this is an nbc news special report. it is 6:00 a.m. eastern, i am anna cabrera reporting from new york and we are back with our ongoing coverage of the attempted assassination of former president, donald trump. gunshots ripping through a pennsylvania campaign rally, and carving their way into the history books. now, nearly 12 hours since that horrifying moment, those echoes are ricocheting across the globe and our kind on this morning's front pages. the moment donald trump became the seventh sitting or former president in american history shot in an attempted assassination. blood, dripping from his year, down the side of his face, as the secret service rushed him off the stage and into a bulletproof vehicle, all captured, live, on television. >> if you really want to see something, take a look at what happened-- oh--

>> [ screaming ] >> ready, on you, move! move! >> are we ready? are we good? >> shooter is down. >> shooter is down, or begin to move? all clear. >> you got my shoes?

>> i got you, sir, i got you, sir. >> let me get my shoes. >> it's okay. >> let me get my shoes. >> watch out. >> wait, wait. >> we got to move, we've got to move. >> usa! usa! usa! usa! usa! usa! usa! usa! usa! usa! usa! usa! usa! usa! usa! usa!

>> this morning trump is back in his new jersey home to rally attendees are hospitalized with critical injuries and another is dead. the shooter is that too identified as 20-year-old, thomas matthew crookes of bethel park, pennsylvania, killed by law enforcement on the nearby rooftop, where he watched his attack. we have a team of reporters and analysts joining us to break down the latest developments. nbc investigative reporter, and he blake scene is tracking the investigation, white house correspondent, gary gilchrest are monitoring reaction in washington. also with us msnbc senior law enforcement on the left analyst, and retired nypd officer, jillian snyder. andy, what are we learning this hour? >> we know that the fbi has started their deep dive into the background of this suspect, who, not only at the butler

valley side, but also at his bethel park-- or the bethel park residents that has been connected to him. they are looking for the who, what, when, where? a little bit of the house, and what will tell us about why, but they are still a ways off. physical evidence in butler, pennsylvania, where president trump was shot this afternoon, where two people were wounded and one spectator was killed. the other piece is at the house, where they are likely looking for things, like the digital footprint and any other materials that might give some background into possible motive here. but-- and they are probably going to set up a couple of different timelines that they will be focusing on. the timeline that tells us that goes way back, and then the immediate timeline about what is going-- what happened in the

leading up to the shooting, where this gunman was apparently able to access an area, a line of sight from an elevation, to get those shots off at the grandstand. one of the big questions, obviously, and it is on everybody's mind, top of mind is how he was able to do this and while it was outside the secure perimeter that the secret service was in often there were state and local law enforcement outside of it, and questions about how it was secured before hand, and then in the immediate moments before this happened and that interplay is going to be a big issue law enforcement sources have told myself, jonathan dietz, tom winter of the investigative unit, there's going to be a big focus on that and obviously that is going to have implications going forward in dignitary protection to the convention.

>> cedric, what do you see as the critical questions investigators are raising transfer right now? >> i think the question is who is this subject, who was killed, and what is his background? what was the motive? and then we can begin to develop some type of social history and help give us some kind of understanding of the future as to-- on this type-- during those types of events, what police need to be looking for. remember, when you have an event this large and it takes up that amount of space, there are a lot of preparations that goes into the protection of a president or former president. and during that time you can think that you have covered all the bases you could possibly cover but nothing is 100% ever secure. this was an unfortunate, sad, horrible event that took place, and what this will allow

overtime is-- as you just stated, it will allow law in force meant in that community and across this country to begin looking-- how to better secure these types of-- particularly outside events so that no one is hurt or put in danger but a lot is going to go into this investigation, but what i think is really important here to keep in mind, who is the subject? we know his name maybe, but at the same time, where did he come from? how did this all evolve? how did he get to this point? these will be crucial in critical questions and also who else may have been involved and have knowledge of this attack that took place 12 hours ago? all of these things are going to be critically important in this investigation and certainly anna, without question, being able to look at an event like this and how do we better provide the type of security that is needed, in

case of any potential threat. >> we know a number of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies are all working to answer these questions that state police said they don't have any reason to believe there is an existing threat right now, but jillian, investigator say the suspected gunman was positioned on a rooftop roughly 148 yards from the stage outside the security perimeter. we don't night know the type of gun, specifically, used here, but given that distance and the trajectory there, what does it tell you about the potential weapon used here, and the amount of expertise the shooter would have to have? >> so, being about 150 yards away, one would assume that it was a long rifle, generally speaking a firearm, a handgun, is not going to have that level of accuracy more would someone choose to shoot from that distance with just a simple handgun initial reports are

telling us that the suspects did have a long rifle, potentially an ar 15. as we saw, former president trump was shot in the year, other people on scene were shot, so that is telling you the level of accuracy of the alleged shooter was not 100%, but there are so many things that go into shooting, especially from that type of distance, that is almost 600 feet, there are weather variables that going to play? wind speed, anything else, the humidity level. so, we can assume right now that it was not an expert marksman, the investigation is ongoing. i'm sure that local law enforcement, working in conjunction with federal agents, are going to do a deep dive into this person putt history and background, talk to neighbors, friends, social media, allegedly he is 20, we assume he is a social media footprint. what is the motive behind this?

they will talk to everyone i knew him, make sure that no one else is involved, and then we are going to see this investigation unfold >> jillian, you are one of the first nypd officers on the scene when governor, andrew cuomo and gary were shot in the 2015 west indian parade in brooklyn, so, you had been there in some respect, what goes through your mind and those first few minutes, responding to a scene like this? >> so, when i was at the west marine, we were hoping for a very peaceful event, it is not generally a politically driven are politically motivated event, but the former governor worked and lived in brooklyn, it was an unfortunate incident, in which he was not the target at that time it was just a firearm that went off and unfortunately that is what happened, but because of who he was and his political affiliation, you know, we had to mobilize rapidly and then it became a political event, we had , you know, the mayor, the police commissioner, and everyone else was there and we had to secure the scene for

multiple blocks, because we want to make sure that was not politically motivated. >> so, obviously a different circumstance, but you know what it is like to have that very swift response, especially when it comes to a very high profile, very public individual in this case, one of the most high-profile individuals in this country, a former president and current candidate. i want to bring in from bedminster, nbc news correspondent, erin mclaughlin, aaron, you were there, where the former president spent the night, what we know about his condition in the medical care he received last night? >> well, we are hearing that former president trump is quote, in great spirits. that, according to his son, donald junior, who says that he spoke to former president trump in the hours, following the assassination attempt. we also heard from the former president on truth social say that he was quote, shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right year. we have also heard from his

political director in a memo to staff say that everything is okay, but that calling for a complete and total communications lockdown say quote, anyone who speaks with the press, even on background or off the record will be found and terminated immediately, refrain from commenting, speculating, posting on social media complete and total lockdown. nevertheless, we did hear from an aide post on x, a video of former president trump leaving the plane, ostensibly in new arc, new jersey, you see former president trump leaving the plane on his own power, he briefly waived, we don't hear from him, where he went next is unclear. it is possible that he came to where i am at now. i am not far from the trump national golf course. a place he likes to frequent during the summer, but the campaign at this point being

very tightlipped in terms of his exact location and we are still waiting to hear when and where we will see former president trump next anna? >> aaron gilchrist, we know that president biden and former president trump spoke this evening and last night, what can you tell us about that conversation? >> well, we have been trying to get a better sense of what exactly was that conversation, we heard from president himself last night when he addressed the nation a little after 8:00 and-- it:00 eastern, and he said he had tried to reach former president trump and had been unable at that point, but we do know that they look later in the. president biden was actually in roman beach, delaware, at his beach home this weekend, he is not back here, in washington, arrived at the white house early this and he was in church at the time this shooting happened and after leaving church, was given initial briefing, an update on what had happened in pennsylvania, was able to get, we know at least two briefings from the director

