roosevelt room of the white house. biden and vice president kamala harris receiving an updated homeland security and law enforcement briefing in the situation room. you can see the picture there. the white house tweeted this picture out. president biden spoke with mr. trump last night, and they characterized that call as a, quote, good, short, and respectful conversation. the fbi has identified the alleged shooter as 20-year-old thomas matthew crooks, a resident of bethel park, pennsylvania, it is about one hour from the site of the rally. he was shot at the scene and killed by the service snipers. this all played out yesterday in butler, pennsylvania. officials say the crooks opened fire about five or six minutes after mr. trump got on stage to speak, wounding him while he was on stage. the fbi is calling this an assassination attempt. here's the moment as it happened.

>> if you really want to see something sad, take a look at what happened --

>> as you can see, after being struck, mr. trump was immediately surrounded by secret service agents. you can see his head did pop up there as he raised his arm. so he was exposed. there are secret service armed agents. you saw them in their protective gear with their helmets, training their rifles on the crowd to make sure there were no other shooters. after the shooter had been taken down, they did bring mr. trump, surrounded by his agents, to the armored van, which is the safest place for him to be.

that's the first rule, get them into the car and the vehicle as soon as it is safe to do so. you can see that his hand and his arm went up as he fist bumps to the crowd. he was then taken to a local medical facility, and in a true social post, he made it about 2.5 hours later, he wrote that a bullet pierced the upper part of my right ear. you saw the blood in the initial pictures, adding that, i knew immediately that something was wrong and i heard a whizzing sound before he felt the bullet ripping through the skin. a follow-up post this morning, he wrote he is thankful for the, quote, thoughts and prayers, adding that it was god alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening. three members of the audience were also struck. two others remain at a local hospital in critical condition, but according to the local health network, one spectator was killed. he has been identified in the last hour by pennsylvania governor as corey.

>> cory was a girl dad. corey was a firefighter. cory went to church every sunday. corey loved his community. most especially, corey loved his family. corey was an average supporter of the former president. i am so excited to be there last night with him and the community. i asked corey's wife if it would be okay for me to share that we spoke. she said yes. she also asked that i share with all of you that corey died a hero. that corey dove on his family to protect them last night at this rally. >> late last night, mr. trump was seen getting off his plane in new jersey and is presumed to be at his bedminster home because of the extra security that we saw that large facility.

the fbi is leading the investigation, as well as with state and local law enforcement. officials say the shooter took an elevated position on the roof of the building roughly 148 yards away. well within sniper range. from where president trump was speaking. law enforcement officials tell us the alleged shooter was outside the secret service security perimeter that was set up for the rally that would include anyone who goes to the rally getting through their bags searched. people come hours earlier to get through that protective detail. some may come as early as 7:30 in the morning. on that rooftop, you can see the body of the alleged shooter after he was taken down. three senior law enforcement officials also say he used a semi automatic rifle based on what was found at the scene. two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation tell nbc news investigators are looking into whether the gun belonged to the

shooter and was purchased legally. again, you can see the body of the alleged shooter on that rooftop after he was shot and killed. we believe by secret service sharpshooters. an eyewitness says he saw the alleged shooter prior to the shooting and alerted officials. listen to this. >> we noticed a guy crawling -- you know, bear crawling up the roof of the building beside us. 50 feet away from us. so we are standing there, we are pointing at the guy, calling up the roof. >> had a gun, right? >> you can clearly see him with a rifle. absolutely. we are pointing at him. the police are down there running around on the ground. we are like, there's a guy on the roof with a rifle. and the police are like -- like they didn't know what was going on. we are like, right here on the roof. we can see them from right here. he is crawling.

