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new york with special coverage this morning. we're approaching 36 hours since that shocking assassination attempt on former president trump. officials may have more questions than answers. authorities are searching for a motive as they work through evidence at the site of the rally in pennsylvania and at the deceased gunman's home outside of pittsburgh. there are growing calls for an explanation and separate investigations of how the unthinkable happened at that campaign event saturday. did a security lapse enable the 20-year-old shooter to unleash that hail of gunfire that grazed donald trump, left another man dead, and injured two others? also, the political impact cannot be overstated here. donald trump is in milwaukee for another high-profile, high-security event the republican national convention set to kick off in a few hours, and still no running mate announced. we have nbc's george solis on site in butler, pennsylvania. also with us, senior intelligence adviser and deputy

director at the intelligence center, phil mudd. and former fbi special agent clint watts. george, where do things stand at the crime scene now? >> reporter: good morning, it is frozen in time. it is an area that is obviously the epicenter, the epitome of the stark day in american history. we have still seen pennsylvania state police and other agencies around the perimeter. one thing of note, though, is the road that was leading in and out of where this rally was is now open again. what does that indicate? the investigation is moving forward. to our knowledge, authorities have not released the scene yet. we'll expect we'll see more crews, more cars in that area, perhaps starting to dismantle some of that stage and some of that arena that was set up for the former president's rally. one of the most harrowing things we have seen throughout our distance here is the giant american flag where the former

president was standing before this attempted assassination attempt. one of the things i do want to mention that our colleague, tom llamas pointed out, about the area that's outside of where the perimeter was, outside of where the security was. tom llamas spoke to two women who said they were at this neighboring property where there was a fence that was held together by zip ties, essentially, and seemed like a free for all to go in and out. that's obviously an area that a lot of people in this community are wondering more about, i should say, about the lapse in security here. >> we're also hearing how trump himself is processing all this. he says it's caused him to change his approach for the convention? >> reporter: that's right. one of the key things that we can report is that the former president has thrown away his old speech that he was going to deliver in primetime. this is now going to be a speech more centered on unity. saying, quote, "i had prepared an extremely tough speech, really good, all the corrupt,

horrible administration, but i threw it away." it signalled, perhaps, a change in tone and tenor of what we might see going forward in this campaign. i do want to note that we did speak to a vendor that is now able to actually get their stuff now that the road is open. supporters of the former president, they were there during this harrowing moment when the shots rang out. take a listen to what their thoughts are on this possible change in the dynamic of this campaign. >> i'm looking forward to his speech of unity. i'm looking forward, since i heard him say he's totally rewritten his speech. i'm looking forward to that. >> how about you? >> yeah, unity, a little less ugliness maybe. >> reporter: ana, obviously, not to underscore what the president said in the oval office in primetime, he said he is looking to lower the temperature. when we disagree, we're not enemies. we're neighbors, friends, and

coworkers. again, hearing this and hearing just how these two candidates are now approaching things going forward obviously remains to be seen. again, a lot of voters are hoping this obviously signals maybe less vitriol throughout the campaign. >> george solis in butler, pennsylvania, thank you, george. phil, the fbi is investigating this shooting as a potential act of domestic terrorism we are told. what does that mean in terms of how this all proceeds. >> i would not read too much into that yet. you don't want to assume it is not domestic terrorism. go down the road of a standard investigation and have to pick up the domestic terror later. we have to assume that something like that might have happened that is a terrorist incident and use that investigative path. what you're looking at today, i would say, ana, is the dust settling in the investigation. the first hours of the investigation, you're looking at chaotic information, lack of information, a vacuum. over the course of the first 24 hours, you're going to get access to things like social media. there's been talk about the

assailant's, the attacker's data going to quantico. you'll interview friends and family. by this time, when the fbi director walks in for an update brief, they will, i suspect, already have some picture of motive. they might not be ready to talk about it, but the dust is slowly starting to settle in the investigation, even 36 hours in. a long ways to go, but they're getting there. >> we keep showing different clips, clint, a video taken by bystanders, hearing from eyewitnesss. the fbi says 2,000 tips have been pouring in. how do they prioritize? >> yeah, they're going to be focused on those areas where they don't have much information. i'll tell ya, ana, this one similar in a lot of ways, right? we hear reports of someone bullied in high school, maybe a loaner. maybe plays some video games but very different from others. there's not a large social media footprint. we don't hear about a manifesto. there's not a lot of descriptions about this individual ever talking about

politics or why he would pick the target. even in his history, something about whether it is a registered republican or someone who donored to a democrat. a big thing is reconnaissance. how did he know to climb on the building and go to that perch? is this a place he knew? did he do a scouting operation? in a terrorist investigation, you're looking for, why was this target picked, how did the person know how to access the target, and how did they know how to get to this vantage point? there seems to be large gaps. >> this assailant wasn't even hidden when he was up on the building, phil. president biden says he is ordering independent review of this incident. what questions needs to be asked about the actions taken by law enforcement before, during, and after this shooting? >> i think i'd have two or three basic questions.

the first is, were protocoocols followed? was the building not cleared properly because the protocol didn't have that scenario written in? seems highly unlikely. question two, if clearing the building differently was in protocols, why wasn't it done? that is going to be a really difficult question to answer. the third and final one, ana, as someone who dealt with the aftermath of 9/11 is pendulum. people are going to ask for perfect security for presidents who go to chaotic environments and want to meet citizens, including chicago, new york, los angeles, where there's buildings all around. be careful in the after-action about asking for perfection because you'll have candidates who can't get out in public. this will be interesting to watch. >> clint, let's look ahead to the rnc. secret service has a big task on its hands for providing security for a giant event in milwaukee. the security service is not planning to make any changes to their security plans and protocols that they've

established in the months leading up to this. does that surprise you? >> it doesn't for one big reason. there's hyper planned events and ad hoc events. the rally is different from the rnc. rnc probably planned 18 months to two years out, they started the planning for that. it is an indoor facility. it is designed for security. it is a location that has been secured in the past. they have been putting that perimeter in place for quite some time. i think they'll be prepared. on the other hand, these rallies, just like phil was talking about, going out into public, into open spaces, trying to do this, very difficult challenge. you're doing it every single day in different jurisdictions, different states, with different people. it's a really tough patchwork to put together. this is a fixed event. i think they'll be ready. >> phil, do you think everything should proceed as planned in milwaukee? >> yeah, i agree with clint. talking about a chaotic, open environment where the president is mixing with people versus a scripted event planned 18 to 24 months, totally different.

also, if you're going through months and months, years plus of training, you don't want to change that at the last minute. because then you open up flaws you didn't foresee when you did the original planning. keep going. i'm sure they'll have it secured. >> thank you very, very much. back in 90 seconds, we'll have a live report from the white house as president biden makes this plea to a rattled nation. >> disagreement is inevitable in american democracy. it's part of human nature. politics must never be a literal battlefield. god forbid, a killing field. sl. thank you. and now, save 25% on our most popular sleep number smart bed. shop now at sleepnumber.com

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the attempted assassination of former president trump. form, donald trump is in wisconsin ahead of the republican national convention. president biden is back at the white house. all eyes are still on that farm in butler, pennsylvania, where, two days ago, a string of gunshots changed the course of u.s. history. here was part of president biden's message to the american people last night. >> tonight, i want to speak to what we do know. the former president was shot, an american citizen killed, while simply exercising their freedom to support the candidate of his choosing. we cannot, we must not, go down this road in america. we've traveled it before throughout our history. violence has never been the answer. whether it was with members of congress and both parties being

targeted and shot or a violent mob attacking the capitol january 6th or a brutal attack on the spouse of nancy pelosi, former speaker of the house, on intimidation on elected officials, or the kidnapping plot against the city governor. or an attempted assassination on donald trump. there is no place in america for this kind of violence, for any violence ever, period, no exceptions. we can't let this be normalized. the republican convention starts tomorrow. i have no doubt they'll criticize my record and offer their own vision for this country. i'll be traveling this week, making the case for our record and the vision, my vision, our vision of the country. i'll continue to speak out strongly for our democracy, stand up for our constitution, and the rule of law, to call for action at the ballot box. no violence on our streets. that's how democracy should work. we debate and disagree, come

compare and contrast the candidates, the vision and issues in america, but in america, we resolve our differences at the ballot box. you know, that's how we do it, the ballot box. not with bullets. the power to change america should always rest in the hands of the people, not in the hands of a would-be assassin. you know, the path forward through competing visions of the campaign should always be resolved peacefully. not through acts of violence. you know, we're blessed to live in the greatest country on earth, and i believe that with every power of my being. tonight, i'm asking every american to recommit to make america what -- think about it, what's made america so special? here in america, everyone must be treated with dignity and respect, and hate must have no safe harbor. here in america, we need to get out of our silos where we only listen to those with whom we agree, where misinformation is

rampant, or foreign actors fan the flames of our division to shape the outcomes consistent with their interest, not ours. >> let's go to the white house and nbc's monica alba, who is covering the latest action by the president. monica, we've heard president biden now speak out at least a couple of times since this attack. he's also issued a paper statement. what do we know about how he is taking action right now as it relates to the shooting investigation? >> ana, that was a swift response that was intentional when the president was initially briefed on this assassination attempt on donald trump, he said he wanted to get out in front of cameras and address the nation. then he spoke again yesterday where he laid out some new action that he is really trying to manage in terms of the government response here. specifically, that includes really key points of directing his own secret service to review all security measures for the republican national convention, which does kick off today in

milwaukee. he also ordered an independent review, making sure that they do take a look and find out, quote, exactly what happened and what led to the security failure that allowed for this shooting to take place at a rally of a former president. and he is also emphasizing that, for now, he wants to ensure that any security resource that donald trump and his team are asking for will be accommodated. he said that that was a major priority, and he wanted to make sure of that. we should also note, ana, in the course of all of this, he did very quickly try to reach out and speak with former president trump on saturday night. it took them a little bit to connect, but, eventually, they did have what i'm told was a short, respectful but good phone call around 9:55 p.m. on saturday night, where the two were able to speak briefly. then, as you saw last night and what you just played in that oval office address, moving on a little bit from the investigation portion, which is

a key part of this story, the president is now trying to plead with americans to really take stock of this moment, of this history, but to come together and unite and really denounce any kind of political violence like what we saw over the weekend, ana. >> as this 2024 race continues to heat up, we talk about the rnc getting under way today, what about the president's plans as it are elates to campaigning in the days ahead? any changes on that front? >> right after the shooting took place, the biden campaign did pause all of their television ads, and they also suspended any outgoing communication. when you think about fundraising emails or any campaign statements that would be considered critical, that was on hold. we understand that, tonight, after president biden's interview with our own lester holt, once the republican national convention does get more under way, the biden campaign and the dnc are going to resume some of that political

activity. so we're going to start to see that, and you are going to see the president traveling to las vegas, nevada, tonight. he is going to be heading there. tomorrow, he is going to be speaking at an naacp conference in las vegas. wednesday, he'll speak at another conference in las vegas, nevada. he'll also be engaging in campaign activity and will be doing additional interviews. you'll be seeing more of the traditional counterprogramming to, when one party is holding their convention, you see the other party and candidate doing some of their own messaging. as he said, he wants to be able to lay out his own vision, and he knows republicans are going to be criticizing his record. certainly, democrats are going to aim to draw a contrast, as well, as you heard from the president. but the events of this weekend do take on new meaning, new significance to the tone of the entirety of that. >> monica alba, thank you for

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former president. joining us is national political reporter who wrote the piece. he was at the rally when the shots were pointed at the former president and is now in milwaukee for the republican national convention which gets under way today. thank you for taking the time with us. two days later, as you've been processing what happened, what sticks in your mind? >> really how lucky everyone was, both that the bullet narrowly missed the former president, but also that the crowd, other than, tragically, the additional people who were hit, that there wasn't a lot more loss of life, that it didn't turn into a stampede or a totally chaotic situation, that people really did do what they could to take cover, remain calm, and then leave in a very orderly way. >> you have this reporting about a coordinated effort of the secret service and the local

authorities to try to handle the crowd. what did that look like? >> well, i mean, there really wasn't anywhere to go when it was happening. the crowd was so big and so tightly packed. i mean, you can see in the footage how, especially the people in the bleachers, are just kind of trapped. it was after former president trump was removed and brought into the car and taken away that, pretty quickly, the police started roping off the area, calling it an active crime scene, and asking people to evacuate. >> i know as a reporter, we are trained to sort of detach ourself from the events that we are covering. we often have to cover things that are so tragic. but being there when this happened, i can't imagine how traumatic it was for you personally. how are you hanging in there? >> i'm doing okay, thanks. you know, i think it's helpful to, you know, be talking about it and writing about it and

continuing to report on it. there's still a lot of questions about how that happened. >> yeah, the image of the former president raising his fist and saying the words, "fight, fight, fight," president trump is saying in a new interview after this attack that he did that so the people there at that rally would know he was okay and that he meant to send a message that, quote, "america goes on. we go forward. we are strong." how do you think that action and his words, "fight, fight, fight" are received by his supporters? >> well, you could see the sense of relief, because there was a long period where we couldn't see him underneath the pile of secret service agents and behind the llectern. it was relief to see that he was alive. depending on where you were, you could see that there was blood on his face but not necessarily where that came from or the severity of that.

and, you know, there was real anger in that moment, also. a lot of that anger ended up getting directed at the reporters, which, you know, we were the ones there when people turned around. again, i'm grateful that things didn't -- didn't take a worse turn that resulted in more loss of life that day. >> it could have been worse, you're absolutely right. yet, it is so tragic to know one person died, a couple others were critically injured. obviously, a former president. now, as a nation, we are grappling with an assassination attempt. isaac, you're in milwaukee now. looking ahead, what's the temperature among the trump campaign about how things will go tonight and moving forward this week given what just happened? >> well, trump gave a couple interviews saying he tore up his speech and started over with a new message. i mean, we are definitely seeing a softer tone from him and from

the campaign. there might be some adjustments to the program, you know, despite the message that's been, proceeding as normal. you can tell from being here, this is not the same event we thought we were going to be attending. you know, we have to see how that holds up and what direction that takes and, you know, what unity means. unity on what terms. even in the interview where trump was saying that he ak acknowledged some of the most divisive positions his campaign has been centered on. >> isaac arnsdorf, thanks, again, for joining us. we appreciate it. meantime, across pennsylvania, flags are flying at half-staff as a community mourns the loss of corey comperatore, the pennsylvania firefighter killed, shielding his family, when they found themselves in the path of bullets at trump's rally. here is how pennsylvania governor josh shapiro described

comperatore at a press conference yesterday. >> we lost a fellow pennsylvanian last night. corey comperatore. i just spoke to corey's wife and corey's two daughters. corey was a girl dad. corey was a firefighter. corey went to church every sunday. corey loved his community. most especially, corey loved his family. corey was an avid supporter of the former president and was so excited to be there last night with him in the community. i asked corey's wife if it would be okay for me to share that we spoke, and she said yes. she also asked that i share with all of you that corey died a

hero. corey dove on his family to protect them last night at this rally. corey was the very best of us. may his memory be a blessing. >> as of this morning, a gofundme page dedicated to the victims and their families and authorized by the trump campaign has raised more than $3.6 million with nearly 50,000 donations. next, how this assassination attempt is raising concerns about national security threats for our country and elected officials, and how to prevent something like this from happening again. ♪ i'll be there... ♪ ♪ you don't... ♪ ♪ you don't have to worry... ♪