of the secret service, the secretary of homeland security, the agency to which the secret service operates and some others on his staff to learn about what information was available at that point, and that spoke to the former president, later in the evening, before he returned here to washington. i don't think it is out of turn to say that that's not necessarily a good relationship, as a former president and current president, if you just look at these two men, title -wise, they don't have any relationship we know, when the debate happened a couple of weeks ago, there wasn't even a handshake on the debate page, which is something we would typically see in a setting like that. so, there's that political tension between these two men, if you will, at the very least, but as president of the united dates, when a former president, a person under secret service protection is shot it is expected that the president would reach out to try to see how he's doing, the president, president biden said that his understanding was that the

president, former president was well at the time he was trying to reach out, so we will be listening today, anna, to see if there has been any additional contact, if we can get a better characterization of the phone call that happened between president biden and former president trump is the day goes on. we know the president will receive a briefing later this morning. >> and we do know the biden campaign caused all ads and communications, following this shooting, gary, it happens as the republican national convention is about to start in milwaukee tomorrow. how does this event change things, politically at all? >> it has been more than 40 years, it is the last attempted assassination of a u.s. president, so we don't know exactly how things are going to change in this early hour, but we do know things are going to change in this modern era, where everything is online and everyone seems to have an opinion about frankly everything here. something we have seen, however is actually sort of good news, folks coming together at all pretty much being on the same page calling for prayers, calling for an end to political violence, here, folks saying

this is sick in president's biden's words, this is sick and he called for national unity pot. but you can also expect to see some supporters of former president trump really galvanize run the president, and we have started to see this online, especially senator, jd vance, a potential vp pick and senator from ohio said this on twitter quote, today is not some isolated incident, the central premise of the biden campaign is that donald trump is an authoritarian fascist that frederick led directly to the assassination attempt of donald trump. now, while that was jd vance's thought on twitter last night, that is not the overwhelming thought here, that is not something overwhelmingly happening. certainly the trump family is not coming out and saying that right now, they are very supportive of their father, especially don junior, ivanka and tiffany coming out with very supportive comments about their father, but it is out therefrom republicans and it is out there in further right, some of the darker parts of the internet, including the proud boys and other saying very dark

things about the future of this country, cedric, what is your reaction to that, hearing this kind of response from some parts of the republican party and other elected officials, who are not tamping down the temperature right now? >> well, i want to be very important here, regardless of whether you are a republican or democrat, if you are an elected official in this country whether you rep the city, state or federal level, such as in this case, we all have a responsibility as everyday citizens to recognize the fact that this was a horrible event and the subject that was involved in this was taken down and it appears to be rightly so. but let me say this to the american people. i think it is something we all need to understand, based on what you are asking me here, and appeared we will have to move through this year. we will have to be supportive and be in prayer for the former president of this united states and the president of the united

states, certainly, it's going to have the responsibility to reach out to the former president all, for his well wishes and we, as a nation, need to be watching and paying attention, because these are role models of our nation and it is an expectation, certainly that i have as an american citizen that every elected official, right now at this very moment, regardless of what you settle on, we all have a responsibility to always do and think what is right. we have a former president who had a an assassination attempt on his life, and regardless of where we stand politically we have to come back to the point that we are all american citizens that we have to stand together on this and give this former president well wishes as we move forward. we are going into a very-- what appears to be a very divisive election season, but that being said, i would hope that,

through this unfortunate incident, it got the attention of all of us that we all can be doing something different, and people having the right to vote for whoever they choose to vote for, but it should not come to this, and all elected officials, here again, we all-- they all, i should say, have a responsibility to role model to the rest of the country who we really are to the rest of the world that is watching, who we are as well. that's how i feel about that and i feel very strongly about that. >> let's get more of the reaction that we are seeing, not just from the current president, but also past president, other members of the current administration aaron gilchrist, what is their message? >> well, anna, we did see reaction statements from several of the former presidents, president obama, president clinton, president bush. we also saw a response from the carter center in atlanta.

all of them expressing some gratefulness that former president trump was not seriously hurt, that he is okay and will continue to be okay. there was also some gratitude expressed towards the secret service for what those agents were able to do on the ground and there were also calls for political violence to stop from several of the people we heard from, in the current administration who spoke out as well, the secretary of defense, the secretary of state, the attorney general opening up yesterday, again, denouncing this political violence that we have spoken so much about the last several years, and saying that they hope there are more answers that we are able to get to, what happened in pennsylvania last night. obviously, the administration is hard at work at this point, we heard from president biden that he has tasked several federal agencies with what happened and figuring out ultimately, i would imagine, how to make sure this doesn't happen again. anna?

pennsylvania state police say this is an investigation that will take months. jillian, help us understand the road ahead. >> so, we will see a collaborative effort between the secret service, the fbi, as well as many local law enforcement agencies. when we are having an event like this law enforcement plans weeks, months ahead, they decide where is a location for potential violence, they are looking good hiding spots, they are looking for elevated locations where someone could hide and do something like this, so there is going to be so much of an investigation taking place, again, going back to the alleged suspects, we are going to learn all about him. his family, his friends, where did he go to school, did he have a manifesto, did you post anything on social media? who did he talk to? why did he do this? right? and it will take months to unfold and on top of that we are also planning for other political events in the coming months, coming weeks, so we are

also going to have fbi and secret service hard at work planning ahead to make sure that all political candidates are safe. and cedric, as we mentioned, trump has now become the seventh u.s. president or former president to be shot in an assassination attempt what kind of security changes would you anticipate as you mentioned, this election is only going to heat up from here. >> i think one thing that will come out of this once this is reviewed, this entire event is always something to be learned, and in each case of these unfortunate incidents in our nation over the last 200 years, i think what we will see a couple of course, is those particular types of events, particular outside events, such as what occurred yesterday you will see your security protocols that are going to come into place and we are going to learn from yesterday hopefully, to minimize or make sure that

something like this never happens again. >> what did you learn watching those videos, what would you change? >> i think it is too early for me to say what i would change until all of the information is before me and once i have a real clear picture and that whole layout of security on that particular day what it is we did well, but it is we could have done better, how we maybe could have communicated better, what intelligence information was out there that maybe we missed, i think there's a host of things in the end that is going to be important and important determinants and what it is that we do, going forward, in order to secure an event of this nature. we still

have a whole election season ahead of us and afterwards. and it is no question in my mind, having worked with the federal government and federal law enforcement over the years of my career at both the state and local level that they are not going to take this lightly, and they are going to do everything possible to make sure , in securing those scenes and what is it that we can learn from each and every past event? here again that has occurred over the last 248 years of this country. >> we heard from attorney general, merrick garland, on this assassination attempt. he called this an attack on our democracy. cedric, how do you see it? >> well, i see it as an attack on our nation. and to me, regardless of what side of the aisle that you sit or stand on, we are all american citizens, and what happened yesterday to former president trump or what could potentially happen to anyone, any elected official, anyone that is in those type of

positions, we have to do everything that we can, as citizens to do our part to make sure that it doesn't happen again. because this should not have happened. and unfortunately it did, and fortunately and thankfully the president of the former president is not severely injured or became a fatality, but certainly we also have to remember the victim here, who did lose their lives and those who were severely injured in this event. we cannot do this and all of us will have a responsibility to make sure we do everything that we can, whether it be elected official or any citizen i should say, any elected officials or appointed officials, we all have a responsibility to do what we can to keep people safe so that we can have an election process, we can have a democratic government, our democracy, i should say, in which we all can

feel very good about and feel safe in, but there's a lot going to be learned from this and whatever is taken away from this will be used in the future during these types of events, and i am hoping, without question, now having worked with the secret service, the fbi and other federal agencies over the years, along with date, regardless of what state or city officials there are they all come together, they always have to work together, we just need the citizens to make sure that they are partnered with us as well across the country. >> and to see each other as a neighbor-- >> as americans. >> friends, brothers and sisters. >> as americans. >> and president biden adjusting there's no place for this kind of violence in america, we must unite as one nation to condemn it. we want to thank all of our reporters, and he bling sting, aaron gilchrist, and mclaughlin

as well as our analyst, joanne snyder and cedric alexander, thank you all for joining us. we have much more head on the attempted assassination of president, donald trump continues. we will hear how world leaders are reacting to what happened, plus we talked to a retired secret service agent who has detected two presidents along with then vice president, joe biden and a reporter from the boston globe will join us. he was at that rally, just about 100 feet from the stage. what he saw when those shots ring out. stay with us. ith us. progressive makes it easy to save with a quick commercial auto quote online. so you can get back to your monster to-do list. -really? -get a quote at progresivecommercial.com.

