that this is kind of questionable why the timing is, what it is, it's a 93-page decision, jose. she didn't write this last night. so this has definitely been in the hopper for a while. >> catherine christian, katie phang, thank you so very much for being with us this morning. that is it for me. i'm josé diaz-balart. thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell continues our breaking news coverage next. good day, everyone, i'm andrea mitchell in washington with special coverage of the assassination attempt against former president donald trump and the breaking news just this morning that judge aileen cannon in florida has dismissed the mar-a-lago classified documents case, and she says it is based on her opinion that the appointment of special counsel jack smith itself was, quote, unlawful siding with the defense. her decision will likely be appealed to the 11th circuit. if it is not overturned despite

years of precedence upholding the appointment of special prosecutors under different presidents, it could result in current cases being thrown out. while in pennsylvania, the fbi is investigating the security failure that led to the attempted assassination of donald trump at saturday's campaign rally. barely missing what could have been a fatal blow. we begin with the decision by judge cannon who was already being criticized by many for slow walking the case. joining us ken dilanian, vaughn hillyard at the republican national convention in milwaukee, andrew weissmann, top prosecutor for robert mueller, a special prosecutor, and former u.s. attorney barbara mcquade. walk us through judge cannon's reasoning on dismissing this case and the broader implications, of course. >> andrea, this is a stunning decision. the first thing our viewers need

to know is this is a technical decision that had nothing to do with the merits of the case. it had nothing to do with the allegations of mishanding classified documents, the allegations that donald trump obstructed justice and ordered subordinates to destroy evidence. that's not addressed in here at all. the whole crux of her opinion is that there is no law establishing the office of special counsel and that, therefore, the appointment of jack smith is unlawful under both the appointments and the appropriations clause, and i'll shortcut it a bit here. essentially the argument is jack smith wields a lot of power. he wasn't confirmed by the senate. there's no law establishing his office, and therefore, his office is unlawful, and this indictment must be dismissed in its entirety. it's gone, it's out. and by the way, under this reasoning, the entire prosecution's and investigations of special counsel robert mueller would also be invalid because he came from the outside and wasn't confirmed by the senate in that role. it's an absolutely shocking opinion that goes against 25

years of jurisprudence. the old independence counsel law lapsed 25 years ago, and since then the justice department has been appointing special counsels under a regulation appointed by the attorney general, supervised by the attorney general. multiple judges have ruled the other way on this, including, as andrew weissmann pointed out, a trump-pointed judge in d.c., when the muller appointment was challenged on the same grounds said absolutely not. there's a series of case law that establishes that, in fact, it's proper and fine. we've been living with this for 25 years, and so what does this mean for the justice department? there are a number of things they can do. obviously it's almost certain they will appeal this decision to the circuit court. it's also possible, andrea, that they could refile this case in a number of different ways. one, the u.s. attorney in florida could refile this case in that district because the issue here is the special counsel, not the case. it's also possible that jack smith, the special counsel, could refile this case in d.c.

because this opinion contradicts the case law that reigns in d.c. that seems less likely because it would be a dramatic view. some might view it as judge shopping, and there's a question of venue. people disagree about whether there's venue on this case in d.c. either way this is a momentous decision. we already knew this case wasn't going to trial before the election. this confirms it and really puts this case in peril. >> and it would also put the judge chutkan january 6th case and all those convictions, hundreds of convictions that have taken place under -- i guess only those that are under the jack smith purview. but andrew weissmann, you were working for special prosecutor robert mueller. this was during the trump administration and clearly there were cases there, there were indictments of russian officials, there was the

manafort case. there was the robert hur special prosecutor who was investigating president biden. what about the hunter biden case? david weiss? >> so first, your first note, which is i think exactly the right one pointing out that special counsel mueller was appointed by the deputy attorney general, then the acting attorney general in the trump administration, and this goes to your point and ken's point that we've been living with this regime for 25 years. republican presidents, democratic presidents have all had special counsels, and it is only with this decision by judge cannon for the first time that we have a judge saying that that process is wrong. we have had democratic and republican-appointed judges all rule on this and say it was