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all eyes are in milwaukee as the republican national convention begins today just days after donald trump, the candidate, is set to accept the nomination for president, narrowing survived an assassination attempt against him. while the secret service has expressed confidence in their security plans for milwaukee, both party campaigns are reportedly rethinking event schedules as we get closer to the november election. joining us now, retired atf special agent in charge jim cavanaugh and captain sanders. jim, nice to see you. the secret service says they have no plans to change security measures for the republican convention, but, obviously, this is a top of mind for really everyone on the ground there, i

imagine. do you buy that, that they're not making any changes? >> yeah, i know it is counterintuitive, ana, in light of the trump assassination attempt, but really it is a smart move and the right decision to not change. the reason is, the difference between a national special security event, which i've been involved in some of those, and a rally on a field in butler, pennsylvania, it is the difference between d-day planning and sending a small patrol out into the territory to set up a command post. it is completely a different an animal. this is a $65 million government expense. there will be 5,000 plus law enforcement officers present. they've been planning it for two years. it is an indoor arena. i mean, they have all the security, and they'll have that as secure as any facility could be to have this convention. now, the only way to make it more secure is not have it. i mean, this is the only way you can do it.

they're right to say that, but i think what you said just a minute ago, that it is top of mind, absolutely. every single law enforcement officer, it's right on the tip of their mind, what happened in pennsylvania. they're all alert to that. >> yeah. >> so that does up everybody's, you know, security awareness. >> i'm sure that they're extremely attentive to any potential vulnerability to begin with, but this just heightens all of that. robert, there have been a lot of questions for the secret service about how the agency secured that rally. what were some of the major issues you saw with the security of the event, and how should that change the rnc posture? >> well, when you set up an event like that, the secret service has to rely on outside sources. they have to rely on local police. they have to rely on state police. they don't have enough assets to spread themselves across the nation and cover all of the individuals they have at protectees. when they bring in these outside

entities and read them into the plan, there is an expectation the outside entities can execute the part of the plan that is delegated to them. now, there's been some unconfirmed reports that a police officer actually saw, after he was notified, the individual on the roof. and when he made access to that individual on the roof, the individual pointed a weapon at him. now, if that happened and how far that happened in front of the actual shooting is unclear, but if that, in fact, happened, we're thinking now about uvalde, texas, where, what do you do when you are confronted with an individual like that? what are protocols the locals need to know and have at their beck and call, and how should they react? definitely, we had a problem here. unfortunately, one of the things in these type of situations is the after-action report, we learn more from our mistakes than our successes.

>> how would you correct those mistakes at future campaign stops? not just obviously the rnc, this big event that has had months of planning, but additional rallies that could come following the rnc. could there be an issue of manpower? >> certainly, certainly. so when the secret service makes up their plan for these activities, they send it back to washington, d.c. they ask for certain assets. in the process of doing that, they rely on certain local assets. maybe there needs to be an additional layer of, not just secret service but other federal law enforcement individuals integrated into the secret service plan that will bolster them at the federal level and maybe take some of the weight off of some of the locals. that's more money. that's more expense. that's a drain from another mission when those people cross over to support secret service. but we don't want kennedy. we don't want an assassination of an american political leader

at any time, no matter what the circumstances. >> speaking of kennedy, jim, third-party candidate robert f. kennedy jr. has been asking for secret service protection for months now. do you think this attack will allow that security detail? >> you know, i think the president can order that. i really think that he should. he really should order that. the country doesn't need to have, you know, another kennedy shot, and the country doesn't need anybody who is running, even though he doesn't come out high in the polls, to be hurt or attacked. it's only a few months. president biden has the ability to do it. the secret service can do it. sure they're stretched. they're all stretched in campaign years. but they're not as stretched as, you know, other campaign years when i've been working with them. i mean, sometimes we've had, you know, candidates out on each party, six, eight people running for president at the same time. we'd have agents flying all over the country on secret service

details. the secret service really stretched thin. this is not the case. i mean, we only have two candidates. they're always on the president, and they're always on former president trump anyway. they're not stretched thin like they used to be in many campaign years, so they could cover robert kennedy. i think president biden should order that done. i think what we're facing here at the rnc, what worries me most would be an attack on the periphery. maybe a sophisticated attack like a drone, that'd be bad. even gunfire or a vehicle attack on the perimeter. getting to the center is really tight. it could happen but it's tight in there. delegates and luminaries are staying in hotels around the city. all that is not totally, totally secure like the venue. >> right. >> so that would be what would worry me the most, and i'm sure they've made plans for all those things. there's a police presence, but,

you know, guns are allowed to be carried all over the street in wisconsin. you know, people can come in there armed. this is a magnet. every convention, rnc, dnc is a magnet for anarchists, insurrectionists, accelerationists, haters, terrorists, disillusioned, disaffected. it is a magnet for them, and they come. >> yup. >> they probe, and they look. all that will be happening, but we can only hope that our security is tight. we've done the right thing, and we're going to not let them, you know, steal our democracy. >> no one can let their guard down. jim cavanaugh and robert sanders, thank you, both, very much. up next, what voters are saying about how this attack has changed the political landscape ahead of november. plus, splashed across the front pages. the full historical impact of this assassination attempt is yet to be felt. we'll look back at past

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the individual. he's been convicted of felonies, so that, to me, overweighs what happened to him. >> i respect him even more. some people might have said, that's it, enough, i'm out of it, but not mr. trump. he puts america before himself. >> with us now, nbc news senior politics reporter jonathan allen. jonathan, in a new piece, you write that saturday's shooting, quote, "jolted a nation and disrupted a race that has been long viewed as static." how has it changed? >> it's a great question, ana. first of all, what we heard just in the last couple days is a turning down of the rhetoric. you know, i think you've also had a change in this race in terms of, you know, projecting forward a little bit what's going to come in this republican national convention. trump now talking about making his speech about unity rather

than, you know, what we've heard from him for most of the last seven or eight years, which is very divisive rhetoric. a candidate who believes in, you know, sort of building his brand through division, through, you know, contrast with his opponents. we'll have to see what he actually does at the convention, but, you know, i think it's changed in that way. but in addition to that, look, when i talked to democrats, they are very concerned, not all of them, but many of them are very concerned that it will be difficult at this point for president biden to beat donald trump. they look at the images you're showing right now, you know, with the fist pump in the air, defiance as some of the most iconic of any political leader ever. they're saying to themselves, this is putting, you know, president biden sort of farther

into a corner in terms of already trailing. a lot of democrats believe he has been trailing. i know that trump believes he has been leading. >> what is the latest on trump's vp pick and how saturday's assassination attempt affected this highly secretive announcement. >> it is interesting, ana. trump always said he was going to make his announcement at the convention. a lot of people didn't believe him. there's been a lot of reporting in between when he first said that and now, that, you know, he was on the verge of making a decision. that may have been the case at some point, but, you know, just go back a couple weeks to the debate that he had with president biden and the fallout of that for president biden. you know, i think the conventional political wisdom was he should not step on what had been a bunch of bad news cycles for president biden. here we are on the convention opening today, and it could be

that we end up getting an announcement today. there is the roll call of staut states today for the nomination, so you'd think it'd come by today. trump surprises us all the time. there are three leading candidates. jd vance, doug burgum, and marco rubio. i'd just caution that sometimes former president trump surprises us all. i have no predictions on the timing or even who it is. >> you can always expect the unexpected when it comes to donald trump. jonathan allen, thanks for staying up all night for us. i hope you can rest up a bit before all the action gets going at the rnc. appreciate it. >> thanks, ana. unfortunately, there is a long list of assassination attempts in american history, and each has left an indelible mark on our politics and normal american's lives. joining us to put this all in context, nbc presidential historian michael beschloss. so nice to see you this morning. >> same, ana. >> sadly, this is not the first assassination attempt in

american politics. in fact, it's the seventh when it comes to a current president or a candidate for president. what moments are you thinking about when it comes to what we've experienced in this country? >> well, i wish i could say that what happened on saturday was just an odd aberration in american history. sadly, juana, this is something that goes throughout our american past. i was thinking a little of theodore roosevelt in 1912, running third party. progressive was giving a speech in, of all places, milwaukee. he was at the podium, and someone shot him. the bullet was deflected by the case he had for his eyeglasses. t.r., who was not badly hurt, you know, with full drama said, "i feel so strongly about what i have to say.

i will keep on speaking." not everything has been that heroic, of course. >> how does the country bounce back? both former president donald trump and president biden say they want to focus on unity at this moment, denouncing political violence. how does the nation recover after these previous incidents of violence? >> well, you know, ana, the best in american history is when we go through a horrible event like this and we make our system and we make ourselves better. i think what we heard from president biden, for instance, you know, just last night, gave us a good idea of the direction this might move in. which is, yes, have a fierce debate. have a fierce campaign. that's the way we get the best president. but at the same time, fewer personal insults, more based on facts, no exaggerations, and absolutely never any violence. >> two of the most infamous assassinations were those of jfk and rfk during a turbulent

1960s. >> yes. >> how does that moment and the climate in the country compare to what happened saturday and over the past, you know, several years, frankly? >> for people who can remember it or who have family members who can remember it, we americans have never gotten over the assassination of president kennedy in 1963. that was, what, 61 years ago? many people feel that it's still not been solved, and they also feel it had a big impact because many historians, including myself, feel that if john kennedy had served another five years rather than lyndon johnson, despite all the good things that lbj did, kennedy would not have escalated in vietnam and we wouldn't have had one of our great national tragedies. so not only was it personally poignant, he was young, and at the big effect on history. >> 30 seconds, if you will. final thoughts when it comes to

how the history books will write about this moment. >> i hope they do not say that this changed history because we always have to abide by at least the goal that no attempted assassination -- attempted assassin can change the course of history. i hope that does not happen this weekend. our politics should be stronger than that. >> michael beschloss, always a voice of wisdom. >> thank you, ana. nice to see you always. >> nice to see you, too. that does it for me today. thank you for joining us. i'm ana cabrera reporting from new york. i'll see you back here tomorrow morning. our breaking news coverage continues next here on msnbc. stay with us. saving on your education should be a right, not a competition. at university of phoenix, you'll get the best scholarship or savings you qualify for. simple as that. explore scholarship options at university of phoenix.

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♪♪ this morning, donald trump foring ahead.

the former president waking up in milwaukee for the start of the republican national convention less than 48 hours after surviving an assassination attempt. now, president biden calling for unity in a divided america. >> a former president was shot, an american citizen killed, while simply exercising his freedom to support the candidate of his choosing. we cannot and must not go down this road in america. the power to change america should always rest in the hands of the people, not in the hands of a would-be assassin. now, the fbi investigating the campaign rally shooting as a possible case of domestic terrorism, as we learn more about the father who was killed trying to shield his family from the gunfire. plus, new questions about what may have motivated the 20-year-old gunman. good morning. thank you for joining us on this monday. i'm joe fryer. >> i'm savannah sellers. we have a team standing by with the latest from washington to

wisconsin and beyond. >> we'll start with donna huts, who was at the rally when the gunshots were fired. good morning. thank you so much for joining us. we appreciate you taking the time. i know you were in the bleachers with your son just a few rows from where one of the victims was killed. how are you doing now? what have the past two days been like for you? >> well, saturday was -- that was just what it was. a nightmare. yesterday, we were busy yesterday. we were sharing our story and telling our story, a little bit of a therapeutic type of help in some ways, believe it or not. this morning now, you know, last night, i finally slept decent and solid. i didn't wake up with just thoughts. this morning as i wake up and see this again and, you know,

i've already been on a talk show with toronto. i was on with australia last night and talking to these other countries, hearing what they're saying. everybody wants us to heal. everybody wants us to repair. everybody wants the magic answer. is this it? are we all better now? will we be friends? i don't have those answers, but i do know that i feel like this country is in trouble. i feel that if you weren't there, you're more empowered than ever to want to support president trump, and that's how i feel about it. i hide my signs in the window because somebody might take it from the yard. it's just a whole different feeling. >> donna, if you wouldn't mind going back to the moment, walking us through a little bit what you saw, what went through your mind when you first heard the gunshots. what unfolded around you in the bleachers? >> so we heard the first three, you know, pop, pop, pop.

at that point, you're up and alert. you're looking. i'm watching the president talk, so as you're hearing these, you're like, was that a gun? am i hearing a gun? you can't believe it. this is, you know, in seconds, so many thoughts go through your head. i looked at the president. obviously, my son after the third pop was like, down, gun. we were in the third row. the first two cleared out. as he was saying it, people were starting to move. they were down. we were piled, like, three deep in our section. our section was to the right of the president. we were in a different section than anybody recognized because nobody knew in our section that there was a man laying there dead and we had a woman laying there shot. we knew immediately because the man was shot in the head. for us, you're on the ground. you're obviously looking at what happened in your section. i'm laying there. i was able to pick up a piece of the fence flag and look at the president over here. i'm looking to see what is going

on. i seen him get up. i seen the blood on his face. i seen his ear. i seen his fist and his hand to the crowd. off he went. now, i'm like, he's gone. we're still down. nobody will let us up. we have people dead. is this a mass shooting? you're looking at the sniper on stage, putting the gun into the crowd looking. in our scenario, we were different than everybody else. nobody threw there was two people shot in our bleacher. we had to face that fact. you're looking at that and that. we had -- i went from assassination to shooting. that's what my thought was in those moments. >> we learned yesterday that that man who was killed was corey comperatore. he died while he was trying to shield his family. what were your thoughts when you learned about that? >> they were crying. the one daughter, now i know, mother and daughter, they were the two that were crying, obviously, the most.