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this is an nbc news special report. good morning, i am monica cabrera in new york. and this is breaking news coverage of the assassination attempt on former president, donald trump, in his rally in butler, pennsylvania, just over 12 hours ago.

here is that staggering video again, the moment a shooter tried to kill the former president. one bystander is now dead, two others are critically injured, and trump is now safe and new jersey. the fbi confirmed the shooter, now deceased is 20-year-old, thomas matthew crookes. nbc news can report that crookes is a registered republican voter. the secret service as they shot and killed crookes and he was fired from an elevated platform outside the rally and outside the security perimeter. president biden reacting to this attempt, saying there is no place in america for this kind of violence, and international reactions are also pouring in after the attempt on donald trump's life. nbc's danielle, is joining us with more on this. danielle, what are world leaders saying? >> reporter: yeah. reaction has been coming in, from president's prime ministers, world leaders the middle east and asia all united in condemning all forms of

political violence. some leaders to send prayers to donald trump are some of his allies on the world stage, referring to benjamin netanyahu, the israeli per minister as well as the hungarian prime minister, victor or van, who missed the last day of the nato summit to fly to florida to meet with donald trump two days before the attack. i want to run through some of the statements that have been coming in from world leaders overnight and this morning, starting with keir starmer, newly elected here in the uk, singh he was appalled by the shocking scene that president trump's political rally and that political violence in any form has no place in our societies. the per minister of italy saying that she expressed her hope that in the following months of the campaign, dialogue in response ability can prevail over hate and violence. president air to one of turkey he believes a attack on turkey

will be carried out in the most effective way, the indian prime minister, said that he was deeply concerned by the attack on his friend and former president, donald trump, strongly condemning the incident. violence, he says, has no place in politics and democracies. again, messages coming in. olaf scholz, the italian chancellor calling it despicable. and the italian president think this is a shocking moment, not only for america, but the entire free and democratic world. anything that happens on u.s. soil, of course, has ramifications around the world. if and how this will change, the political climate certainly will be watched very closely by global leaders. >> daniele hamamdjian, thank you for reporting and bringing us that reaction from world leaders. >> after this assassination attempt, just hours later, my colleague, lester holt, spoke to pennsylvania's candidate for

senate, david mccormick was in the front row of this shooting. let's take a listen. >> david mccormick is the republican nominee for a senate seat in pennsylvania. he was at the rally in the front row there. sir, can you tell us how close you are to the president? >> yeah, good evening, lester. i don't know, probably 20, 30 feet, maybe, i was right to the right of resident trump in the first row there, and they announced me and said hey, why don't you take him up on the stage and i started to go up on the stage and he said no, i will have you come up later, and then within a minute or two, the shooting started. and then you know, there were six or seven shots and it was pretty clear right away that it was a gun, and people dropped and obviously the president went down, and the secret service was on top of him and then he eventually stood up in the secret service sort of had

his family surround him and you saw that, you can see blood on him and you saw the feds come out in both the finance and restrained, and at the same time i recognize that somebody behind me had been hit in the bleachers behind me, and sadly they had been pretty severely wounded on the people in the bleachers and him were trying to stop the bleeding but there was blood everywhere, and i'm not sure if that was the person who was intensive care or the person who died, but it was clear that even though president trump had just been nicked that others were very seriously wounded. >> and it is not lost on you. >> a very frightening moment. >> and not lost on you that had you been invited to go on stage you too would be in fire. >> no, it absolutely wasn't obviously there was an assassination attempt on the former president and you know, a really scary moment.

it was just like -- there was 15,000 people there and this had only been my second trump rally, but there was usa today and lots of energy and lots of positive noise and then all of the sudden, just shattered with these rifle shots and it was just sort of people were in disbelief. it was very chaotic and very confusing for quite some time. >> what were you hearing during all of this, the mics were able to pick up a lot of this, but i'm curious, the shots, to the former president say anything? at all? >> not that i heard, not that i heard. it was all moving in such a fast pace some of that through a young boy next to me and his grandfather was a local sheriff, so, the sheriff ran off to sort of deal with what was going on and he was very frightened. so, you know, people were processing it. i didn't hear anything that the

president said. what became clear is that somebody was really hurt. the people were calling for medics and getting emergency care and so it quickly went from the shooting to dealing with had happened, but also the uncertainty on whether the shooting was done, and you know, i wasn't-- you know i just -- at the time i thought it was possible there were two shooters, not just one, because it felt like the sounds were coming from multiple directions and so you know-- in moments like this as an army guy earlier in my life, it is very hard to see-- to know exactly what is going on, so you have to kind of go slow so you don't misunderstand the situation. that's what i tried to do is just process and keep my head down and try to help deal with some of the challenges that resulted in the injuries. >> so, mr. carter, are you were to attending the rnc, the republican national convention earlier this week?

>> i am. >> and you do that with some deal of trepidation after what you experience than what you saw? >> well, i'm still processing what i saw, but i am hoping to be a public official here as a candidate you know, one of the things you don't want your family to have to worry about is your safety it is hard enough to be in political life it is a nasty and difficult, but to think that your life may be at risk is something that i haven't thought much about, but my family certainly came out tonight and i think all families of people that are in the public eye are saying boy, this is a lot to ask. so, i think it is a moment that we decide that political violence has no place in our country, it is not a party thing it is absolutely un- american, and hopefully a night like tonight will get us on pause and help dial down the temperature a little bit. >> yeah, i think that is probably a bipartisan thought tonight. we have been hearing reaction to all of this and universal shock and discussed that this

sort of thing would happen. thank you, mr. mccormick, for talking to us. we really appreciate it. >> again, that was pennsylvania senate candidate, david mccormick, who was at that rally. i want to bring in former u.s. secret service agent, robert mcdonald, and robert, you are a secret service agent when joe biden was vice president. as someone who has been in the shoes of these law enforcement officials, what is it like for you to watch this footage? >> well, good morning, anna, nice to be with you under horrible circumstances, i'll be at. the first thing i thought of was my career and 21 years, i never had to respond as the agents had to respond yesterday. i am very hesitant to point any fingers or do an after action this close after the incident, there's going to be a lot of investigation, there's going to be a lot of hogwash information that put together to see what happened here, why it happened, how do we prevent it from happening again as we move into the heavy campaign season going

towards november, a lot going on here, a lot of questions that still have to be answered as to why that individual was able to get on that roof, why was that not mitigated during the advanced planning for this event, an out door event is incredible he hard to secure. so, a lot of questions going forward here to see exactly what happened, why it happened and how do we not let that happen again. >> one person at this rally told the bbc he saw someone with a gun on that roof of a nearby building, before the shooting happened on that he told security, but claims he didn't-- or they didn't take him seriously. nbc news has not confirmed that account. something obviously seems to have slipped through the cracks here. >> yeah, i'm actually in england right now and i've been watching that clip of the gentleman you are talking about, discussing with the bbc reporter. i'm a little concerned, again, that the communication of that information appears to not have been able to get to the detail, the agents in and around the

immediate vicinity of the warmer president needed to know that information so that they could have made a decision to take him offstage before this gentleman, or this perpetrator, i should say, was able to get those shots off. so, again, not knowing who exactly that information was given to i think the concern at this point was why that information didn't make its way to where it needed to get to in a timely fashion. >> robert, if you can, will you take us behind the scenes and help us understand what the screening and security process typically looks like for major rallies like this one? >> sure. basically what happens is the staff of the vice president, former presidents will meet with the secret service on their details on a regular basis, go over the schedule, we are going to do this type of event, we are going to do that type of event, the details, in concert with the local field office will then provide a protective advance, 5-7 days before the event takes place, looking at all of the different what if sent possible hypotheticals that could happen, releasing with local,

state and other federal partners to see how that security plan can come together, take away all of the risk factors, with line of sight issues, which is obviously the issue that we are dealing with here, motorcade roots are run, hospital surveys conducted. a lot of work goes into every single visit of the protective secret service. a lot of times not having to worry about that information. but here's an instance where the worst thing that could have happened, shots ring out, people injured, people killed, both the perpetrator and a number a member of the audience there, just not a good situation all the way around. but i can tell you, the secret service will pay some questions here, but the secret service is very good at what it does and handles all of these events with the utmost professionalism and accuracy. so, we will see what happens as we move forward. the investigation of not only the shooting, but the investigation of the advance process and the security of that venue are looked at with a fine tooth comb.

