i saved hundreds with all the money i saved. i thought i'd by stilts being so tell definitely has its advantages you go ghetto i agree to go. yep there it is i guess it tomorrow 21st, so special. >> how would really happen the 21st at nine on cnn? >> you're, in, the cnn newsroom. everyone, i am jessica dean in new york and we begin with breaking news involving conversations president joe biden has been having today with democratic lawmakers, seen annie grayer joins us now with new details. and i know you've been talking to sources. what are you

hearing about these two calls that he held today? >> well, just the call that the president just finished which this moderate group of democrats, i'm told, got pretty tense and sources even told me that the president was defensive at times, this was a private call, so i'm hearing from sources on that call familiar with that call about exactly what happened the president only took three questions from lawmakers, one of them was from democratic congressman jason crow of colorado, who apparently asked the president how the question is, the questions surrounding his mental fitness are going to affect our country's position on the world stage and our national security. this is where sources say biden got pretty animated and defensive about his record on foreign policy, his role in nato and then the president also heard from democratic congresswoman chrissy houlahan of pennsylvania, who apparently pressed biden a lot about what his path to victory is in pennsylvania specifically a key battleground state it for biden

and this is what the biden campaign was hoping that biden could speak directly to concerns that democratic lawmakers, especially the ones who are calling from to step aside, are having, and it just doesn't sound like specifically in this call, those concerns were really put to bed one member on the call, congressman adam smith, told our colleague, priscilla alvarez, quote, the message we've been getting from him and his team is shut up, fallen line everything is fine. i mean, that is not a mending of fences just from one just from one example. so biden also spoke with the progressive caucus earlier today, and that calls seem to have gone a lot more smoothly. members asked his first plans on how he plans to move his campaign forward and his path to victory. but it's the call that just wrapped with these moderate group of members that seems like as the one that got pretty heated today. >> alright some excellent reporting from annie grayer

there. thanks so much for following that meantime, former president donald trump is back on the campaign trail as he gets ready for a big week ahead, trump is preparing for the republican national convention in milwaukee, which is now less than 48 hours away, he will officially become the party's nominee. for the third time in eight years he's also expected to announce his running mate. it's a highly anticipated decision that has been overshadowed by all the debate fallout surrounding the biden campaign. cnn's alayna treene is live at that trump rally in butler, pennsylvania, where the former president will address the crowd any minute now, alayna, but before he does, how is the campaign feeling about this? big week ahead will actually just got yet to have double timing because just as you were hitting dow is about to come out, he's walking out sign me right now, so he's just about to deliver his remarks, pull up to your question. there really excited for next week, donald trump has been uncharacteristic ally quiet ever since khamenei only has held, this will be his third public events since that

debate. and so they're ready to return the attention back to him and his campaign it's convention next week now, tonight at this rally, we are all waiting to see whether or not donald trump is going to announce who he is going to choose as his running mate. when i talked to trump's most senior advisors, they say that they still don't exactly know when it's going to come, but they view monday evening the kickoff to the convention as the deadline for when he has to announce. remember, next week, whoever his vp nominee is, has a ton of events. they have closed door fundraisers. they're going to be delayed we're going to speech on wednesday night. so they have a lot coming up, so we know who it will be eventually by the end of next week or by end up monday, i should say, but unclear if it's going to happen tonight, been submitted recording. we have jessica we've learned that over the past several days, donald trump has met with senator marco rubio, jd vance, north dakota governor doug burgum. all three of those men have remained as the very top with donald

trump's shortlist for vp and so those are continued to be the three ben that he is considering. but again, we're waiting to see whether or not that really big announcement will come tonight. jost all right. and alayna, we're going to keep an eye on this and we we'll take trump's remarks once they get underway. so standby, alayna treene there in butler, pennsylvania, again, we will take those remarks momentarily. thank you so much for that reporting. but first, joining us now from a white house spokesperson for george w bush administration and in indiana republican party pete seat and democratic strategist and former senior advisor for the burner, bernie sanders presidential campaigns. chuck rocha and senior cnn senior political analyst, ron brownstein. we've got all three of you here. thank you so much for being here with us. ron. let's rewind back for a second to annie grayer is reporting there on these calls that joe biden has been having with congressional democrats what do you make of this reporting that biden appear defensive in some of these calls with

congressional democrats. that was the reporting that annie got as he tries this to continue his outreach to some of these people who yeah. >> yeah, the pattern you've got to see is that it's the members from the more competitive districts that are more worried. i mean the progressive caucus, most of them tend to be in safe seats and whether you're talking about the house or the senate, it's the people who are in more competitive seats were more concerned with good reason you know, if you look at the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, jessica, exactly one senator out of 69 senate races one senate candidate out a 69 senate races, one and a state that voted the other way for president and democrats know, sorry to see you, but we're going to have to interrupt you. i'm sorry. but you all on standby, but we're going to go to president trump now who is speaking at a rally in pennsylvania, we await his vp pick ahead of the convention, let's listen him with thousands of proud, hardworking american patriots. and that's what you are. and we got to bring our country back to help

