in action tonight. we appreciate you breaking it down as we understand what goes on behind these pictures and how it plays out in pennsylvania. thank you. we will hopefully be able to come back to you shortly. we are on the air with rolling breaking coverage, covering the shooting at donald trump's pennsylvania rally. months old. if you want to really see something, take a look at what happened. [ sound of gunfire ] >> get down, get down, get down.

>> move! move! >> clear! clear! come on.

>> usa, usa, usa, usa, usa, usa.

>> and that is the point he has put in the care and taken to a medical facility. here is what we know right now. the gunman fired a weapon from a high point outside of the perimeter of the rally. outside the secret service security area if you will. the shooter described as a male is dead. also a spectator who was attending the rally has been killed and two others were critically injured according to the secret service. >> the bottom line is the trump rally shooting should be condemned by everybody.

>> former president trump extended his condolences to the loved ones of the rally goer killed and the others who were injured. and he thanked law enforcement and first responders for their quick action. his campaign says he is fine. and has been checked out at a local medical center. his son don jr. weighed in saying his dad is in great spirits. his daughter ivanka wrote on social media thanking supporters for their love and prayers for her father and the other victims today's senseless violence. another important note, mr. trump says he looks forward to attending the republican convention in milwaukee this coming week. let's get right to nbc investigative correspondent tom who has more on the investigation. >> reporter: they have assumed the role of the lead law enforcement agency in the incidence involving former president donald trump that occurred earlier today in butler, pennsylvania. the statement goes onto say lester that special agents of the fbi pittsburgh field office

responded immediately to include crisis response team members and evidence response technicians. they say we will continue to support this investigation with the full resources of the fbi alongside our partners at the u.s. secret service in state and local law enforcement. they are asking anybody that might have information about what led up to the shooting and the shooting itself to call 1- 800-call fbi: that's the latest statement we received from the fib who has taken the lead on this. if there is going to be any sort of criminal prosecution to type up the warrants and get the information to continue to pursue this investigation as you and i have been talking about now for several hours. as far as what we know, we still do not yet have a name of the alleged shooter in this incident. the shooter based on images, video, and descriptions from law enforcement that we have seen appears to be if you were to look at the former president

head on from the video we have been looking at, appears to have been off to his right. and that the shooting was, we have been described to us as several hundred yards away. the shooter was on top of an elevated surface and was shot and killed by the united states secret service and law enforcement obviously rushed to where the shots were coming from. how many shots were specifically fired from the shooter and from the secret service or maybe other members of law enforcement, we just don't know. he has been described as a male. and that is really the only information that we have. his specific motives, background, somebody who law enforcement has ever been in contact with before, those are all questions we are asking and have been asking and are trying to get that to you of course as soon as possible. as far as where things go from here, there is obviously a convention involving this candidate starting in just a day plus time. and he is expected to address the rnc obviously on thursday

evening. he has a vice president pick to make. what would be a very busy time for the secret service as they pick up a vice president candidate that now only has to be so much more intense because of this obvious apparent assassination attempt on the former president. and the presumptive republican nominee. and so, this changes the game raddedly. the new york city police department beefing up their friends outside of the trump tower a couple of blocks from where you and i are sitting. where the former president has a residence. now he hasn't been staying there. his new residence is mar-a-lago in florida as you know. but they have beefed up out of an abundance of caution. no specific intelligence something would happen at trump tower but i think based on the events today you can see any of the trump properties where he has stayed, where he might stay to face an increased law enforcement presence until everybody figures out exactly what's going on here.

we have seen no indication that there are any other individuals involved. on the other hand, nobody so far has told us that there are no other individuals involved and that is obviously part of an active investigation. they do have images of this person. they have their body and so presumably, they have an identification as well. and so, we'll continue to track the specifics about this person. what may have led up to it and all the questions that we normally ask in some type of weapon used in this. and law enforcement i can tell you up and down the east coast tonight acutely aware of what happened today and following it very closely. and as you and i have discussed on numerous occasions in your exclusive interview with the fbi director, we are no doubt in a heightened threat environment. they have been very concerned about the idea of political based violence. obviously tonight it appears we have seen exactly that, lester. >> tom winter, our investigate producer with the latest.