it's just heartbreaking. that's my feeling, heartbreaking. tragic and a shame. you bonded with these people. you went there. they were there with us at 8:30 in the morning, sitting in a hot, no shade, full sun field, waiting for that gate to open at 1:00. you learn. you talk to people. no, i didn't see him out there. you're talking thousands of people. the point is you bond out there. this man bonded with his family that whole day, waited. you got in that gate at 1:00. you waited for the president to talk at 6:00. at 6:05, this man's life basically ended. it's terrible. it could have been us. that's how i think, too. you know, my scenario was different. i was in the medic tent a little bit. had i gone in with my son, joe, we probably would have been at the top of that bleacher. we pick top bleachers. he didn't want me to walk, so he

picked the third row. so many scenarios played through our head today. we're still not over it. >> i'm struck by you mentioning you've been struck even with international news organizations and people wanting us to heal. people wondering how we'll fix this. after seeing what you did at saturday's rally, what worries you about the state of politics in the u.s., especially as we get closer to this election in november? >> the violence. the violence and the setup out there for people. i'm a very good reader, and i read every side. i like to know what everybody is thinking. you know, i go to those websites where there is the riot planning for these people to join. i read this. that has to stop. peaceful if you want to be doing this. the violence has to stop. that's what every country is saying. will our violence stop? will we be at peace? will we all stop this? you know, you hope. >> donna hutz, we appreciate

your time this morning. we're glad you and your family are okay. thank you for speaking with us. >> we certainly are. thank you for your time, donna. thinking about you and your family. >> thank you. now, we want to get to the very latest also this morning as this investigation unfolds. what have we learned overnight? what else do we know about the shooter here? nbc news anchor tom llamas has that for us. >> reporter: good morning. we have some new information about why the gunman may have been experienced in hitting long distance targets. just behind me underneath an american flag, that's where former president trump was speaking. over there in that tree line, that's where the would-be assassin took up his position. now, we'll hear from a woman who says that area outside the perimeter was a free for all. she says there were people all over the place and no security. it was 150 yards from trump. we've confirmed overnight that the gunman was the member of a rifle club that had long distance targets for high-powered rifles as far as 180 yards.

former president donald trump speaking out overnight after arriving in milwaukee for the republican national convention. >> take a look at what happened. [ gunshots ] >> down, get down. >> reporter: 24 hours after his attempted assassination by a gutman in pennsylvania. the former president calling it a very surreal experience with the "new york post," saying, "i'm not supposed to be here. i'm supposed to be dead." earlier in the night, president biden addressing the nation from the oval office, urging americans to reject political violence. >> there is no place in america for this kind of violence, for any violence ever. period, no exceptions. >> reporter: footage and firsthand accounts of the shooting showed a breakdown in security leading up to the attempt on mr. trump's life. >> yeah, someone is on top of the roof. look. >> reporter: this video emerging of the shooter earlier in the rally. >> we have criminals.

we have -- >> someone on the roof! >> reporter: the crowd reacting as they see the shooter crawling on the roof outside of a protected perimeter some 150 yards from the former president. it's right there in the brown building where that would-be assassin climbed up on the rooftop and took his position. valerie, standing just below, shared these photos. she says the lack of security she saw surprised her, pointing to this gate, secured by zip ties. >> there was no security on this side at all. >> are you shocked, this close to the president, that there was no security? >> i kept asking her. >> thinking about it now, yes. >> reporter: authorities say the gunman fired multiple shots before he was killed by a secret service counter sniper team. the shooter identified by the fbi as 20-year-old thomas matthew crooks. the fbi has not identified a motive. investigators say they have no indication crooks had any mental health issues. previously unknown to law enforcement, the 20-year-old was a registered republican who,

according to campaign finance reports, donated $15 to a democratic group three years ago. former classmate jason kohler describes the 20-year-old as a loaner who was regularly bullied for wearing hunting gear and a surgical mask to class. >> he'd sit alone at lunch. i mean, he was an outcast. >> reporter: the shooting claimed the life of 50-year-old firefighter corey comperatore, who died shielding his wife and daughter from the gunfire. >> corey died a hero. >> reporter: two others were also shot and are in stable condition. 57-year-old david dutch and 74-year-old james copenhaver. melody hook was sitting with her children behind mr. trump when the shooting started. >> what can we learn or take away from this, do you think? >> we need to be praying. we need to be praying for our country and our children. and hold your kids close. >> reporter: authorities have said the gunman acted alone. for the victims, foundations and

fund raising programs have been set up for them. former president trump indicated he hopes to reach out to those families personally and offer his condolences. reporting from butler, pennsylvania, tom llamas, back to you. >> tom, thank you very much. we do want to talk more about the victims from this assassination attempt, including the man who died. as tom reported, his name, corey comperatore. he was a first responder killed while trying to keep his family safe. nbc news correspondent dasha burns spoke to witnesses at the rally and to those who knew the victim. >> take a look at what happened. [ gunshots ] >> reporter: pennsylvania state police releasing the names of three victims shot during the attempted assassination of former president trump. 57-year-old david dutch and 74-year-old james copenhaver, now both in stable condition. 50-year-old corey comperatore was killed in the cross fire. joseph was just feet away from comperatore when the shots rang out. >> it was rather chaotic at that

point because everyone -- half the people were looking because they thought it was fireworks. i knew it was gunshots right away. >> reporter: comperatore was a 30-year veteran firefighter and chief. he died shielding his daughter and wife. >> it was right in our neighborhood, one of our own was taken, his life was taken too early. it's tough. it's hard to process. >> reporter: the men hanging a symbol of mourning on the firehouse and the locker where his uniform hangs. >> what is it like to stand next to his locker where you spent time with him and to see -- >> it's heartbreaking, but it is a true honor, being able to speak about how good of a man he was. >> for people that didn't get the privilege of knowing corey, what do you want the world to know about him? >> they missed out on getting to know a great man. a god-fearing, family-loving man. he'd do anything for anyone.

he was a man full of love. never knew him to hate anything. truly lost a good one. >> reporter: the rally, a nightmare for so many. >> how are you feeling? >> mama instincts, when he grabbed my hand, he was scared to death. hasn't held my hand since he was 5, 6 years old. >> reporter: erin was in the first row in front of former president trump. >> the sharpshooter went across. trump turned his head. his ear must have been nipped. >> reporter: the chain of events fresh as she called them. >> i feel sad for everybody. you know, i mean, you don't like the guy, don't vote for him. don't kill him. we love the guy. we're going to vote for him. >> thanks to dasha burns for bringing us that report. there are unanswered questions surrounding saturday's shooting. so far, the fbi identified the shooter as 20-year-old thomas matthew crooks. >> but they say they have not discovered any strong political beliefs, which is only complicating the investigation. they want to know why it happened and also how.

>> for more, let's bring in justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian. good morning. tell us at this point what insight we have into a motive, and tell us what authorities are doing right now to try to determine that. >> good morning, savannah and joe. fbi officials briefed the media yesterday, and they said they have not yet determined any potential motive in this case or ideology driving mr. crooks, or whether it was a mental breakdown, no motive. his phone is in possession of the fbi team at the lab in quantico, and they're trying to see if there's any evidence in his private communications. in terms of public social media, mr. crooks has a low profile for a 20-year-old in america. we're not finding anything that tells us much. the public clues are confusing. tom llamas said, he was a registered republican but, yet, donated $15 apparently to a democratic group when joe biden was inaugurated. he was wearing a pro-gun t-shirt

while he carried out this attack. what we're hearing from fellow students, people who went to high school with him, is he was a loaner, quiet, potentially bullied at times. new details are emerging about what life he was leading. he was working as an aide at a nursing home but also attending community college. we understand he recently graduated with an engineering degree. he grew up in a well-to-do suburb of pittsburgh, about an hour from the rally. his parents were licensed -- are licensed therapists. they're cooperating with the fbi, we're told. all together, really, more questions than answers here. again, we should reserve the possibility that there's no motive really at all, no political motive, but simply a mental breakdown here, guys. >> ken, another development over the weekend, officials say they found multiple suspicious canisters in crooks' car. it's unclear whether they were functional. what more can you tell us about those devices? >> yeah, not much, joe. the fbi is saying they're analyzing the material at the

lab in quantico and trying to determine if they were viable explosive devices. it is one of the reasons they're calling this a domestic terrorist incident. it just shows that, for whatever the motive, mr. crooks seemed bent on violence that day and had multiple avenues to carry it out. >> ken, where does the investigation stand this morning in the security at the rally, into how this happened in the first place? >> yeah, this is a huge deal. former secret service officials and lawmakers are calling this a catastrophic security failure. ever since john f. kennedy was assassinated 1963, the secret service made a habit of securing buildings around the perimeter of where a president is speaking outside. in this case, there was a building 150 yards away that was not secure. this man was able to climb up there and get an advantageous sniper position. that should not have happened. there are multiple investigations happening, including one ordered by president biden, and others conducted by lawmakers into how

that happened, guys. >> ken dilanian, thank you for your reporting. despite this weekend's assassination attempt, the republican national convention is moving ahead, set to kick off later today. >> former president donald trump arrived in milwaukee last night to attend the week-long event. the presumptive republican presidential nominee had been expected to announce his running mate during the convention. last night, one committee member said the vp pick was still imminent. officials are on high alert following saturday's attack, but specific security plans have not changed at this point. >> is the secret service currently anticipating or currently planning to expand the prim the ter? >> we're not anticipating changes to our current security plan. >> during his address to the public last night, president biden called on the secret service and other federal agencies to reassess those security plans ahead of the rnc. >> nbc news senior national politics reporter jonathan allen joins us with more on what to expect this week. good morning. despite what we just heard the

president say, the secret service says it will not make any security changes following this assassination attempt. what does that security look like at an rnc? is the trump campaign worried about potential threats? >> great question, joe. i think what's important here is that the nature of this event, this republican national convention, is very different than the nature of the event that happened on saturday in western pennsylvania, where the attempt on president trump's life was made. we're talking about a, first of all, indoor arena. second of all, a hard perimeter around the arena that is multiple blocks, talking about magetometers to check people for, you know, metal going into the event. these are very different things. the secret service has been dealing with political conventions for many years now.

you know, i'm not a security expert, but i think the reason they're not making changes is because they don't see what happened saturday as an increased reason to secure this area, simply because they're so secure already at these conventions. >> let's put this in context, also, though. how does wisconsin's open carry law potentially complicate security measures, let's say even outside of the convention? >> yeah, great question, savannah. there are two perimeters. there's a hard perimeter in order to get inside. the hard perimeter, you have to have credentials, do through the magnetometers. then there is a sort of wider zone of security, the soft perimeter. guns are banned inside the hard perimeter, all kinds of weapons, all kinds of things that might be used as weapons or turned into weapons. i mean, basically, you're allowed to walk in with a pencil. but in the soft zone, you know, there is no ability for the

state or for the secret service to limit guns. state laws are clear about this. in wisconsin, you have open carry and concealed carry laws. the governor of wisconsin had tried to get the secret service to expand its perimeter in order to -- the hard perimeter in order to, you know, get effectively more of a gun ban. that's not likely to happen. >> john, we look at the big picture here. yesterday, we saw the president, a democrat, the speaker of the house, a republican, both say we need to lower the temperature, the political temperature here. trump himself telling "the new york post" that he scrapped the speech he wrote, that he is looking for a more unifying theme. do we think we're going to see that tone, a more united, more trying to lower the political temperature here in the convention this week? >> yeah, i think to, joe. you know, there is -- you know, we talk about events on

television all the time, various things and how they affect politics. i mean, just stop for a moment. there was a very serious attempt on a former president's life, on the nominee of a major party's life. someone, you know, was shot and killed. others were shot and injured. i think that anybody who watched what happened this weekend and, you know, would conclude that this is a moment for a softer tone. this is a moment to dial back some of the charged rhetoric we have in our country. both, you know -- people in both parties, certain politics have spent a lot of time ramping up rhetoric, depicting their opponents as evil. i think they sense we're going to hear that. as far as former president trump goes, you know, in 2020, he chose not to try to have a unifying message. he went for his base. he tried to build that base

through contrast and through sort of angry rhetoric. he ended up losing. you know, there is a political opportunity for him to sort of change the way he does politics and try to make a broader appeal in this moment. i also think that, you know, one political benefit for him, you know, from ramping down rhetoric a little bit is that, right now, he believes he's in the lead in this race. if he does that, it's harder for president biden to come back if neither one of them are ramping up the rhetoric. we'll have to see what he actually says, but i expect his tone to be different. >> john, what is our latest reporting on the vp pick? what is the timing of it? any intel there? >> the expectation was it was going to come by today because of some sort of procedural necessities in terms of the roll call for the nomination going forward today. kind of expecting it today. you never know with president trump, you know, what the timing

is going to be. you don't know who it is going to be. could be as early as today. >> all right. john allen, we appreciate your reporting this morning. thanks so much for joining us. you can watch our full coverage of the republican national convention beginning at 9:30 p.m. eastern right here on nbc news now. at the white house, as we've been discussing, president biden has called on americans to stand together following the assassination attempt. >> in an oval office speech last night, the president condemned the incident and called on the nation to lower the political temperature. >> we cannot, we must not go down this road in america. we've traveled it before throughout our history. violence has never been the answer. there is no place in america for this kind of violence, for any violence ever, period. no exceptions. we can't allow this violence to be normalized. >> nbc news white house correspondent monica alba joins us now. monica, a special address by the president on the extraordinary events that unfolded saturday night coming to us from the oval

office. tell us more about his message to americans. >> it is significant, savannah and joe. this is only his third such address from the oval office, and he chose this moment, trying to really focus on this call for national unity, trying to urge americans, despite the really heightened and hot political environment, to try to really lower the temperature as he said there. while yesterday in earlier remarks the president was a little more focused on the investigation and trying to talk about some of these steps that he's directing, last night, he really wanted this to be a little bit more about just the tone of our politics in this presidential race. he was really clear about having different visions between the democratic party and the republican party, which will be clearly on display this week with the republican national convention getting under way, but saying that it should never resort to political violence. here's a little more of what he had to say. >> the political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. it's time to cool it down.

we all have responsibility to do that. yes, we have deeply felt, strong disagreements. the stakes in this election are enormously high. disagreement is inevitable in american democracy. it's part of human nature. but politics must never be a little battlefield, and god forbid, a killing field. >> the president's message here, guys, was really that he hopes americans will make these decisions when they go and they vote in november and not in any other way. >> monica, we know president biden spoke with mr. trump over the phone following the assassination attempt on saturday night. are we learning anything about what was said in that call? >> well, we know it was a fairly short conversation and that president biden was trying to reach his predecessor for a little bit of time before they were able to connect. but we know that by around 9:55 p.m., they did speak on the phone. i'm told by somebody who was briefed on the call that, while it was short, it was a good conversation and that it was

respectful. the president has said he is very good to hear the former president seems to be doing okay, all things considered. he said that he and the first lady are keeping the former president and his family in their prayers right now. >> monica, this all comes as president biden is preparing to sit down for a big interview tonight with nbc's lester holt. how is the president preparing, and how will the events of the weekend factor into what he is going to say? >> 48 hours ago, this was about the president's potential path here and what he was going to do in the face of the democratic defections and people asking him to reconsider his position and potentially not stay in the race. after saturday, we have seen a shift in that, but that's still a question here. we know that the president wanted to do this interview in part to address some of that, but now it takes on a new meaning and significance. the president and white house said he wants to expand on this message of the significance and importance of national unity when he sits down with our

colleague, lester holt. he will resume some of his campaign events. he'll be traveling to nevada later today, and he will have events over the next couple of days as his own campaign and the dnc resume some political activity, as well, after that pause. >> monica alba, thank you very much. you can watch a preview of that interview we were just discussing, lester holt with president biden, on nbc "nightly news" at 6:30 p.m. eastern. it'll be followed by the full, unedited interview airing in a primetime special at 9:00 p.m. on nbc and nbc news now. stay with us, our coverage of the assassination attempt of former president donald trump continues throughout the hour. after the break, we'll have reaction from around the world. we'll be right back. etter. but uncontrollable movements called td, tardive dyskinesia, started disrupting my day. td felt embarrassing. i felt like disconnecting. i asked my doctor about treating my td, and learned about ingrezza. ♪ ingrezza ♪ ingrezza is clinically proven for reducing td.