and next thing you know, i'm thinking to myself, why is trump still speaking? why have they not pulled him off the stage? i'm standing there pointing at him for two or three minutes. the secret service is looking at us from the top of the barn. i pointing at the roof, just standing there like this. and next thing you know, five shots rang out. >> joining me now is nbc news investigation corresponded tom winter. jake trailer, and at the white house, gabe gutierrez. so tom, you been working on this all night since it happened. tell us the latest on the investigation. what more do we know about the alleged shooter? do they still think that he was a loan shooter, that no one else was involved? are they going to a social media? he was a young man. he must have been online. >> i will just pick up right on the social media component of this. according to law enforcement officials, this individual had a very, very limited presence on social media. we just got

word from a statement from discord, which is a social media network. they did identify an account belonging to him, but they say apparently he hardly used the account. there was no reference to the shooting, no reference to any sort of violence. that's from the company discord. we've gone to any other potential social media posts. we don't see anything of any sort of significance whatsoever. he has a very limited footprint out there, and we do know he is registered according to registry records, a registered republican. there's a $15 donation to a democratic cause. some folks have said, that's not him, because it says it's pittsburgh, not bethel park where he is from. if you look at the actual fac record, corresponds directly to him, his address, and the z.i.p. code is just the city is off. not a significant donation, only $15. what is their background?

what is their ideology, if you will? it could certainly be politically motivated. we know how individuals approach this. there's been so many things said about donald trump that are negative. there are some people that don't think donald trump is conservative enough. as a whole gamut of feelings and what people think about donald trump. is that what motivated this person? certainly obviously a possibility, but another possibility that i think we need to include is the fact that sometimes these shooters act out for reasons that, because of an extreme mental health breakdown, or as we saw in the former shooting of president ronald reagan, john hinckley jr.'s head that he shot former president reagan to get the attention of a hollywood actress. so we just don't know. and without the social media, we can do our own research. we don't see any felonies, nothing as an adult. we even checked civil complaints to see if somebody is filed a lawsuit. maybe he's got an axe to grind against somebody who's harmed

him. we don't see anything there either. that's what law enforcement is also uncovering. they are not seeing that level of detail. they do have one advantage of course that we don't have. they have the ability to access his home. they are conducting interviews and they have the ability to get subpoenas to get information from email accounts or potentially look at any sort of hard disk or journals found at the home. not getting a lot of detail about that. i don't know if that's because it's an ongoing effort and those things take time, or maybe they're fighting a couple of threads they are looking to pull on at this time as far as potential motivation. worst case scenario, he is deceased. as a scene and other mass shootings, or instigates significant events, and obviously a attempted assassination is as serious as it gets. we don't know the motive because the individual is dead and they left nothing behind. so we have really kind of covered just some of the possibilities that could have occurred here. certainly going forward, andrea, when we talked to law

enforcement officials, people who worked in these type of details, people that are close to what is happened here, the security ramifications are enormous. certainly next week with the rnc, the former president and soon to be the republican nominee, he will be inside a secured facility. so the chances of something happening from the outside are probably not as strong, probably extremely minimal, frankly. going forward, as these candidates crisscross the country and enjoy these rallies outside and want to engage with voters, how does that go going forward? we know one thing about donald trump that everybody can agree on is that he enjoys these rallies, that he likes going and meeting with crowds and talking to people. he did it during the pandemic in 2020 and in 2016, worse, and obviously he did it yesterday. i think this is something going

forward that will be taking a closer look at, and will there be more law enforcement resources devoted? obviously, this was a 100+, 140+ yards away from a clear line of sight, because the bullets were able to get through. and so a lot of questions will be asked, and i think you will see a significant change in the posture going forward until election day or perhaps beyond. >> thank you for your comprehensive work on all of this. jake trailer, you were at the rally last night. how are you doing? and describe the feeling as it was happening. >> right, andrea. thank you for that question. i'm doing okay, or is okay as you can be. we are reporting out from this crime scene here in butler as much as we can as we get more information. to describe what it was like specifically, it was harrowing. those of us in the press pen, we were there obviously covering the rally. if you can

go back to before that horrific moment, we were anticipating a potential vice presidential pick announcement. that's where our thoughts were at, that's what we were thinking. most of the journalists and the reporters in the press pen with the very front anticipating some type of announcement. of course, then we heard the shots. there was so many things happening so quickly, but it also felt like it happened so slowly, too. we heard the shots. immediately, i saw trump go down pretty quickly. i also saw the crowd go down, we all went down and were covering each other. it lasted a handful of seconds, but it felt like a very long time. once the shots were over and we could see that the secret service had jumped on top of the former president, that's when i was able to push my head up just a bit and directly see the former president and his ear that had been bleeding. i saw his ear bleeding, i heard

the shouts from the crowd. a lot of fear, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of unknown this. and again, rather quickly, once the scene diffused and it became aware that there was safety, that secret service was again in control, there were pretty quickly shouts and cheers from the crowd. everyone kind of arose together and were clapping. the famous photo and images we see now of the president pumping his fist in the air, that was kind of that moment that truly felt -- in terms of what was going on, a triumphant moment, the fact that the former president was actually safe. and so although that was a quick moment, it really did extend over time. has that wrapped up, we began, of course, going live on air. pretty shortly after a few moments over, it was declared an official crime scene, and then they exited all attendees of the rally, and we were quickly escorted.