legal, constitutional. so judge cannon is an outlier. and in terms of the ramifications, basically she is saying that any special counsel who is coming from outside the department of justice, that would be true of special counsel mueller. that's true of special counsel jack smith, it is an improper, an unconstitutional way in which they have been appointed. again, every other judge has disagreed with her. so this is very retilent of her decisions resulting of her decisions being reversed not once by twice by the 11th circuit, where she was appointing a special master and trying to restrict the government's even access to its own classified documents. so this surely will be appealed both in terms of the principle, which is to show this is a

constitutional statute, but also because of the ramifications in terms of this case. and obviously, if the reasoning were to be followed by the supreme court, it would affect the january 6th case that jack smith has. it would not affect all the other so-called january 6th cases in d.c. that are brought by the u.s. attorney's office because that is something where the u.s. attorney is somebody who's confirmed by the senate. so it is something that this decision would not affect. >> understood. in this case, however, if it were appealed to the 11th circuit, could it not go immediately to the supreme court if there's a conflict between the 11th circuit, what's happened at least with this judge and what's been decided in the past by the d.c. circuit, and you have a supreme court that has decided things that you and other outside observers have

said have -- like the immunity case have been in donald trump's favor but have not been within precedent and within previous case law. >> aabsolutely. so one of the things jack smith can do, which he tried to do in connection with the immunity case is to what's called leapfrog the court of appeals to go directly to the supreme court. he could try to do that here. it obviously did not work in the immunity case, and that was a very slow process, and so he may see the writing on the wall. it is notable as we talked about in the last hour that in that immunity decision from a couple of weeks ago by the supreme court where they ruled in favor of donald trump in a way that i and others thought was really inappropriate in terms of its reasoning, in terms of its history, justice thomas, solely

him in a concurrence laid out the arguments for essentially what judge cannon just did. so clearly he is going to be a vote in favor of affirming what judge cannon did here. the question is whether therefore additional vote in this case. the one thing to note is this is a to be continued matter because as ken said, this is a decision on procedure, not on the merits, and as a practical matter, we knew this case was not going to go to trial before the general election because of the way judge cannon has slow walked it. so this really is a way for jack smith to actually get appellate relief now, which is something that we've been talking a lot about. like how does jack smith get to the court of appeals to stop

judge cannon or try to stop judge cannon from taking what many of us view as inappropriate or even illegal actions, and this is the vehicle for him to do that. >> and vaughn, you are in milwaukee, obviously some celebration there by donald trump, by his team. tell us his reaction and also while we have you, what the likely schedule is today in terms of the big unknown that we're all waiting for, which is the vice presidential choice. >> right, we could get the vice presidential decision here any hour now. the expectation is that that could very well come here today, but the gaveling in for this convention is going to be beginning literally in just about three hours from now, andrea, and you're going to see this convention arena full of more than 2,000 delegates and other vips, other elected officials for that formal roll call vote here. as for donald trump, i want to

be very clear. we are just about 36 hours out from the attempted assassination in which he was shot in pennsylvania. he is here now in milwaukee, and over the last 20 hours or so, he has put out this message including on social media, the idea that he wants to change the direction of this convention to focus on, quote, unifying america. i want to read you part of his social media post in the last few minutes. it's an important context, as one source close to him last night who was talking with the campaign told me that that means the stopping of political targeting. i think this statement is an embodiment of what for donald trump that means. quote, as we move forward in uniting our nation after the horrific events on saturday, this dismissal of the lawless indictment in florida should be just the first step. he goes on to say that let us come together to end all weaponization of our justice system. this is notable for him. he and his allies from this convention stage for the next four nights in prime time is going to be able to make the case that a federal judge

dismissed one of the cases against him, one of the indictments despite the serious charges leied against him, and two co-defendants did not only transfer classified documents potentially also showing unauthorized individuals those classified documents and then going and obstructing justice and trying to hide the fact that they still had those classified documents, donald trump from the stage in prime time potentially on thursday night when he makes his nomination acceptance speech will be able to say the federal judge has dismissed this here. we should note that there are other allies of his within the republican party that have put out a myriad of statements. alina habba is a legal adviser to donald trump and one of his lawyers, and the way that she put it is, quote, this dismissal marks the first step in ending the weaponization of our justice system, restoring the rule of law and making america great again. this is a notable victory, legal victory for donald trump. we are just 113 days away from the november election, and of course he has suggested that all of these cases should be

