i think the basics is it will be the basic. how did you do the advance. what security plan was put in place? the individuals that go out to do a security advance, it depends. we have this area in pennsylvania. they will send an agent out. called a side agent. they will do an assessment. where is the president going to go. am i indoors and outdoors. how many people are we looking at and they will set up that perimeter. where should that perimeter go. perimeter. where should that perimeter go. p they design it, how many mag nop tom teres do i need? they work with local and state officials to get the manpower they need. so they're going g to look at first the security plan that was put in place. was it a good, locked in security plan. then they're going to look at

what resources are asked of this agent. i can see them, congress and others, subpoenaing the correspondent between the agent obs the ground and headquarters, what are they asking for, did they get what they asked for. that's the second component. did the agent on the ground get what they asked for, did they get the manpower that they needed. then the next step's going to be what happened the day of the event. did everybody perform as they were supposed to perform? did countersnooiper do their job, what was missed? was it local police? it's so early to tell, because i know the finger pointing -- theg agency that has responsibility, yes, it is the u.s. secret service. the thing is, they t don't do it alone, and so they have other entities in place, local law enforcement, state police that also help them. so there will be an assessment there. did something happen there? it's going to be all these different layers, so the director's going to have to come

in prepared and ready but a they're going to be asking very hard questions. >> former secret service agent, we're glad to have your expertise here on a night like this when there have been many fast moving development, and again, just to remind folks where we stand now, you are looking, of course, at that image now seen around the world of the former president raising his fist after having been shot by a bullet that he says pierced his right ear in an assassination attempt. the investigation ongoing. the suspected shooterat dead ass one other rally goer, one person who had simply showed up to this rally in butler county, pennsylvania. two other people attending were badly hurt. i want to go to garrett now. garrett, after this moment we expect, of course, to hear at some point from the former president himself, that will bei extraordinarily notable when he does choose to come in front of a camera to speak. and then after that, the republican convention in milwaukee just a day and a half

away. >> it's striking, the next time we -- by the u.s. secret service now in the spotlight across the country and across the world byc how the event tonight could happen. we spent the last two weeks talking about an unprecedented moment in democratic politics,ic we're now there for the reps. >> garrett hague, thank you very much. that concludes our nbc news special report. we're going to have seamless coverage picking up right now on our streaming network nbc news now, as well as on msnbc, online at msnbc.com, and we're preparing for a special edition of the today show tomorrow morning. for all of us here at nbc news, thank you for watching, i'm hallie jackson. we'll see you tomorrow. this is an nbc news special

report. here's kris. >> hello, i'm bringing youew continuing breaking newsne coverage of the assassination attempt on former president donald trump at a rally in pennsylvania. nbc has learned the shooter has been tentatively identified. senior law enforcement officials say the gunman was a 20-year-old man from pennsylvania. secret service killed the suspect at the scene. >> not currently have identified motive, although our investigators are working tirelessly to attempt to identify what that motive was. >> at this time we have no reason to believe that there is any other existing threat out there. >> that was fromr a briefing jt a short time ago. here's what we do know, donald trump was injured in the right ear when the gunman opened fire on the stage in butler, pennsylvania. in a statement, he said he was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper right part of his right ear, describing a whizzing sound and hearing shots.

two rally attendees were critically wounded. pennsylvania's governor says trump has left the area where the shooting occurred, and trump's campaign says he looks forward to joining the rnc convention in milwaukee tomorrow. president biden has spokenau to mr. trump and has left delaware a day early. he is now back at the white house. mr. biden will receive ann updated briefing on the investigation in the morning. let's bring in dasha burn, who is in butler, pennsylvania, and dasha, i can only imagine the chaos that ensued. it is still a crime scene there around the area where the shooting occurred, what can you tell us from on the scene right now? >> reporter: well, kris, you've covered shootings before, i've covered shootings before, unfortunately, as reporters info modern day america it has become not uncommon. however, what's different here, certainly for me and for our team, usually we are rushing to the scene in the aftermath.

in this case, our crew, henry, bianca, jake, we were all here. we witnessed those moments. i was just getting off camera. i was starting to walk down from the press riser, which is typically in the very center of these trump rallies, when i heard those pop, pop, pop, pop, pop sounds. my initial thoughts, this is fireworks, that's all this is. andl then started to realize ts might be something more. bianca and i, my producer, we took cover. we felt those moments alongside those thousands of people that were there as part of this rally. it wentth from confusion to fear to then, as we were still taking cover, hearing the crowd cheer, which we now know happened when the former president raised up his fist in the air in that image that has now become an iconic moment in this tragic day.

we then got back up on the riser and started reporting, startedrt giving a sense of the scene. the crowd was there for quitefo some time before security really started to usher everyone out. unless you were right front and center, it wasn't clear exactly what had happened, but kris, as we got ourselves to safety here, we've been talking for the last several hours -- we're in a parking lot right now outside of the venue, a parking lot that was filled with thousands and thousands of cars. now, of course, it's empty. we've been talked to eyewitnesss,w, people who were n that small area where they could see the former president get struck and where they could, unfortunately, some of the people i talked to, see the others who were injured and onen person who was killed. i spoke to a man named joseph who was just yards away from the gentleman who, unfortunately, took a fatal wound today. he actually helped carry him from the site.

he said it was horrific, graphic, awful to describe. a woman named vanessa was watching the former president as he pointed to a screen. typically it takes him a while to get into sort of the nitty-gritty of the issues. oddly enough, today he, very early on, had a chart put up on the screens to the left and right of him. a chart about illegalgh immigration in the united states. and he turned to point to one of those charts just as we now know was the moment when that bullet grazed his ear. vanessa, the woman who told me her account, she said if he had waited to move his head, if he hadn't moved his head at that very moment, that that bullet could have landed in a far more dangerous, potentially fatal place. at this point in time, we know that the former president was recently on his plane, or

getting off of his plane. his aide posted a photo of this on twitter. we can't confirm for certain where he was getting off his plane. i keep looking at my phone to ensure that -- that that's the latest that i have for you. another bit of reporting, the former president has authorizeds a gofundme page for the victims and the families of the victims who were injured or killed today. as we all are trying to come to terms with what we just witnessed and what that is going to mean for this country, for this election, for this campaign. of course, the republican national convention starting on monday, it's possible that that the first time we will hear from the former president, an event that in itself has been a security concern, has been an intensive security operation. all of that now heightened, of course, and so many of the

people that i've talked to today, kris, are beside themselves, are just shocked that our politics has come to this point where they were coming today to a campaignmi rally. they were exciteday to see the former president. the music was blasting. people were buying merchandise, eating food, and then suddenly this completely turned into something that none of c us when we go into these rallies, whenes we go through the intensive security procedure, none of us think is going to happen. and unfortunately, today it did, kris? >> you talked about the fact that you and i have covered many shootings, and certainly we have seen in the immediate seconds following a shooting, it is often confusion. people will freeze sometimes in a state of shock. you described hearing what you thought might be fireworks. i've heard other people say, ohh it sounded to me like a car. we even heard the president say, the former president, former president trump say it wasn't

really until he felt something on his ear and he knew that he was bleeding that he had a sense of what was really happening. but i wonder in terms of the politics of this, and the divisiveness in this country, if you're hearing from the people there what we're hearing from president biden through manyh politicians, through the editorial board of "the new york times", we have to figure out a way to have these conversations without it turning violent. wewi have to bring down the temperature. >> reporter: kris, it's really b been a mix. and one thing that took our team aback right in the aftermath, those moments where we weree getting back up on the press riser after hearing those shots, then those shots stopped and people just ran up to report the news as quickly as possible. some people were evacuating. some people were remaining in

position. there were, i would say, dozens of rally goers who came up to the press risers and started to scream at the press. started to blame us for what happened, feeling like the media was at fault for fanning the flames of division, and it got -- it got heated. and you can imagine emotions are absolutely heightened after something like this happens. there's still confusion. we didn't have any of the details confirmed that we have now, but that was a reaction from some of the people coming up to where we were on those press risers. and then as i was talking to people here in this parking lot as people were -- had a moment to come up for air to start to process what they just witnessed, i did hear a lot of people say this is devastating that, you know, the country has come to this place. we should come together. this isn't republican versusn democrat, this is an american

issue, political violence should not be something that happens on this country's soil. so a mix, but i do worry, kris, seeing that initial reaction from some of those people that some might want this to be a moment to come together and others might -- might not, kris. >> dasha burns, thank you for that. we really appreciate it. we know it's been a very difficult day for you as well. i want to bring in nbc news justice reporter ryan riley andr ryan chi. we mentioned the press conference that happened earlier. a couple of things i think are notable. one is they were unekwif kabl, they call it an assassination attempt. they say there is no reason to believe there's an existing threat. tell us what you're hearing and your headlines are from that press conference. >> really remarkable moment, of