that was a really unique and special moment, as everyone was exiting the rally together with a lot of uncertainty of what was happening. you heard a lot of shouts from people in the crowd saying that, to pray for the former president. he also heard a lot of people that were angry and upset and confused. obviously, an intense moment where a lot wasn't known. we are continuing to find out more, but we are thankful for safety, and we are obviously very, very saddened by the loss of people, and continuing to learn more as we go. >> we are thankful for you, jake trailer. terrible experience. probably, this is your first campaign, first campaign for us. a terrible way to start off. gabe gutierrez. last night's president condemning the attack. the white house has said the president biden has spoken with donald trump. we don't have anything else about that other than it was brief and respectful. we know are going to hear from the president in about 15 minutes.

>> yes, as you said, the president speaking last night and condemning this act of violence, calling it thick. we do expect to hear from president biden in the next 15 minutes or so, giving the fast- moving developments in the story, the timing could slide a bit. the president speaking with his national security team in the situation room this morning along with the vice president, fbi director, national security advisor, and homeland security secretary as well. andrea, this all comes amid the context of this campaign, which seems like an eternity ago. but you know, just 24 hours ago, this was a completely different scenario. we now know that the vice president has postponed her campaign travel to florida on tuesday. that is according to a campaign official, and essentially, the campaign as we know it remains stalled, the biden campaign taking down tv ads as well that were attacking former president trump. again, we are awaiting

the presidents new remarks, scheduled for about 15 minutes from now. >> we don't know where the president is changing his schedule. he was supposed to go to the lbj library and doing an interview with lester holt. he was first giving a speech on the anniversary of the civil rights law. >> it all still remains up in the air. he supposed to head to texas tomorrow and then nevada later on this week to week at the two conferences there. he also had another interview scheduled for later in the week. all that remains up in the air as officials here at the white house are dealing with this crisis in real time, trying to figure out the residence schedule as the week progresses. again, the campaign today saying the vice president's trip to florida -- that has been postponed. >> and nevada, a key swing state that is not looking very well for the democrats this year. tom winter, jake trailer, gabe gutierrez. thanks to all of you.

i want to bring in jim cavanaugh, a retired atf agent in charge. cedric alexander, former public safety director for dekalb county, georgia, and nbc news senior law enforcement analyst. i wanted to talk to you about the weapon used, the rifle, and there is an extraordinary picture from dark mills, the icon take white house photographer that is worked for decades and decades. he's always with the president of the united states. and you can see in that circle, jim, the bullet. how long would it take after the bullet was fired from that weapon before people would hear it, before mr. trump would be aware of it? you can see how it just missed doing considerably more damage. >> right. having been shut out without result before, i can tell you that you hear the lit whizzed by your ear.

it sounds like a bee. what you have to remember, andrea, is it is like a flying drillbit and it's traveling at 3000 feet per second, or 3200 feet per second out of an ar 15 rifle. that is a tremendous photograph. i read that story in the times, and the photographers use a very high-speed shutter speed camera to be able to grab that. what you are seeing basically is the disturbance in the air behind the bullet. so the bullet travels so fast, it goes by your head, and then you hear the shot. so you don't hear the shot right away, because of the speed of sound. that's an unbelievable picture. i think he probably was hit with the second shot. and that was likely the first shot, because he is not struck their. and he is either struck with the first or second shot. he grabs his year on the second shot. now, just quickly, the shooter