thank you very much. we should note that we got word that president biden will be cutting short his delaware weekend and heading back to the white house. apparently as a result of all this. nbc's dasha burns is outside that trump rally. she was there when the shots rang out. earlier, we saw people, you were talking to people who were leaving the rally site. were any of them detained for questioning as witnesses of what they saw? >> yeah, one of the gentlemen we spoke with who was right next to the man who was shot and killed, he was just next to him a couple of yards away at the rally. he actually said he helped to carry his body out of the venue. he is an obgyn from pennsylvania. his name is joseph. we spoke to him earlier.

night has fallen in butler county. this parking lot that was just recently filled with thousands and thousands of cars, people who came here for a political rally never thinking something like this would happen here in butler county. a small rule area typically pretty quiet. now this lot is empty. and we did have a conversation with that man, joseph, who says he has been waiting to speak with secret service. we will follow up to see how that conversation went. but he had been planning on having that conversation. i want you to take a listen to some of this interview and some of what he heard. >> reporter: that is where i ran into a man named joseph. joseph, you weren't listening to the program here, but lester holt, nbc news, just reporting that one of the attendees has deceased. has died from injuries as a result of the shooting. joseph, you told me off camera that you may have witnessed this. and i'm so sorry to be talking to you in this tragic moment.

but can you describe what it is that you saw? >> i was attending the rally. i was in the bleachers far left of the podium where donald trump was speaking. i was there with friends. i heard several gunshots. the man beside me suffered a gunshot wound to the head. was instantly killed. fell to the bottom love the bleachers. another woman looked like she got hit in the forearm ore hand. and at that point in time, it was rather chaotic at that point because everyone, half the people were looking because they thought it was fireworks. i knew it was gunshots right away. my friend, you know, hit the deck. i was kind of looking around trying to see where the shots were coming from. seemed to me they were come behind the bleachers. the man got hit in the head from behind. he was killed instantly as far as i could tell. at that point, state police and a swat team showed, started

evacuating the bleachers and i helped carry the man out of the bleachers to a tent that was behind. >> and lester that is just one of several harrowing storying that we heard from eyewitnesses today. people of all ages talking about the children that they saw who they are so concerned about who obviously are going to live with this trauma for the rest of their lives. our own team, it was myself, my producer bianca, our camera man, our audio technician, henry, we were all there. we were all in the press pen when we heard those shots first wing out. all of us initially thinking this must be fireworks. there is no way this could happen here. we know how intense the security is around these events and then coming to realize the reality of the situation that it was in fact what we fear the most when we think about the divisive political environment that we are in right now. i spoke to another woman named

vanessa who was a few rows behind the former president. she witnessed him turn his head to point out a screen that was on the side of him where there was a chart showing immigration statistics. he turned to point at the moment that she saw that blood come out of his ear that we now know from his own truth social post was a bullet grazing his ear. she says if he hadn't turned his head at that very moment, things could have been very different for the former president. and the current republican candidate for president of the united states, lester. >> i think anybody who looks at that picture comes to the same conclusion, how close this was. thank you. rico emlore was at the trump rally. he said he saw someone get hit by gunfire and rushed to their side. he joins me on the phone. where were you in relation to

the president? >> i was 15 to 20 feet to the president's right. i spoke today with a few other friends of mine. we were speaking as well. >> as the shots rang out, did you identify them as shots right away? how did you react? >> so part of me thought they were fireworks. it was like a split mental thought because i'm like, oh. you can't have a gun or anything in this area because of the security measure that's are in place. it is impossible. so my brain says that's a firework going off. how did it get here? who knows. but it is something small. then i heard the second shot go off and i said these were split seconds. so i said that is a gun.