course. we were inches away here from extreme tragedy. and this will be a marker in american history, and those images are going to stick with people who lived through it for a very, very long time. from what we heard from the fbih is that they have identified an early suspect. the name has not been publicly put out there. there's been a lot of work on the back end trying to run down some of the details about this individual. we know that he is a 20-year-old, what is publicly available, 20-year-old from the pennsylvania -- from pennsylvania itself. but they're not putting out a lot of info at this moment. what they are seeking is a lotis of -- any video that people have from that day. because they're going to be reconstructing this and seeing what went wrong. i think the big question to me is what form this report and this investigation by the fbi is going to take publicly. right? because we have a situation where a suspect is dead. there's not going to be a prosecution. this isn't going to end up in a court. so instead what we're going to

end up with is some sort of written product, and how that gets disseminated and the timeline for which that gets disseminated i think is an openn question here. if you remember a few years back there was an attempted -- or rather, there was a shooting of a congressional baseball practice that targeted republican members of congress. and the fbi investigated that, but because the suspect was dead, that really wasn't put out in a form that was satisfying to a lot of the victim os that have attempted shooting. so i think it's a real question how the fbi is ultimately going to put this product down and what the timeline is going to bt for that to answer a lot of the questions the public has right now. we've seen a ton of conspiracy theories bubbling up online. and of course, the quickest way to tamp those down is to get out as much information that is available as quickly as possible. so you know, when you withhold -- when information is withheld,

the longer it's withheld it can build up. i would say since the boston marathon bombing and then transformed to january 6th, the fbi has been better about collecting digital evidence. after the boston marathon bombing, a lot of people weren't making calls, they were sending in raw materials to the fbi to be able to put that together and really find out exactly what happened. the same thing after januaryt 6th. and especially, i would say, in the last three and a half years since that attack on the capitol on january 6th we've seen the fbi improve upon their collection of information. because even though, you know,ca there isn't a lot of mystery about who the shooter was, apparently, obviously that name isn't something we're reporting at this moment, but there doesn't appear to be a lot of mystery there. but i think the failures are really going to be something that is going to have to be reconstructed and what sort of accountability there is going to be within the secret service and how that's -- how that interplay is going to play out between the fbi and the secret service, kris? >> tell us again based on your

experience some of the things that those videos can help them determine. we can all say, anybody who's ever been to a trump rally or any rally from any presidential candidate in modern times, people have their phones up. i heard a number of people on our air who were there saying this is my first trump rally. they want to memorialize that. they're taking pictures. they're rolling video. donald trump is up there speaking. some of them were very close. what are the kinds of things that now this more sophisticated operation can look at and potentially find, even though as you point out rightly there doesn't seem to be much question about who the shooter was? >> reporter: you might end up with footage coming out down the line that actually just shows the full shooting down, right? if you look at somebody who was maybe on the right side of the stage had their camera pointed at the right space, just because they aren't on x or twitter or haven't posted to social media, maybe that's buried in their

camera roll somewhere. all of this footage can be valuable in some way. in this sort of event where there's not a lot of mystery, i think even then it can be valuable to tamp down conspiracy theories. but i really just don't know what sort of form it's ultimately going to come out. in i think we'll see a trickle of footage come out, even today, three and a half years after january 6th, we're still seeing new footage come out from that incident, most in the form of body camera footage that's often released through the courts. i think that, t you know, this s something, an event we're going to be learning about for a while. and the pieces will sort of continue to come together. but already we've gotten a good sense of, you know, where this took place as this reporting has all played out. the distance, you know, there's already been "the new york times" had a gunshot sound analysis that used the microphone from that and then had an expert come in and say this is about how far away the shot was. so there's incredible things open source researchers can do

and the fbi is catching up with in the 21st century to really piece this together and give a story about what exactly happened that day, kris. >> ryan riley, thank you so much. your experience is invaluable with this. also joining me now, retired special fbi agent gray, he is a distinguished lecturer at the university of new haven. thank you so much for joining us, where does this investigation go now? >> so, kris, there's going to be interviews of people people at the rally that may have seen something. there's going to be forensic evidence. after all, you've got more than just president trump being shot. so you have several other individuals that have to be processed. you have to do the deep dive on who the shooter was to include their social media to try to

figure out why the shooter didhe what he did do here tonight. and so there's a lot of moving parts. not only is it federal for the assassination attempt, but it's also the murder investigation and the shooting victims' investigation. so you have both the past state police and you have the fbi doing joint investigations. they will pair up agents along with troopers, and they'll go out and do these interviews to be able to cover both sides of the investigation. >> so since the suspect, obviously, has been killed, there will be no trial. there will be no formal charges made. but talk about some of the key questions that you have and you think the public should be able to have answered when they're doing these investigations. what are you looking -- what are the questions you're looking to have answers to? >> so the big question is why did the shooter do what he did.

why did he shoot at president trump. and hopefully they will be able to answer that question based upon social media or interviews of family members or interviews of colleagues or neighbors. but in addition to why the shooter did this, there is also questions about was there anybody else involved, was there anybody that assisted the shooter in conducting this operation. where did they get the weapon at. did they purchase it legally. things like that are also going to be pursued and pinned down in the course of the next weeks to months of investigative steps. >> do you think they'll be able to figure out with some degree of certainty how he was able to get access to the location where he was? >> yes. i w believe that already i've sn reports -- at least reports on x that there's a ladder on the side of the building and that he bear crawled across the top of

the building to get in position. >> there was some question about suspicious things that were in the area. that was actually something sometimes, as you know, in the immediate aftermath and you start looking at some social media, there's all sorts of conspiracy theories or random speculation, but officials did seem to indeed say they were looking at some of those specific things, the latter may be among them. >> it may very well be, though, to show that they are not involved in this particular matter. that is, you have suspicious objects you have to determine whether or not it's part of the threat. same thing with reports of people in the area. they may have been people that were acting suspiciously. they have to be run down and figure out whether or not they were involved in this incident or not. >> i'm also curious -- and i think you were probably listening to what ryan reilly had to say and one of the big questions he has is what form

any kind of final report may take. would you expect there to be a detailed final report that comes out of the fbi on this? or where do you think the investigations are going to be? we know already there have been some calls in congress for there to be investigations there. >> sure. as far as the fbi investigation, it's a joint investigation along with other federal agencies and the state police and the local, but i do expect to see some type of report come out from that investigation to inform the public about what happened at this event. this, you know, major event. but in addition to that, i think that we're going to be seeing a congressional inquiry about what happened, whether secret service was doing their job correctly and whether they had the resources they needed and if there was any gaps that they missed that they should have been tuned into. and also what -- how this

affects future rallies, future events like this. >> yeah, that's a key question, right? i mean, how difficult is it to stop a very determined individual in a situation where this is an uncontained location -- i guess that's what we would call an outdoor rally as opposed to an indoor rally when you also go through mags, but that location is secure as opposed to what we saw there today. how difficult is it to prevent against a very determined shooter? >> yeah, so the shooter in this case was shooting from about 150 yards away, but a sniper round can travel much further than that. and consequently, outdoor rallies are insecure by their very nature of being outdoors and the threat can be outside your secure area. inside the secure area, you can take great steps to ensure that nobody's bringing any weapons into that area, but outside the

perimeter is a different matter entirely, and i might add thatti while it was not part of this event, nonetheless, we are in a whole new realm of the potential threats of drones. so an outdoor rally like this, the next time it could be bomb drones being used. >> and finally, when you look at this overall, do you think that we'll get some answers fairly quickly? >> so, we will get some basic details very quickly. we'll know the name of the shooter by tomorrow. we'll know some of the results about maybe what was on social media within the -- tomorrow or maybe the next couple of days. asne far as the overall investigation, though, i think that's going to take weeks to months to come out. >> retired fbi special agent kenneth gray, we thank you so much for taking the time, especially so early in the morning. it's appreciated. joining me now, nbc news

reporter jesse kir sh outside mar-a-lago, home to former president trump, tell us what the scene has been like there. and i understand that there have been a number of trump supporter who is have come to mar-a-lago, at least in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. >> reporter: yeah, and kris, there were people outside of the former president's home for hours this evening. it appears everyone has left, but there were well over a dozen people, it appeared, out here. some of them carrying banners, the american flag, trump campaign flag, people driving by honking horn, and the overwhelming amount of people have been here in support of the former president. our team has been on the scene in some form since around 7:00 p.m. eastern time. that's several hours our team has been out here. what we can tell you is we have throughout this entire time not seen any substantial motorcade come or go from this facility. and that is speaking not just to the former president's movements but also that of his family. we know that his youngest child,

baron trump, lives here, as well as the former first lady melania trump. we don't know if they were travelling with the former president this evening, so we are trying to piece together among any number of things where the former first family is this evening. we know that the former first lady is fpted or at least i should say was expected before all these events transpired was expected to be at the rnc in milwaukee this upcoming week. so of course, we'll be taking a look at how the former first family's plans may be changing in the aftermath of all of this. but at this point, it is very quiet out here, and i can tell you from our producer juliette, who has spent a good amount of time in this area and has been around this property before, she tells me that there's no demonstrable difference in the physical, visible security presence out here this evening compared to a normal day. so best we can tell, the security situation here outside of mar-a-lago has not visibly changed in a noticeable way from before this incident transpired what is now yesterday evening,

kris. >> and no activity coming out of mar-a-lago that you have seen? >> reporter: nothing thatha woud rise to the level of us wondering if there's a motorcade. we have not seen caravans making their way out. there are multiple police vehicles on site. on the other side of the camera from where i am now there's ano police vehicle. we did at one point have someone coming out over here to check on the situation and actually asking for some lights to be moved around because they told us that they were blocking, you know, making it difficult for them to do their job protecting the property. so just speaks to there is definitely a visible, active security prerns out here from law enforcement agencies, but again, nothing that suggests to us, kris, that the former epresident or any members of his immediate family have been in a high level security caravan shuttled one way or the other in the area tonight. >> jesse, mar-a-lago for us, thank you very much.