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violence that left one person dead and two others injured. >> nbc news correspondent matt bogner joins us from london with the reaction. what are we hearing first from our closest allies? >> joe, savannah, good morning. people around the world are shocked by this, just as shocked as americans are. it is really no surprise, shouldn't be at least, we're seeing strong statements from our closest friends. take, for example, the new uk prime minister, keir starmer, who said in a statement that he was, quote, appalled by the scenes out of pennsylvania. like many others many america and abroad, starmer condemned political violence. that is a common talking point. french president macron, however, added more, saying this was an attempt -- this attempt was, quote, a tragedy for our democracies, and that he shared the, quote, shock and indignation of the american people. we also saw reactions from ukraine. this, of course, a nation whose fate may be intimately tied to the outcome of this election. president zelenskyy issued his own statement saying, quote, such violence has no justification and no place anywhere in the world.

never should violence prevail. i hope america emerges stronger from this. in short, guys, american allies are alarmed and concerned about this attempted assassination, in particular, what it might mean for america moving forward. >> we're hearing from adversaries, china, russia. what'd they say about the incident? >> no surprises. the kremlin, for example, was very quick over the weekend to adopt american right-wing talking points, pinning responsibility for the attack on president biden and the democrats, saying that their campaign rhetoric essentially created the conditions for this sort of thing to happen in america. china, on the official level, has been quieter, though chinese state media has been using this attack as an opportunity to claim western republics are losing faith in democracy. from both country, they're using this to reinforce existing talking points. >> matt, we've heard from one of mr. trump's biggest allies, viktor orban, hungary's prime minister, a controversial figure on the world stage these days. he and trump met at mar-a-lago last week. what are we hearing from him?

>> yeah, so of all current world leaders, orban potentially shares the most politically with trump, particularly on issues related to nato and russia, though not only that. his reaction was, quote, thoughts and prayers and praying for the family. back to you. >> matt, appreciate your reporting this morning. thank you. still to come, more on the assassination attempt on donald trump as the fbi investigates the shooting as a possible case of domestic terrorism. plus, what it could mean for law enforcement going forward in this campaign. we'll be right back. (♪♪) (♪♪) (♪♪) sandals rhythm and blues caribbean sale is now on. visit sandals.com or call 1-800-sandals.

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welcome back. we are continuing our coverage in the latest on the investigation into the assassination attempt on former president donald trump. mr. trump, hit by the bullet during his campaign rally in pennsylvania over the weekend. >> one person was killed during the attack, two others gravely injured. the gunman was killed almost immediately after firing at the former president. >> nbc news correspondent george solis joins us from butler, pennsylvania, the site of the rally, with more on this. good morning.

a lot of information has been released about the gunman since this attack took place. walk us through some of what we know right now, and also what major questions are still outstanding for investigators this morning. >> reporter: good morning, savannah and joe. one of the things i'd like to do is sort of set the stage here. the farm grounds where the rally was held was closed off. it was completely no way in, no way out. one of the things you may see behind me is a flow of traffic. authorities overnight opening the road back up. what does that mean? the scene is still active. we still see police there kind of around the perimeter of the property. it does tell you at the pace that this investigation has been moving. one of the most jarring images throughout this entire couple of days that we have seen unfold is just the giant american flag where the former president was standing before this assassination attempt. you can still see it waving, especially on this windy morning. as far as investigators and what they're trying to learn about the shooter, they're still trying to track down a motive. it is one of those questions

that has been lingering since this attempted assassination took place. what we do know about the shooter, authorities identifying him as thomas matthew crooks, about 20 years old from bethel park, pennsylvania. 30, 40 minutes from where we are. was registered as a republican but voting records show he did give a $15 donation to a democratic group. some conflicting information there about his political ideology. we know that he was a member of a gun club. that group denouncing the violence, saying they were very saddened. of course, thoughts and prayers with the victims of this tragedy. we also know that the rifle, cell phone, and two items considered maybe suspicious in nature in a vehicle have all been taken by the fbi and are now being processed at quantico in virginia. >> george, i know you're still speaking with people who attended the rally, including two merchants who are finally able to get their things before now heading to milwaukee for the rnc. what did they tell you? >> reporter: they were absolutely jarred by what was

unfolding. like many people at this rally, they heard what they thought were gunshots, then they saw a group of people running towards them. they really couldn't tell. they had a giant monitor where they were. they were just outside of the perimeter. the secret service had set it up. they couldn't believe their eyes. it was the first time they really had to think about their safety at one of these rallies. they've been to many across this country. they've been to 30 states covering and following the president, selling merchandise. take a listen to their encounter and what they told me about their experience. >> have you ever felt unsafe at the former president's rallies? >> never, not until what just happened this weekend. but never. never seen any kind of violence or anything. it's always been great. it's still unbelievable. i still have a hard time believing what happened. >> reporter: joe and savannah, that's pam and bill that you heard one. one of the things they told me,

they're most looking forward to hearing the reworked speech to give at the convention about unity. also, the fact they know president joe biden reached out to former president trump and they've had that good faith conversation, and they really hope that it shows a change in some of the political rhetoric, some of the hatred spewing. they want to see if things, their words, can be moreunited. >> thank you very much. for more on what this could mean for law enforcement going forward, we're joined by jim cavanaugh, retired special agent in charge at the atf. good to have you with us this morning. the investigation continues. there's a lot we don't know. here's what we do know about the gunman. the firearm used was purchased legally. the suspect was really not known to the fbi prior to this incident. he's a blank slate. no red flags. that means he's not on the radar. how much harder does that make it to prevent a tragedy like

this? >> yeah, it makes it very hard, but, you know, joe, that's why the secret service has their three-ring layers of protection on all their assignments. the inner perimeter, the detail around the protectee, that's the detail that travels with the person, like in this case, former president trump, and then there's the middle ring where they're doing the magmagnetomet, checking everybody who comes into whatever venue they're at. then there's the third ring, the outer perimeter. you know, that layers the security. this failed in the planning and execution. what surprised me so much about it, joe, having been on these secret service details over the many years, they always took the high ground. you know, in the wake of the assassination of dr. king, you know, political type assassination with rifles, post that, they were very, very

conscience always of those attacks. after john kennedy was killed, we saw no open cars. i went on law enforcement in the early '70s right after those '60s assassinations, and it was on top of mind of all of us. there was no open cars after that for presidents or candidates. they've stopped that because they understood the difficulty of it. you see it today. if you see a candidate or president out of a venue, there is a tent where he walks out of the building to get to his limb seen. limousine. that's to protect from rifle fire. they should have had a uniformed agent or officer on top of the roof. it is not good enough to be in the parking lot near the roof. everybody is yelling, there's a guy on the roof! by the time you can climb up there to figure out what it is, he can get off a few shots. so it's a failure. they'll tighten it up. they'll take responsibility and

tighten it up. >> jim, on that point of it being a failure, we have a former secret service source familiar with the security planning for the location of this rally. he told nbc news that prior protocols for the site were not followed. they knew from past experience that this roof was a dangerous vantage point. what does that mean should have been done? what type of lapse in protocol could lead to this, that meant that something like this could happen? >> yeah, you can't delegate responsibility. the secret service can't delegate that to the state and local police or any other agency. it's their responsibility. they can't delegate it. they can delegate a task, but what they do is they have to tell the state troopers or police, the sheriff, hey, put uniformed officers up on that roof, up on these other roofs, so we secure them for the venue. remember, this is not a 24-hour event. the people don't even have to be on the roof the whole time. they only have to be on the roof when the protected person is out front speaking, which may be an hour or, you know, hour and a

half or something. it's not somebody on the roof for 24 hours. when you occupy the roof, someone else can't get up on the roof. it takes that away from the counter sniper teams to have to deal with, you know, is this guy a threat? who is this guy on the roof? what's going on? you know, they're dealing with grassy areas, open fields, dealing with a crowd. they're dealing with someone who might have been able to get something through a mag magnetometer. drone attack. the counter sniper team has a lot on their plate already. you want to take those roofs away so they don't have to make a decision, whether i should shoot or not. everything prior to the first shot by the killer, that's a mistake. not having people on the roof. after the shot by the killer, you know, call right of boom or left of boom, they did everything right. the counter sniper took the killer out. if he didn't take the killer out, this has not been talked about much, but if he didn't take the killer out, he could

have been pumping rounds from that rifle into the secret service huddle. those rounds would go through the agents and into the former president. so he could have killed them and killed many of them if he wasn't taken out by that counter sniper. the counter sniper saved lives clearly. then they went into protocol, ensured the shooter was down, and they cleared the way to the armored vehicle. everything right of boom, great job. left of boom, a failure to put people on the roof. >> jim, let's talk about the rnc. the secret service says it is, quote, ready to go for the kick-off in milwaukee later today. they feel confident about their plan. do you think behind the scenes there are changes being made, real quick here? >> no, i don't think so. i think that that planning in that is a couple years ahead. it's a security inside facility. they've got 5,000 officers. it's totally, totally planned. the danger there is the periphery. somebody attacking outside the

venue, the hotels where luminaries are, the edges of the venue. if an attack were to come, that's where it'd be. drone, vehicle, rifle attacks are possible because these are magnets for the disillusioned, accelerationists, haters, everybody. it goes to the rnc and dnc things. it's a magnet for them. some of those people will show up, and that's what they'll have to deal with. >> jim cavanaugh, we appreciate your insight this morning. thank you for joining us. coming up, we'll have more reaction to the attempted assassination of former president donald trump. when we return, more reaction and the political implications, of course, ahead of the november election. we'll be right back.

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moderator kristen welker spoke with senator lindsey graham and asked him how the assassination attempt could affect mr. trump's bid for the white house. take a listen. >> how do you think this moment, this horrific act of political violence, how will this impact the campaign more broadly? >> you know, it's a very -- very hard to say. i think president trump, i'll talk to him later in the day, is determined to stay on schedule. he needs to pick a vice president. he wants somebody that is ready on day one and can help him win, that can grow the map. i think the republican base adores president trump. there's going to be a lot of love coming his way. but i'm glad to see my democratic colleagues are saying really good things. you know, this is a moment where america has been traumatized, and it's good to see, i'm glad president biden called him. there will be plenty of time to

talk about politics. we just all need to be grateful and mindful of how dangerous -- how could this happen? how could somebody get within 130 yards of the president with a rifle? his secret service team around him, his personal team, great americans who are very brave. but what i thought of when he got up and raised his fist, bleeding, was teddy roosevelt. this is the toughest guy i think i've ever met. he's the modern version of teddy roosevelt. it's just amazing thing to be his friend and in his orbit. i look forward to seeing him here soon. >> you can see my full interview and more at meetthepress.com. get more "meet the press" on nbc news now nbc news now. let's talk about the political impact of this incident with mark murray. mark, good morning good to have you with us. how much of a galvanizing effect do you think it has on the

republican party especially ahead of the rnc but looking at november. >> looking at the short term we've seen president biden talk about unity in his oval office address last night, the democratic campaign pulled down ads and communications and we've seen it on the republican side of things, too. so some more unity in the air. but how long that lasts are unclear. my colleagues at nbc are reporting that former president trump has been talking about a more unifying convention speech when he accepts the nomination officially later this week and we have to see if that actually holds true. of course, donald trump is somebody who has had incendiary rhetoric in the past who talked about american carnage in his first address eight years ago. so if we're talking about

long-term unity, that's a long-term story to watch. >> we've seen the calls for unity and seen some republican lawmakers pointing fingers at president biden and democrats over this attempt accusing them of whipping up anti-trump rhetoric. do you see a softening of the political messages at the convention this week and beyond that? and do you think this is going to change how we see the candidates campaign? are we going to see the out door rallies? >> that's going to depend on the review of the secret service on the handling of events saturday. the republicans have been angry about the democratic rhetoric and campaign season there's tough rhetoric on all sides. i'll watch the democratic and

progressive rhetoric we've heard the past year if donald trump is re-elected democracy is at state there's a potential fascist authoritarian takeover and whether democrats continue to use that language after saturday's events to me is an open question still. >> before this happened, the big conversation in terms of the elections and campaigns, these calls from democratic lawmakers for president biden to step aside in the election after his performance in the debate. does this incident change anything for the period? >> in the short term it's frozen those kind of conversations my colleagues have written that there are democratic voices who, you know, part of the movement to oust joe biden from the top of the democratic ticket. and it complicates things at least in the short term on that. the story automatically changed. we were talking about the debate, its aftermath, the joe

biden news conference he had and obviously the situation we ended up seeing on saturday playing out in pennsylvania. that is now dominated the news and joe biden and whether he remains on the top of the ticket has become a secondary story. >> mike murray, thank you very much. coming up a history of political violence. >> up next our coverage continues with a look back at past assassination attempts on former and current u.s. presidents. historian michael boesh lash joins us. n michael boesh lash joins us i felt like disconnecting. i asked my doctor about treating my td, and learned about ingrezza. ♪ ingrezza ♪ ingrezza is clinically proven for reducing td. most people saw results in just two weeks. people taking ingrezza can stay on most mental health meds. only number-one prescribed ingrezza has simple dosing for td: always one pill, once daily. ingrezza can cause depression, suicidal thoughts,

or actions in patients with huntington's disease. pay close attention to and call your doctor if you become depressed, have sudden changes in mood, behaviors, feelings, or have thoughts of suicide. don't take ingrezza if you're allergic to its ingredients. ingrezza may cause serious side effects, including angioedema, potential heart rhythm problems, and abnormal movements. report fevers, stiff muscles, or problems thinking as these may be life threatening. sleepiness is the most common side effect. take control by asking your doctor about ingrezza. ♪ ingrezza ♪ when we're young, we're told anything is possible... about ingrezza. ...but only a few of us go out and prove it. witness the greatness of anna hall on a connection worthy of gold: xfinity mobile. only xfinity gives you the most powerful mobile wifi network, with speeds up to a gig in millions of locations. and right now, get up to $800 off the new galaxy z flip6 and z fold6 when you trade in your current phone. get the fastest connection to paris with xfinity.

back now with our special coverage of the assassination attempt on the former president donald trump. mr. trump now part of a former or sitting president who have been victims of assassination attempts. >> there have been at least 15 direct assaults against presidents, presidents-elect, presidential candidates, five

resulting in death. >> let's bring in historian michael beschloss. i want to ask your perspective as a historian on what happened saturday and the reaction you're seeing across the country right now. >> it's horrible. it's something we never want to see in american politics. we have to give respect and honor to, you know, everyone who is a target, including the former president. at the same time, i'm a little bit worried about this becoming such a large event that later on people say this changed history. because an election has to be, you know, who is the president candidate not who showed great qualities of toughness during a horrible time of danger and stress. but if we say, for instance, after november that this election was decided by what happened on saturday, that's going to encourage a lot of other people to try to do the same thing.