i got up. i yelled, everybody was getting down yelling get down. there was an individual hit in the head. >> i ran, i jumped over the barrier that was there. i ran into the bleachers. and there was a towel that people had. i took the towel and i pushed it against the deceased head

just to try to, all i could think about doing was help. but my efforts were in vain. >> yeah, rico, you went to what was supposed to be a rally. a fun thing for the party and candidate faithful and it turns to this. these things sometimes take a long time to sink in. to know how close you were to danger. but have you seen any of the video and just share with me your thoughts. >> my thoughts are for the ones lost tonight. in an act senseless and powerless all because of a feeling one would have against an individual. no one had to lose their lives. you have the freedom of speech, to assemble. you can go protest the fact

that president trump was there. okay. that's fine. but, to try to kill? to shoot into a crowd of thousands of people? i can't fathom that. my heart goes out to the families. it's unreal. >> when did you realize the former president had been shot? >> i didn't. secret service protected the president. >> so they surrounded him as they were supposed to do. >> they, yes. they did their job. my job was to get to the victim and to the people. that's what i felt my job was to do. >> are you attending the republican national convention this week? >> no. >> all right, well, rico, thank you so much.

>> unless, you know, they call me up and say we want you to attend, we'll fly you out here, i'm not attending. >> understood. listen, thank you for talking to us. i'm sorry you had to witness what you did. it's awful to hear. and thank you for taking the time. >> thank you. thank you very much. garrett haake covers former president trump and garrett, donald trump has posted tonight on truth social, he filled in a lot of the planks for us, give us a sense of what he wrote. >> reporter: that's right. while donald trump's campaign has been all but silent tonight, the candidate himself has been speaking out on truth social in which he describes the incident from his perspective talking about being up on stage saying he was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of his right ear. he says i knew immediately that something was wrong and immediately felt a bullet ripping through the skin. much bleeding took place so i realized then what had happened. the former president thanks law

enforcement and offers his condolences to the person who was killed at the rally. another who says he was badly injured. he talked about the idea he says it is incredible that an act like this can take place in his country and even he knew nothing about the shooter at the time. that has been the only communication we have gotten from donald trump directly. what more we have gotten has been pieced together from his son. he had spoken with his father and he was in good spirits and from a statement combined from the rnc, and from the trump campaign about the convention set to get underway in milwaukee on monday that you were just describes essentially saying that the convention will move forward and that donald trump looks forward to seeing people there, some 50,000 people expected to descend on milwaukee. that is most of what we know about the former president's condition right now. we have not, we have no indication that he has been

discharged from the hospital. no indication that he has returned to his plane or left the pennsylvania area. he had nothing on his official calendar tomorrow. we were not expecting to see him pop up anywhere on sunday. and on monday, obviously, with the convention getting understood way, we did expect to hear perhaps by some point early monday who his choice for vice presidential running mate was going to be. there had been a lot of speculation coming into this weekend. be thanks law announcement could have come at today's rally. the nomination of the vp and the nominee, the president, if you will, donald trump, is set to take place monday. we will have to know that name at some point. how that announcement goes forward in what capacity it goes forward. one of the thousands of political questions that are going to come out of this moment something unlike we have ever seen before in american

politics. one of his most senior campaign advisers who was with him at this rally in pennsylvania posted on social media recently. it is a bit of a preview of what we are going to hear and what we are hearing from the greater maga universe of trump supporters, he writes for years even today, activists, democratic donors and now even joe biden he alludes to a comment from the current president. made disgusting remarks of descriptions of shooting donald trump. it is high time they be held accountable for the best way is through the ballot box. at least the campaign manager and i suspect soon the greater campaign apparatus and republican party i think was going to take this moment to turn the language we have been using collectively about this campaign, the stakes of it, on its head. the temperature has to come

down. he says those on the left should be punished electorally for what happened to donald trump today. >> garrett, does the former president typically go home or does he sleep on the road when he is on these campaign trips? >> reporter: he almost never sleeps on the road. donald trump prefers to sleep at his own property. so depending where he is in the country, we often see him return to mar-a-lago in florida to his golf club in bed minister, new jersey or trump power in new york city or a trump property in a place like trump hotel property like in chicago or las vegas. it was our understanding he would be going back to the east coast, most likely his golf club in new jersey. from there, he would travel to milwaukee. whether that plan changes tonight, i think is an open question. all these properties are secured from the nypd. they are sending extra resources to trump tower. all of these properties secured by the secret service when