reports he did not have a scope on that rifle. if you had had a scope on that rifle, you know, mr. trump may be dead. if he was just using the regular sites the rifle came with, he almost killed the president and missed by about two inches. it's a miracle he was not killed, and it's a tremendous lapse not to have uniformed officers or secret service on a rooftop that is only 148 yards from the dais. it is shocking to me that that wasn't covered. that's a failure. they had great success, though. they killed the shooter in one shot, which also save the former president life. if you were to continue shooting, he could have shot through the bodies of the secret service huddle and still killed the former president and rooted them were shot others. and so they did a lot of things right by the counter sniper team taking amount, but it's a failure not to have people on

that roof. >> and how do you carry a rifle to a rally on a rooftop with people all around you, including law enforcement? you can't hide a rifle. >> right. you can sometimes put it under a cover, a blanket, a shirt. lee harvey oswald wrapped his rifle up to walk in the school book depository before he killed john kennedy, and he told his neighbor who drove him there but it was window blinds. you can cover it up or put it down by your leg, and that business might not have been opened, where the red roof is. you could've parked in that parking lot. i didn't hear from the witnesses how he addressed that. he might've climbed on the bed of a truck, climbed up the truck or on top of an air conditioning unit to get up on top of there. he could have even brought a ladder and a pickup truck or something, but we haven't heard those details. but the only way to stop that is, you get there first, you

have a lot of people, and you command the high ground. this is basic. the secret service has done it for years successfully, so i am really surprised that they did not have that high ground covered, a uniform trooper or two up there. maybe a couple of those other high spots, it's all that would take to prevent this. then the guy might've been captured coming with the rifle. we can talk about resources, but the pennsylvania state police has 3000 troopers. the township police are there, the sheriff, the secret service. we could've mustered up a few officers to get up there. it's not that there wasn't enough people. the people can be got. it just should have been covered. it can't be said that it's outside the perimeter. that's not a good answer, because a rifle can reach easily from that location. >> and cedric, let's talk about the local law enforcement, because it is conceivable that the secret service deferred to local law enforcement, or state police to cover that location.

>> well, we don't exactly know that. generally what happens when you have a president and a former president coming into your community, there is a coordination with the secret service and state law enforcement. how much conversation and how they integrated their resources, we may know superficially. but i think in detail as to what occurred is going to be determined over a period of time. and i certainly do agree with jim cavanaugh that you have a situation such as this were a lone gunman can go out 148 yards from an elevated position and fire rounds, that is very troubling. but i think until all of -- all of this investigation is concluded and we can get a

totality of a review of what actually took place, who is on first, he should have been on second and third, we both won't know until that time. but this is a tragic incident. i think when they go back and do what is often times referred to as a hot wash, or a review of the situation in terms of what occurred, they are going to have opportunities to look at what it is that they did very well, and have opportunities to also look at what they could have done better. now, one of the advantages, if you would, is when secret service come into communities across the country. it is natural for them to park with low local law enforcement. that is extremely important, because they are indigenous to those communities. they know community members. they know where potential assets are that can be utilized

for security. and they also know where the weak opponents may happen to be. and generally, they work very well together. but there is -- but we must understand that regardless of whatever the security situation may be, is that nothing is 100% foolproof. and all we can do is work collaboratively together, along with the community, along with indigenous law enforcement and the folks for secret service. and to try to reduce the likelihood of this kind of event ever occurring again and negate it if possible. but it can be very complex in providing that kind of security and that kind of large event also is very convoluted. and you could have lapses. there's going to be opportunities there for law enforcement to learn what we

can do better also going forward. it's a sad and tragic and horrible event that should have never happened. and this shooter should have been confronted earlier. but here again, we don't know all of the circumstances. >> cedric alexander. thank you so much. and jim cavanaugh, as always. thanks to you. we are awaiting remarks from president biden at any moment, expected to speak from the roosevelt room in the white house. we will be right back. back. aca begins to neutralize acid on contact. r-o-l-a-i-d-s spells relief. everybody wants super straight, super white teeth. they want that hollywood white smile. new sensodyne clinical white provides 2 shades whiter teeth and 24/7 sensitivity protection. i think it's a great product. it's going to help a lot of patients.