dismissed and if he were to get back into the white house, he could if he so chooses, uses the department of justice to do just that, andrea. >> and barbara mcquade, let's talk about the judge chutkan case in washington. you know, as well as obviously just what has just happened. this case in florida was considered of all the cases because of the video, the evidence of alleged obstruction, the confirming witnesses that they had, this case also because it happened after he left office was considered one that might be, you know, separate and immune and might survive the immunity decision by the supreme court. >> yes, so you're absolutely right about this that this case, the florida case is all about conduct occurring after donald trump left the white house and so not covered by the immunity

decision. the judge chutkan case, remember, parts of it remain alive and the ball will be in judge chutkan's court within the time -- as soon as the mandate issues 30 days after the opinion. and so back there, remember that there are schemes that donald trump is alleged to have engamgd engaged in, that do not involve official skates. trying to coerce public officials in states to change their slates of electors, exploiting the delay at the capitol and trying to delay the certification even as the chaos was unfolding there. none of those things are official acts and so i think we'll see some sort of hearing or mini trial on that. i think the other important thing to remember, andrea, is even this decision out of florida is not a decision on the merits. nobody's exonerated donald trump. nobody's saying he didn't do any of these things. that's true in both the washington, d.c., case and the florida case. these are all about legal technicalities, legal defenses,

procedural aspects of the cases that are obstacles. these cases are going to be heard. in florida, if there is no legal special counsel, we'll see when the appellate court speaks. there's nothing to prevent a u.s. attorney from bringing this case again if that's the best way to go forward. if donald trump gets into office, all bets are off. if he is not elected, these cases will continue ultimately after significant delay. >> that entire case was brought by jack smith, the special counsel. if her decision today survives appeal, and knows the supreme court, you know, intact as it is today, that case would in whole be thrown out, would it not? >> it would, that would mean the u.s. attorney would be able to rebring the case, file it again just as the u.s. attorney's

office has handled all the of the other cases in the january 6th attack, they would have to bring this case again, and they could do that. so it's, again, significant delay. it seems to me legally weak to say there is no authority for a special counsel, but if that's where the supreme court lands, then the remedy would be for the u.s. attorney in the district of columbia to refile the case and start over. >> barbara, thank you, i want to bring in paul butler. do you think that the documents case is going to land in the supreme court eventually? and didn't clarence thomas in that concurring opinion basically give an outline or permission, if you will, permission slip to judge cannon to do exactly what you did today? >> that's exactly right. so the immunity decision, justice clarence thomas took it upon himself to answer a question that no one had asked, at least not in the immunity litigation. he answered the question for himself about whether jack

smith, the special counsel was legally appointed and clarence thomas said no. he wrote for himself, that was a concurring opinion that none of the other justices signed on to. it takes four justices to get the court to accept a case. a lot of us thought that was an invitation first to judge cannon to do exactly what she did. justice thomas provided a road map for her to dismiss the case, which she now has done. in the courts of appeals, the supreme court is likely to be asked to review this case. if it accepts this case, this would also be another delay, not just for obviously the florida case but also for the federal election interference case in d.c. because if the court is considering whether jack smith is legally appointed, presumably it wouldn't allow him to prosecute the d.c. case pending its decision on this issue. >> now everybody -- i'm sorry,

who was jumping in there? okay. sorry, i thought somebody was trying to raise a question. paul and barb and andrew hang with me and ken because joining us is former homeland security secretary jeh johnson, former general counsel at the pentagon. we also want to ask you about homeland security and secret service and what happened this weekend, but first let me ask you about judge cannon and your evaluation of what happens next with special counsels. >> i thought the analysis, the prior analysis was excellent. there are ample precedents of special counsels, independent counsels who have not been senate confirmed. i know a number of people in the executive branch of our federal government with considerable authority throughout the executive branch who are not senate confirmed. this decision in my mind is very

much an outlier, but it will obviously go up on appeal, and we know that there's at least one justice on the supreme court, justice thomas, who agrees with the rationale, so we'll see what happens. it's obviously a setback for the efforts to prosecute president trump for what he did with classified documents in mar-a-lago. >> and as an attorney who's been part of the administration, just in the broader context, you're already seeing from the former president an attack against the judicial system, an attack against the president, you know, for doing something that he did not do, the whole point about independent prosecutors is that it is supposed to isolate the white house from influencing these cases that involve themselves, in one case robert hur, his son, his political rival donald trump, his predecessor, but in that context, what we're going to hear in milwaukee, what we're already hearing is a game plan.