donald trump was president. i can't speak to which one are more secure than. but it is a private club. he live ins a separate portion of that when he is there. at bedminister, typically much fewer staff. much smaller footprint. less folks around. i would be speculating but you would probably want to be at one of the smaller locations less likely to go to a place like mar-a-lago where other folks are likely to be there tonight. >> all right, garrett haake, we appreciate it. thank you so much. our senior white house correspondent kelly o'donnell joins us with her latest reporting. we understand president biden is on the move this evening. >> reporter: it is unusual to see the president traveling very late at night but these circumstances have warranted that in his judgment. he will be leaving his delaware

residence and traveling back to the white house tonight. we expect that he will arrive here in washington after midnight. returning to the white house some time around 12:30 in the morning. this is a change in his schedule. it is absolutely as a result of the incident today. we heard from the president publicly in two forms already tonight, first a written statement, and then, as you were in the chair earlier when he spoke to the small group of reporters with him in delaware, known as the traveling press pool and he addressed the concerns about this incident and said that he was trying to reach former president trump to speak to him directly and personally by phone. they had not done so at that point. he described how he had been briefed by head of the secret service, secretary of homeland security and other officials including his home security adviser within the white house who would be steeped in the knowledge of any potential threats. the president saying he of course wants everyone across

the political spectrum throughout the country to stand against acts of political violence saying it cannot happen in america. should not happen in america. so with that as the backdrop, the president will be traveling back here tonight. we don't have specks about how his schedule might change further. he certainly had plenty of events coming up in the days ahead. so that will be kind of a piece by piece moment as they assess the status of the investigation. i expect the president would want to have additional briefings and by coming back to washington, he could speak directly with some of the officials who were based here. separately, i have been doing reporting that really began before this incident took place about changes coming at the secret service because of the trump candidacy. going from former president who has a certain level of secret service detail to the status of being the presumptive nominee.

that they had planned to increase the size of his protective detail and the teams around him because of the change in campaign pace and the necessities of travel. that certainly is bourn out by these awful events today. in addition, three plane loads of chartered aircraft, three planes carrying secret service personnel traveled yesterday from their various assignments to milwaukee for the convention where they were intended to go for a few purposes. also including the detail in waiting for the running mate selection depending on the choice made by the form president about who he will run with on the ticket. so preparing for that person's immediate family to be protected by secret service, adding another protectee in the severe of what the secret service does. so these are some of the moving

parts that are happening. big questions of course about how does the political calendar change because of that. what's happening with the investigative pieces, learning many more details about who has been harmed today. the innocent victims who have been caught up in this as well as a read medical status on the former president and any information that we can gain through our reporting with our law enforcement reporting colleagues about the suspected attempted assassin here. the gunman responsible. all of that unfolding on a saturday night in a steamy washington as we are trying to learn more details. for the president to be back here, that of course gives him easy access to convene meetings with his officials and we'll stay on it as there are additional developments. the secret service provided some details you have discussed at length tonight. having covered many trump rallies when he was president and when he was a candidate in the last cycle, these are such

well attended events. huge crowds often. and, covering events for the current president, president biden, where he is out on the campaign trail. the security always includes a lot of screening. that is why it was so notable we were able to report this gunman taken out and neutralized in the term of law enforcement by the secret service was outside that perimeter. many questions still to be explored. president biden will be returning tonight and we hope to have an update on whether he has reached the former president by phone. lester? >> all right, kelly, thanks. we will show you new video our team has obtained. it is disturbing. if you look at the blurred part of your screen, that appears to show the suspect's body at the scene of the shooting. the suspect was male, we also learned the suspect is dead. we have not confirmed his

identity yet. but this as you can see is an elevated position which would be consistent with what officials have been reporting that this shooter was operating from a higher ground if you will. in this case, a building of some sort. all of this, the investigation frankly is moving at a pretty good clip here. we are getting more information by the hour here. so we will continue to do that. i want to bring back retired atf special agent jim kavanaugh. what do you make of that video? >> well it is really surprising lester. one of the things that shocked me first in this event is when we learned that it was you know, a long rifle shot. we haven't seen long rifle attack on politicians really since the 60s . the last one i remember was dr. king in 68 and of course john f. kennedy. but they were rifle shots but every other attack. the attack on reagan, the two attacks on president ford.