28 minutes past the hour if you're just joining us. let's bring you up to date, because there was a press briefing tonight where we got new information. they are calling it an attempted assassination. nbc news has learned that the suspect is a male from pennsylvania who is 20 years20 old. they have not identified a motive yet, but there is a major investigation underway that is being led right now by the fbi. mr. trump was injured in his right ear, and in fact, the details of it, we first learned from him in a post on x where he wrote, i was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper right part of my ear. i knew immediately that something was wrong and that i heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. and here you see the moment that it happened. let's play that with sound so you can see and hear what

occurred. >> if you want to really see something sad, take a look at what happened -- >> get down, get down, get down, get down. >> where are we going? >> stairs, stairs, stairs, stairs. >> hold, hold, when you're ready, on you. >> ready. >> move, move. >> up. >> are you ready? ? >> shooter's down. >> are we good to move? >> we're clear. >> we're clear, we're clear. >> let's move, let's move, we're

clear. >> come on. >> let me get my shoes. >> i got you. >> let me get my shoes. >> we got to move to the bus. >> let me get my shoes. >> watch out. >> usa. usa. usa. usa. usa. usa. usa. usa. usa.

>> again, that is what transpired during the assassination attempt on the life of donald trump. joining me now is seniors national politics reporter john allen. john, a couple of things that we saw there. you can see the moment, first of all, where trump realizes that he's been hit. he puts his hand up to his ear and then he goes down. you also see in which are very classic donald trump moves as he is being taken out by the secret service, he stops a couple of times, even right before they put him in the suv to raise his fist and to acknowledge to the crowd that he seems to be okay. and then we learned that he is, indeed, okay. later on his campaign confirmedh that. but what do we know about donald trump right now, and what do we know about his plans over the

next several days? of course, we are less than 48 hours away from the republican national convention. >> most of what we know, kris, and what we've heard from him directly. the trump campaign has put out -- and this makes a lot of sense -- has put out notice to his staff to not, you know, to not talk to reporters basically. they're not authorized to do so. he gave that firsthand account of hearing the bullet whizzing, feeling it pierce through the upper right part of his ear. you know, we've been watching these harrowing images for hours now. obviously, his political instinct, you mentioned, to pump his fist, make sure he was waving to the crowd before he got into the suv. those instincts of a politician at odds with the instincts of the people who want to keep him protected. obviously, the secret service trying to physically cover his body when they move him, surrounding him. and you know, they have different, you know, sort of

different missions there. the secret service has one mission. trump as the politician havingne another. as far as what we know, you know, what his activity is going to be, you know, he's left the hospital in butler, pennsylvania. we know that he is going to beoi at the republican national convention this week. that has not changed. not entirely clear when we'll see him the first time, but het accepts the nomination of the republican party on thursday. and for now as we are with a lot of the details of the shooting and of the return fire and the killing of the suspect in this attempted assassination, you know, we are going to have to wait a little bit for some more details from the trump camp. >> if you t can hold on, we are just getting some new information. we've just learned that police are saying that the bomb squad is at the home of the suspected shooter. joining us now is carmen best, retired seattle police chief, and msnbc law enforcement analyst. it's good to see you. i should note that at that press

conference that we have been referencing, officials were asked about investigating suspicious packages, and i want to tell you what they said at that time. they saidy in this case there s identification of suspicious packages around where the shooter was. and so we deployed in an abundance of caution bomb assets to make sure that those were cleared for investigators to move safely in the area. now they are at the shooter's home. what will be the approach there, and what are your concerns? >>d yeah, thank you for having me. they're going to have the same concerns about any type of booby traps or other devices. it's been reported the suspect intentionally did not provide identification or have identification on him. so now that they have a location, they're going to have the same precautions that they're going to need to take about entering, about what other things, any type of devices ory

anything that might be there, because we simply don't know. we don't know the motive of the suspect at this point either. so all of those things, they can be slow and methodical at this point. i mean, the former president is as -- for all intents and purposes safe at this point. the initial scene is cleared so they can take their time to make sure they do everything with an abundance of caution. >> we are just getting some new information from our tom winter. a spokesperson for the fbi's pittsburgh field office, carmen, says they are now confirming the name of the shooter. the alleged shooter who attempted to assassinate former president donald trump, they identify him as thomas matthew crooks, bethel, pennsylvania. our reporting had him at 20 years old. -- to learn more, one thing we don't know is the motive, and also what will they be looking

for at his home? >> yeah, thisr question is fore i believe. >> yes, carmen. >> okay, yeah. they'll be looking for -- tom will report on this as well -- but they'll be looking for any information that will give them a clue as to what the motivemo was. they'll secure any cellphone, any computers, any written manifestos or anything that might be on the premises, that might be an indication of why the suspect went to this location and attempted to assassinate former president trump. so all of that will be of great concern to them. any information about family members -- obviously, they've probably already contacted some of them. any other associates, any other indication that this is not a lone act, that he may have been coordinating this with other people. they're going to try toey ascertain all of thatas information or anything they can

about that while at this suspect's residence. they are asking -- of bethel park, pennsylvania to let them know they're encouraged to submit photos or videos online. they can call 1-800-callfbi. how useful has this been as -- in this modern day? people not just to know him personally but may have had online interactions with him or who may have been at the rally, carmen? >> yeah, it's going to be a big indicator as to if anyone else was involved. the type of things -- even if it doesn't show that others were involved, it certainly helps in ascertaining what to look for for any other type of future event. obviously behavioral analysts and others will be looking at any information or anything that they can glean about why a

person would do this and how they planned it and how they even planned the location where they were at and how they ascertained -- how they got the weapon that had been used. so all of that is going to be very helpful moving forward in this circumstance. >> let me bring back ryan reilly. they were able tog put this id out fairly quickly at the press conference. they said they wanted to make 100% sure they talked about potentially running dna, buty they have confirmed it. you can say that with certainty, yes? >> yes, that's right. thomas matthew crooks, a 20-year-old from bethel park, pennsylvania, has been formally identified by the fbi as the suspected person who attempted an assassination on former president donald trump just hours ago. so now the j fbi has put that ne out there. but i think the big question is how the fbi's going to continue to put out information about this assassination attempt and how that interaction is going to

work between the fbi and the secret service, because really this is kind of almost a look at what went wrong with the secret service's protection detail here and the failures that sort of went into this. and i think, you know, you might end up with a situation where an inspector general gets involved in this investigation as well. and obviously, congress is going to be super interested, especially, you know, house republicans and, i think, democrats as well, obviously with the failures that are pretty clear here in terms of that sweeping of that roof, making sure that the roof that was that close to where donald trump was speaking and had that elevated position and was only really a couple football fields away, not even, from where he was speaking did not have coverage at that point and what went wrong and how they can fix this and prevent it from happening in the future. you could end up with situations

where there are different places where there's not a strategic advantage to be that far away. because i mean, this was inches away, really, from a really different outcome here, kris. >> a catastrophic outcome without a doubt. ryan, talk a little bit more -- and you touched on this -- but assuming there is a digital footprint, and it's very, very rare to find someone these day who is doesn't have one, the kinds of things they'll be looking forof and may be able to find through it. >> what's actually kind of remarkable is we've seen this unfortunate circumstance where people will try to do thesey fakes of -- suggest that someone else who actually isn't that person is that person, right? so there's all these attempts to try to trick and fool reporters, and that's sort of what we're working through right now. there's been a number of instagram handles, for example, that were changed to this name because that name had been out there on social media before the fbi formally confirmed it. and so people trying to trick reporters and say, oh, this was this person, there was one image

of one prominent individual who's sort of a right wing extremist that was being floated out there and saying, oh, here's this footage. people had put that image in other people's social media profiles. it requires a lot of work on the back end making sure we're being thorough about this before we put it out there. this is something you have to be really careful about. and unfortunately, in the world we're living in today, there's a lot of people trying to put out bad information. so we have to make sure this is vetted before we put it out to the public, which is sometimeswh why we take a pause on this reporting and make sure we're getting things out there and not putting misinformation out there to the general public. >> i also want to bring in nbc's erin mclaughlin in bed minister, new jersey. we don't know the exact whereabouts of former president trump right now, but the original plan was we thought perhaps he would be heading back to bed minister, new jersey, one of the places where he owns homes, but what is -- what's the