what do you think about where we stand in terms of americans' respect for the judiciary. you've got democrats who no longer respect theupme crt for questions of ethics as well as the immunity decision. you've got republicans, this divide in our country about the court system, which we've never really seen to this degree. >> andrea, americans trust in our institutions of government, including the judiciary, including the supreme court, has been on a dramatic decline in recent years. it's alarming to me that so many americans now because of the rhetoric distrust our supreme court, distrust our fbi, distrust our department of justice. you'll recall that not that long ago certainly in my lifetime when you ask an average american do you trust your government to do the right thing, the percentages are usually around 70%, something in that nature.

now that's reserved probably just for the u.s. military, maybe emergency response, but, you know, just think about jury selection, for example. the levels of distrust of the fbi, or the u.s. attorneys in various districts are high, it makes a difficult to pick a jury to try, say, an organized crime case. and so, you know, in this effort that we're hearing from the former president to want to tamp down the rhetoric and unify us, attacks on the judicial system are a step in the wrong direction in my judgment. >> and i should point out that the supreme court has been controversial before, bush v. gore, dred scott, we can think of cases, but i'm thinking more currently there had been more respect. let me ask you about your experience at homeland. you ran the secret service. you know how this works. how it's supposed to work. they do preadvance. >> yes. >> i cannot get over the fact

that that rooftop was 148 yards away. that's not a whole lot larger than a football field. the range for that, you know, that rifle is, you know, well within the range for that rifle. we now know, we didn't know earlier than today is that he was a member of a shooting club, and taking practice sessions for long range, and people locally had said where's the security here? we have eyewitnesses. you know, the early announcement is that this was deferred by the secret service to the local authorities, but is that appropriate at an outdoor rally with something that close? >> andrea, i'll answer it this way. as you point out, for three years i was the cabinet level supervision for the secret service. as secretary of dhs i was myself -- the secret service for

three years. i personally made the decision to give candidate trump his secret service protection in 2015 after his campaign requested it, frankly given the threat streams then directed at him he needed secret service protection. i'm a huge fan of the secret service. i've seen them do remarkable things. it is not an accident. it is not just dumb luck that the last time anybody took a shot at a president, a former president, or a candidate for president is march 1981. that is because of hard work, dedication, and sophistication. having said all of that, there are questions that must be asked. there must be an independent assessment of what happened here. we all know that within an event there is screening, but it is also the case that when the secret service takes a look at it, at a situation -- at a scene like this, they must survey any line of fire from a rooftop beyond the immediate perimeter

of the event including 148 feet, 148 yards away. there are these reports now that various people observed this person on the rooftop, tried to alert the law enforcement person that occurs to my mind was seconds before john f. kennedy was shot in 1963. someone observed lee harvey oswald in the book depository with a rifle. there needs to be an assessment here of what happened. there are some major lessons learned. my fear and my educated hunch is that there was somehow a failure of communication, that someone tried to alert local law enforcement and local law enforcement tried to alert the secret service and did not act fast enough, something broke down someplace. that's just a hunch on my part. the facts will come out and we'll know a whole lot more. but like any event like this,

lessons must be learned and reforms must be made. >> now, let me ask you a related question because the secret service has a huge job. they just did a special security event in d.c., you know, flawlessly at the nato summit. they do these things. they didn't do january 6th notably. that said, we've had elections where there have been multiple candidates for longer periods of time, and they've had to deploy to more than just two leading presumptive nominees as well as a vice presidential choice that is likely or could be made today. what i can't, you know, fathom, frankly, also is why a request from robert f. kennedy jr. is not being taken more seriously. i know he doesn't have the polling and the qualifications, maybe there's no threat matrix, but it just seems to me it's a decision for the president of the united states to make, that's his option, and do we

really want in this environment another, you know, horrifying kennedy attack? do we want anything like that, with only four months left. none of us know, but he's made repeated requests for this. maybe he's just trying to aggrandize himself, why not do it. >> i'm not in a position to second guess the judgments being made. i'm not privy to the threats against him. i did help read the criteria for when a candidate for president should get secret service protection in 2015, 2016, while i was still in office. i'm not in a position to second guess. perhaps a fresh assessment of that exact question needs to be made now in light of what happened on saturday. >> jeh johnson, thank you so much. really do appreciate it. and up next, more on that federal judge's dismissal of the classified documents case and

the investigation into the assassination attempt against donald trump. and we're now just hours away from the start of the republican national convention. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." we've got it all covered right here on msnbc. it all covered rit here on msnbc. it faster and sell more. much more. take your business to the next stage when you switch to shopify. ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. (tony hawk) skating for over 45 years has taken a toll on my body. i take qunol turmeric because it helps with healthy joints and inflammation support.