the attack on george wallace when he was a candidate, they were all handguns and the reason is that since the 63 assassination of john kennedy, the secret service has always held the high ground. i was never on a secret service detail and i was on a number when i was an atf all those years where they didn't have command of all the high grouped. so i'm really shocked. i'm surprised. that the top of a building or a shed or barn a couple of hundred yards away was not already commanded by the secret service. it is very surprising to me. my question i want to find out is what was the garb of the killer. he killed a man at the rally and tried to kill president trump. what was he wearing? a tactical out fit that maybe some of the law enforcement members mistook that he was supposed to be there? >> when we played the tape, i

have noticed so you hear, kind of a rapid gunfire. the sounds in the background. and there's a pause. and then we hear another shot and people scream. i presume that other shot is when they took down the shooter. i'm making a presumption here. but it, too, sounded in the background. did you pick up on that as well? >> yes, i think you're right. it's the distance. it's the distance from the microphones. you know. the cat team, you'll see that the two agents walking around on the dais there, part of the secret service cat team, counter attack on terrorist team. they will have long rifles. you will see pictures on some feeds. two man teams. they are watching and they can

take the long shot. that was likely their response when they picked up a shooter. they're on the roof of the white house and all the high ground when ever a protectee is moving. and i think evy mentioned it earlier. that sometimes if they don't have enough members of the team, especially in campaign years, they will use state police swat. local swat team to get up there and do that. so i'm just really surprised there was a building that someone could get on within rifle range of a protect general ee. >> that is one of the many areas that will certainly come to light in the many hours. i want to go back to kelly o'donnell. we have been talking about president biden's statement earlier. you have an update on that. >> reporter: in just the few moments we have not been talking lester we have now been advised that president biden did reach former president trump by phone. they have now had a

conversation. president biden earlier in the evening had said he had attempted to reach him. likely during the time that the former president was undergoing whatever medical evaluation may be taking place. we now know from the white house they have spoken. and he has also spoken with the governor of pennsylvania and an official from butler county which is the location where this incident took place. so the president working the phones to make contact with his predecessor who is also his current rival. and to make that human connection while also reaching out to the local and state officials who are directly affected by this. we expect in a few minutes president biden will be departing from his home in delaware to make the trip back here to washington. he had said he wanted to make that connection. he has now done so. and tomorrow, we are told that he will also have once back here at the white house, an updated briefing on all of the

investigative pieces that between now and tomorrow, perhaps there will be some of those blanks filled in as the president will want to talk to his top officials who are working to try to identify more details about what happened. who was involved. what motivations or warnings if any might have been detected in advance. and what the next steps will be. so the e former president is on the move. david mccormick is the republican nominee for a senate seat in pennsylvania. he was at the rally in the front row there. sir, can you tell us how close you were to the president? >> yeah, good evening lester. i don't know. probably 20, 30 feet maybe? i was right to the right of president trump in the first row there. he came out and announced me and said hey, why don't you come up on the stage?

and i started to go on the stage. then he said no, i'll have you come up later. then within a minute or two, the shooting started. and you know, there were six or seven shots. and it was pretty clear right away. it was a gun. and people dropped. and obviously, the president went down and the secret service was on top of him and he eventually stood up and they were around him and you saw, you could see blood on him and you saw the fist come out in both defiance and reassurance of strength. and about the same time i recognized somebody behind me had been wounded. in the bleachers behind me. sadly it looked pretty severely wounded and the people in the bleachers next to him were trying to stop the bleeding but there was blood everywhere and i'm not sure if that was the person who is in intensive care

or the person who died. it was clear even though president trump had been knicked, that others were very seriously wounded. >> and it is not lost on you that had you accepted that invitation to go on stage, you, too, might have been in the line of fire. >> yeah. absolutely. and it was obvious there was an assassination attempt on the former president. really a scary moment. it was usa today. and a lot of energy. lottings of positive noise. people were in disbelief. very confusing for quite some time. >> what were you hear something our microphones picked up a lot of it but i'm curious, you

heard the shots. did the former president say anything at all? >> reporter: not that i heard. not that i heard. it was all moving in such a fast pace. a young boy next to me and his grandfather was the local sheriff. so the sheriff ran off to sort of deal with what was going on and he was very frightened. so people were processing it. i didn't hear anything that the president said. what was clear was that somebody was really hurt. the people were calling for medics and you know, getting emergency care. so it quickly went from the shooting to dealing with what has happened but also with the uncertainty, whether the shooting was done. at time i thought it was possible there were two shooters, not just one. because it felt like the sounds were coming from multiple directions so in these moments