>> well, we certainly see how heroic those actions are in responding to those shots as we watch that video over and over again and those pictures that will be captured in the history books on the minds of americans forever now. what is it like as a secret service agent in a crisis moment like this. i know you've never been in this exact scenario. but walk us through maybe the calculations that are made in those split seconds, what is going through their mind? >> well, we trained for this every day, in and out of the work week in training cycles, in travel status, this is what we do and we practice it all the time i can tell you that the agents who responded onto the dais to move a former president off the dais responded impeccably. they responded as quick as they could, they made sure that the president was down, covered and beginning the evacuation process. they were very verbal, and you can hear it on some of the videotapes that they were verbalizing with each other as to what was going on. you heard somebody say that the shooter is down, and that is

when the agents decided to move the president to the armored cars, once they heard that the threat was neutralized. so, watching the agents do what they are trained to do, the muscle memory that they had to get that done in the proper way again, there is no playbook and no script for this, chaos rings out whenever we have situation like this, but those agents kept their heads, responded exactly way our training instructs us to and thankfully the president-- the former president was able to get out of that scenario relatively injury free. >> i'm curious, robert, would there have been any special, protective bulletproof you know, plastic or other barriers with a former president on the stage? >> there are various asset that the secret service had better replace that may not be visible to the untrained eye again a number of assets that are always available and utilized, based upon intelligence based upon the venue based upon the need of that particular visit,

as determined by the agents, a lot of this is intelligence based, is there information out there, is there quote unquote, chatter about someone making threats towards the former president and whatnot? the secret service takes that's very seriously, whether it be via telephone, via email, on the web, anyone who makes a threat against the protective services visited by an agent in that area to discuss that situation. so again, a lot of different elements here, going into the protective advanced process to provide a secure environment for former president trump in this case. >> in the aftermath of this attack you anticipate the protocol for rallies like this and other major events, with presidents, like the two conventions coming up, is it going to change? >> i think you will see the secret service use this as an opportunity, as it does anytime we have an incident, to look in the mirror and say what did we do well? what did we not do well? and what can we do better?

look, our methodologies are tried and proven, but we can always get better. we need to be 100% every day. we have a zero fail policy, we cannot allow that to happen. so, if there are some issues here that the secret service has to take care of internally i think they will do that and take a hard look at what happened here. you've got the two conventions coming up in milwaukee and chicago, which are national special security events, just like the nato summit was last week in dc, huge protection plans working with local state and federal partners that we have been planning for over a year. so, i don't think you will see a lot of things change, but you may see some tightening up of some specific things in around the president and the former president as we move to the november election. >> and i have to think that an outdoor venue as opposed to closed, indoor venue would create different security scenarios? >> certainly, every venue brings its own physicality or own protective partners to

mitigate. that is why we do the advance every time from scratch. there are no shortcuts, there are no looking at more than motorcade roots on ways or a on maps, we go look at them physically, so make sure that everything in our wheelhouse, in our toolkit is up to date and to be able to be utilized the very best of our ability. >> robert mcdonald, thank you very much for shining some light on all of that for us. and joining us now is boston globe political reporter, james bendel, who attended that rally. he's also an nbc news contributor, james, again, you were there, working, covering the rally, just about 40 yards from the stage, with other reporters as those shots rang out. how is everything you witnessed, sitting with you now? that you had a couple of hours? 12 hours to be exact to take it all in? >> i can't say i slept particularly well last night, but obviously my concern is with the family, the person who died and with president trump,

i hope he's doing fine. look, when the first shots rang out, i thought it was from the secret service agents. i had been looking at them actually. earlier, before the rally, before president trump arrived and in fact, there was some activity, there is a war, there's a lot of facts i do not know and i do not want to share them all, but they were actively looking around in that area where the shots had come from and i thought oh-- maybe that's just where the motorcade was coming in, president trump was late coming to the event there was this music playing i thought maybe after all they didn't really see anything i think it is important also, this is a really hot day. there was medical emergencies from one side to the other, with heatstroke's, it was 91 degrees, which doesn't sound horrible for our friends in the southwest, but the sun was penetrating and a lot of these members of the audience had arrived at 11:00 a.m. for a rally that kind of started you know at 6:00, 7:00.

6:00, by the time it's did, but look, it-- this is not okay. and you know, the service was very-- the first thing i saw was the smoke from the sniper, guns from the secret service and i wasn't even aware that the president had been shot yet. >> wow. so, take us back then in that moment and i'm sure that you have replayed the scene in your mind, given the trauma that you have experienced through it, at the moment those shots rang out, what do you remember? >> i-- i thought that the service agents-- and i'm sure those that you are familiar with, the two service agents pointed snipers in a certain direction away from the stage. i thought, my initial impression was, they saw something they did not like and

they shot it, whatever it was, they shot him, her, whatever it was, they took precautionary action. i did not hear incoming fire come towards the stage. i was assigned to write a previous story ahead of the convention, president trump had just said something, i was typing, i was looking down, i wasn't looking at the stage at the time, but when i heard the shots, i went immediately this direction, which is where the secret service agents are, it was only later that i could look and see the president was down, again, i thought, well that is security protocol, where they would protect the president. no question about it. it wasn't until he got up and that i saw blood that i thought oh my gosh, maybe something happened here and-- but again, i thought maybe it was someone else? i wasn't exactly sure. >> what kind of reaction did

you witness in the crowd, during and after all of this was unfolding? >> you know, there were some screams and i think you hear that in the video that i put online and even from news media, but overall it was shock , is this really happening? you know, i grew up in the midwest. i hunted, i'm familiar with guns, the pops-- i don't know-- it sounded different, maybe because there were more snipers or they had silencers on them, i don't know. that's why i originally didn't sound-- is this a gunshot? here's the thing, anna, this is a county fairgrounds. people were crouching down, you could see them in the image on the screen. there's nowhere to go, and within split seconds, i was-- is there more than one shooter? u.s. candidate, david mccormick said he thought there were two, my first response is, this could be a las vegas situation, where the mass shooting came open air, came from somewhere else above, not on the actual

security perimeter, and so, i was undercover for the press riser, which was kind of steel, but overall, it was is this really happening? this is obviously surreal, and then you are worried about people's safety, but it was a lot of quiet, until he was removed from the stage and then there were-- and then the crowd began to disperse, mostly peacefully, i should say mostly peacefully, but then there were some members of the audience who were in the front of the press and started treading on the press saying this was our fault. >> james, we have just a minute here, but you have covered a lot of political events, did this ever run through your mind, and do you ever imagine this? >> yes. if we are going to be honest, yes. i think about it every single time i go to a massive rally. i thought about it in the hour before this rally started, that,

wow, i-- what am i going to do if this happens? this is-- this is-- america's history is violent, america's political history, unfortunately, is violent and we live in an era of mass shootings, and heightened tensions, politically. i think about this every single time i go to a political rally and my wife does too. >> that is chilling. james pindell, i am so glad you are okay and this wasn't worse. thank you very much for sharing that with us. thanks. that is it for me, i am anna cabrera, stay with msnbc and nbc as we continue to learn more about the assassination attempt on president, donald trump. anna guthrie continues with our national report right after a break. stay right there. ht there. without daily hiv pills. good to go unscripted. good to go on a whim. with cabenuva,