scene, as you have seen it tonight, around bed minister? >>ni reporter: about an hour ago his plane did land in newark, new jersey. there was that video showing former president trump deplaning under his own power, briefly waving, giving no statements. that was tweeted out on x by an aide. and we know here bed minister im about a half hour drive away. it is where he has the trump national golf course. earlier today, hours after the shooting. we saw a substantial security presence around the entrance of that golf course. about four police vehicles near the entrance, lights flashing. in the last hour or so we saw a number of security vehicles, including state security vehicles, exit down that way in

the opposite direction of the golf club followed by a number of private vehicles. so it is possible that he is staying there tonight. again, we do not know for sure his age. they're being very tight lipped in terms of his whereabouts. we know that he has been in contact with some of his children, including donald trump jr. donald trump jr. tweeting tonight that he's doing very well. >> thank you very much for that. appreciate that update. let me go back to you, ryan reilly, because it occurs to me that this is really the first assassination attempt that we've had in this era of social media, and the level of digital accessd if you want to go back to president kennedy, thenn assassination of martin luther king, rfk, the attempted as is ed assassination of ronald reagan. we were in a different media universe. the things we have today did not

exist then. how much faster does it make these investigations go? or as you were talking about before we went to erin, because of the fakes that can happen, because of the misinformation, is it always faster? >> well, whatfo the fbi can do n that case is cut through a lot of this, right? because it's not only just social media, it's everything, your entire digital footprint. any account he had on google, i'm assuming. there's probably somebody writing up an affidavit to try to get any information, look back at his entire history. this is someone who's 20 years old. he's lived his entire lifeiv online. there'll be photos from the day he was born until the day that he died. this is someone who was born this the year 2003, right? so we're not talking about that long of a time here. everything has been digital his entire life. what i wanted to point out, there's some new reporting that tom winter, our colleague at nbc, was able to confirm. take this for what you will, but

he is a registered republican. and we don't know -- you know, this is -- we don't know what was inside his mind. we don't know what we don't know yet, but we know on paper he was a registered republican. so youst know, this could, obviously, still be -- obviously, he was trying to shoot donald trump, shoot and kill donald trump, so this is clearly someone who had disdain for donald trump, but there are always surprising facts that come out in the course of reporting. we don't known if he's had a sudden shift, i think that's something that we're going to see play out over the coming days and the coming weeks as new reporting comes out, as our colleagues get to speak to a lot of people who grew up with, you know, work is already being done as law enforcement gets to speak with people who he's communicating with as all of these digital records become available. he's likely going to have a long paper trail. but on the other hand, you do have a lot of efforts to try to keep that information private. encryption is being increased, so sometimes you don't get the

full access that you would necessarily think you would to a lot of the raw materials. and that's been a frustration for law enforcement in recent years. there are ways to communicate with encrypted messages andpt messages disappearing very quickly, but at least overall i think this digital footprint will give usk a better picturef who this individual was and as a lot of this reporting plays out over the coming hours and the coming days finding out more about what was going on with this individual before this incident took place. >> thank you so much for thator ryan reilly. joining me now is senior national politics reporter jon allen, and jon, it is now, on the east coast at least, sunday morning. so it is now the eve of the republican national convention. there were hints that the former president was planning to announce his vice presidential running mate any time soon, potentially, again, tomorrow. tomorrow being monday. that might be the first time we

hear from former president trump after this assassination attempt is when he announces his vp. that's possible, right? >> it's certainly possible, kris. of course, we've heard from him already through social media but not directly since this attempt at his life. you know, donald trump has very infrequently disappeared from visibility, so you know, i wouldn't bank on that necessarily being the next time we see him, but it's certainly a possibility. he's going to have to name a vice presidential pick. our understanding is that there's a certain time on monday that he has to do it by, so we are very much in this window. and of course, you know, it's a very weighty decision he has in front of him. obviously, you know, the judgement that he makes in that decision is made all the more, if not all the more important, certainly all the more obvious that it is important by the events that transpired today. >> yeah, i should say we did

hear fairly quickly after the assassination attempt -- and i've been reading from part of this statement -- where former president trump tribes exactly what happened to him, but he also says i want to thank the united states secret service and all of law enforcement for the rapid response to the shooting that just took place in butler, pennsylvania. more importantly, i want to extend my condolences to theex family of the person at the rally who was killed and the family of another person that was badly injured. and we mentioned earlier in this hour that a gofundme page has been set up to help those families. but we also heard fairly quickly from president biden, who at the time was spending his weekend in delaware. here's part of what president biden had to say. >> look,ha there's no place in america for this kind of violence. it's sick. it's sick. it's one of the reasons why we have to unite this country. we cannot allow for this to be happening. we cannot be like this. we cannot condone this.

>> we're in uncharted territory, jon allen, aren't we? we don't know what the impact on this already difficult campaign will be. >> if you -- if you zoom out a little bit, the last six weeks or so have been unique in american politics. we thought what we had was a very static presidential race. in that time you've seen donald trump become the first former president convicted of crimes. you have seen joe biden's party, at least part of his party, turn against him. calls for him to leave, basically abandon the pendingab nomination to someone else. and you saw the supreme court essentially give wide immunity to presidents, which, you know, is clearly bearing on the court cases that have been pending for donald trump. all of this just in the last six weeks, and this assassination attempt -- and you made reference to some of them earlier in our history. you know, if you're not at least in your 40s -- i am -- you don't

remember the attempt on ronald reagan's life. you know, you can go back in history, i think 1968, robert f. kennedy. 1963, jfk. 1972, george wallace. you know, assassination attempts in a couple of those cases t successful assassination attempts. in the case of lawless, he was paralyzed. this is something that actually happened a fair number of times in american history, you know, dating back to andrew jackson. i'm not old enough to remember the attempt on jackson's life, but you know, we've had presidents killed. we've had candidates, you know, be targeted by assassins. and it usually happens in times of great tumult in our politics and great tension in our society. abraham lincoln, of course, you know, the tail end of the civil war in 1865, you know, the -- it's so sad, kris, and it's such

a statement on, you know, where politics is right now, and it's not that we've never been in a place like this before, but it's just -- it's horrifying. >> it is horrifying, and the intensity of all of the things that have happened in just the last six weeks that you've mentioned, jon, it boggles the mind. i think it's been very difficult. i thinki any of us who are in e business who speak to people s whether they're friends, family, or in the case of someone visible and on television who comes up to them, there's a lot of people out there who are finding this difficult to deal with. i want to go to shaquille brewster. he is near the suspect's home. we reported earlier that investigators were on the scene. shaq, i know you probably just arrived, but what are you able to see, and what can you tell us? >> reporter: we've been here for some time now, 30 minutes to an hour, and i can tell you we've seen law enforcement down this street. we believe the suspect's home is about three houses past the end

of this street here, and we've seen several different agencies here. we've seen the bomb squad. an agent came up to us and said they are planning to make entry into this home. he said that this is a preliminary investigation right now. he doesn't know what they'll, if anything, what or if anything they'll be able to pull out or retrieve from that home. but he said that would be happening imminently. we've also seen several different agencies here. we've seen the county here. we've seen the atf here as well. one atf agent walked back to his car with a long gun, with a rifle, and placed it in the car. it's not a tense scene by any stretch of the imagination here. i'll tell you that there have been some members of the community, some neighbors coming out looking to see what was going on. just seeing the tape and this perimeter that's been set up. but we do know, we believe the suspect's house is in this area. a perimeter has been set up by members of the law enforcement, and we've seen different agencies here on site. they told us they're expecting

to make entry into that home imminently. not sure when that will be,th kris. >> thank you, as you get more information, we'll come back to you, shaq. we appreciate it. joining meu, now, kenneth gray, now a distinguished lecturer of criminal justice department at the university of new haven. so let me ask you from your background to put us at that scene that the officials have been there for a while. the bomb squad is there. they haven't gone in yet. what are they looking for? what are they checking before they decide to make entry? >> hi, kris. so out of an abundance of caution, they're going to assume that the house is booby trapped, and that's why you have bomb techs there. and so the bomb techs will be the first ones as the s.w.a.t. team moves up towards the entrance of the residence, the bomb techs will be there to bebe able to check for potential booby traps. but once they get into the house and they clear the house, then

they will be doing a systematic search of the house. they will be seizing the computers and any type of digital media with the idea of processing that. not on the scene but back at their fbi office they'll be processing the computers. at the same time that this is going on, since they've identified the shooter, they will also be reaching out to all the different social media companies to freeze those accounts so that somebody doesn't go in there and try to take it down or try to change the accounts. >> so how -- how much has the digital age changed these kinds of investigations? how much of it gets done on scene? how much of it gets done back in a lab? >> yeah, absolutely. so everybody's walking around with a computer in their pocket. and so computers are routinely involved in any criminalvo activity. almost every investigation has