like this, i had been an army guy earlier in my life. it is very hard to know exactly what is going on. so you have to kind of go slow so you don't misunderstand the situation. that's what i tried to do. process and keep my head down. >> are you attending the rnc this coming week? >> i am. >> and do you do that with some deal of trepidation? >> i'm still processing what i saw. but it was a public, i'm hoping to be a public official here as a candidate. one of the things you don't want your family to worry about is your safety. it is hard enough to be in political life but to think that your life may be at risk is something that i hadn't thought much about. but my family is certainly thinking about. all families of people that are in the public eye are saying

boy, this is a lot to ask. i think it is a moment that i hope we all step back political violence has no place in our country. it is not a party thing. it is absolutely un-american. dial down the temperature a little bit. there are universal shock and disgust this sort of thing could happen. thank you for talking to us. our investigative correspondent tom is back with us. you have new details on how the shooting took place. what can you tell us? >> we'll stay on this video for now. in this video we are looking at, at this kind of tan building with the light roof, what is blurred out there is what is believed to be the body

of the alleged shooter. to answer a question our question was asking before, it appears to me looking at this video without the blur, that he is wearing some sort of a camouflage type of pant. it is not clear to me whether they are wearing tactical gear or not. in a separate video we are examining that we believe to be accurate, it appears that the secret service counter sniper team. they are looking for people that might shoot at former president trump or whoever they are protecting on that day. and they would be in a position to shoot at that person. it appears they notice this individual looking in the general air what. a second or so after the initial shot was fired. it is not clear who fires first. that's a little bit of detail. according to our colleagues on nbcnews.com. you are looking at the location

where it appears the body was found. approximately where the stage is where the former president spoke today. and as they have done the math there, approximately 148 yards between those two locations. so you can get a sense of how all this went down. so that is what we know as far as the location of this and the geography. we understand now that christopher wray who is the fbi director has conducted a briefing of the national security counsel of the united states. he has briefed president biden and jake sullivan as well. so christopher wray now that the fbi has taken over this investigation there. the lead agency has briefed the president. national security adviser jake sullivan on the status of the investigation as best as the

fbi knows it at this point. so all of this is happening as we have been speaking here and looking at these videos and examining what has happened but obviously a clear picture. we are told by the secret service that rooftop was outside of their security perimeter. so anybody going to this event, the people in the rally in the foreground of the camera, in the background sitting behind trump that those individuals would have been screened and gone through magnetometers, making sure there was nothing on their person. certainly no weapons on their person. this shooting appears to have been outside that location. what happened leading up to this. obviously, continued questions, there are calls for congress for briefings from the secret service. that will take place in the

coming days. we will see where all this goes. trump has to make his vice president pick in the coming couple of days. that only ramps up how busy the secret service is. once trump is the nominee, he would normally get the full protection on top of what he gets as a former president while obviously now, we can assume that from here on out, trump will have protection in his rallies. we have to assume will change here almost immediately. >> that map was very helpful to offer us a little perspective. let me bring in on the telephone med melanie and brent hook. can you tell us what you saw and heard?

>> yeah, we were sitting there. we heard what sound like gunshots. then total chaos happened. i kind of looked to my right and i saw the individual who got shot in the bleachers. i saw his hat come off. and then we just started grabbing everybody around us and just got down in the bleachers. and just kind of hovered over everybody trying to protect everybody around us. and it was right beside us. >> as we see, there was a lot going on. the tactical teams were moving. the team moving around the former president. did now know what to do? how to protect yourself? >> yes and no. everything is happening so quick and you are not sure how many shooters there are and where they are at or anything. so you just kind of like i said

earlier, i just used my mother's instinct and grabbed the little girl behind her and covered her. you don't ever plan for anything like that. so you just kind of have to go with what you feel at the moment i guess. >> so you were in the bleachers behind where the former president was? >> we were off to his, like if he was facing forward, we were off to the right. in the same set of bleachers were the guy was shot. >> was this somebody you met or encountered? >> we may have talked to him in line coming in but didn't know him personally. no. >> we know this is a tough campaign right now. but did you ever imagine facing this sort of thing at a rally?