because our country's gone to hell. if you haven't noticed millions and millions of people are pouring in from prisons and from mental institutions. we're going to stop it. we're going to get it stopped. we're going to bring them back. as you said, we're going to bring them back we're going to deport the port with the help of everyone here tonight, we're going to win pennsylvania this november. we're going to defeat crooked joe biden will kamala and we're going to take back the white house and we're going to take back our country. we're going to take it back our countries has been our country has been stolen from us. you see that the greatest, one of the greatest crimes is what they've done over four years in hiding. what the obvious facts are is that shaye you run for your run for the president of the united states from a basement, from a

basement all very dishonest stuff. but you know, we're going to have the greatest election. i tell you what we did fantastically in 2016. we did much better in 2020, you know, we did much better that it was rigged. it was a rigged deal, but we did much better. but it's nothing compared to the enthusiasm all over, not just in pennsylvania, all over is nothing compared to the enthusiasm that we've seen over the last year, because i mean, a year, think of a year-and-a-half ago. it started it really started from immediately after the election. you want to know the truth, but year-and-a-half ago we were seeing crowds of people desperate to have rallies, desperate to have anything to take back our country. and we're going to take it back next week. the republican party will hold its convention in milwaukee, wisconsin. and five days from now, we will officially accept the republican nomination for president of the united states

right we're going to get a good senator and i'll tell you you have a real stiff right down off as stiff current senate. i never met him. i don't think i've ever met him i was only there for years, but i don't think i have ever met them. i'll tell you that's your senator. he votes with biden or whoever happens to be furthest left we got to get him elected a cormac we got to get mccormick press mccormick is a good man to he's a he's a valiant fighter, is a great, great gentlemen. so we're going to bring them up for can we bring them up for a couple of minutes? flavor a little bit. all right. you get ready. my karmic, you get ready. i'll get you up here. the world don't see a vibrant republican party that is bigger, stronger, more confident, and more united than ever before. and that's what we are with the most united party now it's i'm watching the

fake news go crazy because they saying the republican party has not been united since ronald reagan, like it is right now, it was united under ronald reagan the second time. it was very united. and they said there's never been anything like it. they've never seen a movement like this. make america great again you know, joe biden talks about, we have to stop maga. maga means make america great again, joe make america great. that's all we wanted to if he was doing their job, i wouldn't even be doing this. i'd be at some beautiful place with a gorgeous ocean, the mediterranean the atlantic baby, the pacific thank you thank you and said, i'm here with you fighting like hell to get a senator elected and to make sure we take back the white house because if we do, we're going to make america

better than ever before we're going to make it and it's not easy because we have millions and millions of people in our country that shouldn't be here. dangerous people criminals we have criminals, we have drug dealers, we have people that should not be here at. it's much tougher than if it happened the we had the strongest border ever in recorded history with the best border. in fact, if they could ever put up a chart, i don't know if they can do. you guys have access to that job that i love so much you don't mind if i go off teleprompter, do you because he's teleprompters are so boring. i tried to explain that oh, wow you guys are doing a ticket and better with time my guys take a look at that chart. take a look at the arrow in the bottom, see the big red arrow right? so that's what i left office. that was the lowest point and that comes right from the government services comes right out of border patrol. take a look at

that. so that arrow is the lowest amount of illegal immigration ever in recorded history into our country. and then and then the worst president in the history of our country took over and look what happened to our country. probably 20 million people and you know, that's a little bit all that chart, that charts a couple of months old and if you want to really see something they said, take a look at what happened over okay. we are. watching live. we do not know what is happening. we see secret service agents there with former president donald trump. this is at live video from butler, pennsylvania, where they are scrambling. we heard we heard sounds and that is when they told the former

president to get down. we so we saw secret service agents rushing to the stage. there he was in the middle of that rally there in butler, pennsylvania. so let's zoom back out for a second. president, former president trump, we are monitoring this situation. we have a team there he was talking to a crowd. we heard noises. are we they told him to get down. we are monitoring what is going on there right now. we know that secret service rush the stage and got the former president down on the ground we are waiting to hear more details. the president was there in butler pennsylvania, which is a rural part of pencil well, dana with a large crowd doing this rally before the republican national convention starts on monday. this was his first rally that he has done since since that debate. i want to bring in ron brownstein, who is our cnn political analyst and senior editor, ron, we do not know what just happened. we do not know what it is unfolding. we have a team there on the ground. we heard those noises and we saw them rushed the

former president to the ground. it is hard in these moments to speculate. you don't want to do that. but that is a scary moment to watch unfold it is a church likely scary moment and we have been moving toward a sort of political system in which threats of violence have become more common, really at every level of government from the local school boards and ron, i want to hold on one second. i am getting some new information. we're being told me the former president is being let off stage and we are we are monitoring this. we're trying to get a better handle on exactly what's happening before we go back to those live pictures. but please continue your thought. we know that he is being let off stage i was going to say you know what we saw, what we've seen, you know what everything from fights over school libraries to covid restrictions to january 6 a political environment in which a violence, threats of violence have become much more common