some type of digital media involved. it takes time to do digital media -- i'm sorry, it takes time to do forensic digital investigations. it doesn't have to be processed correctly, but you can get some early results out. and what they really want to doe is see whether or not this person has any type of communications showing that he is -- was engaged in a conversation about this event and see if he has any assistance by anyone else. but it is going to take time to do that processing. >> let me ask you about the shooter who's been identified by the fbi, thomas matthew crooks, 20 years old of bethel park, pennsylvania. we have learned through records, through voter registration records, that he is registered as a republican. beyond that and the location of where his home is, we know very little. what are the main questions you have about him? >> it must be a never trumper

then if he's a republican and yet he's shooting at donald trump, then he must be a never trumper. butbe you know, just because hes a registered republican that does not really tell you that much about this person. they are also very young, 20 years old, so this may in actuality be his first election that he was going to vote in. >> certainly his first presidential election, right? and in terms of, again, we've been talking about motive, what are the kinds of things, let's say if they're doing interviews with family or friends, what are investigators looking for? >> so this shooter posted a video where he says i hate republicans, i hate trump. so that doesn't really sound like a republican. he may be registered republican but not. but they're going to be talking to family members. they're going to be talking to associates. they're going to be talking to neighbors to try to put together who thomas matthew crooks is,

what he was all about, and they want to really drill down into what his motivation was. and so they want to flesh out the -- who this person is and actually figure out what his motive was based upon his personality, based upon his statements to others. >> let me ask you finally, because we've been showing the video once again of that terrifying moment and we see the former president duck down. we see all the people in the stands who begin to duck down. you can almost see the confusion in their body language. people are looking around trying to figure out what happened. i've said this before, we got various reports from people who thought it was a car back firing, who thought maybe it was fireworks. their first thought was not that somebody was shooting. and then it became clear when you see the security around the president move so quickly that something has gone very, very

wrong here. you also know, as someone who worked in this field, and anybody who is an investigator or a lawyer in court will tell you that eyewitnesss are often notoriously bad witnesses. has the fact that so many people have cameras and take videos changed that? >> absolutely. so wee really saw that with the boston bombing. with the boston bombing, they went in, they crowd sourced gathering up everybody's digital media. if anybody took photos, if they had any messages at the time, provide it to the fbi. the fbi went through that and was able to, through careful processing, identify the tsarnaev brothers as the ones responsible for that bombing. crowd sourcing information is a newd tool, something that had just recentlyw become something law enforcement is using. and so that definitely will be something that will be looked at

here. but again, going back to the purpose of that, the shooter is dead, so while that is something that'll be done, it's not going to be the primary focus on this. really the primary focus is trying to figure out who thomas matthew crooks is and why he did this act. >> kenneth gray, we really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us and sharing your expertise. we appreciate it, thank you. >> thank you. >> i'm kris bringing you continuing breaking news coverage of the assassination attempt on former president donald trump at a rally in pennsylvania. we've had several big developments in just the past hour. the fbi p has now identified thi shooter, 20-year-old thomas matthew crooks of bethel park, pennsylvania. voter records p show that crooks is registered as a republican. pennsylvania police say a bomb squad is now on the scene at the gunman's house. at a press conference a few

hours ago, authorities said they believe the shooter acted alone. d they believe the shooter acted alone. reason to believe there was any other existing threat out there. >> donald trump has left pennsylvania after being checked out at a local medical facility. he said the bullet pierced his right ear during the rally. you can see in some of the pictures the blood on his face.r an age shared a video trump ge exiting the plane a few moments ago. his campaign says he does plan to attend the rnc, the republican national convention in milwaukee tomorrow. president biden is at the whited house and left delaware a day early, and he is expected to receive an update a briefing on the investigation. let's bring a news correspondent george sirles susan butler pennsylvania with

the latest. get us up to speed pfor folks who may be joining us. what we know from investigators, from police officials who gave the press conference, but what happened where m you are. >> reporter: a very fluid seen. it's the sleepy hours in butler, pennsylvania. seven hours now since the assassination attempt occurred. things are fairly quiet. you have to wonder what people will wake up to tomorrow as they have time to process this.y upon setting up., very quickly, pennsylvania state police telling us from where we were w half a mile down the road, they told us we need to move immediately, seeking we were not safe. they didn't go into further detail so we have reset to a new location. what we see, some barricades around the entry to where the rally was held. what we could see before, part of the stage mockup, the

american flag in the backdrop. very harrowing when you see the people in the video that were in some cases, after shots were fired, what they were telling us to move from not entirely clear at this point. you did hear in the earlier press conference i believe the threat was news to relies. the scene not entirely clear. it will take some time. the guidance we were told before they can open the area backup. what we know as far as a victim from the press conference, all of them were men and they have not formally identified the victims. we know from eight trump campaign source that a gofundme authorized by the former president and organized by the national director, there is a page that is meant to benefit the victims of this tragedy. the description on the page reads former president trump has authorized this account as a place for donations to the supporters of families wounded or killed in the brutal

attempt. all donations will be directed to these proud americans as they grieve and recover. may god bless and unite our nation. we are the coded. a church is not far from where the rally was. you have to wonder what those conversations will be like tomorrow during the services, excuse me, this morning during the services is people have time to process. those who were in attendance, dasha burns heard from people who heard the shots and able to see the president ducked down. they saw the blood and saw the people that were wounded. the individual that was killed. a lot to process. we are still waiting for those names to come through and learn more about them. where they were in relation to where the shooting occurred. a lot of emotions, we expect to see a lot in this community as they have time to process. >> it's a devastating experience for one of the community. one of the people said they never could have imagined something like this happening

where they are. it was a person in first rally. a rural community in pennsylvania. i want to bring in justice reporter ryan reilly. i want to have you help us set the scene, if we can. you have donald trump who often does refer to things, but his dasha burns was pointing out, he got to the meat of it quicker than he normally would and he was talking about immigration and referring to show when tele had when those shots rang out. a number of charts, think about border crossings. what we know now is they are saying there was a building roughly 400 feet north of where the president was. 148 yards north of where the president was. essentially, the shooting came from behind, right? >> yeah. that would make sense because

he was turned a little bit so the bullet nixes here. you can see in the background this video we have at the moment. there's a returned fire scenario. counter fire scenario which is what took the suspect out of commission. you see a sniper, a service sniper who is lined up behind the president on another elevated location who is immediately returns fire from where that shooter who we know is thomas mathew crooks, the returning fire towards that position. this was pretty quick action and you can, see in the video the shooter, secret service shooter quickly react to that as soon as the shots sort of come running out. over the coming days, it will become closer together, and

especially because there's so many cameras as you see in the crowd. because the fbi is asking everyone to send in footage and we will see additional reporting and additional published on social media and provide that will put this picture together. you have so many people recording all around there. there might be a scenario where you can see the shots fired directly. it was a really shocking incident we have heard from so many witnesses and some of our own reporters including dasha about how frightening it was and how originally there was thought that maybe this was firecrackers. even the with the crowd reacts, it's amazing because i don't think many of them recognize fully what happened or maybe they didn't know he got hit. if you're not close enough to see in there's no screens blowing up what donald trump looked like at the moment. seeking the blood going across his face, then you might not

hopefully what had been happening. incredible, remarkable, and scary moment in american history and a moment of inches from this being really critical incident for trump. incredible that he was able to survive this by a matter of inches. >> what we do know is one person did die and two others were critically injured. the names have not been released yet. their families are nbeing notified. we also got word that representative ronnie jackson, republican congressman from texas put out a statement saying my nephew was injured at the trump rally in butler, pennsylvania. he was not one of those critically injured. he says, his injury was not serious and he's doing well. my family was sitting in the wa front near where the president e was speaking. they heard shots bringing up. my nephew then realized he had p blood on his neck and something had grazed and cut his neck. he was treated by the providers in the medical tent.

