI and the Secret Service.

RAJU: And, Juliette, how do you see the investigation playing out, and what is the likelihood that this shooter was acting alone?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So we don't know the answer to that question yet, at least from the bio that we know so far. He didn't seem to be exceptionally politically engaged. There's talk about his registration into the Republican Party. We don't know, honestly, if that was, because he wanted to vote against Donald Trump in the Republican primary.

So there's a lot of questions about his political affiliations. So, we'll wait to determine where that leads. But no known evidence now that he was part of a larger network, although, of course, that's going to be reviewed.

You know, I don't really believe in the lone wolf theory of terrorism or assassination anymore. These men, generally, young men are getting incited online through a variety of mechanisms. So they'll want to determine, you know, was he -- was he in the -- in the rabbit hole, so to speak, of the -- of the kind of violence that led him to this?

I think the second piece, of course, is access to the gun. This was an AR type rifle. We know the controversies around that right now, if there is going to be any criminal liability since he is dead, I have no doubt the investigation will head towards his access to the gun, how he purchased it, how he acquired it, and whether that was lawful.

So that's where this investigation is going to go.

RAJU: Hey, Jonathan. When we saw authorities brief overnight, the Secret Service actually was not at the press conference wondering, do you think that this was a failure at all by the Secret Service?

WACKROW: Well, there definitely was a lapse in -- in the security, in the execution of the security plan. When I take a look at, you know, what I have seen thus far, you know, the -- where the shooter was, was just beyond what we call the secure site, where, you know, attendees have been cleared, they have gone through magnetometers, they've gone through explosive detection that secure site.

But beyond that, there still are vulnerabilities. And during the Secret Service proactive advance process, they try to identify that. And just by the fact that they had a two man counter sniper team already pointed in the direction of those buildings to me, starts -- starts to signal that they knew that there was some sort of vulnerability, some sort of long range threat that could come from that area. That's why they put the mitigation of the counter sniper teams there.

Now from there, what type of lapse happened was, you know, there were communication breakdown between local law enforcement and the Secret Service that said, hey, we don't know. You know, we don't know who this individual is. There's an unknown suspect trying to get on the building, again, we don't know a lot of those answers right now, but I will say that, you know, based upon, you know, what I have done when I've built out very similar sites, you put local law enforcement in those positions of vulnerability at the at long distances, literally to mitigate this, this, type of issue.

Where that breakdown was, that's where mission assurance review is essential right now for the Secret Service, because, you know, we're heading into the sprint of this political season.

RAJU: All right. Jonathan Wackrow, Juliette Kayyem, thank you so much for joining me this morning. Really appreciate your insight and expertise, of course.

And coming up, as we continue to track the breaking news of the Trump rally attack, we'll be joined by two reporters who witnessed it all happen.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:18:03] RAJU: Thousands of people were in attendance for Donald Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, yesterday. But what they witnessed instead was an assassination attempt that's left one rally-goer dead and two in critical condition, the former president injured but safe.

Two of the reporters who were on the scene to cover the rally are joining me now, Isaac Arnsdorf from "The Washington Post" and James Pindell of "The Boston Globe".

Thank you both for joining me this morning. I really appreciate it.

Isaac, let me start with you. You've covered many Trump rallies before. How intense was the security yesterday and what did you see when the shots were fired?

ISAAC ARNSDORF, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, WASHINGTON POST: So what I saw with the security going into the rally was very typical. It's an airport style screening, a combination of secret service and TSA agents, sending people through magnetometers and checking their bags, it was a very long line for a very large crowd.

You know what I didn't have any visibility into is, is any of the advance work, scouting the location, identifying vulnerabilities. Securing a perimeter that's, you know, that all happens before we all show up, but I'm sure that investigators are going to be examining how that was done, and if there were any lapses there.

When -- so Trump was about ten minutes into talking when we heard the shots. And as you've seen on the footage, he kind of he reached up to his ear. It was almost like he was swatting a bug or something, and then seemed to realize what was happening, started getting swarmed by Secret Service, goes down on the podium, people are screaming.