and more of not exclusively more of them i'm from the right. >> yeah ron ron, we're just getting some pictures in we're getting some live pictures and i want to tell people what they're looking at. >> we're told president trump is in this vehicle that is being led away. we saw men, we are seeing people right now to your left that are in military garb. you see the secret service agents there that are running again, we are watching trump's vehicle being driven away from this rally in butler pennsylvania. he had been on the stage for maybe five minutes when we heard noises. we don't know what they were. he was rushed to the ground. they have now taken him off stage. he is being driven away in his vehicle, which we are not seeing now, you're now looking at the crowd there in butler, pennsylvania. this was the rally that former president trump was having. we know that the secret service rushed him off stage, put him into that armored vehicle. that you are

now watching speed away? from butler, pennsylvania. so they clearly felt the need to get him out of there. he has now been taken away from that site in the secret service vehicles. he was rushed off the stage you see that the crowd there also looks confused as to what is going on and he members of the we saw what looked to be members of the military at one point. you see them there on the far right with camouflage on. again, if you're just tuning in, you're looking at live pictures from butler, pennsylvania where the former president donald trump has been brushed off the stage during his rally. after he had been speaking for several minutes. and we heard loud noises, secret service, rushed him to the ground and have put him into the car he is now being rushed to an undisclosed we're going to we are going to show you that moment. so i'm now

going to show you the moment that just happened when the former president was speaking at his rally, let's watch that video look what happened so what you are watching is video from just a few moments ago when former president donald trump was onstage at his rally and you see the secret service who are surrounding him you see how they got him to the ground and that they were waiting to move him after we heard those noises. we don't know what those noises worth at this point. we do know that they get him off this stage and that the former president was in his armored vehicle. they have now left the site of that incident. so the former president donald

trump no longer there at that rally site in butler, pennsylvania i'm going to let you watch more to see this full thing unfold. you see they move him off the stage he is standing up it's unclear. what his status is, but you see him put his fist up and you see him doing a fist pump. it appears like he's saying fight it looks as if there might be blood on his ear again these are pictures we are just seeing for the first time right now. as the former president is led off the stage in butler, pennsylvania. after we heard loud noises and he was rushed to the ground. and then you see the secret service around him getting him into his vehicle now, we do not know where he is gone we just know that he was

put into that car right there while you see his fist in the air? it does appear as if there is some blood on his ear unclear how that happened secret service get him into the vehicle and rush him off that site and get him out of there again, we don't know where the former president is at this exact moment, only that he was taken away from the rally site there in butler, pennsylvania. again, if you're just tuning in former president donald trump, was minutes into his rally there in pennsylvania. when we heard loud noises he was thrown to the ground by secret service agents who then rushed him in as you're watching now, to that car and drove him off-site our reporter, alayna treene, witness this all unfold. alayna, i think you're here with us. i want to go out to alayna so she can tell us more of what she saw from her vantage point. alayna hi,

jessica. yeah. so it's been a very chaotic couple of minutes a lot of tension right now out here so i was mentioned donald trump was on stage. it was just moments after he had walked onto the stage to deliver remarks. he was very briefly into that and so i'm going to show you behind me so around this area, somewhere off on that field over there is where we heard bunch of banging or cracking loud cracking noises at first i thought is that a is that fireworks? no idea what it was all of a sudden everyone started screaming on the other side of the rally, on the other side of the stage. a lot of steam went off back here behind that tractor over there. if you can see it. and all of a sudden you heard secret service security guards on the ground, everyone telling want to get down to move to move i actually he had to jump off this this riser right here. and when under the riser, so i didn't get to see everything that was happening as donald trump was being moved off this stage but clearly right now, everybody is

being evacuated from this rally venue. they are very angry. you can hear people in the crowd are, some people are crying some people are screaming people are very angry with what just happened. they're angry at the media. they're screaming at the media behind me very unclear exactly what happened. we know that donald trump, of course, left the venue immediately. he was escorted off the stage by secret service. we saw his motorcade quickly leave and drive off we don't have many answers right now. it's also my phones or jammed. i've been trying to see if i could contact some of donald trump's team, get any sort of update. there's no service signal right now, so we're all just trying to see what exactly is happening what is the state of the former president, how donald trump is doing, and what exactly happened here this he, alayna alina, can you hear me before we let you go? can you hear me? okay. okay. before we let you go, i can hear is anyone else they appear to be injured and does it appears like whatever

happened doesn't look like they think it's still a threat because people are still moving around that's right. >> it's not a threat a couple of minutes i don't even know how long about a minute. i would say that we were all on the ground that they had a sighting and people to get down after that, we were given an all clear i believe from secret service again, i was under the riser are hiding after we had heard those whatever that sound was, whether it was fireworks or whatnot. i don't want to try to speculate on what that noise was it does not appear from what i can tell that anyone was injured, but honestly can't say that completely accurately right now. we really do not have a lot of information at this time. but as i can see from my own vantage point here, looking at this stage a jazz i've been scanning the crowd. i haven't seen any stretchers. i haven't seen them bring in any sort of trucks, but again, we really don't know everyone is being evacuated and i think we will get some more answer soon as we continue to hear from the people on the ground and the people running the show. here tonight and butler. okay. >> alayna, we want you all to