>> often when someone commits an act of violence against a political leader, motives are pretty clear. in this case at least for now that does not seem to be the case. how does that change how we look back at the event especially as a vacuum like that can often leave space for misinformation. >> that's right, savannah. if this were someone who, let's say, was doing this because we disagreed with donald trump's position on abortion, for instance, we would probably know that. and obviously would effect the way we see this act as a political act. but this attempted assassin in very much in keeping with a lot of others who have fired at presidents in history. thank god most of them have missed. but at the same time, let's remember there's almost a continuous atmosphere of violence around a president. you know how many death threats every president of the modern time gets. we were just unlucky on saturday

that this one came very close to being tragic. >> michael, it's been decades since a u.s. president has been injured in an assassination attempt, the last time, president reagan injured in 1981. what impact did reagan's shooting have on his presidency and relationship with the american people? >> well, as human beings we honor the qualities we see in a president or former president when they deal with something like this. in reagan's case he not only was courageous but kept his sense of humor even when he was in george washington hospital and the doctors were about to operate on him to save his life and reagan says, doctors, i hope you're all republicans? they said today, mr. president, we are all republicans. it calmed people down, gave them the qualities of largeness that many people felt he did not have

before. >> i do want to point a little bit of what president biden said in his calling for unity as we are in the middle of these two men taking this all the way in terms of a presidential campaign. let's first take a listen to some of that and we'll talk on the other side. >> there's no place in america for this kind of violence or any violence for that matter. an assassination attempt is contrary to everything we stand for as a nation. everything. it's not who we are as a nation. it's not america. and we cannot allow this to happen. unity is the most elusive goal of all. but nothing is important than that right now. unity. >> michael, just quickly we only have a few seconds, do you think that's possible, unity? >> i think it's possible and essential for us to try. this is what we do in america, we try to learn from horrible moments like saturday, let's hope we do. >> we appreciate your time as

always this morning. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> that does it this hour of morning news now. >> stay with us, the news continues right now. good morning, thanks for joining us i'm savannah sellers. >> i'm joe fryer this is a special report on the assassination attempt of donald trump. the secret service is in the hot seat. investigators are working to figure out how the gunman was able to get so close. this morning the scene is still locked down and the fbi is working to learn more about the shooter who's been described as an outcast and loner. >> now just 48 hours after the attack, the republican national convention set to kick off but with no additional security precautions planned. president biden is asking americans to take down the temperature. >> disagreement is inevitable in american lives, it's part of human nature.

but politics must never be a killing field. there's no place in america for this kind of violence. for any violence ever. period. no exceptions. we can't allow this violence to be normalized. >> we have team coverage of the latest on the investigation and the fallout from pennsylvania to washington to the rnc but we are going to begin with tom llamas who is in butler, pennsylvania with the latest. >> reporter: former president donald trump speaking out overnight after arriving in milwaukee for the republican national convention. >> take a look what happened -- >> reporter: just 24 hours after his attempted assassination by a gunman at a campaign rally in pennsylvania, the former president discussing what he called a very surreal experience with the new york post saying i'm not supposed to be here i'm supposed to be dead. earlier in the night, president

biden addressing the nation from the oval office urging all americans to reject political violence. >> there's no place in america for this kind of violence. >> footage and firsthand accounts of the shooting. show an apparent breakdown in security leading up to the attempt on mr. trump's life. >> someone is on top of the roof, look. >> this video emerging of the shooter earlier in the rally. >> he's on the roof. >> the crowd reacting a z they see the shooter crawling on the roof just outside of a projected perimeter some 150 yards from the former president. valerie, who was standing below shared these photos. she said the lack of security she saw surprised here. pointing to this gate, secured by zip ties. >> there was no security on this side at all. >> authorities say the gunman fired multiple shots before he was killed by a secret servicecounter sniper team. the shooter identified by the

fbi as 20-year-old thomas matthew crooks. the fbi has not identified a motive. previously unknown to law enforcement, the 20-year-old was a registered republican who, according to campaign finance reports donated $15 to a democratic group three years ago. the shooting claimed the life of firefighter corey competor. two others were shot and are in stable condition, 57-year-old david dutch and 47-year-old james copehaver. >> the assassination attempt against former president trump is shining a spotlight on the secret service with growing criticism how the agency handled security for the event. nbc news capitol hill correspondent ryan hills joins us with more.

good morning. >> reporter: good morning, and the director of the secret service issuing a lengthy statement this morning saying the agency is going to look at every aspect of what happened at the event over the weekend to determine what went wrong and the agency is prepared to work with congress and the independent investigation that president biden has called for to find out what needs to change at the agency. >> take a look at what happened -- >> reporter: from the moments after the attempt on former president trump's life, the reports of security lapses came quickly. >> we're like, hey, man, there's a guy on the roof with a riffle. police are like, huh? what? they didn't know what was going on. >> reporter: the building where the shooter's body was found was 150 yards away and outside the perimeter. sources tell nbc news the roof was identified as a potential

vulnerability ahead of the event. a spokesperson for the secret service said they designated that roof top under the jurisdiction of local law enforcement and worked with them to maintain event security. but no one was posted on this particular building. the local district attorney says his office provided support. including sniper teams. but the secret service was in charge of security outside of the venue and ran the show. many on capitol hill are demanding to know what went wrong. >> we need to know how could an individual be at that elevation that was seen by apparently bystanders on the ground. how could that not be noticed by secret service. >> reporter: local law enforcement leaders say they're investigating their preparation for the event and their response after the shooting. already a bipartisan pair of lawmakers are calling for increased secret service protection for all presidential candidates. and chairman mark green sent a

letter to dhs secretary demanding information around security. pointing out had the bullet's trajectory been slightly different, the assassination attempt on former president trump might have succeeded. the secret service pushed back on reports they reduced the presence around trump. a spokesman saying this is false. we added protective resources and technologies and capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel m tempo but members of congress want answers. >> we need to know is this a protocol failure, resource issue or a failure of those on site that day. >> reporter: there have been a number of calls for investigations by members of congress including oversight in particular. the house oversight chairman has invited the director to testify at a hearing on july 22nd. let's talk about how the

secret service handled security at the incident. we have former secret service agent and analyst evi with us. thank you for joining us. we appreciate your perspective on this. let's talk about the particular building, the structure, roof, we were told it was identified as a security risk in the days leading up but then also as we heard there in ryan's piece we know that was delegated to local law enforcement. how is that possible? walk us through how the decisions are made and how it can take place. >> when you get a site you send an advance team out, they do an assessment. where is the presser going to be, where is the president speaking from. you build your security plan around that. then you have to look what's outside of my secure perimeter. so you look for line of sight issues this is clearly one of those issues. to be frank it's not that far away. we're looking at what 148 yards

not that big of a distance. so that structure -- it's not just one building, it's a massive structure. there's a parking lot, vehicles. you have to secure that. now typically, and it is common practice, what the spokesperson is saying is accurate. you would typically delegate that to local police. secret service doesn't have the man power to actually put agents everywhere. especially out of perimeter. so you work during that time you're out you work with your counter parts and say we have this part, you have this part. now, what's happening here is that you've got this part, what does that mean? was instruction given? was there clarity in how many people are you going to put there? how many officers? why was a person not on the rooftop and the video we've been seeing, people that noticed somebody on the roof top. it's -- it is unacceptable for spectators to say i see somebody on the roof and for there not to be a police presence to see that

before the public sees it. and then the other issue was the delay in getting to the roof. clearly it seems, again, that there was no way for police to actually get to the top of the roof to actually obstruct or stop what was happening. so we had the delay in process. so you have all these different issues kind of lined up. and at the end of the day, it is the secret service's security site. so overall are they responsible, yes p. they design the plan. you go in as a side agent, i want this, this, this. you run it through your counter parts. you put in the request for the different elements that you need. but at the same time you do work with local police and it's -- there are about 17,000 law enforcement entities in the united states. half of them have ten officers or less. i don't know the specific department that the secret service was eluding to for this,

i don't know how many man power they have. we don't know those things yet and we don't want to presume yet because we don't want to blame anybody until all that stuff comes out. they don't train the way secret service trains. and that's why your secret service element, you also want them close to your protectee. typically i'm not putting an agent all the way out there when it's just secure this building, nobody goes up, i don't want to see anything here, keep it locked and tight. i'm going to keep my assets close to the president so when something happens like we saw here, agents know what to physically do. >> does that beg the question maybe secret service shouldn't put local law enforcement in charge of something that is still close enough to shoot at the president. can that change or does the secret service not have the resources to do that? >> i can see them allocating more resources to putting agents to do that to have a

counterpart. sometimes you are assigned depending on the function you're going to be with local police department so you can talk. the other thing is coms. that hasn't come up yet but they're on their own radio frequency, u.s. secret service is on their frequency. you have a command post where a representative from each entity working can clearly talk to one another. but do those seconds in communication cause any delay? i don't know if anything like that transpired. i think one of the other issues is, it's not just the line of sight, why wasn't the security, the other issue is, it spotted, why was there a delay in having a response get there to make intercept what happened. >> it's one thing how do he make it into that building and on top of it. set that aside knowing it's the responsibility of local law enforcement. you have the snipers who were able to, under a minute from the shots ringing, they were able to

neutralize that threat. was anyone watching that roof top from farther away was that someone's responsibility? >> typically it would be the counter sniper response my understanding there were twocounter sniper teams but they're doing a 360. they are looking all around specifically. if they're looking and break away to look here, maybe that's the moment that was taken. i think what the big shock is for a lot of people is it's a 20-year-old kid who was able to scale a building and take a shot. i think that's where people are like flabbergasted a bit or perhaps something like this happened here in new york city you can say high-rise buildings, thousands of windows, i can see maybe where something was missed, so i think this is where a massive amount of concern and disappointment is coming from p. when you look at the aerial shot it's not that complex of a

structure or site to secure. we so appreciate you being with us this morning. thank you. >> thank you. turning to milwaukee where the republican national convention is slated to take place this week. nbc news garrett haake joins us from milwaukee. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. i'm off the convention floor that tonight will be filds with thousands of delegates, journalists and lawmakers to witness the third nomination of donald trump for president of the united states. the structure isn't expected to change in any way following the assassination attempt on the former president but the tone of it will change. and some of that will start at the top with former president trump saying in an interview he threw out an early tougher draft of his speech he's set to give

later this week now he wants to focus on uniting the country. the republican national convention kicking off under an intense political and security spotlight days after the assassination attempt on former president trump. the secret service said they're ready to keep the four day safe and secure. >> we're prepared and have a plan in place. we're ready to go. >> that plan developed over 18 months had already been designated the highest level security event. milwaukee's police chief with this message on sunday. >> we got this. we got this. >> former president trump writing on social media, the shooter would not change anything about the convention schedule. one thing that is changing is trump's speech. the former president saying, quote, it's going to be a whole different speech now. a lot different than it would have been two days ago.

adding, quote, this is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world together. those images of mr. trump, face bloody, fist in the air, now embraced by his campaign and his supporters touting his toughness. >> this is the toughest guy i meant. >> reporter: some republicans targeting president biden for his rhetoric. >> most importantly, i mean this from the bottom of my heart, that trump is a threat to the nation. >> reporter: and for telling donors it's time to put trump in the bulls eye. >> i know that he didn't mean what is being implied there. but that kind of language on either side should be called out. >> reporter: mr. trump's own speech filled with violent

imagery. >> the real threat is the left the and it's growing every day. our threat is from within. >> reporter: now with the convention set to open, there's calls for both parties to end attacks on one another. the first day of the convention, will we or won't we see or hear from donald trump today? when will we learn about his running mate selection, something we expect to hear today, still a closely guarded secret as of this morning. >> thank you. let's bring in peter alexander for more on this. good morning. last night we heard president biden call on the secret service to revisit the plans for the rnc later today. what else did we hear from the president during his address to the public last night. >> this was the third time he held an oval office address. the third time since that shooting late saturday that he has spoken publicly about the events that took place in butler, pennsylvania.

saying that disagreement is inevitable in many american democracy. it's part of human nature but politics must never be a literal battlefield, let alone a killing field. he said there's no place for this kind of violence, no violence, period. we can't allow this to be normalized. the president also noted he'll be discussing his own record in the weeks ahead. he said it's fair to have debates in a healthy democratic way saying we'll compare and contrast the character, records, issues, the agendas but really the message here in the simplest of terms was the need for americans of all stripes to lower the temperature as we head into what is a heated political season. >> peter, until the attack the biden administration was dealing with these calls for the president to step down from running in the 2024 election after his performance in the debate. what has this attack on donald

trump done here for the campaign? >> reporter: if nothing else it teaches you how quickly the dominating issue can change. we were talking about the democrats, the defections in the democratic party, the divisions whether they believe joe biden should remain at the top their of their ticket now the focus is on what took place in pennsylvania, the assassination attempt. this was, in many ways for the president, a chance to rehabilitate his image and quit answering questions to his age and memory. but it doesn't erase it entirely right now. it does put democrats in a challenging position to try to address all these things at one time. i think one thing that strikes me is the real challenge that joe biden faces going forward. which is that fundamental to his campaign is this idea, this

contrast with donald trump where he has cast him as a threat to democracy. and how sharply can he sort of keep that messaging up right now while at the same time trying to cast himself as a calming force in this country. joe and savannah. >> peter alexander, thank you so much. you can watch our full coverage of the republican national convention beginning at 9:30 p.m. eastern right here on nbc news now. up next new details on the suspicious canisters found in the car of the gunman. what investigators are saying about the discovery and the 20-year-old man they say was behind this attack. n they say ws behind this attack copd hasn't been pretty. it's tough to breathe and tough to keep wondering if this is as good as it gets. but trelegy has shown me that there's still beauty and breath to be had. because with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy keeps my airways open and prevents future flare-ups.