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good morning. former president donald trump is injured but safe this mornings after an attempt on his life. >> the shooter is dead and authorities investigate how this could have happened.

good president trump is injured but safe this morning after an attempt on his life. >> good morning. it is july 14th. this is a special sunday edition of today. >> targeted. >> if you want to see something this said, take a look at what happened -- to make. >> a rooftop gunman takes aim at donald trump. chaos and terror as a bullet graces the former president's ear, leaving him stunned and bloodied. >> . >> the former president defiant as the secret service rushes him out. >> one spectator killed in the crossfire and two others injured. >> just ahead, what we know about the shooter killed within moments. >> he had a rifle. >> president biden coming to the cameras to condemn the attack. >> there is no place in

america for this kind of violence. it is sick. it is sick. >> this morning, the first images released of trump after the shooting. what it means to the campaign and the serious looming questions of, how did a gunman get that close and how did we get here. >> how is this happening in our country today? >> our special edition, sunday july 14th, 2024. >> hello everybody. good morning. this is a special edition of today on a sunday morning and a somber one. coverage of the assassination attempt on former president donald trump. >> the former president is

safe this morning. his campaign releasing a video showing the former president walking off of his plane overnight. >> mr. trump did speak out on truth social a few hours after the shooting and describe the attack himself. saying, i knew immediately something was wrong and i heard whizzing sound, shots and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. authorities have identified the gunman as thomas matthew crooks of bethel park, pennsylvania.'s motive, unknown. we are showing he is a registered republican. finance records show he made a $50 donation in 2021 to act blue which is a nonprofit that raises funds for democrats. >> the fbi has been at the gun men's home all night trying to learn all they can. one spectator was killed in the shooting and two others were critically injured. >> we have much to cover. the team is in place. lets begin with our senior national correspondent in meridian, sylvania near the building where the shooter was.

tom, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you guys. we are here just outside where the trump rally was conducted and where it was taking place. this is as close as we could get this morning. this is a massive and active crime scene. let me set the scene for you. those three barns serve as a backdrop where president trump was speaking just yesterday. the barn you see with the door open right there is where law enforcement snipers were when they engaged with the alleged gunman. the sniper, pretty unbelievable, but was just a few doors down. it is incredible how close he got to this event. what we know this morning is the name of the sniper and that he was 20 years old. what we still don't know is why he came here with a weapon to assassinate former president trump. there is another big question. how did of man get so close, within 440 feet, of a former

president who is currently running for office with a weapon, crouched down in the sniper stance. >> overnight, former president trump walking off his plane hours after surviving this assassination attempt. >> take a look at what happened. >> shots ringing out as president trump ducks down. secret service agents rushed to his side forming a protective shield. other officers and tactical gear armed with long guns post up at the front of the stage. >> trump a security detail lifting him up from the ground as he raises his fist come his ear and face bloodied, gesturing to the crowd. >> the secret service moving him into a waiting suv. another angle showing secret service agents reacting to the

shots. the former president posting on his truth social account that he quote was shot with the bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. i knew immediately that something was wrong in that i heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. this stunning photo from the new york times capturing what appears to be a bullet on the right-hand side of the image whizzing by the former president's ear. >> if he had not moved his head in the nick of time, it could have been a lot worse. >> mr. trump extending his condolences to the family of the person at the rally who was killed and also to the family of another person that was badly injured. >> the man beside me suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was instantly killed. >> president biden, who learned about the tragic events, condemned the shooting. >> there is no place in america for this kind of violence. it is sick it is sick. that is one of the reasons we

have to unite this country. we cannot allow for this to be happening. we cannot condone this. >> this video shows the body of the alleged assassin on the roof of a building, his spot, roughly 150 yards from where mr. trump was speaking. one witness telling bbc news that he saw the shooter. >> we noticed the guy bear scrolling up the roof of the building beside us. we are like, there is a guy on the roof with a rifle. and the police are like, what? they didn't know what was going on. i was like, why is trump still speaking quick secret service is looking at us from the top of the barn. i'm pointing at the roof just standing there like this. the next thing you know, five shots ring out. >> the fbi identified the alleged gunman as thomas matthew crooks, 20 years old, of bethel park, pennsylvania. but why he allegedly wanted to

kill former president trump is still unclear. the fbi is leading an investigation involving the secret service, atf and state and local law enforcement on the ground in butler, pennsylvania. the alleged gunman killing one spectator and greatly injuring two others. >> this evening, we are having what we are calling an assassination attempt against our former president, donald trump. >> reporter: as for the two other victims, police have not released a lot of information about them. just their condition, that they were both gravely injured in the shooting. that is all we know about those two people. we know they are being treated. we cannot say enough when we look at those videos, how many rally goers tried to help the victims and carry them down the stands and over to ambulances even though they were in danger as well. and we were able to locate the roof for the alleged assassin was crouched. there is a massive law enforcement presence around the building. they set up what appears to be some type of ladder so

investigators could get up on the roof. they are collecting so much information and evidence this morning. >> at the scene of the rally, and some reportedly members of the family member as those killed were right next to them. just a horrifying scene. >> our colleague was at the rally saturday standing in the press area near the former president. good morning. tell us what you saw last night. >> reporter: good morning. we have all covered shootings as part of the job. it has become something familiar. we raced to the scene of the tragedy and the aftermath. what is less familiar is witnessing the moments of tragedy firsthand and savannah, that is what my team and i experienced last night. we were on the press risers which were positioned in the center of the venue as usual, just behind the seated section of the audience. we were just finishing building a standup is the former president began his speech as usual. my producer and i started to

walk down the stairs to grab our laptops when we suddenly hear that sound that you hear in the video. like many we interviewed afterwards, we initially thought it might be fireworks. sometimes trump events have pyrotechnics. but when the sounds kept going and wister mr. trump kept speaking, that is when we took cover behind some stage equipment initially thinking just as a precaution and we experience that reppert roller coaster of emotion beside the crowd. people were cheering and buying merchandise and food. people were dancing to ymca, the song that comes on often before the former president makes his entrance. then it transitioned to confusion and chaos as shots rang out. people trying to figure out what the sound was. and then fear settles in as we realized it could be gunshots. we were taking cover when we

heard the cheers from the crowd as the former president raised his fist in the air with blood on his face and was taken to safety by secret service. in those moments, immediately afterwards, for anybody who was not near those injured, one ultimately killed, it was not immediately clear how dangerous or deadly the situation was. some in the crowd began to leave the scene. others did stick around. we got on the press riser and we reunited with the crew who was thankfully safe. and began reporting and we were told in the middle of one our live reports as secret service told us that this was now an active crime scene. we were told to leave immediately. our crew had to abandon most of their gear. we made our way to the parking lot where thousands of cars would ultimately take hours to get out of the parking lot. >> from butler pennsylvania, thank you so much.

>> we want to turn to a witness who was also at the rally last night and joins us on the phone this morning. good morning to you. we are glad you are okay. can you tell us what you saw and what you heard? >> good morning. i was seated in the first row in the middle. i was directly facing president trump. the stage, the photographers were in front of him and they had taken pictures and moved him to the left. and him speaking and we were looking at the picture and all the sudden we heard, pop pop pop. we all thought it was fireworks. and then i looked at him and the four secret service jumped on the stage and pushed him straight down. and then they also pushed down the photographers that were there. it was like a pile of them. nobody was moving for a couple

minutes and then the gentleman came on that had the big guns and saying, clear right, clear left. on three, stand him up. so 1-2-3, they stood him up. he was facing me. his eyes were bright. i knew he was okay. but there was a little bit of blood coming here and then they turned him. he exited the stage down the steps opposite of how he had entered. that is when i could see his right year. i could see the blood from the top to the bottom. at that point, it wasn't gushing. not as much as by the time he got to the steps. this is when we knew there must have been a shooter. and they put him into the black sedan and immediately went off and the photographers were still in this hump and i was thinking, they must of been shot too. but little by little, they started lifting them up. the interesting thing was that nobody panicked.