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you okay? yeah. ♪ ♪ and amid the breaking news from florida, dismissing the trump classified documents case. the republican party convention is opening a short time from now with a new sense of national

unity and security after the assassination attempt against former president trump on saturday. the impacts on the campaign and the country cannot be overstated. this hour at the white house, homeland security and federal law enforcement officials are scheduled to brief president biden and vice president harris in the situation room. we're waiting to hear on any changes from the trump campaign and the rnc in milwaukee. but trump reportedly told fox news he will make his vice presidential choice known today. that has not been confirmed yet by nbc news. meanwhile, the president has ordered an investigation of the security failure in pennsylvania. congress has also announced it will investigate when it returns to washington next week. among the mounting unanswered questions, what was his motive? how did the 20-year-old alleged would be assassin, how was he able to get so close to the former president. did spectators warn local police, did they attempt to do anything to stop him? was anything communicated to or from the secret service.

today we have new video of the gunman crawling into position on that nearby rooftop. some spectators raising the alarm. >> yeah, someone's on top of the roof. look. there he is right there. right there, you see him? he's laying down, you see him? yeah, he's laying down. yeah, look, there he is. >> officer. >> he's on the roof. right here lying on the roof. >> you could hear that woman shouting there's a guy there. look on the roof, something to that effect. in a new interview, donald trump telling "the new york post," quote, i'm not supposed to be here repeating i'm supposed to be dead. by luck or by god i'm still here. his senior campaign adviser describing the emotional impact on "today." jason miller. >> i think something like this

is going to change anybody, president trump even said that it's very clearly that the hand of god, the grace of god that's even keeping him alive as we speak, and this is definitely going to -- i think it makes all of us look and say our time here is very short. you have to take advantage of it. >> mr. trump has scrapped his planned convention speech. he said he is rewriting it now focusing on, quote, bringing the country together. veteran firefighter and proud girl dad, corey comperatore was killed saturday while shielding his family. his fellow firefighters calling him a man full of love. the firehouse now in mourning. two other men at the rally were shot and are now listed as being in stable condition. governor shapiro did lower flags in the state to half-staff in corey's honor. our nbc news correspondents are covering all of this from every angle. garrett haake at the rnc in milwaukee, and tom winter following the investigation. so garrett, donald trump says

the vp pick is going to happen today according to what he told bret baier. >> reporter: as far as we can tell nothing has changed in the actual schedule. in fact, donald trump made a point to say that in his truth social post last evening that they were going to try to keep the convention as planned structurally and not let the events of saturday dictate sort of the big picture elements of what they were doing going forward. now, that's not to say that there won't be significant changes to the program itself. as you can hear the band in here in the hall rehearsing behind me, donald trump has said he's thrown out his speech, he's writing a new one that he hopes will have a more unifying tone, and with dozens of speakers over the next four days, there has to be something of a triage, if you will, by convention planners about who's going to say what regarding the attack on saturday, or if any elements might be incorporated from first responders or victims, so forth. all of that is still being

worked out. the vp announcement expected today, a much more traditional kind of political drama, one that the campaign itself gets control directly. trump had been telling interviewers and his senior officials have been telling interviewers as recently as this morning that he hadn't yet made a decision so things could move quickly today, if he makes that decision, makes that phone call. presses the go button to make that announcement. >> and monica alba, first president was making some calls, we understand to some of the victims from pennsylvania so if you know -- if you've had any briefing on that, and did he expect a readout, perhaps, of the situation meeting with the cabinet secretaries? >> we just got an update, andrea, from the white house on who is participating in that briefing with the president and the vice president in the situation room, and as you would expect, as has been the case over the last couple of days, the president is constantly being updated by his attorney

general, by the secretary of the department of homeland security, by his national security adviser, and they're continuing to have these conversations about what the latest is and the status of the investigation as there are so many questions still unanswered about what happened and how that security situation could have taken place that would have allowed this to happen at a rally like what we saw on saturday evening. so i can also tell you that the director of the secret service participated in this briefing virtually. that is what she has been doing the last couple of days as there have been many, many inquiries about some of that and how that all unfolded in realtime and since then. the president really has been wanting to get these realtime updates. he's been asking his aides and his chief of staff and others to continually be updated. he has spoken, we're told, to the fbi family liaison for the man who was tragically killed during the rally.