thanks to all who have reached out to check on him. the president and the survivors are lucky to be alive, making lu your point ryan reilly. there will be two paths in the investigation. i am talking about the fbi, the secret service, and other law enforcement put aside congress and the calls for investigation. in terms of law enforcement, simultaneously, they will be looking at, first of all, who this guy was and what was his motive. all the information they can c possibly gather on this 20-year- old, but also, gthe actions of the secret service and how this happened, right? >> yeah. one thing that comes to mind g covering the fbi a lot and the political attacks have been is we are in a scenario where we've had donald trump attacked the fbi and you've had a lot ofh republicans call for even

defunding the fbi. there's not a lot of trust in the fbi on the republican side. that is a huge shift from a few years ago. before 2016, the notion that democrats would have more trust in the fbi than republicans would seem out of left field and not even believable. that's the scenario we are in. not a lot of trust in the fbi and the right-wing side of the h aisle. that is where we sort of stand today. i put out the statement from the fbi how they were now the lead agency, to see the a rhetoric coming in, here's where the cover-up begins. transparency is probably going to be the fbi's friend in this scenario, and putting out information as quickly as they can and not withholding information when there's no he reason to. there's a big question of how exactly, what that logistically will look like as we discussed before, how are they going to put this out? what form of this investigation going to come out? and because

there will not be a trial, this is something that is a consideration on the table, typically the fbi is focused on making cases and building cases with the assistant u.s. attorneys and what evidence they can bring forward. that is not what this will be about. this will be looking at mistakes that were made in providing as much information to the public about what happened here. obviously, this is going to be a marker in american history. just with what has happened the past couple of years, including the january 6th attack, this is a remarkable few years in american history. >> without a doubt. joining his nbc news reporter jesse kirsch outside mar-a-lago and on any given day that's what the president might be in many members of his family and staff might be. as we know now, there was a rally today in butler, pennsylvania, and then,

beginning on monday, the republican national convention in milwaukee. what can you tell us from mar-a- lago tonight? >> all quiet out here right now. our team has been unseen for about seven hours now. throughout that time, we have not seen a single caravan or convoy of vehicles come or go that would suggest either the former president or member of his immediate family were being caravan to or from mar-a-lago. you mentioned it's, the former president and where his wife melania considers home and where his youngest child, parent trump, considers him. we do not know the whereabouts of those members of his immediate family tonight. we know the former first lady had been expected, i say had been, because this is from before this attempted assassination on the former president. she was expected to be at the rnc in milwaukee this upcoming week. we don't know if she was here in transit or in the rally with

the former president. we do not have those details, o but i can tell you we haven't seen anything to suggest they were coming or going from here with the secret service caravan no demonstrable convoys with lights flashing which we often see when there are movements of the first family are former first family. we have seen at various times throughout the evening, service supporters out here, upwards of a dozen at times. people holding trump campaign flakes, american flags, people honking their horns. the overwhelming majority hope and gathering have been in support for the former president. i can tell you we have not seen anything to be a demonstrable increase in the physical security presence out here. our producer who spent time here before and in the broader community so she has not seen anything that sticks out from a normal time period at mar-a-lago . by all accounts, the security presence visibly, i should

stress that because we don't know what's going on behind the gates but from the outside there doesn't appear to be anything that has increased security wise but we've seen police vehicles and will at one point there was someone from the secret service coming out. we know there are multiple agencies on the ground here ci which is to be expected at a main residence for a former president of the united states. >> thank you so much, josh josh jesse kirsch. in the wake in the top of trump's life at that rally, a chorus of calls to bring down the temperature in the country to end the divisiveness. in an op-ed released, "the new york times" writes acts of violence have long shattered american democracy, but they have loomed larger and darker late. the high-stakes presidential election is further straining the nation in commitment to the peaceful resolution of political differences. joining me, jonathan e alter, n contributor and columnists for the old goats newsletter. do we have jonathan?

>> i am here. >> there you are. it's good to see you. for a moment we had jon allen. listen, i want you to walk us through this moment because, even though we talk a lot about how divided this country is and the divisiveness and the rhetoric, how immune we seem to have become two things. it was notable and a lot of the people that i heard interviewed on our air, how nevertheless shocking this was. it is the attempted assassination of a former president. the presumptive nominee for the republican presidential race. i wonder if you can put this income -- in some context for us? >> the question is whether this is a kind of almost isolated incident. the kinds of incidents i would refer to in the past are the

twice in 1975, would be assassins got off shots at president ford. they missed each time. squeaky from who came from the charles manson cult was one of the would be assassins and a woman named sarah jane moore. they missed in the same way that he missed franklin roosevelt at a very dark time for the united states. february 1933. the same way that former president theodore roosevelt in 1912 when he was a third-party candidate for president, his bullet, the assassin's bullet struck theodore roosevelt but he went on to finish his speech even though he had a flesh wound in his chest. it's not not dominate the campaign which was won by woodrow wilson. that is one scenario, i

shouldn't say just because it's an important event. another campaign event that fortunately did not result in serious injury or death. the other scenario is that we are reentering a period of violence in our politics like that that we have between 1963 and 1981. in that period, in that period i just mentioned, you had john f. kennedy assassinated. robert f kennedy was assassinated. martin luther king was assassinated. george wallace was shot and crippled in 1972. you had these two incidents i mentioned with gerald ford and in 1981 attempted assassination of ronald reagan. the question is, will we as a society be able to put a lid on this?

is the proliferation of guns, we have more guns than people in this country, we have more of this in the days and weeks ahead? one of the key things in determining which way we go is the response of politicians. i was very concerned earlier this evening when i heard w senator vance blame this essentially before they even knew this would be assassin was, on democrats. that is the kind of talk we do not need now. we need to have everybody in both parties decrying violence telling their people to calm down and respect the peaceful traditions we have in this country. >> that was exactly the message we heard from a number of people whose own lives have been touched much more recently than the examples you gave by political violence. steve scalise for example who you will remember the congressman who was shot at a practice for a baseball game.

when i arrived on scene there, he had been taken to g.w. hospital and it wasn't clear if he was going to survive. it was touch and go for a while. gabby giffords, was there when she was shot in the parking lot. she was doing a constituent meeting. she was invery much touch and g and to this day is still dealing with the aftermath of what happened to her. then, nancy pelosi, whose husband was attacked inside their own home. i wonder what you think can be done to tamp down the rhetoric? is there a way to use this moment to close some of the divisions? i was looking at a democratic office jarrard moscowitz who called on the president to address the nation from the oval to bring the temperature down. could that help? >> i think it all helps. it's important for people to say this. i'm glad stephen scalise did

so. we don't want to have happen en for there to be a lot of finger- pointing. if you say that donald trump is a threat to democracy, you are partially responsible for this. that we cannot have. that does not help. we need to discourage people we from doing that. we don't know what was e going in the mind of this 20-year- old. the could be mental illness involved. we have tno idea. for people to be jumping to conclusions, even people on the left singing is a registered republican or people on the racing he made an anti-trump video. people need to chill on all of that on this instant political analysis and look at the bigger picture which is our whole system, everything about what makes the united states such a beacon for the world, begins with nonviolence. if you have a violent, unstable society, top of everything is,

you can't really do business in those places. everybody's daily life is eventually affected if we get into an era of real political violence. there is a possibility that things could go that way. we are on a bit of a knife's edge politically and culturally in this country. that is why everybody has to be there better selves in the aftermath of this, and they can go back as they will next week in milwaukee to more standard politics. >> his remarks after the shooting, president biden said there is no place in america for this type of violence. someone else who has lived it, rfk jr., talked about it tonight. >> i understand the implications that this has for our country and probably as well as anybody.

my message to people -- need to renounce not just violence but hatred and vitriol. >> we are so exhausted as a nation. just today i was picking up a sandwich for lunch and the guy behind the counter said to me, i just don't know how much more i can take. there are so many things going on. it's too much. it's too much. i wonder if the shock and sadness for people who feel shock and sadness of where we are as a country maybe with the president and with people who have high-level platforms, but maybe it's neighbor to neighbor, person-to-person, democrat to republican.

>> i think people need to treat each other more decently. we need to lower the temperature. we need to think hard of who we are as a country. maybe, look to move past this era. i don't know what the implications might be on the democratic side for how the democratic party results this tension that exists right now and to the candidate should be. this could have an effect on that. there could be some people going, you know what? we need a steady hand like joe biden. other people might go, we need to really turn the page and try to move into a new era out of n the trump era with somebody fresh. we will see what happens. i suspect that i think we can

talk about the politics a little, since former president trump is safe and fine, so we can go back to some kind of analysis of the. he is almost certainly going to open up a significant lead in the polls in the next week or so. he is combining the sympathy that comes from this and a natural bounce you get out of a political convention. then i think the democrats will have some very hard questions that they have to look toward as they look forward to the fall campaign. >> jonathan alter, thank you very much for your thoughts. wise as they are, especially for 2:23 in the morning. thank you for being on the program. i want to g bring back shaq brewster who's in bethel park, pennsylvania. we got new information. i don't know if you got it where you are which is near the suspect's home. we mention we checked voter registration records and he's a registered republican, but we

see there appears to be a political donation for act blue in 2021 for $15. act blue for people who do not know is an organization that funnels money to democratic candidates. the immediate situation is at the home of the suspect who is now dead. tell us what's happening where you are? >> reporter: you mentioned the time. it's the middle of the night in this quiet neighborhood street and it's turned into, the focal point, or at least a point of emphasis in the same investigation. we believe the suspect's home, listed residences down the street and two comes up stthat way. this is the closest we can get at this point. even be on this, of law enforcement, local police setting up a wider perimeter. at the scene, we see multiple agencies here. we've seen local police, the state police and we have seen bomb squad here and bomb squad