be very careful. >> please find a secure place. we will check back in with you, but i'm very glad you all on the team there are okay. please be very careful. in the meantime, let's go to chief national affairs here's correspondent jeff zeleny, who is joining us. jeff before we start talking. i just for anyone that's just tuning in, i want to give them the headlines here, what they are looking at are live pictures coming out of butler, pennsylvania where some loud noises were heard. we don't know exactly what they were yet all we know is that former president donald trump was speaking. we heard the loud noises. he were several minutes into his speech. he dropped to the ground. secret service swarm the stage they lifted him back up. he put a fist in the air. he did appear to have blood coming from his ear. we now know that he was whisked away. he was put into one of those armored vehicles and whisked away. he has left that site. so that is the state of play. there are a lot of questions right now, jeff, it

was a very it's a scary thing to watch unfold. there's a lot of unknown as alayna was just laying out for us nobody quite knows exactly what happened. yet. but jeff, in a moment like this it just kind of it scares everyone that was there and it is, it is a hard thing to kind of take in and watch unfold, not knowing exactly what's happened yet jessica, it absolutely is. and let's go through what we do know. we do know that former president donald trump, as you said, as in butler, pennsylvania, it's about 30 minutes or so a little bit more than that from pittsburgh of course, pennsylvania, a key swing-state. so this rally was supposed to be really kind of a launching pad to the republican convention next week, it's very near ohio where jd vance, of course, is a senator. so there's been a lot of speculation. he is one of the running mates, but when you attend a trump rally, as both you and i have many times, he is the former president, so he

has as much security details. the u.s. secret service screens everyone going into these valleys at least that is the protocol. of course, we will learn much more once we once this develops, but you can't just arrive at a trump rally and watch. you are screened as though you were going to any type of an official event? so you can see there the crowd has cleared as alayna was reporting, it does not appear to still be inactive incident. you can see the officers there putting the crime tape. those are local officers, but this will be under the control of the u.s. says secret service. they travel with the former president. he has a protective detail, just like a sitting president or a former president is slightly smaller than a sitting president so we do not know the details of the former president's injuries. the extent of them we are reaching out to his team, but many of them are on the ground with him there as you can imagine, how chaotic this scene is, you can see the officers there urging the crowd to leave, but this

was supposed to be a marquee rally sending him off into the republican convention. it's one of the really brighter spots of this trump campaign. the republican convention was a celebratory moment here this now will change that. considerably. so as we check more from our sort versus and colleagues on the ground there, this is an epic moment, a tragedy we will hope it does not extend more than that here, but certainly this goes beyond any political tensions in this country. >> yeah, it certainly does. and jeff, i want to play the video for for everyone to watch the moment. so let's go ahead and queue that video. let's, let's show everyone this was donald trump being left flood off the stage. you see he does appear to have some blood there on his right ear he is being held up by secret service officers there. as jeff mentioned we

don't know how injured he was or is. we do know that he was put into that vehicle and driven away and jeff, again, alayna was describing alayna treene, who is on the scene there in butler who was covering this rally, was describing these loud popping sounds that came from one side and then kind of some steam or something else that came from the other side there. but what was interesting is that nobody else in the crowd at this moment, again seemed to be under threat once they moved. the former president out of there, they were kind of all escorted out by law enforcement and jessica just looking at these pictures, you can see the counter assault and terrorism team. >> they cat team as it's known, those are those are those men and women with large guns. they were in this seeing there, but here they are coming rushing on right now. that right is the cat team and they are going toward the crowd, obviously, the other officers

who were there the agent right there, the woman on screen as she is part of the protective detail. so they're all armed. they have vests, but it's it's interesting to just watch this seen as it, as it flees. there's no there would be an ambulance there. the former president has an ambulance everywhere he travels, certainly to these rallies where they're clearly trying to get him out in his bulletproof replica beast which, is what the president has. but the secret service is certainly in charge of that. but looking at the at the movements of those officers and agents, you can certainly tell the terror of the scene. >> there's a real sense of urgency and as these things do we're going to go back to the live pictures now. so now we're shifting again. now you're looking live. so that was on tape. now you're looking live as these things often do, jeff, they happen very quickly and without context and look, we're just moments ago. this was minutes ago. it's now very empty there you see what

appears to be local law enforcement there. i would imagine those are state troopers but you have to think that the investigation into what is actually what actually happened to your has already begun and that they are trying to figure out what exactly happened and also in the meantime, we are working to figure out the status of former president donald trump and any injuries that he did sustain with all of this. i want to jeff stay with us. i want to go now to priscilla priscilla alvarez, who i believe is at the white house at this point priscilla, are you learning any what new information are you learning? >> yeah. i just got the president of course, is not at the white house. he is at rehoboth, his delaware home. he was at church when this incident happened at the trump rally, when he departed church only moments ago, he was asked by reporters whether he had been briefed on what had occurred and his response was no, of course we can imagine that in the moments to come, he