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it again, we are awaiting remarks from president biden. he is expected to speak in the rose room at any moment. we will bring that to you as soon as it happens. this is not the first time that americans have had to grapple with assassination attempt. as aaron was just reflecting on in dallas. from the killings of abraham lincoln in 1865, john f. kennedy again. to the failed attempt on ronald reagan's life in 1981. i covered that in the aftermath. americans are sadly familiar with these tragedies. martin luther king jr., robert f kennedy.

one notable period came in 1968 when both dr. martin luther king jr. and presidential candidate robert f kennedy, at the center of new york, were assassinated in the same year. one in march, the other in june. the nation was deeply divided of the time. killing sparked widespread fears of political violence engulfing the country two months before losing his own life. bobby kennedy delivered a historic speech just hours after dr. king was killed. >> what we need in the united states is not division. >> what we need is not violence and lawlessness, but it is love and wisdom and compassion toward one another. a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white, or whether they be black.

>> michael, los angeles historian, joins me. michael, i go back to that night. it was a dark night in america. there were riots. i was a young reporter when dr. king was shot and killed. i was sent up to north philadelphia in a car by myself to do interviews. with people in the community who were so angry and so upset. and then, of course, just a few months later, it was bobby kennedy at that hotel in los angeles after successfully winning the california primary, challenging the incumbent president. there are so many historical parallels about what happened yesterday, and we didn't know for decades how close ronald reagan came in 1981. i was sent to the hospital and we were there for days. we did not know for so long how close that bullet came to his heart.

>> absolutely. it was not known at the time. the white house made an effort to spare the americans that detail. but i think the way to look at this, andrea, is, is violence a part of american history? or is this an aberration? i would sadly say it is a tree. you know, we fought our war for independence. we brought enslaved people here against their will and treated them horribly. we have a war on native americans at the frontier, a lot of cowboys use guns in a way that doesn't look too great these days. but the lesson of all of this is not that violence is going to be eradicated. we all wish we could try to do that, but make sure the politics and violence never mix in our society. and that is the trouble with these assassination attempts. that's what happened yesterday. someone was firing a gun in the middle of a presidential campaign.

we have no idea about his motive, we have no idea if this is just a disturbed person or someone who wanted to change history. but our goal should always be to make sure that campaigns do not get so overheated that they take a disturbed person or a fanatic and cause that person to try to take a candidate or a presidents life in his own hands. >> i want to share that the white house is now rescheduling tomorrow's event, speech, that the president was going to give at the lbj library, a place you know so well. you wrote books on -- that presidency. >> yes, indeed. >> this would've been commemorating the civil rights legislation. it has memorably passed that summer, 40 or how many years ago? >> 16 years ago. after a filibuster that lasted

for months in the south. >> right. >> so that is being rescheduled. it will take place, so will the interview with lester holt, understandably. but the assassinations, they happened during such a significant time of division in america. how do these events -- how do they affect lbj? how do they affect the outcome of 1968? again, the convention that summer was in chicago, as the democratic convention will be this year. >> richard nixon even said himself, he would not have been elected without the violence of 1968. he probably would not have defeated robert kennedy of kennedy had lived and won the democratic nomination. nixon also felt that he could not have won without the violence in the streets of chicago between antiwar protesters and the chicago police. so that shows where violence actually did change american history. but so does nonviolence. i love the fact that you refer

to the civil rights act, which was signed by lbj on the second of july, 1964, exactly 60 years ago. that was a result of a nonviolent movement. martin luther king in the 1950s went against many leaders who said the only way to get rights for black americans that hasn't happened for all these decades, is going to be violence and scaring white people. instead, he said, let's use the theories of mahatma gandhi. let's do it nonviolently and see if our american system really works. as a result, because of nonviolent protest, namely, you got a civil rights bill which says you can use any hotel or restaurant if you are black or white or anything else. and the next year, voting rights, 1965, which said we are going to take away things like the poll tax and other literacy tests that keep black americans from voting.

you are asking about 1968. in 1968, despite the assassinations, or maybe even because of the uproar over them, lbj was able to get two things. a modest gun safety bill, and also, a fair housing act, which meant that you could live in whatever area of whatever city you want. in washington, d.c., you and i have discussed before 1968, there were many places in d.c. were jewish people or black people or middle easterners could not buy a house, because lbj was on the case. that changed. >> michael, your insights are invaluable. thank you very, very much. we will be right back with a lot more about the attempted assassination on former president trump. stay with us. us. and to fight heartburn, why take 10 antacids throughout the day when you can take 1 prilosec. for easier heartburn relief, one beats ten. prilosec otc. one pill. 24 hours. zero heartburn.