eight came out and told us ut about an hour ago that they were planning to make entry into that home. he said at the time it was imminent. he said they did not know what they would find if they would find anything or they would be retrieving anything out of their home. that was somewhat of the update he gave us. we have seen federal agencies as well. we saw atf. one agent walking out with a long gone. it's not a tense scene, as if you have lights and sirens and a huge presents as far away as we are right now. there are homes behind me that are even closer to what we believe is the suspect's home. they are still occupied and families and their. we see them peaking out d of th windows. neighbors walking out to see what exactly is going on. we do know this is going to be, lisa focal point of this investigation, try to find out what they can get whatever information he can the suspect's home. the bomb squad, they said they

were planning to make entry into this home for the first time. that was about an hour ago. we haven't heard an update but we know the perimeter around the suspect's home for what we believe to be the suspect's home is growing, and in bethel page, something that will be a focus of a lot of attention for hours if not days to come. >> thank you so much for that. joining us, retired seattle chief please and msnbc law enforcement analyst. give us your assessment of what is happening right now where he is? >> they have increased the perimeter so they are probably trying to make sure they have a safe distance as possible for people to be as they attempt to make entry into the suspect's home, to make sure there aren't devices. explosive devices or -traps or other items there. this is an opportunity to be

methodical and thorough as theyt make entry since the suspect, as far as we know, the suspect is dead. people identified at this point that might be involved. they are making sure with an abundance of caution that they take all precautionary measures to get inside and figure out what might be in their. what evidence they might be able to gather. the wee hours of the morning on the east coast. >> as the investigation continues, we know that and we've heard that from the rnc and from former president trump that milwaukee is going to be the site of the republican national convention. he is going to go. it's full steam ahead from everything we have heard. already, as you well know, any national political convention, particularly in the modern era, security is extraordinary. are

there adjustments that can be made? as their law enforcement that can be added? what can you expect the conversations are right now is the former president of the united states, and a lot of other high profile individuals are either in milwaukee or headed there, not to mention that thousands of delegates? >> i can assure you that the security postures going to be significantly increased at this time. there is no way, given the fact the former president, assassination attempt on a former president, and he will be there in milwaukee tomorrow, that that will intensify the level of security from all aspects. not only on the former president directly, but any other participants, delegates, n anyone else attending and political figures, you will have to increase the awareness given what happened. you don't know whom else might

be involved. retaliation or copycats and other things. while there was already going to be high level security, it will be intensified. >> obviously, there are adjustments it could be made in terms of the president in get to will. ultimately, the president, former president himself will have great influence on that. would you expect everything, given that these are indoor venues and not outdoor venues that as you say if i security. there will be security in place and things that people can't even see that are there, that they would be able to feel confident about going ahead with the schedule? >> i t imagine so. they will want to continue to go forward. we don't want any incident to preclude us from participating in our democratic process. that said, they will make sure

all hands on deck so to speak, every mechanism and everything they can have in place will be in place. with a high level of intensity. they will be alert to any other suspicious activity, but given we just had an assassination attempt, there is going to havep to be increased intensity on the security measures. given the fact that this last attempt was on a rooftop, outdoor venue, so a different venue and different venue, but they will want to make sure that all the aspects of being covered, egress, and grace, the neighborhood areas. the airports, all of it will be affected. >> i went to go back to shaq o brewster. in advance of the rnc, you've been having conversations. it's usual in situations that local law enforcement which carmen as well or part of it. that would mean minnesota law

enforcement, national guard, the minnesota national guard. what else have you learned, and answer stan these conversations were before the assassination attempt on the president's life. how confident where they feeling about the security posture they have? >> reporter: the thing about these conventions, level one l national security events. inside the secure area, that's the responsibility of the secret service. the secret service has been coordinating with some 16, at least 60 local, state, and federal agencies around milwaukee. un there are big black barriers erected throughout the city. and said that area is where airport style security screenings go through and where your credential is required. i spoke to the chief of police for milwaukee is responsible for everything i said that area. one thing we know what this assassination attempt is the

shooter was outside of that perimeter. one thing the chief told me was they felt they were ready because they have had so many resources flooding milwaukee in the past month and he said they have been preparing for well over a year. what resources am i talking about? they have more than 100 departments, police departments, not just in wisconsin but across the country that are e sending officers to milwaukee to help the milwaukee police departmentke for anything, traffic control to securing the harbor and the waterways that wa are in milwaukee. they t have spent millions of dollars in federal grants to shore up their equipment. they bought a $1.3 million mobile command center the department will be using the rnc. they have new begas mask, riot gear flooding in to milwaukee. this was a conversation that happened before today in which

dynamics fundamentally shift, but before today they said they were very confident they were able to control the security t aside of the perimeter which is their responsibility. they said you may think milwaukee is a small city but au they pointed out they have had pop-up protests since the start of the war in gaza and they've learned a lot from that. they have huge festivals. known as the city of festivals in milwaukee. they have preferred and they have secured. one thing they kept pointing back to was the milwaukee bucks championship where you had estimated 75,000 people flood the downtown area. they were able to keep the city secure. when they talk about crowd control and getting ready, preparing for this convention, they feel confident and felt very confident before this happened. things will fundamentally shift and new measures will go in place. when you look at the security

posture, lot has been made and you have a lot of resources going into milwaukee before this was happening, and you can imagine that number and resourcesbe will only increase after today. >> without a doubt. carmen, every convention, everyn major event, especially of political nature is a balancinga act. security and free speech. there's been a lot of back-and- forth about what they expect too be thousands of protesters, potentially. the rnc will be at the democratic convention as well. a judge ruled the protesters are not allowed to go and what is considered that security perimeter. they have places where they can protest. thousands can gather and chant into whatever they want, but the federal judge said protesters cannot march through the security zone. how important is that? but also, does it make local police job more complicated?

>> it's critically important that people who are there to disrupt, there will be protesters, it's a find balancing act. you want to respect and support people's free speech rights. you have to protect the safety of other people involved including those who were there to demonstrate her to protest. having designated areas and the ability to cordon off areas will help the effort. of course, making sure people stay safe ine and around those stones will ber critically important. i think they will feel much better if they have designated h areas. they can be there. law enforcement purpose there is to facilitate free speech for everyone involved. often, it can become tricky as you have opposition.

opposing sides in the same area, see have to be careful of those issues. that court ruling made it easier to contain certain elements. >> thank you again. appreciate you taking the time. the assassination attempt on former president trump is reverberating through the halls of congress as well. there's new video that shows the presumptive republican nominee exiting a prplane in ne jersey. that was maybe an hour or so ago. kayla pennsylvania after being checked out at a local medical e facility. he posted on social media that he was fine. he did say a bullet pierced his right here during the assassination attempt. the suspect, as we have been reporting, was killed and identified as 20-year-old thomas mathew crooks of bethel park, pennsylvania. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have condemned the

attack. democratic senate majority leader chuck schumer of new york writing this. i am horrified by what happened at the trump rally in pennsylvania and relieved that former president trump is safe. adding, political violence has no place in our country. republican house majority leader steve scalise who survived a politically motivated shooting in co2007 offered these thoughts. >> it's difficult to watch. it brings back a lot of emotions. my first thoughts were to pray for trump. from reports we weren't sure what happened. you saw blood coming from his ear, but as we see now, it was s a clear assassination attempt. i think there was some divine in intervention and preventing them ivfrom being worse than it could've been. >> joining us, michael, ic congressional reporter. we were talking about this earlier. this is not new to members of congress, not just steve scalise but gabby giffords and of

course many people who felt their lives were under threat in january 6. what kind of reaction are we hearing from capitol hill tonight in the aftermath of the shooting? >> reporter: from both democrats and republicans this evening, it's been folks expressing thoughts and prayers for the former president. expressing thankfulness he was the seriously injured and all throughout that, condemning this act of political violence. underscoring that political violenceco is no place in american politics and in the united states. we are hearing that anonymous d methods from democrats and republicans on capitol hill. >> let me ask about calls i've made for an investigation, congressional investigation. where condo responsibility our ability does congress have in a situation like this and what are we hearing from the speaker? we are hearing a lot about that. a lot of teases of what will come in terms of investigation. >> reporter: congress has

oversight ability and type republicans expressing their going to flex that ability. first off, a statement from the speaker of the house mike johnson saying, quote, the house will conduct a full ho investigation of the tragic events today and we are hearing that from some of the leaders of those key committees. for the house oversight committee led by james comber, he sent a letter i guess last night, this morning to the director of u.s. secret service requesting she appear at a hearing on july 22. that went out today. that hearing will take place a h week from monday which is the f first time congress returns to session after this current recess. i am told the oversight committee has requested a briefing with the secret service, which i'm told the secret service has agreed to. the specifics are being worked out in terms of when and where. the house homeland security committee is getting involved in the aftermath of the event today. house homeland security committee requesting a briefing with the secret service.