the father, the former fire chief, who we know that the president in his public remarks he has expressed condolences. he has said that he and the first lady are praying for him and his family, and he wanted to let the fbi family liaison know that if there's a moment where his family feels like they would want to have a conversation with him that he's open to it, but he's also really respecting the privacy of their moment right now, going through this incredibly difficult time, as you can imagine, and the president also through that same vein will likely be perhaps in touch with some of the wounded individuals, though it depends on their recovery and status in the hospital to see if they're going to be able to have a conversation. this is something where the president has had some outreach to say i'm here if that's something you want to do, take a call from the president of the united states, but of course the most important thing for them is this time of grieving and recovery, and that is what the white house is stressing today as well, andrea, and something

that the president will likely be focused on in the coing days as that continues. >> indeed, thank you, monica. and, tom, so the fbi says that the gunman's family is cooperating. there's no indication that they had any idea that their son was planning this allegedly, but the father did buy the gun and the gun was legally purchased. we know that this is a very pro-gun area, a hunting area, that guns proliferate. i know that part of pennsylvania very well. but also, the question as to who delegated that rooftop. did the secret service not control the perimeter? did they advance it and then decide, you know, to tell the state police or local authorities to take care of it? >> reporter: sure, i think that's a big question, and it's part of exclusive reporting that our colleagues including yourself have been involved in. you know, i think, andrea, today it's about getting clarity on that. as far as the perimeter itself, the secret service perimeter was fine from the standpoint that

nothing happened with inside of it. when it's inside as you well know as everybody in this panel well knows from going to these types of events, you get put through a magnetometer, they check you for weapons, any sort of prohibited items. outside of that is where this particular garage warehouse part of an industrial company, that's where this shooter was able to set up. that was something the secret service says was in the jurisdiction of the local authorities there, which specific police agency, we're not so sure. i've talked to law enforcement officials who say, look, for a police department in that area, as many campaign events as have come through that part of pennsylvania as they do, this is not their expertise. should the secret service have been providing them with guidance, should they have been directing them, or did that direction and guidance come from the secret service, and it wasn't heated. i think those are all important questions. certainly in speaking with law enforcement officials who have dealt with these types of events, they would have put, you

look at it very clearly from this map. this is a new image we have, and it really makes things clear, and it's really outstanding. if you look where the box says shooter and you follow that arrow up to the building, around there facing the stage, looking around that area probably should have been uniform police presence in and around that parking lot just before you see that water tower. should have been a uniform police presence, just people there to set a tone that if you're going to come in there and do something, you're going to be met by law enforcement who clearly would have seen this individual in their weapon as they climbed up on top of this building. was that in place and did somebody miss something? was it not in place and that was a miss? these are all details, andrea, that will come out in the coming couple of days. the fbi yesterday said in a background briefing with reporters that they do intend to conduct a very detailed time line that's really just kind of an fbi tradition, whenever they have an investigation like this to put together that detailed time line. the minutes, the hours, the days, and the weeks before this,

and you can bet who saw what and when and where should people have been is going to be a part of that, andrea. >> they had his telephone and he unlike most 20-year-olds apparently didn't have an extensive online presence, but that's going to the fbi, and they're going to -- they can find deleted -- they can find more information from his phone, correct? but we don't have any indication that he was on their radar? >> no, as a matter of fact, the fbi said that they checked all of their holdings, and they don't find him. i'm going to translate that into the speak for the rest of us. they searched their databases. they searched their phone records, who called them, did anybody call in a threat, say that you have an issue with this individual. did they open up any leads in their guardian system, and the answer to that, the fbi says, is no, so they don't have any leads on that. to your point on the cell phone, i think that's going to be key today, if they can unlock it, maybe they can unlock a motive.