nobody ran. in the first row, nobody took cover. it seemed like everybody wanted to protect the president. i did not think it was a shooting until i saw a gentleman who had spoken earlier in the day, rico elmore, from the beaver county committee, i saw him exiting down the steps where there was the riser and i saw that he had a white shirt on. down the right side of his shirt was covered with blood. he was walking and i knew he wasn't shot. someone in his vicinity must have been. that was the first indication that there was a shooting. >> now that we know the president is injured but safe, questions are being raised about how this could have happened. there are some eyewitness accounts that some people in the crowd at the rally and so

this moment on the structure 150 yards away. did you have any since there was someone on the building? did you hear any shouts from the crowd? >> i was way up front. i was on the floor level, the ground level. i did not hear that. we did see behind president trump, there was a roof. we saw two sharpshooters on the roof and i was told the guy behind me saw him shoot towards the other roof that was off the fairgrounds. this is my sixth rally. by the time i saw them on the roof, i knew president trump was coming. because the sharpshooters were positioned in the guns were pointed that way and to that side. >> you were there in the front row. just feet away. >> i had sent the picture i had taken from my seat and there was nobody between me and

president trump. >> i know you were one of the first people there to get into position for the rally. >> i volunteered. i was there at 7:00 in the morning. >> we are showing the picture you took. and wondering how you are doing and what you make of this. it is such an awful occurrence that you witnessed. and of course we cannot forget that a spectator was killed right in that moment. >> it is hard to explain because you never had that feeling before. it is almost like time stopped. when he was down under the podium, i really didn't know if he was going to ever come back up. that was the heartbreaking part of where my mind was focused. i think most people in the audience, that is where they were. abruptly, everything came to a halt. the last person i had seen come

on the stage right before president trump was dance defino. he was seated to the left of president trump. closest to him on the floor. he must have exited the other way. i never saw him after that. they remember saying, that was dan savino. >> an advisor to the former president, close advisor to his campaign. i'm curious how you felt as a supporter of donald trump. you said you got there early in the front row. he got up and it became clear that he was safe. injured, but safe, and pumped his fist to you all. how did that make you feel? >> i was very relieved. when i saw the blood here and i saw the blood here. but it was just a little bit. i thought he was injured by being pushed on to the ground. i did not mention when he got up, the first thing he said was, they said lift, and he said, i have to get my shoes on.

so they must have fallen off. and that is when i didn't think he was injured. i thought he was injured just by them pushing him down. i had no idea it was a bullet until i saw that gentleman with the blood on his shirt. that was the first sign. people in the audience on the way out were saying the fact that it sounded so much like fireworks, it must have been a suppressor on the weapon. >> a lot of people said that so close to the 4th of july. >> there were houses not that far away. i thought, somebody might be having a party. but then everything stopped. i thought it was five minutes into the speech. but i think it was 10 minutes into the speech. >> as you said, time stops when you witness something like that. thank you for sharing your perspective. >> we have not scene or heard

from president trump since he stepped off the airplane just after midnight. aaron maclachlan and is outside of the former president's bedminster, new jersey estate. >> reporter: good morning. we are hearing former president trump is in great spirits. that according to his son donald trump jr. who said he spoke to his father in the hours following the attack. we are hearing from the former president himself untruth social writing that he was shot with the bullet that pierced the upper part of the right ear. we are hearing also from his political director in the memo to campaign staff saying that everything is okay but also calling for a complete communication lockdown writing "anyone who speaks with the press, even on backgrounder off the record, will be found and

terminated immediately, delete and total lockdown." that according to two sources that received the memo. we are also hearing from an aide on twitter post the video of the former president deplaning, what appears to be in newark, new jersey. you see former president trump slowly walking down the steps waving to the crowd. he does not make any sort of comment. it is not confirmed if he was at his golf course in new jersey. we did see a heavy security presence leave this area around 1:20 a.m. in the morning. >> thank you so much. >> we continue to cover the story. tom winter has talked to law enforcement officials throughout the night. overnight, we did get the identity of the shooter. it does seem like we don't know a lot about him or his potential motive. >> speaking to law enforcement

officials, top intelligence analysts and people on top of these types of issues say what is very clear this morning is that it is unclear why this individual did what they did. no apparent criminal history. no apparent history of civil lawsuits. for a 20-year-old, incredible lack of social media presence. nothing that sticks out when you look at him and look at his history and his background that would point you to this. he is wearing apparently a demolition ranch t-shirt which is after a youtube channel that is very pro- second amendment. they fire rifles. he is a registered republican. and a small donation to a democratic group. nothing there points to somebody that would want to show up and try to kill donald trump at a rally. i think the motive here will be very important. it could go two different pathways potentially. one, some sort of reason that makes sense or severe mental

health break down which could certainly be possible. orc, was this politically motivated? that could become a big deal. is donald trump not conservative enough for him? is their some motivating purpose? i think that is something law enforcement will pay attention to who we have two candidates that will be crisscrossing the country the next 3-4 months and from a security perspective, that is a nightmare. and for society, it could become a huge issue. it is if people think violence is the only way to solve political viewpoints, this could be a rough couple of months or even longer than that. >> we have become accustom after shooting almost to be to go to a facebook page or some kind of manifesto or twitter or whatever it is and find everything you need to know about the shooter. it is striking that there is no trace, at least for now, no footprint on social media. will will where will investigators look next? >> that is what is key. they will go through every e-

mail account. they will go through all of his phones and all of his devices. what does he have? hard drives at the home. pass incidences, those have been potentially very helpful avenues. and there will be a complete security review of what happened and questions have come up. >> let's talk about that. we have all covered presidential events. we know that if you are in the perimeter, you cannot bring a weapon. >> we know this took place outside the security perimeter which raises the question, why is a rooftop so close to the president outside any security perimeter? >> approximately 150 yards away from it. they did have the counter sniper teams up there. they are the ones that took the individual out. to your point, you see the building. it is not directly head-on from where trump was standing. it was off to his right. if you are looking at him like you are looking at the video here, someone 50 yards away, elevated surface to the roof of the building.

should there have been law enforcement there just to keep an eye on the facility? should there be law enforcement looking? to that have been part of the perimeter? to your point, these are big questions that need to be asked. given that this has occurred, i think there is a real concern in law enforcement if other people think if that guy could do it, maybe i could do it better. and that is a major concern. >> on the fields of the grounds of a farm show, there were not that many structures nearby so you would think they would check out whatever buildings were there. typically, even if it is outside the perimeter and there is an elevated position during a presidential candidate's event, nominee's event, what is the protocol? to they stand guard outside the building? today clear the rooftops asked what do they normally do? >> what is so clear in my mind is this happening last night. i remember the anniversary of september 11th when presidential candidates mccain

and obama traveled. and there were people on the rooftops. you have secret service personnel with binoculars and counter sniper teams. if anybody opened a window in that area, you knew they would be on top of it. that is one of the things that is raising so many questions. and i think they will have to ask, should we have at least had some sort of uniformed presence. and that might be what you see going forward. a stronger uniformed presence. in the backdrop of that, law enforcement certainly stretch from a resource standpoint. you look at the conventions coming up and you look at the law enforcement situations in those cities. they are short staffed. they are asking a lot of these individuals to go out there and protect to these events. >> and there is always attention. politicians want to get out there and have these rallies and be close of. and from a security perspective, that is a nightmare. so they are always trying to temper that. >> i'm sure a thorough review is being undertaken for events going forward for both

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we're on the air this morning wit we are on the air with a special edition of today as we cover the attempted assassination of former president donald trump. just ahead, we will take a closer look at the moments just before it happened. >> we will speak live to the speaker of the house of representatives, congressman mike johnson of louisiana. first, these messages. ♪ that colonoscopy for getting screened ♪ ♪ is why i'm delaying ♪ ♪ i heard i had a choice ♪ ♪ i know the name, that's what i'm saying ♪ -cologuard®? -cologuard. cologuard! -screen for colon cancer. -at home, like you want.