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political cloud hanging over all of this, speaking in his role as commander in chief and not as the now two time rebel of the full former president. we heard in his remarks last night his broad condemnation of this violence, calling it sick. we've also seen, as you mentioned, how quickly and forcefully this incident impacted the white house to schedule and the presidents plans shortly after the president learned of the shooting after he left a church service. we are told he wanted to address the nation. he went ahead and did that and then he returned to the white house earlier than expected. he was able to meet in person and was briefed by homeland security officials and law enforcement officials in the situation room today. that is part of what we could expect him to talk about when he addresses the nation in just a few minutes. we are also seeing how this is impacting his schedule. we learn from the white house just a few minutes ago that

they are postponing his trip to austin, texas, tomorrow where he was expected to go to the lbj library and deliver a speech commemorating the 16th anniversary of the signing of the civil rights act. we've also learned from the white house that the vice presidents schedule is also shifting with her trip to florida on tuesday being postponed. really, this is throwing the rest of the week and the further timeline even than that in flux, and it is really in a state of flux right now. as far as what we know on the campaign side and their plans, that is also still up in the air. we only know that they have taken down their ads in an active sensitivity around this moment. we also know that the biden campaign has directed staffers to refrain from commenting on the shooting out in public or on social media. the wilmington headquarters where the biden campaign is located is also ramped up their security presence in the wake of the shooting.

really, the shooting leaving a lot of doubts and a lot of unknowns at this time. still a lot of questions, and some of those we could expect to be answered by the president and he does speak coming out of that briefing that he received this morning. >> thank you so much. joining us now is janel harmon, former chief of homeland security and intelligence for the district of columbia who oversaw d.c.'s operational intelligence and response to january 6th. also with us is robert mcdonald, known as bobby mcdonald who worked at a secret service agent for more than 20 years in the white house detail. thank you for both for being here. janel, first, tell us about the standard operating procedure at an event like this, a campaign rally. it is in a national security event like the nato summit was whether the republican or democratic national conventions. but the pre-advance that takes place by the secret service would have been -- to look at that perimeter, to look at the

roof top, and then to figure out how would be secured during the event is well in sniper range. >> bobby can probably give you some more tactical insight. i was hoping you weren't when asked me that, because you know, while we are lauding the immediate response -- life- saving response potentially of the secret service, we have to look at the organization as a whole. this organization has had issues in the past and controversies. and so while on the tactical end, everyone did exactly what they were supposed to do. to your point, andrea, there is a team that gets to these locations well in advance. an advance team that is supposed to look at these things, particularly after we just had before he came on, talking about bobby kennedy and jfk. so these things, you would expect not to happen. i will tell you that once again, bobby can probably give some more insight. former president trump's detail is far more sophisticated and

advanced than your normal former president. specifically because he is the presumptive nominee for the republican party. they will certainly be after actions and investigations, but that doesn't take away from the immediate actions of the men and women on the ground that risk their lives to save the former president. >> bobby mack, was this a security failure? literally it must've been a security failure on that perimeter. what is your analysis of what went wrong ? >> is my friend just said, there's a lot of issues here that are going to have to be looked at and dealt with. i think there are some very good things happened, the responses. hindsight is 20/20. some good things happened here, but i think there are some things that may not have been good here. i think there is some communications issues that may have been involved here. the bbc is reporting on an eyewitness who stated that they

provided information to some type of law enforcement after seeing someone climb onto the roof of that building. i'm not sure it made it to the working shift in a timely fashion so that those supervisors there could've made a decision to take the former president off the dais and get him out of harms way before something like that happens. i think the secret service is going to have to look at a lot of aspects of what went on here. the advanced process and all the things to see how we can get better moving forward. >> as you can see, that is a live picture of the podium set up in the roosevelt room. it's a room just a few steps away from the oval office at the cabinet room in the white house. it's not a very large room. they will be coming in and there will potentially be the possibility of reporters asking questions of him possibly answering. we can see the door opening and one of the advanced people coming in. they are getting ready for the president. continue that thought, bobby mack.

you were in the secret service for 20 years. you grab the presidency of george w. bush, president obama. correct me if i'm wrong, you were assigned to vice president cheney as well as vice president biden. is that correct? >> i was not with vice president cheney, i was with clinton and bush and then finished off my time as a supervisor on then vice president biden's detail. >> thanks for clarifying that. i was misinformed there. judging by your experiences, did you ever -- nothing happened on your watch with either of those administrations, because it was nothing like the event with president ford. you know, attempted assassinations.