will be briefed on the matter of the president's team often was very quickly in these situations and trying to understand what occurred on the ground here. now i have also reached out to sea good service to see if they have any additional information they can provide about the incident. but also about what is happening here at the white house. when i arrived just a few moments ago the security posture here at the white house had changed, but the crowds that are usually in front of the white house were moved away from the white house. i asked the secret service's, i was walking in whether this was related. we don't have the answer to that, but there has been a posture change here. of course, the president is not here. he's in rehoboth. we are working to try to get answers from secret service as to why anything changed here. and if they have information on the trump rally and we anticipate the white house will be briefing, if not already, the president about now what has occurred here. so we have lines out to try to get more information. but again, the president saying he was not briefed yet and here at the white house, that the posture

has changed and we're trying to get more clarity on that. >> okay. all right. priscilla alvarez. thank you so much. i want to go to ron brownstein, who's also standing by and ron we are getting some what's known as a port full report. so brazil reporters travel with the president and they report out for all of us. so one, just one person can be doing that job. this is what the pool report said. pool her to a series of loud explosions. explosions are loud bangs that the secret service went and immediately covered president trump, which is what we saw on our screen. pull heard residual bangs afterward. that's when the crowd started to duck for cover. agents grabbed trump, who was seen waving his fists in the air. we saw that on the video as well. they let the stage to the car and appear to have left the premises again, we do know that he is indeed left the premises at this point, we saw him hustled into that car by secret service agents ron, this is this is a very critical moment as jeff zeleny was alluded to this

changes a lot just in terms of having this incident happen it almost feels that, you know, we have been driving toward a place like this in american politics. >> as i said, we have had increasing threats of political violence from the grassroots all the way to the top i mean, this is horrific occurrence that kind of reflects the dangers of the road that we are on and where where american politics is taking us, the share of voters who say that violence is justified is above a trace limits and we certainly seen in january 6 than some of the other as i was saying, attacks that have come from the right. but we've also seen threats from the left and the general direction of american politics is toward a kind the level of antipathy that i

don't think we have seen at this level since the years before the civil war when violence was common and even in congress itself, when charles sumner was cain. so this is a moment that just like january 6 itself, this is a moment that shows because the danger of the road that we are on and kind of causes us all should cause us all to ask, is this the country we want to live in where we threats of violence even at up to this level at a presidential candidate, former president presumptive nominee is something that is becoming more common. i remember talking good to some of the counterterrorism experts in the trump administration after january 6, who worried that we were on a road towards something like the troubles in northern ireland where you had a steady backbeat of threats of political violence that become interwoven into our political life. and again, this shows the danger of the road that we are on and

it's not clear that the it's easy to get off of this road, but this is a reminder of just how ominous our political future could look if we continue going down the path that we're on all right. ron brownstein, thank you for being with us. i'm going to hand the special coverage now over to my colleague, wolf blitzer, who will carry on. wolf cnn breaking. news major breaking news. >> we're following right now. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. if you're just joining us the former president of the united states, donald trump, just moments ago, was evacuated from a rally in butler, pennsylvania, just north of pittsburgh. the former president was several minutes into his remarks when loud noises were heard this is the moment you can see it right now that hasn't happened. the u.s. secret service agents, the stage and got mr. trump down, covering him, physically, blocking him from view. when he

got up, he did appear to have blood on the side of his face near his ear. and was pumping his fist he appeared to be shouting, fight as agents let him off the stage. let's watch this once again take a look at what happened our whole host when you're ready on, you well

good to know very, very scary. look at that. then you could see him raising his right hand towards his ear and looked like something was going going on over there. are alayna treene is on the scene for us right now. i want to bring her in give our viewers a sense of what you saw what you heard alina well, wolf and i apologize. secret service has just come up behind us to say that they're trying to remove us because this is now an active crime scene. but luck when i was i was standing here on the stage. i was watching, you know, donald trump has just a few minutes into his speech to the right where i'm pointing behind me to the right of this stage. we could heard a very loud bangs from we're not really sure far but from far away. i did not know what it was when it happened donald trump immediately dropped to the ground. you could hear the screams, you could hear the chaos. i ended up going

underneath the riser, so i didn't get to see everything as it was playing out and i apologize while we are having secret service now, trying to escort us out. so i'm going to change gears and just give you a sense of what they've done in here. they've immediately cleared people out around the stage. they have put caution tape. they are telling us that this is now an active crime scene. they're making us move dona immediately was escorted off the stage. as i said as soon as they figured out what what's going on and got into his motorcade and they've taken them to another location. i'm texting many of donald trump's most senior advisors trying to figure out what his condition is like where he is going. i've not been able to hear back from them some of his advisers are on the ground in milwaukee. those of them have said that they're trying to get answers as well. so i will bring you more when we can. we have to move now. unfortunately well, for being pushed out by secret service. >> yeah. listen to the secret service right now. this is obviously a very, very delicate, very sensitive moment in american history right now. we're watching the former president united states, donald trump at a rally in butler, pennsylvania, just a little