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>> that is the shocking moment the first shots rang out at that is the shocking moment the first shots rang out at the campaign rally in western pennsylvania saturday evening. a terrifying and chaotic scene leaving the former president shot in the air. one spectator dead and two critically injured. >> no matter how many times you see it, it is shocking. president biden was briefed on the shooting. he spoke out two hours later this condemning any kind of political violence. our chief correspondent has more on what the president is saying. >> reporter: good morning to you. we have very few details about the call between president trump, former president trump, to president biden. the white house tells us the two did speak last evening. when the shooting took place, the president was in delaware.

he left a church and learned about the shooting and wanted to address the nation as soon as he was fully briefed. among those who briefed him, the secret service director, the homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas as well. and he will be briefed again by his law enforcement team this morning. the president returning to the white house overnight after publicly condemning the violence. he called it sick. he said the country needed to unite. and the biden campaign officials said that the campaign was pausing all outbound communications and were going to take down television ads as quickly as possible because of the seriousness of the moment. some already appeared to be turning up the temperature. last night, donald trump jr. tweeted that his father will never stop fighting for america no matter what the radical left throws at him. he later deleted that tweet. a finalist to be the trump vp pick single that the biden campaign saying that it is rhetoric led directly to the

attempted assassination. and some of the darker parts of social media, the language was particularly ugly perhaps unsurprisingly. some right-wing media figures blaming the rhetoric of democrats. the proud was militia group and users began calling for violence and civil war. conspiracy theories quickly spread on all sides. to be clear, voter records show the shooter was a registered republican and election records show that in 2021, he gave $15 to a democratic aligned organization. >> peter alexander at the white house. thank you. >> we are joined by the republican speaker of the house, mike johnson. mr. speaker, good morning to you. >> have you had a chance to speak with the former president since this happened? share your thoughts as we gather here on this stunning morning. >> america awakens to a rather

surreal morning. this is a horrific act of violence that should be condemned. obviously, we can't go on like this as a society. our prayers are with president trump and all the rally attendees and certainly the family of the individuals who lost their life or were injured. we get briefings from law enforcement. i spoke to secretary alejandro mayorkas and ask questions with regard to homeland security and what happened there. we announced congress will do a full investigation of the tragedy yesterday to determine where their relapses and security or anything else that the american people need to know or deserve to know. in the meantime, we have to turn the rhetoric down. we have to turn the temperature down. we need leaders of all parties on both sides to call that out and make sure that it happens so that we can go forward and maintain the free society we are blessed to have. >> speaker johnson, good morning. when we learned the president was okay, thank goodness he was injured but safe, when you had

that information, will we wonder what your first thoughts were when you saw the president get out and pump his fist. what were you thinking? >> it was a show of strength. i spent a lot of time with president trump. i sent him a text immediately. i knew he would not see it for some time. but just to tell him, that we all saw what seems to be a miracle. i believe god spared him. the bullet went a millimeter from doing real and permanent damage to him or perhaps taking his life. it is just kind of a surreal thing. i know him well. he has an inexhaustible reservoir of energy and strength that is almost inexplicable to us sometimes. but he will keep fighting and he should. this is an important point to make. you were showing some of the text messages of my colleagues in the senate and the house. they pointed out that the rhetoric has been over the top. it really has.

there is no figure in american history at least in the modern era, maybe since lincoln, that has been so vilified and persecuted by media and hollywood elites and political figures. even the legal system. when the message goes out that the election of donald trump would be a threat to democracy and the republic would end, it heats up the environment. we cannot do that. it is simply not true. everyone needs to turn the rhetoric down. >> agreed. and what is your message? you talked about some of the rhetoric focused on donald trump. we could give many examples of course of rhetoric. very incendiary against president biden. there is now concern. i wonder what your concern is about what happens next and whether some of the former president's supporters might want to engage in some retaliation. how concerned are you for the political environment as you call for both sides to calm down? >> it is a heated political

environment on both of those sides. when i came in congress, i came to watch the same time president trump did. a handful of our colleagues started the honor ability caucus. the idea that we can disagree that we have to do it in an agreeable manner. we don't hate people inside the building. you have political opposition and political opponents but we are all americans and we have to treat one another with dignity and respect. we can have heated political discourse and debates but it should be personal and we should be targeting people. president biden himself said in recent days that it is time to put a bull's-eye on trump. i know he didn't mean what is being implied there. but that kind of language, on either side, should be called out and we have to make clear that this is part of our system. we can have a vigorous debate but it needs to end there. >> mr. speaker, you mentioned the investigation that you called for almost immediately

last night into what exactly happened. i think everybody wants answers on how a man was able to get into an elevated position 150 yards from the former president of the united states and take these shots and as you said, kill someone and inch or two others, in addition to the president. what answers will you be looking for in that investigation? >> some are obvious. i asked secretary mayorkas last night, my first question was, were drones being used in the vicinity? obviously you would be able to spot someone on a roof. he didn't know. that doesn't mean it didn't happen. but he did not know last night. we need to know, how could an individual be at that elevation that was seen apparently by bystanders on the ground, how could that not be noticed by secret service? a lot more questions than answers this morning. >> speaker mike johnson, we will continue to follow this. thank you for spending time with us this morning.

>> thank you. let's bring in kristen welker, moderator of meet the press and senior washington correspondent holly jackson. good morning to both. what are you hearing from washington? the reaction to this tragedy that we witnessed last night. >> i think you heard speaker johnson reflect on part of it which is that something has fundamentally been changed in our politics and potentially an our culture and political discourse. but what will that look like? this all comes on the eve of the republican national convention. thousands of delegates of republicans, democrats, media about to descend on milwaukee where former president trump will officially accept his party's nomination. what will it mean for this week ahead alone? what will the tone be at the convention? those familiar with the planning of the convention acknowledge that, yes, something has fundamentally changed. what would that look like in terms of the speeches

delivered? one thing is certain. as you heard speaker johnson say, not only will they look at the security detail of the event last night but undoubtedly looking at the security detail of the convention in the coming week. and how does this shape the race? we were talking about who trump will pick for the vp before the violence rang out. everything changed when that happened. we were talking about whether president biden would consider dropping out of the race in the wake of that tough first debate performance he had. that debate has been brought to a standstill at least for now. i go back to this idea that something has been fundamentally changed. people are desperate for answers to figure out how this could have happened. how to prevent it from happening. and where the country quite frankly goes from here. obviously this country is no stranger to having a history of political violence. but to see it happen now and here and at that event last night, the rally where so many people were energized and there

to support the former president, just a tragedy for so many people. >> let me bring you into this conversation. the house speaker saying the rhetoric the democrats and president biden used against donald trump was incendiary. of course it goes without saying that our politics are very fiery right now and there is language laced with violence. and yes, it is on both sides. do you think this will have an impact on the? on the one hand, you are seeing tweets. as peter said, on the dark corners of the internet, it is increasing. not decreasing. >> i think that is a concern i heard over the course of the last 12-13 hours. what happens next from here and where the country goes. that was the first sentiment i heard when we spoke to a republican member of congress he was at the rally hours after it happened and in the first moments of the conversation the congressman said to me, we

should be alarmed at where the country is headed and what is happening now at this moment. you are hearing calls for people to basically tone it down. bring down the political temperature. and we are seeing the finger- pointing. for example, there is a bill introduced by democrats in congress that was introduced months ago that would have pulled secret service protection and would consider that for anybody who is a convicted felon and has been sentenced to prison. obviously protection would happen in prison. we saw that brought up by republicans an example of the ways the democrats have tried to medically the political it will give us the best indication yet of where the former president's head is at. how he may address the american public at a somber moment like this and a difficult moment for the country. >> we are hearing from the

former president just in the last couple of minutes since we have been speaking here. what is he saying? >> you are right. he has been posting on his truth social account. this is the latest post. thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday. it was god alone he said who prevented the unthinkable from happening. we will fear not but instead remain resilient in our faith and defiant in the face of wickedness. our love goes out to the other victims and their families. we pray for the recovery of those who were wounded and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed. in this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand united and show our true character as americans, remaining strong and determined and not allowing evil to win. i truly love our country and love you all. i look forward to speaking to our great nation this week from wisconsin. a little bit of the preview of the tone that we might hear from former president trump. what in fact will be hear from

him this week in wisconsin? to some extent, that sets the tone clearly. clearly a tone of defiance. and calling on everyone to stay united and to show our true character as americans. the former president continuing to keep the public posted on his truth social account as the world continues to react and try to get answers to exactly what happened and how to prevent it from ever happening again. >> his defiance was immediate when he stood up and put his fist in the air with his face covered in blood. thank you. we will look for much more this morning on because the press when kristen welker is joined by bernie sanders, lindsey graham of south carolina, democratic senator chris of delaware and republican congressman from pennsylvania. >> we have a lot more coming up on the special sunday edition of today. we are back after these messages.