They're really the crowd, you know, you see people up in the bleachers, they've got nowhere to go. The crowd down on the ground was so packed there was nowhere to go. People are ducking for cover. There's a second burst of shots. There's some smoke.

[08:20:00]

And then there's this moment where the shooting stops and people are just looking at the -- at the stage, waiting for a sign of Trump to emerge.

RAJU: And, James, where how far away from the stage were you and when did the crowd actually realize that Trump had been hit?

JAMES PINDELL, POLITICAL REPORTER, BOSTON GLOBE: I was about 40 yards away. I was in front of the camera shot that you're seeing now. I was sitting in a chair, it was about shade big time yesterday, as I'm sure Isaac knows, will tell you, it was 91 degrees very sunny.

You know, most of those members in the crowd that you're going to see in that shot had arrived by, like 11:00 or some, some, some I talked to were 10:30 in the morning for an event that really didn't get going and underway until six. They were there was heat strokes, we were passing around water and other chairs that were available for more elderly or disabled members of the crowd.

To answer your direct question, look, I was typing into my iPad, a story, a quote from Trump, and I looked up and I -- I had noticed the snipers before because there was some activity almost about 25 minutes before his remarks. They were pretty active with binoculars, and I thought that was interesting.

But then I thought, oh, maybe it's just motorcade or they are seeing something and it wasn't that big of a deal, but it was not until, he got up and we saw blood that people realized that he may have been somehow injured. I mean, he obviously -- he was up. He wasn't exactly on his own because originally it was.

Okay, there's a snipers happening over here. There was a kind of a distraction, either kind of gas or water hose, kind of distraction. It seemed like official, and then you didn't know if there were multiple shooters. It almost felt like this could be a --

RAJU: I think we just lost James for a moment. We'll try to get him back.

Isaac, if you're still with me here, tell me about what -- tell me about -- you spoke to some of the rally-goers in the aftermath of the shooting, what were you hearing from them in the immediate aftermath of it.

ARNSDORF: Just a lot of confusion, you know, a lot of times in these situations, it's so chaotic, it moves so fast, you know, people aren't trying to get it wrong. It's just really hard in the moment, even for an eyewitness to understand exactly what happened, you know, and, you know, a lot of people were reacting to, unfortunately, the person who was shot in the -- in the stands, thinking that that was actually the shooter who had been, neutralized.

And, and so, you know, again, it's just chaotic and confusing and, you know, as viewers, we have to be really careful with -- with understanding the immediate reports in a situation like this, and, and not jumping to conclusions and being careful to wait for vetted reporting, like here and the post and for the investigation by law enforcement.

RAJU: All right. And James Pindell is back with us.

James, you wrote in "The Boston Globe" about how immediately after the shooting, the crowd turned on the press. You wrote they were looking for someone to blame. For a moment, it felt like a growing mob.

What was that experience like?

PINDELL: Look, Manu, you experienced January 6th. I was not in the Capitol that day. I didn't know where this was going, and people were obviously upset.

This only began after Trump had been removed from the scene, and it was clear that the rally was over, and so I, you know, immediately took off my press credentials and I left. RAJU: All right. Okay, guys, thank you too, so much for joining me

this morning, sharing your experiences. We're grateful for that. Thank you and glad you're both are safe.

All right. Up next, the shooting could overshadow the Republican National Convention this week. But the convention is going on as planned. We're live in Milwaukee with a look at what to expect this week. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:28:19]

RAJU: This was already an intensely fought presidential campaign with huge stakes for the nation and the world. But now, the attempted assassination attempt of Donald Trump will no doubt have an impact on voters' minds.

Meantime, the Republican National Convention begins tomorrow in Milwaukee, where the shooting will be a dominant discussion.

CNN political director David Chalian is live in Milwaukee for us.

So, David, how do we think that this may change the convention?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECOTOR: Well, Manu, there's no doubt that it is already changing what this event is designed to be, right? Which is a joyous celebration. Donald Trump coming here to become the nominee of his party for the third consecutive cycle.