>> correct. i never had to do with a gunman situation that i was aware of. i immediate -- my immediate thoughts went to the shift that was working yesterday that showed up. they had a situation happen. obviously a lot of chaos. these types of situations don't always go the way the playbook says they should go. we train and train and train for this event, hoping that we never have to implement our muscle memory and the training we practice for. we go back to my comment that some things went very well. i think the way that the shift moved to the president off the stage, albeit a little bit slow, but their decision on the ground there was to wait until the information about the shooter was clarified that he was neutralized, and then moved him to the armored vehicles to get out of that situation. again, easy to monday morning quarterback here. a lot of good communication between the shift that you can hear on that video.

they are audible discussions with each other on how to move. that's exactly how we practice. that was good. i'm not sure that other aspects of the advanced took place in a proper fashion, or perhaps there is an explanation of why the perpetrator was not seen at an earlier time. that's part of the investigation the secret service will be doing now. the fbi will be brought in to do the actual criminal investigation of the incident. >> and the white house has told nbc at the interview with lester holt, with nightly news anchor lester holt, will take place tomorrow. instead of taking place at the reagan library, because that trip is being rescheduled. it will take place at the white house. that will be a prime time special, as well as parts of that interview simply will be on nightly news. but also, a prime time special that would be originally scheduled for 9:00 p.m., so that's what we expect will take place.

the assassination attempt should change security protocols also for local and state law enforcement. you are intimately aware of what happened on january 6th and what didn't happen, the calling in of the national guard and the penetration of the capital. but there will be an after action report on whether the peripheries, the perimeters have to be changed and whether outdoor rallies have to be re- examined in this campaign. >> absolutely. we have spoken about this. when you have a presidential type of movement like this, it is -- there's rings of security. it starts with state and locals and it moves to federal agencies. one thing that we talked about, andrea, many times, is the temperature in terms of political violence that is just on the rise and on the rise. this assassination, this attempted assassination of a former president, the leading

candidate for the republican party, is an affront to our election process. and so this really requires not just the federal but the state and locals to kind of re- evaluate the security postures going forward. we have two conventions coming up, and it's a lot more rallies, a lot more types of events like this that are going to be happening. i will say a defense of the state and locals, they are stretched particularly thin. we are coming off of several years of defund the police, were specifically on the local end, any local police departments have been decimated. not just through budgetary or kind of budgetary constraints, but law-enforcement people don't want to go into that mast. not even the state and local, but also the federal level. how do we protect our election cycle? we begins at the candidates.

they are our election cycle. >> we have about one minute left. in one minute, bobby mack, can we talk about the president and these candidates, how important it is and whether we have to be for that security and keep them in more confined spaces? >> absolutely. i'm not sure that this is totally going to change a lot that we do. it tweaks a lot of what we do. as we know, many of our methodologies have progressed over the years based upon various actions that happen with president reagan or president ford. a lot of the things that the secret service does right now are building blocks on the way we may have had issues or troubles in the past, and we are continuing to shine the apple, if you will, to make sure everything is going well. the secret service is going to need to ask the hard questions of itself here and be prepared to stand up and represent why, what happened, and why that continued to potentially injure

one of our protect these. that is the bottom line here. we can't have any failure. we have to be very good and perfect every single day. >> exactly. bobby mcdonald. thank you both so much, and that does it for this hour of our special coverage. i am andrea mitchell. my colleague will pick up right now in new york. righ now in new york. good to be with you. we continue our special coverage of the assassination attempt on donald j. trump and the former president said a bullet pierced the top of his right ear last night during a campaign rally in pennsylvania, happening a few minutes after he took the stage and a moment after he turned his head. a split second move that likely saved his life.