while ago. you can see he raised his right hand towards the side of his face and then you can see there's some blood near his ear. we're watching all of this very, very closely indeed, let's show that video one more time from the beginning. so everyone can get a sense of what unfolded. watch this look what happened well, you're writing on, you good to

know you can hear people screaming, you can hear people saying get down, get down, get down. obviously a very, very dangerous, very sensitive moment. indeed, the former us secret service agent, jonathan wackrow, is joining us right now. jonathan, you've watched the video, you saw the secret service agents rushed to the podium. there russia up, tell everybody to get down. what's your sense? what unfolded i'm not hearing jonathan wackrow. let's see if we can get that connection up as quickly as possible. you see the law enforcement on the scene there. this is butler, pennsylvania, just north of pittsburgh where just moments ago, the former president united states was speaking at a campaign rally when all of a sudden, you good hear what sounded like shots. you can hear him raise his right hand, see him raise his

right hand and he goes to the ground. secret service comes up and they begin to escort him out of there as quickly as possible, but they're all deep on their knees, the deep on the ground, watching all of this unfold. i think we might have the former fbi i, deputy director andrew mccabe joining us right now, andrew, you there i am wolf. >> yeah. right. you tell us your sense of what unfolded right now, it looked i don't know if this is exactly what happened. it looked like something was hitting trump on the side of his face. i don't know if it was bullets or what. and all of a sudden he went it down, then we could see some blood near his ear. but what's your sense obviously, very tough situation to kind of parse through at this early moment with very little information. >> but from what you see on the video it's interesting to me that he is looking to his right and then he raises his right hand to his right ear, which we know from other photographs

that are appearing quickly online we later see bleeding as they're taking him away. so from that series of events. it appears is it's something possibly a gunshot who knows what else hit him from some area to his right. it almost seems like it would have to have come almost from behind or very hard angle to his right because you couldn't actually see what he was reacting too as it was that was decided his face that was turned away from the camera he clearly stands up, raises its fist as you're seeing now on the video as you're taking him away so it appears thank god, he's he's he seems to be okay. and and walking of his own power as he raises a fist in the air again, there obviously he's probably incredibly unbelievably intense

critical incident ease reacting in the moment pretty strongly there secret service appears to have reacted exactly the way they're supposed to. they immediately we take the principal in this case, of course, the former president put them on the ground and cover him with their own bodies with whatever they have to protect them. most of that podium and the area around it are specifically built up to resist this kind of attack. so it's provides a place to cover and protection for the president if he has to be taken to the ground immediately as you saw here so those things that we're clearly already in place seem to have this procedure seem to have worked as they are supposed to. now you can see those men in the dark uniforms with the long guns, rifles those are undoubtedly part of the secret service counter assault team that is their role when

there's ever any sort of an attack on the president, they immediately look for the attacker. they are looking to engage someone who might have a weapon, someone who might have a gun. that's what you probably see them doing as they walk across in front of the protected area, they're out there at great risk to themselves, but that's their goal, is to look for the shooter or the attacker in that moment. >> it sounded like when i heard i was watching it live on television andrew, and it sounded like a gunshot or two you can hit, you could hear a bang, you could hear something that sounded like a gunshot at an event like this and outdoor rally like this, where thousands of people gather under normal circumstances because wouldn't there be magnetometers that would allow people to get through magnetometers that could detect a weapon, a rifle, or a gun yeah sure even if it's hard for me to imagine again, we don't know what the what procedures

were in place for this specific event yet. i'm sure we will learn all those details as this story develops but it's really hard for me to imagine that they would have a former president in front of a large crowd a crowd of people who don't have it'd be identified ahead of time and don't submit to any sort of security clearance. so it's in it's really hard for me to imagine that you had let that sort of a crowd assemble that close to a former president without having to pass through a magnetometer first, because that's of course how you prevent guns from coming into these events. so again, many, many questions to be asked here. there will be a thorough investigation to understand exactly how if in fact somebody got in there with a weapon, how did they get in i think appropriately the secret service is treating this as a crime scene. they are going to go over every inch of this space. to try to reconstruct exactly what happened but right now, obviously the priority is to protect the former president, get him the medical treatment that he needs, get him to a place, a safe yeah

that's that's priority number one is to make sure he's going to be okay following this really scary incident in butler pennsylvania at this trump campaign rally that was just beginning as we saw what was unfolding, the former secret service agent jonathan wackrow is with us. i hope we've connected with you, jonathan i'm anxious to get your analysis of what you think happened. based on the video that we've been showing our viewers well wolf for the viewer, this is extremely shocking, right? >> like we don't see this level of attack towards any of our political leaders. or in this case the former president. but for the secret it service, you'd have to understand that this is something that they practice thousands and thousands of hours for this exact moment as we saw, everything was textbook in the way that they reacted they action to off of the sound of a threatened this case, what they perceived was you'll some sort of gunfire, coming from what is