And obviously, it takes place in an entirely new context now, with this assassination attempt, speaking this morning with somebody familiar with convention planning, also said it will have some impact on the program.

There's a plan being created, of course, to have a moment of silence for the victim who lost their life in this event, and there may be other things inside the convention hall, other programmatic changes we will learn throughout the course of this day and the days ahead.

But you heard former President Trump's statement this morning where he said he is looking forward to addressing the nation. The delegates here at the convention, here in Wisconsin, this week, you heard from the RNC chairman and the convention organizers yesterday that they are proceeding with this convention and you are hearing from a lot of people in state delegations, Manu, who have are striking a tone of resilience, the need to be together and display a sense of unity for the country through this moment.

And they are eager, no doubt probably more eager now than ever to hear from their nominee, President Trump, later this week.

RAJU: And obviously David, given how significant of an incident this was, how do you assess the impact that this will have on the presidential race? CHALIAN: I think we have no idea really, Manu, what the impact will actually be. But I think you, that will be dependent on how the candidates, their campaigns, their supporters, move through this moment.

And thus far, just looking at the two candidates in this race, you had both of them President Biden last night addressing the nation then putting out that he spoke to former President Trump and President Trump's statement this morning, calling for total denouncement of political violence and a moment for the country to actually come together to be able to move through this and denounce that kind of violence from wherever it comes.

That so far is suggesting that perhaps this can be a moment of unifying the country. We'll see. We know what our politics are like in this country. We know the rough and tumble of a campaign. It's unclear if that kind of sentiment will carry through from now through November, Manu.

RAJU: Yes, we'll be watching that, of course, very closely. David Chalian from Milwaukee, the site of the Republican convention.

Thank you for that.

And to dive more into all of this, I'm joined by two great CNN reporters. CNN's Phil Mattingly chief domestic correspondent, and Kayla Tausche CNN's senior White House correspondent.

Good morning. Good to see you, guys.

So just on the convention first, I mean, because typically, as we know conventions are incredibly partisan affairs to say the very least. Now, this happened. How does that impact the messaging, the Republican messaging on this? Do they tamp it down? Do they get right back into it? How do they navigate this.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: The reason I'm pausing, I was kind of thinking about what David Chalian just said about, you know, how's this going to affect the politics, the campaign, and the humility that David just reflected there of we don't know.

I think it's an important moment that everybody should kind of take some time to consider here. We have no idea how this is going to play out over the course of the next three or four months.

One thing I do think we can be sure of, and I know this because I was talking to some folks who are speaking at the convention and everyone I spoke to who is, is planning to note this or make a point of what happened and what transpired over the course of the last 24 hours in their remarks.

One person told me they should put the photos -- photos by AP's Evan Vucci, and a moneymaker Doug Mills -- (INAUDIBLE) we all know quite well from the White House Press Corps, just put them on a loop throughout the convention. And the reason why is because yes, they have a defiant view right now

of this moment in time, but they also think that it shows such a critical component of Donald Trump's campaign, which is strength. The contrast of what they view as strength versus weakness of the current administration, what they view as a president who consistently show strength against president that they don't believe does.

And so that will be a key component of all this. I think the idea that this is going to be some moment where the country comes together and unifies to David's point that it seems to be undercut by politics we've all been through over the course of the last 7, 8, 9 years.

I think the real question right now coming out of this moment as everybody tries to get their heads around it is, does this escalate? Does this get into even more dangerous territory than it already has to the extent that's possible?

Or can folks figure out a way to wrangle a message that makes the points that they want to make and doesn't allow it to kind of continue to devolve down a path that I think everybody, regardless of political views is very uncertain about at this moment.

RAJU: Yes. I mean, absolutely. And look, as you guys were saying you know, and as they've been saying, this could be a moment for unity as they, I think Trump himself has said that this could unify the nation.

But these conventions are not necessarily meant to unify. They're meant to --

MATTINGLY: It could unify a party.