>> absolutely not. no. we are 100% trump supporters. this is our first rally we ever attended. we were not in the least bit worried about anything like that. so we just pray that he is okay and we pray for the families who suffered everything. my husband especially. he can kind of say his little point. but we don't know how this happened. like, there was so much police presence there and snipers and i don't know how that guy was able to do this. >> your husband brent? >> yeah. >> brent, you did go through the metal detectors and all that. did you feel safe going in? >> yeah. felt safe going into it. they double and triple check people. you know. from what i saw.

outside the perimeters, somebody told me 140 something yards or something like that. i think it was a lot more than that. i'm thinking. >> you are familiar, you had seen the building that the shooting may have taken place? >> the sniper, yeah. right where trump would have been. i watched them look over at that building. quite a bit. i didn't know what was going on. that's where it came from. >> glad you folks are well. thank you for sharing your story in your account with us tonight. jesse kirsch is outside the former president's home in mar- a-lago in florida. you have trump supporters showing up near his home throughout the evening expressing their support. >> reporter: that's right

lester and we have a crowd here now. we will cut to another camera angle and show you just on the other side of my camera lens, you can see there are some people gathering. people with trump campaign flags. american flags. people driving by, honking horns. for hours now, there have been people out here expressing their support for the former president. i do want to show you the former president's home. going to step off to the side. you can see red and blue lights on a police vehicle on the property. our team is seeing at least two police vehicles stationed on that property tonight. but what i can tell you from our producer who has been driving around the area, been in the area before, there does not appear to be any obvious demonstrateable up ramp of the security presence. that is only speaking to what we can visibly see. from our perspective out here, there does not appear to be an

obvious rampup of the physical security presence. this is not just the home of the former president. this is where his youngest child barron and his wife melania live. we do not have any guidance on their where abouts. either the formers first lady or barron trump. we don't know if they are at this property. i can tell you. the team has been out here for hours at this point. no motorcade that would suggest any movements on this property in this area at palm beach. >> all right, jesse kirsch, thank you very much. we want to go to garrett haake now. he covers former president trump. this is all happens on a presidential election lost on no one. >> we had over the last several weeks since the presidential debate, a situation which donald trump who likes the

spotlight of campaigning more than any other politician i have ever covered has almost entirely stayed out of it. all of the headlines the last two weeks have been about joe biden. and would he remain as the democratic nominee. we were starting to talk about donald trump again. the opening of his convention monday. he was going to have to name his vice presidential nominee. something that would pull the spotlight back to him. and a chance to introduce himself again to the country at the convention. one of the very few events that a candidate can ever fully control on their own during the heat of a presidential election. we find ourselves tonight, saturday night, probably bleeding well into sunday morning and the exact opposite situation. an assassination attempt. that is likely to up end the contours of this election, we know the president and the former president have spoken tonight in the aftermath of this and we know that the rnc according to the organizers and

the former president statement that appears in his name seems to indicate will go forward monday in some capacity. but what the speeches will be about. the contours of this campaign. nominee for a major party escorted off stage by secret service. covered in his own blood. there is so much shock and anger and sadness that we are in this place as a country. and we are in this place in july. all this all changes the next couple of months when we know the house of representatives if not the senate as well will be investigating this shooting and talking about it for weeks if not months. the motivations behind the shooter, we find out what they are. there is a butterfly effect

moment to have what happened in what is normally the doldrums. >> we are in july. garrett haake joins us at the convention center in milwaukee. i assume a lot of the delegates have already arrived and that word has circulated. what kind of reaction are we hearing there? >> reporter: there have been several committees a part of this convention that have been meeting here this weekend in the lead up to the formal festivities. it is monday night when the first prime time speakers will begin. of course, donald trump's family is expected to be here

as well. melania trump. ivanka, don jr. , eric. donald trump himself the presumptive republican nominee is set to take the stage this coming thursday night in prime time. the plans continue as they were initially said. in just a few hours before this apparent assassination took place, the speakers for this convention were announced. for the rnc here, there are delegates that will be coming here and filling up this arena. you have been watching the secret service on site beginning their initial sweeps here. there is a soft perimeter and a hard perimeter around the greater convention site in downtown milwaukee, wisconsin. this has been a convention now years in the making for this moment. last time there was a formal republican convention of this sort, of course, the 2000 convention happening at the heart of the pandemic. there was no crowd.