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we're back with more on the investigation into the man accused of attempting to assassinate former president trump. >> investigators say thomas matthew crooks fired a semiautomatic rifle at mr. trump killing one person in the

audience and injuring two others. shaquille bruster is live in bethel park where crooks lived. we know law enforcement found suspicious canisters in his car. what else can you tell us as investigators try to figure out any possible motive. >> reporter: good morning to you. there's no sense of any possible motive at this point. that's what investigators are looking into. we know at this point they're planning to look at crooks' movements in the hours before the shooting trying to see a specific timeline of what took place. the fbi said they searched his home. we are getting a first look at the suspect's home after there being a large perimeter around his home. we know they searched his vehicle, they're going through his phone, the canisters found at his home and car. so there's a lot of terrible they're trying to work through there, investigating a lot of that terrible has been send off

to quantico in virginia. so a lot of stuff they're going through and they're frying to piece together a time line and hopefully get more answers on a possible motive. >> we know the shooter is 20 years old, he was a member of a local shooting club. we're hearing from people who knew him. what else are we learning? >> we know he worked at a nursing home, he was a dietary aid at a nursing facility, about a 15 minute walk from where we stand right now. i spoke to a schoolmate who talked about how he was a loner listen to that. >> yeah, he was bullied almost every day. >> in what way? >> he would sit alone at lunch. he was just an outcast. you know how kids are nowadays. they're going to see someone like that and target him because they think it's funny or whatever. it's the best way i can describe it.

it's honestly kind of sad. i don't want to say this is what provoked it, but you never know. >> you said he was a loner? >> yeah. i want to say he was a loner more because he was -- he was quiet but like he was bullied. like he was bullied so much. so much. >> i followed up asking what is the source of that bullying? he explained he would see crooks wearing hunting gear in the classroom he would have the surgical mask long after covid precautions ended. the fbi is going through social media. if there's any social media presentation he has, not one we've been able to find but going through his cell phone trying to learn all they can about this 20-year-old suspect. >> thank you so much. to are provide more information let's bring in

counter terrorism agent christopher o'leary. the shooter doesn't seem to have much political or ideological beliefs he was a registered republican but made a donation to a democratic group. how does that complicate the investigation? how do they figure out a motive. >> it's important to remember we are in the early days of this investigation and all the resources of the fbi they have at their disposal have been sent up to the pittsburgh office. that includes resources from the fbi counterterrorism division, the fbi laboratory division, the behavioral analysis unit to be able to get inside the mind of the shooter. but additionally there will be computer forensics people going through every bit of his hardware but also his social media to try to find out who he was interacting with, what he was searching, what he was reading. but then there's an additional thing, was he involved in online

gaming. that is something we look at in the domestic terrorism realm to determine if they're interactive, playing in certain games, interacting with people playing these games because we've seen that as a radicalizer in certain cases as well. >> we know he had a discord account he wasn't using much but they are cooperating with authorities. the fbi said they are not sure if this is an act of domestic terrorism, though they are investigating this as a potential instance of that. why is that important? what does that determination mean? >> well, it's -- you know, this is certainly an act of political violence. you know, this is an individual for whatever reason, we don't know what it is yet, mobilized towards violence and acted against the president and public there, killing a u.s. citizen. is it terrorism? does he have an ideology, was he trying to use violence to affect political change?

is he associated with other individuals who share that? that will be the difference in determining if it is, in fact, domestic terrorism. is he an anarchist aligned with the far left? is he an accelerationist aligned with the far right, or something in between. those of us who work terrorism and study it we call it the salad bar of ideologies now he may have picked different pieces of ideology and deal with him and decided to move towards violence. >> there's the investigation into why this happened and how this could have happened. the fbi is going to lead the investigation into these gaps in security. that allowed it to happen. what is that investigation going to look like? >> so they're going to go through the secret service methodology, how they were task organized. who was in charge of the advance. and i think it's important to say, the secret service is the

finest protective security in the world, hands down. nobody is being more self-critical than they are right now. they are looking at everything they do. i've worked with secret service a ton over the years and they are professionals. dedicated to carrying out their mission with a level of exceptionalism. so they are going to be very hard on themselves. the fbi is going to go through and give a second look at everything and provide them with the -- their findings as well. what happened to allow somebody within 150 yards with a high power rifle, which is not a difficult shot and just to give you a point of reference, as a former marine, the basic qualification course for marines with rifles does not start until 200 yards and goes out to 500 yards. that weapon can hit a man-sized target at 500 yards. so the secret service has a challenging job ahead of them. they have to protect both former presidents and the current

president in a very charged environment. and in locations, you know, president trump has chosen to carry out rallies in locations like this, in rural farmland, very hard to protect the president. >> your expertise much appreciated this morning. thank you for joining us. >> you bet. we are going to take a brief beat from covering this story. a look at money news. at&t reportedly paid up to get a hacker to delete stolen data. >> good morning, silvana. >> let's get you the headlines. starting with at&t who reportedly paid a hacker about $370,000 to delete customer data stolen as a spree of data breaches earlier. the hacker then provided a video to prove they had deleted the data. the breach exposed call records and texts from nearly all

customers between may and october of 2022. alphabet is reportedly near a deal to buy cyber security start up wiz for $23 billion. it would be the company's biggest acquisition effort. wiz works with multiple cloud providers and several fortune 500 companies. it raised $1 billion in funding earlier this year, valuing the company at $12 billion. and back to school spending is expected to be flat or lower this year as shoppers dialed back on expensive purchases such as laptops and pcs. a new report estimates that shoppers will spend more than $31 billion. that's about $586 per student. and that's down from just under $600 last year. deloit said middle income families are focused on value and willing to shop for private

label brands, guys. >> thank you very much. stay with us. more of our special coverage on nbc news now and msnbc after this short break. now and msnbcr this short break vyvgart hytrulo, a subcutaneous injection that takes about 30 to 90 seconds. for one thing, could it mean more time for you? vyvgart hytrulo can improve daily abilities and reduce muscle weakness with a treatment plan that's personalized to you. do not use vyvgart hytrulo if you have a serious allergy to any of its ingredients. it can cause serious allergic reactions like trouble breathing and decrease in blood pressure leading to fainting, and allergic reactions such as rashes, swelling under the skin, shortness of breath, and hives. the most common side effects are respiratory and urinary tract infections, headache, and injection site reactions. it may increase the risk of infusion-related reactions and infection. tell your doctor if you have a history of infections or symptoms of an infection.

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we are back now with the latest reaction from the white house to the attempted assassination of former president trump. >> in a rare address to the nation from the oval office president biden focused on what he called heated political rhetoric and said it's, quote, time to cool it down. but even the president himself admitted that might be eaier said than done. president biden is trying to fend off an effort from republicans that he's to blame for the shooting. so what is the plan for the white house now? >> joining us with the latest from the white house is correspondent monica alba. good morning. so during these remarks from the oval office, biden listed other

recent instance of political violence, including january 6th as a way to call for the less tension across political parties. tell us what more we heard from the president. >> reporter: he was referencing a couple of those examples and remember it was the political violence we saw in charlottesville in 2017 that ultimately led then former vice president joe biden to decide he wanted to run for president against donald trump in 2020 he said that was formative. so this has been an undercurrent to his political thinking, january 6th as well. and that's why he's delivering a message like the one we heard in the oval office. here's a little bit more of that from last night. >> the political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. it's time to cool it down. we all have a responsibility to do that. all of us now face the time of testing as the election approaches. and the higher the stakes, the

more fervent the passion becomes this places an added burden on each of us to determine no matter how strong our convictions we must never descend to violence. >> reporter: in the speech was the call for unity but the president acknowledged there were different visions between what republicans were displaying at their convention this week and what is he campaigning on when he resumes that kind of political activity tomorrow and wednesday in nevada, guys. >> we saw many trump supporters, some republicans attempting to blame president biden and his allies for the incident. talk about their rherhetoric, specifically claims that trump is a threat to democracy. how is the biden campaign responding to this? any chance they may change that messaging at all. >> they're pointing to the context and these remarks and some of these things were said days and weeks before the

shooting. and they are what is they are trying to point to but they are saying overall and they are raising this situation, which is true, that there has been really intense rhetoric on both sides and really republicans and democrats you can count the examples of times where there are people who have said things that could be misinterpreted or taken as a potential inciting that could lead to something like this. but all the lt ultimately the biden campaign is saying there's no excuse for anything that could approach this violence and rhetoric that could be seen as completely inflammatory they want to make sure that does get toned down for everybody across the aisle. >> how do you think we'll see president biden toeing this line? he is the president in the position of trying to help and heel the nation. at a moment when something terrible happens no matter what it is, while also being the presidential candidate and this being the person he's running

against? how does he handle that? >> that is the question, the way the president does this. but in the speech last night and what you're seeing he's going to try to focus on this as the president of the united states and a little bit less as a candidate in terms of the things he's trying to direct his government to do, increasing security measures doing a full review of what went wrong in pennsylvania at that rally and trying to approach this from everybody needs to take a step back, take a deep breath and they need to be careful in terms of what they say and how they say it. to your point in the introduction, the president here is still maybe fighting for his own political standing and whether he's certainly going to be the democratic nominee as he says he intends to be. we saw there was a pause in the democratic defections since saturday's shooting but we know there are a lot of democrats who have concerns so there's a focus on that again as well in the coming days. >> monica alba, thank you very much for your reporting. joining us for more on what the attempt means for

presidential security measures going forward is former secret service special agent paul ecklof. two sources tell nbc news the shooter's location on that roof top was a vulnerability. one called the assassination attempt a security failure i'm sure as a former agent you're troubled by what happened. how does something like this happen? >> it's an excellent question and you will find nobody today asking more questions and feeling more critical than the secret service family, both current and retired special agents. the building would have been identified in any security plan counter sniper response, security plans, regardless of the footprint of what is called the secure site and the nonsecurity site would have been identified and surveyed. the fact is that campaign details and advances tend to be robust than sitting presidents.

we know the security environment, we know it more painfully today than we did before saturday but the environment the men and women of the secret service is having to work in is almost unrealistic. the agents on the ground are to be lauded for their response. but there will be questions. the layered security plans between the secret service and local and state agencies, there are redundancies built in. so there will be questions about the roof top being accessed. but the agents on the ground when you see the counter response within a second of identifying the threat. i would say as a former law enforcement officer what i'm troubled by is some of the anti-law enforcement rhetoric on both sides. we've seen it for years that law enforcement perhaps exceeds their use of force authority.

in this case the secret service used extreme discretion and when necessary in identifying the threat of this troubled young man on the roof he was neutralized, and agents collapsed on the protectee, assessed the situation and evacuated him safely. but once again there will be questions, the security plans are complex. i believe the secret service is going to be re-evaluating the assets put on sites. for years men and women of the secret service are told to do more with less. what we saw, while it was 43 years between the lessons learned, we saw the agents react by muscle memory in an exemplary fashion and cover, shield, and evacuate the former president of the united states. the questions are being asked and rightfully so. >> i think your point about more with less is a good one. people at home may be thinking why wasn't there an agent on the roof, in the building, instead

of leaving it to local law enforcement? what changes could be made with the resources available that we could see, is it extending the perimeter, is it a different relationship with local law enforcement? what could change to prevent something like this? >> those are excellent questions but the relationship between the secret service and state and local law enforcement couldn't be better. they allow the secret service to succeed and allowed them to secret service since they received the mandate to protect presidents in 1901 and the reason there have not been more episodes. i would caution we don't know the facts. the talented men and women of the fbi tasked to investigate assassination attempts will be looking at those things, the secret service will be investigating. but perimeters will need to be extended and man power increased both at campaign stops and with the president. but i would say we don't know the answers, if there was an agent assigned, what their

response was, and i can't speak for that i was not on the ground. but the agents and officers work with a finite amount of assets. and while the secret service and local police are agnostic they have to work in the environment that social media, the media and the public creates. and it is toxic right now. the words used that they're told incite violence, it's easy for those that sit on the side to say hyperbole but for a mentally challenged individual looking for inspiration, they take it far different than adults that understand it's political discourse and the men and women of the secret service willingly wade into that environment every day. as i said, no security plan is perfect. what we saw was not perfect. what i saw was an exemplary and brave response. my heart goes out to the family

of the brave man who died trying to protect his family, never should have happened. the training in the secret service, they trained for this. i trained for this for decades -- >> paul we appreciate your time this morning. i apologize we're tight on time. but thank you for your expertise this morning. it's appreciated. >> thank you. the fbi said they don't know the motive of the shooter, the assassination attempt on former president trump has brought the discussion about political divisions and violence to the forefront. >> politicians and voters on both sides of the aisle agree things have gone too far. kate snow joins us with more. >> since saturday's assassination attempt, the fbi said they're seeing an up tick in threats of violence online. we were already in the midst of an exceptionally heated election cycle with a polarized electorate and in some corners it's only getting worse. >> take a look what happened -- >> the attempted assassination

of former president trump highlighting the ongoing political polarization in america. >> i know him. donald trump is a z loser. >> joe, you dumb son of a -- >> reporter: fears now the nation has reached a boiling point. >> all of us to turn down any kind of the temperature. >> we all need to take a responsibility to cool things down, to say what we mean but don't say it mean. >> reporter: some republicans have blamed president trump for saturday's violence. >> i believe that joe biden is responsible for the shooting to date. everyone who has called him a fascist, a threat to democracy. >> reporter: democrats have long accused former president trump of using incendiary language while campaigning. last year trump mocked the violent attack on then house speaker nancy pelosi's husband. >> she's against building a wall in our border even though she has a wall around her house, which obviously didn't do a good job. >> reporter: according to a university of maryland

criminologist, incidents have been on the rise since 2016. in recent years dangerous language coming from politicians and pundits has been amplified by social media. the hateful rhetoric increasing and so is the real world violence. in 2017 a man opened fire at a baseball game practice wounding steve scalise. in 2020, the fbi foiled a plot to kidnap and kill gretchen whitmer. and on january 6th president trump saying. >> if you don't fight like hell you won't have a country anymore. >> reporter: former president trump said he bears no responsibility for the violence that day. and now the first shooting of a u.s. president since ronald reagan was nearly killed more than 40 years ago. voters across the political spectrum are concerned. >> i hope that this is not used

for propaganda to support violence one way or the other. >> whether you're left or right, there's no tolerance and no room for terrorism, violence, snags assassination attempts in this country. >> we may have differences but we could have one goal, be civil to each other. >> reporter: the country's leaders warning the current political climate cannot continue. >> the greatest threat to our nation is we're horribly divided. >> moments after president biden finished his remarks saying we cannot dissend into violence, former president trump posted on social media, unite america. the majority of statements made by republican and democratic officials since saturday night have emphasized unity and calm. michigan governor whitmer writing it's time for every one of us to chart a path. call a relative you haven't spoken to in a while and let them know you love them. put down the phone, talk to your

neighbors. >> good advice. thank you, kate we appreciate it. stay with us more of our special coverage on nbc news now and msnbc right after this short break. now and msnbc right after this short break. ♪ and i am lost and i can't ♪ punch buggy red. ♪ even say why ♪ ♪ i am, i said ♪ ♪ ♪

this morning the nation is the nation is still reeling after the assassination attempt on former president trump. this moment in history is now being defined by some arresting images. we have a remarkable story behind those photographs.