we will have to follow what t happens there. lawmakers are expressing their thoughts and concerns for the former president but springing into action, showing they're going to fully investigate this with her oversight authority. >> we heard from the sergeant at arms. there are concerns and a lot of different places that do not involve the location or the location of the rnc and one of n those is capitol hill. what is the sergeant at arms saying? >> the sergeant at arms expressing thoughts and prayers for the former resident. bankrolled he was unharmed seriously, and reminding members of congress they need to be vigilant about the rent e security. she utilized security measured offered by utthe u.s. house sergeant and arms. there were two sitting members of congress who were there with trump at the rally. they are republicans from pennsylvania. i spoke on the phone with dan and i asked him what his

experience was? he told me he is fine and safe but he was sitting near the former president during the shooting. he told me there was panic and mayhem. he said someone in his section of this rally was actually shot and he described the scene. this was violence involving the former president and other members of congress in addition to republican senate candidate david mccormick. a lot of concern for the folks over there, the former president and those two members of congress. >> the congressman your spoke to, did he realize what was happening in that moment? >> he told me it was five or six minutes into the former president's rally when they started to hear gunshots, and he said there were screams and yells. secret service yelling at people saying hit the debt, he said. he said there were tears from people, from some of the rally goers who were concerned about

former president trump condition. words he used was panic and mayhem. >> congressional reporter for the hill, see you often thank you so much for staying up late with us. sometimes your way too early and tonight you are fairly. i want to go back to new jersey where nbc's erin mclaughlin has been standing by. it is where we heard the president as former president had been planning to spend the evening before making his way to the republican national convention. what are you seeing and hearing their? >> reporter: his campaign is being tight-lipped with his exact whereabouts. we understand, according to a memo seen by nbc news, that the campaign is in a, quote, communications lockdown. they are asking all of his aides within his campaign to

refrain from speaking to the media, from posting on social media. what we do know what 1a did post on x at 12:47 in the morning was video of former president trump deplaning in newark new jersey. you saw him briefly waved to the crowd although he made no statements. to work, new jersey is 30 minutes away from bedminster where i am now. just down the road from where i am standing is the trump national golf course, a place with the former president likes to spend time during the summer and where his daughter was married and 2009. hours after the shooting, we saw increased security presence outside the entrance of the golf club. multiple police cars including c state police. around 1:20 in the morning on the road just over this way

from where i am standing, we saw a convoy of security vehicles including state police leave and followed by support vehicles. it is possible he is staying here and bedminster tonight. his campaign is being tight- lipped. what we do know is he is in is contact with his children. he spoke on the phone to donald trump jr. that according to a tweet on x in which he said he's doing very well. >> thank you for that, erin mclaughlin. joining me as andy, investigative reporter for nbc news. i know you have been working this from the very moment it happened. august through what more we know so far about the shooter? >> reporter: i think the biggest thing is you identify the shooter is thomas mathew crooks. who is he and how does he get ho on a roof about 150 yards away from former president trump and

squeeze off multiple rounds, hitting the president, killing a member of the audience, and wounding another person? i think the biggest thing is it's been noted outside the secure perimeter. he is shot from an elevated site. the question is, out in the open, where there's other law enforcement outside, secret service within but before that happened, as it was happening, there is going to be a lot of attention paid in the coming days and weeks about how this was able to unfold. this is going to be an issue, obviously, with the upcoming republican convention as the chief noted earlier. we have a lot of things that are going on whether the protest, dealing with everyday crime in the city as well as dignitary protection. this takes it up a notch, obviously. >> we have been talking a lot

including to carmen and shaq and ryan reilly about digital footprints and things they will learn about the shooter. is ever anything, i wonder, that you have heard in the many interviews have been done so far with people who were on the scene that give us insights into what happened here? >> reporter: i think it's the focus. we talk about the immediate crime scene. the vehicle and home in terms of searching for evidence. what does it look like? dna, cell phone data, what werec the weapons and ammunition obtained? was it legal? the digital footprint? emails, email accounts, apps, search, social. all these will play into how they paint a picture this re particular suspect. not only how in the moments that lead from the time he leaves, gets up, and gets to

the crime scene, but also, over the time in his life. they will interview family members and friends. associates, schoolmates who tried to paint this picture of who this person is. the lead up to this act and then, over time, what motivatedi him. >> how will investigators triedw to establish a motive? what are the key things? there are instances whether it's an individual shooting or even sometimes a mass shooting where motives are never firmly established. >> that is absolutely right. one of the problems is early on, people try to ascribe motive based on something that leaks out say social media profile or somebody register to vote or whatever it is. part of the problem with that

is you are trying to paint the picture in totality and that takes time to do. there are times where things are either missing or contradictory. it has to be accounted for as we are trying to discuss what love this person to do this? there will be, as noted, congressional hearings that are going to be there but criminal investigation even though the suspect is dead, can't be prosecuted, they will look at those things, the fbi leading the investigation. the other part of it is the administrative investigation. talking about what was his interplay between the secret service within the secure area and law enforcement? did they have enough people? what was the communications like? all those things are important to give a sense of why something like this could happen. especially, even in the open area. accounting for the things that f make it difficult to protect a president or dignitary,

president elect, whoever it might be, these are the rything that have to be taken into account. it's bad enough if somebody gets in proximity, but to be att elevation in the open and to to this, law enforcement people i've talked to across the country and my colleagues including tom wintour have been saying the same thing. i think there's going to be a reckoning in multiple ways. >>ti andy, i know you will continue to follow it as well other members of our investigative team, thank you so much. joining me msnbc stcorrespondin gary who's following the white house reaction. we did hear from president biden. he was in delaware before making his way back to eathe ki white house earlier than anticipated. what are you hearing from the a white house and the president? >> reporter: president biden cut t?his weekend and rehoboth beach sure. he is back at the white house.

he learned about the shooting while he was at church. he was at church and rehoboth beach and when he learned about this. as he was exiting, he asked if he had been briefed but he had not been officially briefed eye. after that he was briefed by the fbi and department of homeland security. he wanted to get in front of cameras as quickly as possible and that's what he did. he called for unity for the fo nation. he called the action tonight sick. here's what he had to say. >> look. there's no place in america for this kind of violence. it is sick. it it's one of the reasons why we have to unite this country. we cannot allow for this to be happening. we cannot be like this. we cannot condone this. en >> reporter: after he spoke, we are told he did speak to former president trump. we don't know how long this poker what they spoke about. we presume we will get more information about that tomorrow but we know they did make

contact while the former president was in pennsylvania, and the current president was in delaware. then president biden moved back to washington. you can be president from anywhere. they have the ability to have h briefings anywhere you are is president, but the white house is the safest and most convenient place to do that. he will have a briefing il tomorrow with homeland security officials and officials in the department of justice as well. >> thank you gary grumbach, we appreciate that with the latest from washington, d.c. joining the senior national politics reporter jon allen. i'm on the website of the republican national convention, and 21 hours and eight minutes 1 until the star. we are inless than t minus one day to go. what do we know about meetings or conversations that are being had, and any changes that we have heard about at all? >> we haven't really heard about big changes.

this is full speed ahead for the republican convention. you know, as you've heard from some of the other guests, the expectation s,is there will be changes to security, probably the air will be a review of the changes to the former president's personal security detail, and a review of everything they have planned for the convention in terms of h trying to keep not only am safe but other convention goers and dignitaries. we will have to wait a little to find out what those things will be. most of the people involved a o lot of the people involved in of the security for former president trump are pretty p occupied today with having to protect him and get him safely out of the rally today. you know, we are in a moment in politics great candidate in party is rallying around them.

given the events of today, what we have seen from republicans weather and interviews on television, on social media, in phone interviews that aren't on television is a huge rallying i effect right now for trump that is accelerating the unification of the republican party. >> i am looking at a statement a put up from the republican national committee and assess former president trump looks forward to joining you as we proceed with our convention to nominate him to serve as the 47th president of the united states. i guess one of the key things e we will be looking for as journalists is how it happened in butler, pennsylvania, the terrible assassination attempt affects the messaging? it may accelerate what conventions are meant to do which is the excitement for the nominee, but i'll be listening t closely and i'm sure you will as how it impacts the speeches.

>> i think what a lot of this place into what former er president trump's message has been and you might hear it more amplified. in terms of here is somebody who has said he has been politically targeted, now you have seen a physical targeting of former president trump. i would be shocked if you didn't hear those things together basically without even necessarily doing what some of his allies did today. j.d. vance, the senator from ohio, the former republican presidential candidate where they explicitly blamed democrats for the events of today without any evidence. but you may hear him tie things together, the people, there are people who want to stop me through the legal system. ga they want to prevent me from by

coming president. that way and somebody who tried to kill him today. >> jonathan allen, thank you. saturday, july 13, day that will go down in history in the day there was attempted former assassination of a former president a presumptive nominee of the republican party. the suspect is dead and has been identified. that will do it for me. my colleague will continue are breaking news coverage right after a quick break. quick brea.

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