there were no mass delegations here. so for this event here, it is going to be moving on. i talked to two different delegates just a short time ago. one telling me that they believe this only increases the energy level here. and the intensity in the commitment to support the likes of donald trump, the former president, the presumptive republican nominee. >> let's go to national security analyst frank. and frank, the fbi has taken over the investigation. what does that mean in a practical sense? >> reporter: yeah, lester, this is mandated by regulation. it anticipates the unlikely event that the secret service would cover-up an event. so we expected the fbi to come take this over. it will be involved from high-

tech crime scene analysis. but more immediately, lester, all of the social media and computer devices of this shooter. his entire life history will be reconstructed rather rapidly. and the goal will be to see number one, was anyone else involved, was this part of a larger conspiracy. was there anything that could have been done to head this off or intervene? they will be looking at his weapon where it came from. was it purchased legally or not. was he trained as a sniper ever in his profession he may have held. what was his moment. i caution people don't draw conclusions, we don't know where this shooter really was coming from mentally. and that is where they will be going. one of the early things they need to rule out is terrorism. they need the rule out this wasn't part of an international terrorism plot. so lots of things on the fbi's

plate in the upcoming days and weeks. >> is this truly a national security issue? >> reporter: it clearly is. the world is watching here. they know we are all divided and polarized and we do tend to lean toward violence as a possible solution. this only makes things worse. not only internationally, but domestically this is our iconic democratic process. the party's whole conventions. they pick their nominees. the question, can we do that securely and safely? and you will see changes come monday in the planning around the rnc. so for example in the state of wisconsin, you are not supposed to preclude anyone from carrying a weapon, even in soft security zone in place for the free speech and designated protest areas of the convention.

i think those will get moved. there is also a parade route around the building for people who want to exercise free speech and assembly. that may be rethought. we are going to have to do things differently moving forward. and of course, the investigation of what went wrong here, why if as reported is true, why was this building the shooting was on outside the perimeter when it was within a sniper's range. we have to figure that out, too. >> does law enforcement look at the possibility that something like this could inspire others who may have harbored similar thoughts? >> absolutely. the copy cat thing here, we have seen it the last couple of years. with people kind of taking on fbi buildings. it doesn't end well for them. a man who tried to swing a weapon in provo, utah.

this thing begets more violence and revenge. if you have protest in milwaukee with people who are anti-trump. can you imagine people who think in their head, the answer is to seek revenge for today's event. maybe against those who are protesting against trump. this presents quite the challenge next week. >> as this investigation unfolds, you reminded us not to glom onto what we think might be a motive in this case. but connections outside the united states would turn this into a much different animal. >> it sure would. and look, the fbi director has been telling congress repeatedly now that there is strong indication of a potential for an international terror attack. he used language that it could look like the concert hall attack in moscow recently by isis k. the fbi arrested eight men who migrated over the

southern border who are affiliated with isis k. so you know, that is an ongoing concern. and the fbi will work quickly to try to put that angle to rest. >> and the digital trail we have seen that emerge in similar things. before. will that be the tell-all essentially? >> reporter: today people just vent all of their motives and frustrations online. and my guess is this will be the case here. we'll know pretty quickly even through family interviews as well as social media where this individual was coming from. >> we continue to get video from the aftermath. you see people wounded perhaps, or somehow otherwise injured there being treated in the confusion. the aftermath of all of this. still photos including ones like this that have certainly gone viral among many of donald trump's supporters. after he has survived what is an apparent assassination attempt in pennsylvania today

at a rally. this is the shot, the iconic shot now of the former president being whisked away to the safety of his vehicle. we are coming up the top of the hour, we will take a very brief pause for some of our stations to start their local coverage. for others, hallie jackson will pick up the coverage in just a moment. in just a moment. a shooting at donald trump's pennsylvania campaign rally. the former president has been hurt in an apparent assassination attempt. the secret service said that the president is safe and the shooter is dead.