RAJU: Yes. They unify the party. They don't necessarily use --

MATTINGLY: Against everybody else.

RAJU: Exactly. That's going to be something that they'll have to straddle this week.

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They will have to straddle that. And if Democrats thought that the chaos going on within their own party would potentially divert some eyeballs away from the Republican convention, Then this absolutely changed that calculus.

I think that is very safe to say but you also have to look to history about how this is going to impact the candidate too. Because the last time that something like this happened was 1981, President Ronald Reagan and his approval ratings skyrocketed in the wake of that in his grace under fire, which to your point, it really depends on how Trump reacts to this and channels this into his message in the next few days.

Already, there are many Republicans suggesting that this is essentially the linchpin for his victory. Dan Crenshaw, the congressman from Texas, tweeting last night, just mere moments after that Evan Vucci photo came out.

"Donald Trump's chances of losing just went to zero and there were several high-profile endorsements that came out right after the fact.

Bill Ackman, who is an influential money manager in New York circles, longtime Democrat came out on X and said that he was supporting Trump, laid out a very lengthy manifesto as to why.

[08:34:52]

TAUSCHE: And then Elon Musk said, "I fully endorsed Donald Trump, and I'm wishing him a speedy recovery."

So there are many influential figures in media, politics, donor circles who are suggesting that this perhaps is the beginning of the rise toward the end for Donald Trump. And they want to be on that train with him

RAJU: And this is what Congressman Derrick Van Orden told Politico about the impact that he believes will happen in November. He's of course a Republican from Wisconsin. He said, "Trump just won the election." He said "Congressional Republicans already believe Donald Trump was headed back to the White House. Some of them think that the Saturday night rally has made that path even easier." That's according to a Politico report.

What's your reaction to that?

MATTINGLY: I think in the moment you could probably see where he's coming from on that. I think again, not to constantly caveat everything, Which we have no idea what's going to become --

(CROSSTALK)

RAJU: People maybe go back to their camp.

MATTINGLY: We have no -- yes, and I think there's a responsibility that's incumbent on Trump and the Trump campaign for how they play this and how their messaging kind of proceeds in the wake of this, whether or not they're able to take advantage of it and get -- again, this has never about the people who were always going to vote for Donald Trump. This is never about the people who are always going to vote either against Trump or for President Biden.

This is about those people in the middle. They're a very small slice of the population of the electorate, but where they decide to go and how this influences them. And I don't think you can take one night in one moment to define what that's going to be.

It's going to be how the campaigns play this out going forward. But what you saw from the congressman there is something and what you saw from congressman crenshaw is something I heard a lot from Republicans last night of this, this locks it in. This solidifies it.

And maybe that's true. I just don't think we can say definitively at this moment. Yes. I mean, you cover the Biden campaign, we'll talk a little bit more about how Biden handled this in the next segment.

But how did they, I mean, obviously it's hard to engage the politics of something so serious and tragic a shooting in the (INAUDIBLE). But we're in the middle of a presidential campaign. The Republican Convention's about to take off.

And we're INSIDE POLITICS and we talk about the political fallout. What are you hearing from the Biden campaign?

TAUSCHE: Well, certainly the president's own ethos, the reason why he ran in 2020 was to be a unifier. He truly believed then, and he truly believes now that he is the only one who can unite the country in this moment of political fraudness (ph).

And so when that happened, there was no question and that he was going to address it in some way to take the high road and to deliver the written statement and then the statement on camera that he did.

And the question now is, what does this look like for the Biden campaign? And how do they distill this into where President Biden can continue to have those moments wishing his predecessor and his now opponent well, while also trying to re-establish and deepen the contrast between the two of them. You know, it's going to be very difficult for him to strike that balance.

RAJU: Yes. And as you already heard, even as they're all just talk about unity and damping down the rhetoric and stuff, not so much in some of the quarters -- some allies pretty close to Trump, including potentially his vice-presidential pick, which we could know maybe today, maybe tomorrow.