>> reporter: the defiant picture, the former president's fist raised, his face stread with his own blood. a jarring image that's hard to look at, but must be seen. the photographer. >> i knew this was a moment in american history that had to be documented. it's our job. >> reporter: "new york times" also capturing these images. a bullet frozen on its path to its intended target grazing trump's ear, his hand pulling back to reveal blood. secret service agents acting in unison rushing in blanketing the presumptivive republican nominee. and this image of the former president still surrounded by agents on the stage floor, all the while officers standing at the ready not knowing what else could come. the former president's shirt opened, his face bloodied, rushed off stage.

a shoe left behind. before the gunshots, a crowd of supporters after an empty stage, a withered flag. and spectators overwheped with sadness, they faces in disbelief. images captured in a matter of moments, be now sered in the nation's collective memory. >> this morning we're hearing several stories of bravery from people in the crowd all the saturday's trump rally. one of themmage emergency room doctor who sprang into action providing cpr to those injured. that doctor tells nbc news that people helping each other is what america needs to be about. >> you jumped into action. did you think at any point you could maybe save his life or was the wound so bad? >> when i came upon him, i thought the wound was a fatal wound. it was a small bore right here

above the ear. and that's where snipers like to hit. i'm not a ballistics essentialists, i have never been on an active shooting scene, but seeing the results from people make it to my emergency department. >> reporter: doctor, something that stood out to me is there were a handful of people that when this active shooter situation was happening, they jumped into action to help out. why do you think that was? >> i think americans love to help. those two individuals, i have been called a hero. i don't know i'm a hero. every hero needs a helper. superman's lois lane. i needed these two people to get this fellow up. and you could tell they were scared, but they did it. when i got down to this gentleman, which was within 45 seconds, someone was already

applying pressure to that wound. and that continued. nobody knew cpr. i did that by myself. that's okay. but people were there and help ed. >> i saw an interview with you earlier. were you covered in sweat? >> i was covered with blood. my face was covered. so was my shirt. i had a usa shirt on and a trump hat on. i also had some brain matter on me. after that interview, and i was in shock with that. i was in disbelief. and after that interview, i got to get this guy tremendous credit was an army the combat veteran. excuse me. after the interview, he came up to me and said, brother, there's blood on your face. i said, okay, and he gave me his

water bottle. i looked at my shirt and i washed off as much as i could. and then i handed the bottle back. he stepped in and put his hand on my shoulder and said, are you okay, brother? and i saw the combat veteran across the brim of his hat. i said. >> a moment you're never going to forget. >> never. that guy was an american helping me after i tried to help corey. >> our thanks to tom ya mass for sharing that conversation. stay with our special coverage here on nbc news and msnbc. more after this short break. msc more after this short break.

we're back with a closer look at the political and lek foirl impact of the assassination attempt. trump has arrived in milwaukee for the republican national convention. but the party is set to rally around the former president beginning today. chief political analyst chuck todd is in milwaukee for us. good to have you with us this morning. we're in unchartered waters here. an assassination attempt in the middle of an election campaign. what does this mean for the rnc? these conventions have become so predictable in recent years. this could be something different, right?

>> reporter: it's possible. there's no precedent, maybe you could go back to the 2004 republican convention that was in new york city two and a half years after 9/11, which had a feel that was different. it was not -- i was at that convention. it was not as ra-ra. it was a little more patriotic and less divisive politically, designed to be that way. that's the opportunity republicans have this week. i do think it's an opportunity. the former president said he wants to throw away his speech, make a more unifying message. i think a lot of americans are going to be listening. it's not often in our polarized times where we're so hardened on each side that the other side

gets an opportunity to speak to the fragmented country in a way they don't normally get to. that's the opportunity republicans have this week. >> both sides have condemned the shooting. we have seen some republican lawmakers blame democrats for what happened to trump accusing them of stirring up anti-trump rhetoric. to be clear, we see this rhetoric on both sides. you have written a piece for nbc news where ewe say, there's a fragile chance to wrench the u.s. out of this situation around demonizing the other side. talk to us about this unique moment we find ourselves in. >> reporter: some of it is very difficult. the way our digital conversation goes, the ecosystem, it's designed for outrage, designed to divide. and we can drown in what aboutism, who is using apocalyptic rhetoric more irresponsibly, the left or the right, but when you do this, you numb the country.

you get to this point where you're sitting there going, where you stop to look at your political opposition as a fellow american. and last year, the candidates for utah governor, the incumbent and the democrat, did an ad together preaching civility. they were going to disagree without being disagreeable. in this moment, if former president trump and president biden could actually sit next to each other, do a 30-second ad where they co-pay for it and ran it the rest of the campaign saying we're going to vigorously disagree, but we're going to do so without demonizing fellow americans, it could go a long way. our concern about not having something like that, neither side wants to give an inch, but the country could use it right now. >> chuck, thank you so much. stay with us. our special coverage continues right now.

good morning, 9:00 a.m. eastern. i'm jose diaz-balart. at this hour the investigation into the attempted assassination of former president trump is intensifying. the fbi looking at the shooting as a potential act of domestic terrorism, but a motive is still not known for the deceased gunman who carried out the attack saturday. here is how that moment played out. >> if you want to really see something, take a look at what happened. >> new this morning, the secret service identified the building the gunman used as a potential security vulnerability days before the rally. according to two sources familiar with the operations. nbc news has verified this video

where you can see the gunman crawling into position on that rooftop. he was clearly visible to bystanders on the ground, who actually pointing it out and trying to alert others. former president trump called the incident as a surreal experience during an interview with "the new york post" saying, he was grateful for the secret service two took down the suspected shooter and shielded him. i'm not supposed to be here. i'm supposed to be dead. as he supported a large white bandage covering his right ear. this morning trump campaign senior adviser spoke to the "today" show about how the former president is doing this morning. >> president trump is waking up this morning doing very well. he feels very fortunate to be alive. as he said, it's only by the grace of god he's even still with us. it's miraculous that president trump turned his head just that slight amount at the right moment to avoid the bullet. the message that president trump is coming out of this is very simple. we have to unite america.

we have to unite the country. >> all this is happening as the republican national convention is set to begin today in milwaukee with donald trump in attendance. we have an extraordinary team covering all the latest. tom winter, intelligence correspondent, nbc news correspondent adrian brodis live in pennsylvania, and garrett haake is live in milwaukee at the rnc. tom, let me start with you. what an extraordinary weekend. you have been nonstop covering this. what's the latest on the investigation this morning? >> a couple different things. last night we received a briefing from the fbi talking with reporters, especially charged in this investigation, and a couple things. one, there's no mental health the illness history that this individual has. it's important people have been asking about that. the fbi says they have checked all of their holdings, and they have no references to that

individual. let me translate that. they have looked through their databases, their guardian databases, all the various databases where somebody might call in about a threat or say we think this person might be up to something. they might be ready to cause a problem. they say they don't have any references to the shooter. they don't have any references to that person. the gun purchased legally, separately, our reporting it was the father that purchased the gun. folks are going to have some questions. did the dad know about something. the fbi says on the record, the family is cooperating. we have received no indication at this point that the family had any knowledge of this incident or this event. in the car and at the home, what has been described to us as canisters or some sort of container contained something that the fbi is the calling what might have been a rudimentary explosive device. it sounds like it's an incendiary device, not explosive. so it's not a car bomb, but it might be something if he was

able to detonate remotely, if he was able to detonate that, it might have served as a distraction for law enforcement or served to injury law enforcement who was going to search his vehicle. >> sorry to interrupt you. did this person build it or make it? >> all part of the investigation. we don't have details on that. those devices are at the fbi's facility in quantico. special technicians at the fbi, they will go through first and foremost and collect, to your point, what are the fingerprints on these devices. what can we learn from them, they will reconstruct these devices in full to be be able to kind of get a sense of how they were put together. that we know there. the big question this morning is motive. i know people said to us, what are you talking about with

motive. he shot at donald trump. it's political. we don't know that because, as you might remember from the shooting of former president reagan, he said he did that to impress a hollywood actress. so it wasn't political. we need to keep an open mind. the fbi says we don't have any clear sign of motive. for a 20-year-old, this person had no social media presence. the phone is going to be the key. >> that's really key. i want to ask you about that. i'm thinking in the incident of the shooter in uvalde in texas. the 18-year-old who had an online presence that had a lot to do with chatting with other people, some in germany at the time, that's where he spoke about what he was thinking. so the phone is key. >> the phone is absolutely going to be key. it's our lives these days. gone are the days did they have laptops or hard drives. we still ask those questions.

but the cell phone doesn't lie. when they are able to get into that cell phone and image the that cell phone and put the forensic analysis software through it, they will be able to find out did he delete anything recently. what types of things might he have been deleting. the web search history is going to be important. we don't know know what they are going to find, if anything. that's the reason why the fbi is saying we believe it's him. we believe he acted alone, but we're still not there as far as putting together all the pieces of the investigation president last thing i know, folks were talking about the security here. the fbi says they are going to put together a full timeline, hours, days, and weeks, including the events that led up to the shooting. they are going to focus on who saw what and when, how did law enforcement react, that might provide clarity. >> there are a ton of questions on that front. adrian is there in pennsylvania. what more are you learning about the rally goer who was killed and the two people injured there? >> reporter: we'll start with

the two people physically injured. they have been upgraded from critical to stable condition. and they, too, like the gentleman who is now deceased, are all from pennsylvania. the man who died, that's 50-year-old people in this community are still trying to process what they witnessed. including a woman i spoke with right here by the name of renee white. she was sitting directly behind president trump. if you look at the video, you can see her. she can't believe how things turned out. she was talking about how we could be having a different conversation. >> i hate that we have to have

this conversation. what's or your heart less than 24 hours later after what you witnessed? >> i can't believe somebody did this. i can't believe somebody would try to take out a former president of the united states. whether it's joe biden or trump, i don't think it's right. >> so we heard the calls from president biden and former president trump to calm the temperature, both calling on unity. and even in my conversation with her, she's saying this has no room in our country. while we're waiting to hear the motive, the other big question is how someone was able to gain access, that 20-year-old shooter to a roof that was so close. wherever you go, that's what

people are talking about. >> garrett, you're there at the rnc. what's the level of security like? what are officials there telling you? >> reporter: you have covered these conventions before, so you know the security around any political convention is enormous. blocks and blocks of downtown milwaukee completely cut off from the rest of the city just to get here on to the floor of the convention. i had to go through multiple check points, have my bag looked in, secret service officers with dogs, the security is enormous. it's called a national special security event. basically the highest level of security that the federal government can provide along with local and state partners. yesterday the secret service went to great lengths to assure people this event was safe and will be safe going forward. here's what the secret service spokesperson told my colleague vaughn hillyard about the security posture here in milwaukee. >> this event has been

designated as a national security event, which is the the highest level of security. this is a whole of government approach. we have had an extensive planning process to include many organizations building out the operational security plan for any and all security related to this event. >> have you had that? >> we are fully prepared and have a security plan in place and we are ready to go. >> the chief of milwaukee's local police department had a much more simple and straight forward message when he was asked about the preparations here in the city. he told people we got this. >> we got this is what they are saying there, but in talking about it in pennsylvania, people are asking about that roof that seemed to be unmonitored, 149ards from where the former president was going to be speaking. >> so my colleagues in the nbc news investigative unit published a story last night that said according to a number of people, the secret service

pointed out that particular building and set of buildings and that rooftop prior to the event taking place there as a potential vulnerability and they were going to seek local law enforcement's assistance in being able to cover that. that's outside the secret service perimeter. they use local law enforcement. they have to. there's not enough secret service agents to cover everything, everywhere. the law enforcement says, wait a minute, we were looking for direction from the secret service on this. so the question is was there an issue? was there a potential the falldown here in who was responsible for that area. the number of senior law enforcement officials from other police departments say had this been in their area, had they been focused on this, the uniform presence, people there, you wouldn't have allowed anybody near the potential buildings but would have had a uniform presence of what is said. if you're coming here to do something, you're going to meet us first. us being the law enforcement. >> thank you all so much for being with us this morning. we appreciate it. joining us now is politics

reporter julie smyth. she was coming the trump rally when the smoot shooting occurred. thank you for being with us this morning. i want to start at the gibbing. take us to where you were when the shots were fired. >> well, the building you were just showing on there was not far from where i was. i was in the media area, which sat in front of the stage with a large field between us and that building and it was packed with people, a family atmosphere, calm and fun, until the shots rang out from that side. and then shots rang out from the stage area. it originally some people were just startled and thought maybe it was a firework or something like that. and then all of a sudden, trump made that gesture. you knew that he had been shot. everybody dropped to the ground.

and there was quite a bit of panic, has he been killed, what has happened. it was a large field so it was traveling word of mouth through the back of the crowd. as he stood up, people cheered and began getting back up. after the secret service took him off the stage, police began to evacuate the fairgrounds very quickly. they evacuated the media area as well. and told us this is an active crime scene. you have to get the heck out of here. >> so we were near that building. i'm wondering did you see uniformed patrol people, any secret service? there was an yash the shooter had to use a lad tore get to that roof. what did you see as far as security there? >> on that side of the field,

there were metal barriers about waist high blocking off the field that was sort of the perimeter of the fence base. and then there was what you can see as sort of a big grassy empty area between us and that building. it looked like it was a private property that wasn't part of the event. so he was in that area. he had not come through security or anything like that at the event, but had come around the side. it's amazing honestly, because the traffic and access was very difficult. there were people on foot and by car hitting in two-hour lines to get in. there was lot of security. he was obviously local or had scoped it out and knew how to get up there. >> yesterday you spent some time in the neighborhood where the gunman lived and spoke to some of the neighbors. what did you learn? >> it's a quiet neighborhood.

everybody says it's very peaceful there. very friendly. it's a mixed politic ps. we saw some trump signs. others had biden signs. and basically one of the neighbors said they just feel sad and feel that this country and the voters in pennsylvania are not feeling represented by the candidates they were presented this year. they feel like the system has kind of abandoned them and this growing frustration and anger has been building in the country. >> i know some time has passed, not a lot, but some time has passed, have you been able to process this? how have you processed this? >> actually, ap does have a resiliency team to help reporters who go through what has turned out to be a traumatic event. i felt very lucky that once i was safe, i just started reporting. i started taking video and doing

standups and calling my colleagues and telling them what was going on, which was my role there. but it's the kind of thing i will be processing for some time, honestly, because it was traumatic for the nation, and traumatic at a personal level for us who were there. >> journalists doing their calling. it's great to see you. thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. up next, president biden is at the white house, where he will soon be briefed by homeland security and law enforcement officials. we'll bring you the latest on that front. plus an update on the shooter, who he was and the search for any motive. and later, was this a massive security failure? we'll ask two former secret service agents. back in 90 seconds with more special coverage right here on msnbc. ere on msnbc.