believed to be the right of the former president. if you looked at the moment that you heard that the instance sound of what was believed to be gunfire, those secret service agents rushed in and did exactly what they are trained to do, which is to put maximum attention to the protectee in minimum attention to the problem, right. but that working shift that's around the president or the former president, they need to react very quickly, make him safe and the way that they're doing it is exactly what we saw. they put their bodies in-between the former president and the perceived threat. so they would actually absorb any secondary, you type of rounds that may come into the president. they do a rapid assessment that presidents on the ground, he has agents that are on top of them there quickly trying to assess his his his current state was he hit you? what is going on all the while they are getting information from agents that are outside of that inner circle. around what is going on, where is the perceived threat coming from? what is the

next course of action? we actually can hear some of the audio they obviously got some indication that they can move the president that is safe to move the president or the risk is minimized somehow, you heard them call out some of the some of the audio the commands out loud to each other. so they work in unison removing that the protectee in this case, the former president, off the x off of that attack location into a safer location, which in this case was the armored vehicle from there, the detail leader and other members of the secret service do another assessment of the president's health making sure that there's no immediate concern again, was he shot or is there any secondary wall is anything that they do not see visibly at that moment, they are going through that rapid assessment immediately while the motorcade is departing again, will i cannot stress this enough all of the actions that you see by the secret service are coordinated.

they think about this type of attack all the time. they know how to react. they have primary and secondary modes of transportation out of that site. there's calls being made around whether or not they need medical attention or they're going to go to a safe house or back to to an aircraft to depart the area so all of what you're seeing is very dynamic. but this is what the secret service does the best. and we just saw that happened live on television. >> you know, jonathan and we're showing our viewers once again the video and you could, if we get back, i want to just get back to the beginning when we the president the former president is still speaking and all of a sudden we hear some bangs. i want you to listen closely, jonathan, tell me if those were gunshots or something potentially something else. let me go back to the top of this video we'll hear the president, the former president is speaking, and then we'll hear some noise and then all of a sudden he raises his right hand to his to his ear at it looks like he's been shot, but we don't know that for sure. i

just want to point out that the secret service is now saving. he's saying he has been removed. he's in a vehicle going somewhere. he is safe. and that's good news that he's safe right now. but let's go back to the top of this, will hear the former president's speaking and then we'll hear some banging, banging noise. and you tell me jonathan, if these are gunshots? >> that's a. little bit all that chart that charts a couple of months old. and if you want to really see something, they said, take a look at what happened you can. >> hear people screaming and people shouting, get down, get down, get down. what it what was your assessment of the noise, the banging noise that we heard just before the former

president raised his right hand to his face and you could then see some blood near his ear. go ahead so wolf aiming, it certainly sounds like a gunfire, but let me put this into perspective of a secret service agent myself. >> i have stood on that stage. i know exactly what is going on through the minds of those agents that are there. they don't have the time to make that 100% determination. is this gunfire? where is it coming from what they know is that there's some sort of threat. they may not know exactly what it is, but they know that they need to react extremely quickly in fractions of a second count, you saw that the secret service agents came in, they pulled him down and they dove on top of them. that is the right call. right. we don't know what that primary sound was that could have been gunfire, but it could have also been something else. the moment that they perceive a threat, a threat to the life of the former president, they are going to react. and in this case, their reaction time and what they did could have potentially saved the

president's life this is an extremely dynamic situation. it's unpredictable. that's why you always see secret service agents very close by within arm's reach of the former president and the president or any type of protectee to be able to have this fraction of a second reaction time. one other note wolf, i want to say is some of the members of this detail specific? typically some of the people that we're watching on the screen react. i trained with them. i worked with them on the president's detail. i know them extremely well. they are the most competent agents that the secret service has they reacted perfectly. i trained with them. this is exactly what i trained with them on these types of events and they reacted near flawlessly got him into that vehicle or they're taking him away right now, the secret service saying that he is safe right now, and let's hope that his condition is good as well. we're watching this. this is historic, this is dramatic developments unfolding right now. a very quick question. andrew. huge crowd like that

won't these people who are going to be especially getting close to the former president united states, who is under constant secret service protection, won't they have to go through magnetometers first so that they could determine that there are any weapons being brought in yeah. will you would expect that that would be required to anyone who would attend a rally of this size, certainly anyone that would be in that kind of inner ring, the closest seats either in front of or behind the president to come down so i can't stay view what the actual rules were in place for this rally will find that out later. but the magnetometers or the only way to ensure that this large group of people who you do not know, who people who've not been subjected to any sort of background screening or anything like that magnetometers. the only way to ensure that they don't have weapons, that they don't bring dangerous implements into that the into that rally and i can speak with my own personal history. >> i spent seven years as the

white house correspondent and i know that anytime i or any other journalists or any members of the public would get close to the president of the united states or a former president of the united states, they would be checked to make sure there were no they would have to go through a metal detectors to make sure that there were no weapons or anything like that. the secret service job is to protect a president or a former president for that matter, as well. andrew mccabe. thank you very much. jonathan wackrow, both of you, please stand by. we're going to continue our special coverage right now. once again, the secret service saying the president, former president, is safe. you saw him removed quickly by secret service agents there you see video of that once again, they lifted him up. he had gone down on the ground and lifted them up. and as they're taking him away and their surrounding him as they are right now you see the former president raising yes, sent trying to send the signal that he's okay and moving on, but this is a really, really serious moment right now that