We'll see, maybe earlier in the week, we don't exactly know when Donald Trump will announce his vice-presidential pick but it could be imminent.

JD Vance is on the top of that list, the Ohio Republican senator. He tweeted in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, "Today is not just some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump, is an authoritarian fascist, who must be stopped at all costs."

That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination. Now, again, we don't know the motivation of this suspect. They're still investigating that. But there's a key aspect of it here.

But you're already hearing some Trump allies seizing on this and trying to turn it into something as a wedge issue of sorts, including someone who could be the number two on the ticket.

MATTINGLY: Yes. Which I think is something you should know when you listen or read what he's actually saying here. There's a couple of audiences that perhaps Senator Vance is looking towards.

I think there's two pieces of this. The first piece is look, Republicans are really angry and that should be like an obvious statement, of course, in this moment in time.

But the number of people I heard from last night, people who aren't like diehard Trump supporters who are just have a, have had a visceral response to this and their belief that this was driven by things that have occurred that Democrats have said or Democrats have acted upon over the course of the last year. It's very real, whether or not you believe the evidence behind it.

The other thing I would say here is look, every speech of Donald Trump gives he talks about if Joe Biden wins, the country dies. If Joe Biden wins everything is over, the constitution falls apart.

So let's be real here. This isn't because this -- Joe Biden says Donald Trump is an existential threat. Both sides are saying the exact same thing here so let's be a little self-aware about what we're talking about here.

But Republicans are mad. Thats absolutely true. And I think this goes to the point we've been talking about here, which it is how people react going forward to this, what their message is and how they're able to push forward on that message.

[08:39:49]

MATTINGLY: It's not a sure thing one way or the other. There are a lot of decisions that need to be made by campaigns, by messages, but also by surrogates about how they treat this. Because this is a very, very unsettling moment for the country and in history. And a lot is going to play out in the months ahead.

TAUSCHE: And we were just talking about the two groups of voters that the Trump campaign is going to need to speak with right now. There's on one hand, the base, which certainly the message that was in JD Vance's tweet would seem directly aimed at that base.

But the independent voters, the would-be Haley voters, the undecideds, the 500,000 people in swing states who are still on the fence about who they're going to vote for. They don't necessarily want to see the temperature being taken up on this. They want the temperature to be taken down. And so that's the challenge for both camps.

RAJU: Ok. All right. We'll see how they play it out. We're going to discuss more next.

Coming up, the assassination attempt against Trump upends the election for both party candidates. More on that next.

[08:40:43]

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RAJU: President Biden is back in Washington today cutting his trip to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware short last night following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

Now, shortly after he was briefed on the attack on the rally, Biden told staff he wanted to address the nation, which he later did.

Now I want to bring in presidential historian Douglas Brinkley who is here to join us this morning. Doug, thank you so much for joining me.

Put this in perspective for us. This is the first assassination attempt of a president since Ronald Reagan in 1981. So what was the national reaction to that at that time? And what was the impact on Reagan.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, what happened in 1981, Reagan was a polarizing figure.

He was seen as an ultraconservative by Democrats. He was shot only a couple of weeks into his presidency in March of 1981 and from that point on, once he got rushed to the George Washington Hospital, the whole country started pulling for him.

There was actually a sea change. You could feel that people that were Reagan skeptics, were now praying for his recovery. And I edited Ronald Reagan's diaries and the most profound passage was when Reagan wakes up after being shot and looked at the top of the ceiling of this hospital. And then suddenly first time he wrote said I thought I was a goner, thought I was dead. The rest of my life is going to be dedicated to peace by which he goes on to elaborate means ridding the world of nuclear weapons.

RAJU: So Doug can you speak to --

BRINKLEY: It was a religious -- yes, it was a religious epiphany for Reagan, having been shot. And I want President Trump what he'd feel like after the adrenaline goes away and you realize that you were in that kind of harm's way.

RAJU: And Doug, can you speak to how this image of martyrdom, is received by the public when something like this happens.