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. we are beak on a sunday morning with the harrowing look at the assassination attempt of former president trump. >> we'll go back we want to get out to the rally site in pennsylvania. tom, good morning. >> reporter: good morning again to you guys. we have gotten new video from our team here on the ground at the rally site that i want to show viewers work if we can rule that. for the first time this morning, we are looking at investigators on the roof of the building where the alleged assassin started firing and was ultimately killed. from this video, you can see a half dozen to a dozen investigators on the roof. we saw him remove what looked like equipment or something from the top of the roof. that is why we call this an active crime scene, because of teams and scenes like this. investigators are out here early in the morning collecting evidence. if you have been following this story closely, you likely saw it in clips. this morning, we put the clips together to show you how this

unfolded. >> 6:03 p.m. eastern, former president donald trump takes the stage at a campaign rally in butler, pennsylvania. minutes later, at 6:11 p.m., as mr. trump discusses his record on immigration, the first shots ring out. mr. trump drops to the ground as more rounds are fired. people in the crowd began to scream. multiple agents pile on top of the president to shield him from the gunfire. the dialogue picked up on nearby microphones. >> seconds later, armed officers rush on stage in front of the podium as word arrives at the shooter is down, less than one minute after the first shot. 6:12 p.m. come agents around the former

president as he is lifted back to his feet and overheard asking if he can get his shoes. 6:13 p.m., mr. trump's bloody face visible through a wall of secret service agents as he lifts a fist in the air mouthing the word "fight" come over and over again as he is rushed into a waiting suv surrounded by police. the fbi now looking into the moments leading up to the shooting including reports that witnesses saw the shooter on a nearby roof outside the rally perimeter when the first shots were fired. >> i'm aware that law enforcement responded to a number of reports of suspicious activity. the specific response will be part of the after action. law enforcement was responding to check on several suspicious occurrences. >> this frantic cell phone video appears to capture those terrifying moments right before the president was shot. federal authorities are combing through the footage as they try to figure out this morning how

this could have happened. >> reporter: as many times as we have seen these clips, they are still so chilling. the videos and photos are all part of the investigation. they will be combing through all the media. the fbi is also asking for the public's help if you have video or photos they have not seen before. or if you have any information about the shooting or shooter, they are asking that you contact the fbi. >> much to investigate there. tom llamas, thank you very much. >> let's go to a former secret service agent. good morning. i want to put up this map of the farm grounds where this event was held last night. the elevated position where the shooter was set up was about 150 yards from the stage where former president trump was speaking. as a former secret service agent, are you surprised the building was not better secured? >> when you do a security

plan, you have the main security. the security perimeter where there are magnetometers, where people are being checked as they are entering the event. you have the outer perimeter where, when you have an open rally like this, you are extremely vulnerable. i have done these. they are probably the most anxious you will ever be as an agent because you are trying to secure all of it. the adjacent buildings, you do this in urban environments and in rural environments like this. when you do security planning, you literally put yourself on stage and you look out as if you were the protect the and say, what can i see? if i can see it, they can probably see me. with an outer perimeter like that, typically you would have a local law enforcement presence that would notice the buildings. secret service works with local police. you have to think of the secret service like the conductor of the orchestra. they create the blueprint and the design for the security plan. they work with state police. they work with local police.

they put in resources and assets. >> in a typical scenario or a scenario that one wishes would have unfolded, would you perhaps have had local officials secure the roof to make sure the roof is clear and make sure nobody is in the building and then stand guard there so that nobody comes in after that? >> we don't know if they did or did not do this. >> but they should have? >> i would presume you should have a local police presence in the area. could you have put somebody on the rooftop? you could have. the other element is the counter sniper team. as far as we know, we see a two man team from the secret service side. as we were discussing prior to speaking, they are looking at everything. they have to cover 360 degrees. i know a lot of folks are like, how could they not see this? one of the issues, if it was a two man team, think about what they are consistently covering. local law enforcement definitely -- again come we don't know if some he was or

was not in position. if there is no coverage there whatsoever, that will be an issue. why weren't those adjacent buildings looked at lex they are very close. >> if there was someone from local law enforcement outside the building where the shooter was, if you consider the possibilities, how could he have gotten up there? >> as a look at this, and just from a preliminary assessment and not having all the details, it seems to me what i would presume, before the president goes on stage, they secure the area. there is communication. are we good to go? is he good to get up on the stage? i would presume that everything was in the clear. i would think nobody was on the rooftop. what i suspect, and again, i am suspecting, that after he got up on stage, that is when the shooter took position. that is a slant the rooftop. and some of the photos show that he is dressed in colors matching the rooftop and the building to camouflage himself.

i am suspecting he took position after president trump spoke and then engaged. >> it is easy in hindsight to say, why wasn't this done or that done? and let's acknowledge that as we have this conversation. it is interesting because there were eyewitnesses who said they were positioned outside the rally but just listening. and they saw the gunman with the rifle flying around and they were trying to tell some of the local officials that they saw there. is there a way to communicate? these are split-second decisions. but for example, if there were a state police officer outside the outer perimeter, and said there is a guy out there with a gun, cannot message it communicated to secret service quickly? >> really come with the issue is, the person trying to communicate, where they verbally speaking to someone? or were they trying to get somebody's attention. at these rallies, you are looking at thousands of people. how much law enforcement you have? you have one officer to 1000? and can they get that person's

attention? and at the end of the day, and i think this will come up during the hearing, resources, money. this all costs something. when you are doing the security advances, you are negotiating. there are times when i have been needing 75 agents and we come back with no resources or funds or we need the folks somewhere else. can you do it with x amount of people? and it's not just the secret service. it will be law enforcement. the resources are tapped as well. >> quickly, let's talk about the aftermath of the shooting. you see the agents rush the stage and keep the former president on the ground. he stands up. what you see in those images as he pumped his fist to the ground and crowd and moves toward the car? >> if we break this down as the shooting is happening and we hear the shots being fired, president trump goes down and takes cover. and when you look at the banner, there is his banner around the stage. that tends to be some type of steel that is built for an incident like this so that the

protect he can hit the ground and take cover. we see agents coming in from the sides. their job is, that is what is called the shift. they come in and they are the armor. they are the ones who literally will come around and secure his body. the goal is if any additional shots are fired, they take the impact of those shots. they bring him back down. you can hear them too. listening to the audio, you can hear them talking. is it clear? are we good to go? they want to move him to the vehicle. any time you are open and if we look at previous assassinations or assassination attempts, reagan and jfk, the most recent, always outside. they have him secured. when they hear go, you can go. i'm assuming for them to get the go, somebody said to them, the threat has been neutralized. you are not going to move unless you know what is going on. they pick him up.

you can hear the president. it is interesting from a human behavior standpoint, you hear the president saying, where are my shoes? a lot of people are commenting on that. thinking about the stress and impact of what happened. it is like a very human, simple thing to think of. >> you can hear on the radio that they say, the shooter is down. clearly they felt the threat was neutralized and they could safely move. the president now with this iconic act of defiance holding up his fist and literally sticking his neck out into the open again. if you are an agent right then and there, are you just wishing you could just whisk him off to the car? >> i saw that and i could understand why he is doing it from that perspective. the other perspective i'm thinking is, we know one shooter is down but you don't know if there are other shooters. and when you move them to the vehicles, you want to make sure, does he have any other shots and check him? >> so much to discuss on this special sunday morning edition of today.

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