we're watching unfold and they take him carefully, slowly surround him as they always do, secret service agents surrounding the former president as they take him to a vehicle and he'll be driven away the place that is safe and removed from this scene. but that entire scene is a crime scene right now, potentially at least. and that's why people are behaving the way they are in the secret service is behaving the way they are as well, including the journalists who are there are being told to move away because this is a crime we've seen that is about to be investigated even as the former president is getting into that vehicle, is raising his fist, trying to send a signal to his supporters there to others that he's okay. we're watching all of this very, very closely. our senior political commentator, david urban, is joining us right now. david, i understand you actually spoke with someone at this rally ollie and butler, pennsylvania, just north of and he was in a front row when all of this is unfolding, what did you learn well, so, so david

mccormick my good friend who's running for the senate, was there with the president. >> i'm in milwaukee wolf. i was on the floor of the convention center. we get ready, cleared for secret service sweeping here interestingly, when the news came out with dave mccormick was in the front row president trump said to dave mccormick, come up here on stage, will get you up here in a minute. and mccormick said at that point in time, right after he said that he heard a few pops off, his day was sitting in the front row so off to his left presidents write heard a few pops sound like a small caliber weapon or firecrackers almost. he saw a sharp drop down. mccormick says he believes that the gentleman was shot in the head behind him. in the second row. you believe there's some other people may have been injured. we dropped to the ground. and when he got up, the secret service run, everybody we're scattering and so he was as close as you can get and i was completely shocked by it and obviously praying for the president and praying for our

country at this point in time. >> yeah really scary. scary stuff indeed, watching all of this live on television. and there you see a video of the former president being taken removed by secret service agents from the stage over there, butler pennsylvania, and take into a vehicle to be escorted someplace. we don't know where so. the secret service is saying the former president is safe. and that is good news. we're watching all of this very, very closely. anything else you were told that david urban by, you know, it was there in the front row yes wolf? nothing. nothing other than that from date, but i can tell you from having run probably close to 50 of those rallies myself and 16 and in 20 right during the event, during the campaign in pennsylvania, there are magnetometers all over the place, right? so the notion that somehow somebody who is able to get a firearm in there, it's just it's beyond me because there's as much security there is there's going into any event where the president or former president

is. and so it'll be interesting to see what comes out of that. but again, everyone is praying for those others that may be injured, not just not just former president trump yes. this is really scary stuff indeed, as we're watching all of this unfold and we'll see what happens. the former president is fine according to a spokesperson, he is being checked at a local nearby medical facility right now to make sure everything is good, but you could see you could see he raised his right hand to his face as we heard what sounded like gunshots, but we don't know that for sure. sounded like gunshots in the area. and then we saw some blood near his ear on the side of his face where he had raised his hand. it's pretty scary stuff. indeed jonathan wackrow. anything else you want to add to what we're learning yet? >> well, right now, i mean, this is, this is, as you said, this is a crime scene. and the next the next phases of this

crime scene management, is that the secret service, which was the primary law enforcement entity in the coordination? the site security plan. they will maintain the site security and maintain items of evidentiary value. again, because this is a crime scene until the fbi comes in to take over the investigation. so the secret service, right now is acting as the interim federal presence until phil the criminal investigation process begins by the fbi. so the secret service takes on multiple roles in these dynamic situations. as i said before, their primary role, the working shift around the former president, their job is maximum the maximum to the protecting minimum to the problem. again, get the protest at the safe and away from this this threat can currently other agents that are at the site. there is a plan in place to ensure the scene safety. first of all, of the public that has been invited, and then also to

maintain items of evidentiary value because it is a crime scene where the fbi will then take over and they'll start processing the site. and in starting their investigation. third point i want to make wolf is the conversation around the magnetometers, a site like this, especially for not just a former president, but a current leading candidate for the republican they can nomination for the presidency. they would absolutely have magnetometers and a whole security apparatus established to prevent firearms from coming into the site. but the challenge with some of these open-air sites is you are still susceptible, susceptible for from law long-range threats from potentially a rifle i believe that we will hear from the secret service shortly that any type of incident that happened was not within the

security perimeter, but most likely occurred outside. this does seem like it was some sort of long-range incident that came from the right of the and we'll see more when the secret service starts to feel briefing the public presumably they will be making a statement soon about what their assessment is right now, what happened if there were in fact gunshots that hit the the former president on the right side of his face near his ear right now. >> it's a very, very serious situation that we're watching unfold that i said keeps saying history in the making right now. you don't often see this, but unfortunately you see it once in a while and it's pretty scary. every time you do, i want to bring in our senior medical correspondent and trauma neurosurgeon, dr. sanjay gupta, who's with us right now. sanjay. what's your analysis? we all saw the former president speak >> speaking all of a sudden, we heard some