BRINKLEY: Well, that's exactly the right word. There. The fact is that photograph of Trump, there's going to be a number of them but with blood on his face and he looks like he's still in the fight and then going giving the fist up get the crowd, then it's going to be -- its a very, very you know powerful moment. He becomes like a folklore figure, Theodore Roosevelt-type which is a different area.

If you are going to write a biography of Donald Trump, this event is a central moment because Trump wasn't in Vietnam, he isn't somebody that we've known for military decorations being honored in that way. But here in the fight of a campaign, being able to take a bullet as he did and then get up and still show vigor and the march will go on as something that plays into the psyche of the American people in a very positive way.

RAJU: I haven't practiced into the room here. So just pick up on that. Him talking about the image of Donald Trump.

This is what our colleague Stephen Collinson writes. He says, these images will stand in history rich Trump's mythology just as surely as a picture of his mug shot. And Atlanta jail in the footage of his return to the White House and 2020 after beating a serious COVID-19 infection. I mean, it was no question, no surprise, I suppose what the Trump campaign was quick to point out, some of these images of him yesterday, pumping his fist, the American flag and amalgam blood on his face. They believe it looks great for him.

MATTINGLY: What I found to be most remarkable from it, from a purely political slash imagery sense is in the moment the former president stopped the Secret Service agents stopped his detail around them. You can hear him say, "Wait, wait, wait."

And what he's doing is he's popping up to be able to pump his fist so people can see him when you can see him mouth, "fight, fight, fight". And does it several more times on the way down. He was aware of that in that moment, which you know, I don't know what it takes in a moment where you just got shot in the ear that that kind of comes to your mind.

And perhaps it's just kind of who Trump is on some level. The imagery is you cannot avoid it. Its extraordinarily powerful whether you love the guy or hate the guy in that moment.

And I think more than anything else last night, Republicans certainly were focused on and I think that's why I keep saying you're going to see it on almost a loop during the rally itself.

But I think even democrats as well were acknowledging that like in that moment for what had just occurred, those pictures are incredibly powerful and they are going to be in history books for decades to come. There s just no question about it.

[08:49:45]

RAJU: I want to ask you, Kayla, about the president last night at how he processed the news. You've been doing some reporting about this. Talk to us about his decision to come out and speak last night and what he's planning to do in the days ahead.

TAUSCHE: Well, this is a critical stretch of time for President Bidens own candidacy. And yesterday, he was with his family and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware where they have a home and he was at church when this event took place and he was briefed shortly after that.

He decided to speak to the nation. And he also spoke by phone with former president Trump, who he has established publicly as a persona non grata in American politics.

So the fact that these two, these two politicians who have no love lost between each other got on the phone and held a conversation in that moment, I think is as striking as anything that we saw took place.

The question now is how Biden processes this in the coming day, does he change his travel schedule? How does he choose to message this? There are few practical considerations for him. Number one, and we've been talking about his health and his stamina. His team fiercely protect his downtime and he was supposed to have two days essentially off the grid in-between a fairly grueling stretch of campaigning How does the president appear? President Biden when he is on the trail? This week number two, there are going to be questioned since about how

his Department of Homeland Security processed requests for secret service detail that President Trump had. That s already circulating on social media.

And then finally, he has been talking about an assault weapons ban. Does he use this as? Bowman to back a policy that he has been very vocal about the country needing. Does he find an audience in Trumps otherwise -- those who lean toward Trump, does he find a receptive audience to that message? Or does he choose to not pursue this as a policy path in this moment. Those are all decisions that he has to make in the next couple days.

RAJU: Thank you for a great discussion, guys.

Thank you to Doug Brinkley as well for joining me this morning.

And up next we're going to keep following these unfolding developments about this attempted assassination of the former president. Stay with us.

[08:51:45]

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RAJU: And that's it for INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY.

Up next, "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jake tapper and Dana Bash. Jake is live in Milwaukee where his guests include Senators John Fetterman and Ron Johnson, Congressman Mike Turner, and Congressman Dan Meuser.

I'll see you back here at 11:00 a.m. Eastern.

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