(♪♪) (♪♪) sandals rhythm and blues caribbean sale is now on. visit sandals.com or call 1-800-sandals. 18 past the hour. later this morning, president biden and kamala harris will receive an updated briefing from homeland security and law enforcement officials on the latest in the investigation into the assassination attempt on former president trump. it comes after the president gave an oval office grease draes calling for americans to lower the temperature of political rhetoric. monica alba joins us. what can we expect from the president today? >> reporter: he's going to be sitting down with lester holt

later this afternoon. and what will be his first interview after the attempt on donald trump's life over the weekend. we know we have seen the president, heard from him several times since then, and it was a rapid response where the president decided he wanted to address the nation several times. he wanted to return to the white house so he could get these kinds of detailed briefings that you just mentioned, like the one he's going to be having in the situation with his top law enforcement and homeland security officials to get the latest details on this status of the investigation. but aside from it that, which is a major priority for the president in terms of talking about the steps to ramp up security measures, to do an independent review of what went wrong at the rally, the president also now is trying to focus on this message of national unity and this desire to lower the political temperature. he's really calling on all americans to consider that and to really take stock of what it

means to have strong political opinions, as we all do in this country, and that it should never amount to or resort to rhetoric that can lead to any kind of violence. here's a little more of what he had to say in his third oval office address of his presidency last night. >> violence has never been the answer. whether it's members of congress and both parties being targeted and shot or a violent mob attack the capitol on january 6th, we debate and disagree, we compare and contrast, the records, the issues, the vision for america. but in america, we resolve our differences at the ballot box. >> reporter: remember that president biden in that speech also talked about the reality thatten given the republican national convention this week, certainly, the gop is going to lay out their vision. he's going to start traveling to lay out his vision. he's going to be heading to nevada where he will have events over the next two days as the biden campaign and the entire

reelection effort start to turn back that political activity button and say they are going to be resuming some of the things that were on pause and on hold following saturday evening's shooting. >> monica alba, thank you. up next, what this all means for the republican national convention. will it be politics as usual? plus we'll talk to a special agent with the atf wo worked on a sniper case about what investigators have learned about the shooter. you're watching special coverage here on msnbc. r. you're watching special coverage here on msnbc.

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26 past the hour. at this hour, the investigation into the attempted assassination of former president trump is moving with the full weight of the federal government. we still don't know that now deceased gunman's motive, but we know he was a 20-year-old male from bethel park, pennsylvania. registered republican, made a $10 donation to a democratic cause, and his family is cooperating with investigators. joinings now with more is shaquille brewster in bethel park. also with us is retired atf special agent jim cavanaugh. shaq, let me start with you.

what more are we learning? >> reporter: we're getting a first look at the suspect'ses home after that law enforcement presence that existed since the shooting has now slowly gone away. i'll let you take a look at what we're seeing, as this is the first look. we know the fbi has spent hours in this home combing through, trying to pick up whatever evidence they can. we know they are trying to gather not only a motive, but they are trying to piece together a timeline of the shooter's actions in the hours and days before the shooting. to that point, we know they have collected the gun. they are going through his electronics, including his cell phone that's now been sent back to kwaunt eco, as they try to see what they can and piece together that timeline and the motive. we're also learning a lot more about the suspect himself. 20 years old, we know he was a dietary aid at a local nursing home and rehabilitation center, a 15-minute walk away from where i'm standing. he was a member of a gun club about 30 minutes away from his home. we know that gun club had

trainings for young people. they had trainings for assault weapons and long guns. so we're looking to see a little bit more about that. but we also talked to someone who went to high school with him. he graduated in the class of 202. i want you to listen to what we heard about pen high school. >> he was bullied almost every day. >> in what way? can you explain? >> he would sit alone at lunch. he was just the outcast. you know how kids are nowadays. they are going to see someone like that and target him because they think it's funny or whatever. it's the best way i can describe it. it's honestly kind of sad. i don't want to say this is what provoked it, but you never know. >> you said he was a loner? >> yeah. i wouldn't say because he was quiet, but he was just bullied. he was bullied so much.

>> when we followed up what specifically he was bullied over, they talked about his clothing, that he would wear hunting gear to class. this is something that investigators will go through. the fbi conducting interviews and continuing to collect evidence. we know this was the home of his parents. he was living with his parents. the family, according to the fbi, is cooperating and is part of this overall investigation. >> shaq brewster, thank you. i want to turn to jim. the family is cooperating. in your experience, how big of an assistant is that? >> it really helps the agents. if the family is candid, i'm sure they are suffering as well, they want to tell the truth. they want to help the agents get to the root of it. the kid sounds like he was very withdrawn inside himself. no friends. we have heard from the reports of shaq and tom winter, no social media presence.

no facebook, insta gram. sitting alone eating lunch, being constantly bullied. he draws inside himself. he becomes the invisible man. and what it looks like to me, absent more information is uncovered, there could be more information to be uncovered of his phone, but from what we know now looking at a motive, and we have been on so many mass shootings covering them and talking about them. we always talk about the motives. greed, power, hate, revenge and escape. those are the phi big that violent crime falls under. it the falls under one or more of those rubrics. this one, and even assassinations, this one is power. it falls under the power rubric and the sub category is infamy. he wants infamy. he's the invisible man who wants to be visible.

>> just thinking about parkland. i'm thinking uvalde. there was some indication in parkland, many, many points of indication, but in the uvalde, less, that there was something that that person was frustrated about and talked about at least thought about striking out. i guess if we don't have the phone, there could be some of that there, but it doesn't seem like this case was like that. >> right. where's the political presence? he's only 20 years old. he was a registered republican. he gave $15 to democrats. so he doesn't even know. he's only 20. i think his politics are kind of goofy. there could be some on his phone where he lashes out against president trump or even president biden, but to me, it's more to a john hinckley, who

people don't know, but hinckley came to nashville when katter was penetrate. i was on the secret service detail at the hotel. it was so tight he couldn't get through. we didn't know that at the time, but he went to the nashville airport and he was arrested carrying three pistols. six months later he shot ronald reagan. the reason i point that out, he was going to shoot carter, who was a democrat because he wanted to impress a the hollywood actress. he couldn't get through to security so he shot reagan. this guy is a man in search of visibility, infamy. something could change that assessment if we get more information, but if there's no more information, that's where i would see probably this is. >> jim cavanaugh, thank you. up next, new reporting about how donald trump says he's change his big speech for the rnc. we'll talk to one of the reporters who got the first

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37 past the hour. former president trump is currently in milwaukee for the republican national convention. just two days after he survived apt assassination attempt. in an interview with the washington examineer, former president said he has completely rewritten his convention speech saying it now will focus on bringing the nation together.

quote, the speech i was going to give on thursday was going to be a humdinger. had this not happened this, would have been one of the most incredible speeches aimed mostly at the policies of president biden. honestly, it's going to be a whole different speech now. joining us now the reporter who spoke to former president trump selena zito. she was feet away from the stage when the assassination attempt occurred. i thank you for being with us this morning. can you describe what you experienced and saw on that saturday and we're showing this picture for a very specific reason. >> yeah, so i was just a few feet away from the president by happenstance. i was supposed to interview him after the event, along with my daughter, who is a photo

journalist. and just before the event was supposed to start, he asked to see me. so we were pulled up into the holding room behind the stage. he just saw me, he was with a bunch of law enforcement sort of shaking hands, getting their pictures taken. he said, hey, and he was really excited to be in pennsylvania and he was in a very good mood. he was very excited to do the interview. i left the holding area, but because i was going to be leaving to go into the motorcade immediately after the speech, they placed myself and my daughter inside the bumper. which is that area where photo journalists traditionally are to capture the president in the moment. we moved along the perimeter inside the bumper and were just to the president's left when the

shots rang out. i heard pop, pop, pop. in the same moment, i saw the president grab his face, i saw blood and he kneeled down. i heard someone say get down, get down. and in the same time he was surrounded by law enforcement, secret service, whatever the case maybe, i heard three to four more additional pops. that's when i went down. at some point, his advancement jumped on top of me. but i saw the president. i heard the conversation because i was literally feet away. i heard the conversation about when he should get up. i he said something about a shoe. i couldn't see from the angle i was, but he apparently when they surrounded him knocked one of his shoes off. and as he's getting up, he yells, fight, fight, fight and

puts his hand up in that iconic moment. they move him down. his hat is not on him, but someone is holding his hat. it had fallen off. and it falls down right in front of me. and that's what i saw. >> now i take you back to that picture that we have shown. i want to go back to that because that picture right here, you can see that the bunting where the stars and the flag there is right in that holding area you're talking about. and selena, correct me if i'm wrong, but underneath that huddle there is your son-in-law, your daughter and you. >> yes. that's me. i got a text from all over the country because everybody recognized my cowboy boots. i love cowboy boots. >> we were able to see them there in the center of that

image. i'm just wondering, you're talking about the moment they took them to the motorcade area. there were some time once he dropped and the secret service was all over him, you talk about that two series of shots for the initial shots. but then when he's taken to that suv, do you notice? it seemed like there was some time before the motorcade left. what was going on then? did you look at that? >> i really couldn't tell. i had saw at that moment, i saw him get over to the vehicle. then i turned my sights because everyone noticed that someone is shot. a couple people were shot in the audience. so i was paying attention and taking photos of people rushing over there it was really pretty much out of my sightline at that

moment, and was paying attention to see, oh my god, someone is hurt. >> unfortunately, someone lost their life. i want to turn to your interview. what did he tail light you about the changes he was making to his speech? >> i think it's interesting. i think this is a really interesting nuance. the phone call i had with him yesterday was not going to be an interview. he called me yesterday morning and called to see if i was okay and if my daughter and son and n law were okay. then he apologized for not being able to do the interview. and i basically said, mr. president, you have just been shot, so i'm pretty much okay. and then we started to discuss -- i was really interested in what he felt in that moment and how, if at all, it was going to change his speech. and he said, everything changed

in that -- i'm paraphrasing here, but everything changed in that moment. he said he felt it was really, really important to profess or show or demonstrate strength in that moment, and he said it wasn't about me. it was about people knowing, projecting to people that the country is okay. we're going to be okay. and then he just talked -- i said what about your speech. and he said, well, i never turn my head. he's right. i covered rallies forever. he may turn his body, but he never turns his head. he said, i don't know what made me turn my head in the moment. usually i will turn my body to point to a chart. he had like a ross perot moment where he brought a chart out. and he turns to his right and just in that second, that's when the bullet grazed him.

had he been in any other position, even the tiniest amount, he would be dead. we would be having a different conversation. he said that. and we talked a little bit about god and a divine intervention. he believes that that was that moment. and that he needed to rise to that occasion when he gave his speech. so he ripped up his humdinger of a speech, which i suspect would have been classic trump, and instead he's going to have a much completely different speech on thursday. >> i thank you very much for being with us. you were very, very close to just such a dangerous situation. unfortunately, someone lost their life, two other people were injured, the former president was injured as well. i thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you. up next, security failure.

how could someone with a gun get that close to a former president during a campaign rally. we're going to talk to two former secret service special agents about possible holes in security. you're watching special coverage right here on msnbc. coverage right here on msnbc. herited, where they came from, and who you share them with. discover what makes you legendary with ancestrydna. -remember when i said we need to screen for colon cancer? -was that after i texted the age to screen was now 45? [both] because i said cologuard®! -hey there! -where did he come from? -yup, with me you can screen at home. just talk to your provider. [both] we'll screen with cologuard and do it my way. cologuard is a one-of-a-kind way to screen for colon cancer that's effective and non-invasive.

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before the event according to two sources familiar with the agency's operations. that comes after the homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas who said, a direct sight to the president should not occur. joining us, an msnbc news law enforcement analyst. also with us former senior special agent for the secret service, christopher mcclen anything. thank you for being with us. abby, what do you make of this report and what happened there on saturday? >> it's really interesting that the secret rhett service came out and made that statement. typically, this specific area was designated to local law enforcement. that really is common practice. you don't have the manpower and you're not going to paut special agent in that far of a distance. so the question is what kind of plan was put in place to secure that facility. even when we look at those aerial shots, it's not one

structure, one building. you see multiple different levels, rooftops going in there. you really needed manpower for a structure like that. why was somebody not put on top. you would need personnel at the bottom, at the top and what was the protocol. it's also interesting as to how did the individual get access to the rooftop from the inside? was he inside the building, hunkering down waiting to get on. did he get on from the outside of the building. a lot of unknowns here. that should have been locked down especially at that distance. line of sight is always an important thing you take into consideration. >> christopher, when you look at the video for the actions that the secret service took in the immediate aftermath, what do you see there? >> first of all, thank you, good morning and thank you for having me. i'm en cliebd to agree with evy, there's a policy and procedure in effect that such a rooftop, such an area, it absolutely

should have been monitored. there more than likely would have been an officer, not to diminish their significance in doing sites like this, but there would have been an officer stationed on top of the rooftop and the opportunities to get to the top of that rooftop would have been secured as well. so it is absolutely a failure of that policy, a failure of that procedure. that's what i'm seeing when i see that video, that absolutely it was pretty apparent that that was going to be an area of interest and it absolutely was not covered appropriately. >> we look at this picture here. christopher, your thoughts as evy was saying. there were a number of buildings that show some vulnerability. even that water tower back there. that's certainly a larger distance away, but it's certainly got a higher perspective on that.

it seems as though none of that area was -- had any kind of protection on any of those areas. i'm just thinking, christopher, is it a matter that maybe there was no communication, poor communication between federal and seat and local officers there? >> that's a possibility, a distinct possibility. i don't like to armchair quarterback. i wasn't at that scene. and every site is its own entity, its own individual organism, if you will. i will say that when you look at it, you can obviously see the areas of vulnerability. i think it was evy that did an interview yesterday where she correctly mentioned that when the agents were doing the site advance, when they were doing the site that not one, not two,

but several agents stood at that podium, i guarantee you that, and looked out as if they were going to be president trump, as if they were the protectee, they looked out and where the crowd would be and saw those rooftops. there's no way that was an unknown. so this is -- it definitely fell within our policy and procedure, the secret service's policy and procedure of something that needed to be covered. it was obviously not covered or not covered appropriately. that's what led to this traj ik event. >> evy, christopher, thank you both so much for being with us this morning. appreciate it. next hour we'll talk to the ap journalist who got these now iconic photos of a bloody trump with his fist in the air right after the shooting. we'll talk to senator gary peters who is opening an investigation into this shooting. stay with us. special coverage on msnbc. special coverage on msnbc. you l like a spectator in your own life with chronic migraine,

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