>> and the motive is still unknown. you think pack to the shooting of ronald reagan. the shooter there said he did it to impress a hollywood actress. >> jodie foster. that changed the way presidential coverage and media coverage dramatically changed the way we in the press operate in terms of coverage, the unwritten parts of the coverage of a president and presidential candidates on the road. thank you, garrett haake, monica alba, tom winter. congressional leadership is demanding answers after the failed assassination attempt, a very close call against donald trump. the senate homeland security committee as well now as the house oversight and homeland security committees are launching investigations looking for explanations of this failure to protect the former president. joining me now is a republican from new york. member of homeland security

committee. i know you're not back in session until next week to hold hearings. i would presume that some staff work could be done. i don't know if you're joining us from long island. are you in milwaukee? bring me up to date on what you have done and what questions you want to answer. >> i am in milwaukee getting ready to head to the beginning of the convention. over the last couple of days, the homeland security committee under the leadership of mark green has been in constant communication discussing and mapping out a plan of how we are going to address this when we return back to the hill next monday. i know that there's been requests sent for some of the higher ranking officials from the secret service to appear in front of the committee. we just like many others are waiting for information of how saturday night's assassination attempt unfolded. as someone who has spent a career in law enforcement, i think it's critically important

to make sure that you have all the facts before we begin to point fingers and make assumptions. it's one of the reasons as to why after an incident like this, you need to review the after action report so that you can really get an idea and an understanding and obviously have all the information to begin to ask the tough questions as to how this happened. >> and i also want to ask you about the other huge story that's breaking. the decision by judge cannon on the classified documents case, which is questioning something we thought was settled law for the last 25 years, which is the authority to appoint a special counsel or an independent prosecutor. >> well, i think it's another step in the right direction for the trump campaign and for us as republicans to focus on the issues that matter most to the american people and put aside the -- what we've seen as just campaign rhetoric and the weaponization of the justice system. i think now we want to come together as a unified front, unified republican party as we will start today, and again, focus on the issues that matter

to the american people. back in my district on long island, people are talking about the southern border. people are talking about going into new york city each and every day, whether it's for work or education and dealing with the migrant crisis. people are talking about when they go to the store and the supermarket, how everything costs more. those are the issues we want to talk about with the american people. for me i represent one of the most jewish districts anywhere in this country, and they want to talk about the posturing that joe biden and his administration has done to undermine the state of israel and prime minister netanyahu. that's what i want to focus on. i want to focus on the issues that matter, the issues that are going to take us to the election, and quite frankly, the issues that are going to lead us to a victory for the white house and not only maintaining the seats in the house but growing our majority. >> of course the white house would strongly disagree and so would the protesters against joe biden who do not think that he is undermined bibi netanyahu. he's been criticized for giving him a bear hug or a free pass at

least in terms of the war in gaza. >> when you have the highest ranking elected jew in the country on the floor of the senate undermining the state of israel and pulling for the removal of the prime minister, i would compare that to on september 12th, 2001, having a foreign leader ask for the removal of president bush. >> that was senator schumer, of course, and that was disavowed by the white house. i just want to make that clear. do you think that the -- former president trump's call for unity saying that he's rewriting his acceptance speech as well as president biden's call for cooling the rhetoric and his speech last night and what he said also on saturday and yesterday, do you think that these calls do require a different kind of rhetoric from members of congress on both sides? there have been elevated -- elevated rhetoric.

>> i think that if we can learn anything from what happened on saturday evening and the attempted assassination on president trump, i hope that the rhetoric is turned down, but unfortunately by the looks of my social media and other members of congress, it doesn't seem that the rhetoric is slowing down or taming anytime soon. but i hope that we see leadership from both president trump and president biden and that that rhetoric does calm down in the near future. >> congressman anthony d'esposito, thank you, appreciate it. >> thank you, have a safe one. and inside the information, next, a former top fbi official on the unanswered questions concerning what went wrong on saturday. this is "andrea mitchell reports." you're watching msnbc. >> he had a rifle. we could clearly see him with a rifle, absolutely. we're pointing at him, the police are down there running around on the ground, we're like, hey, man, there's a guy on the roof with a rifle and the police are like, huh?

what? like they didn't know what was going on. we're like hey, right here on the roof, we can see him from right here. we see him. you know, he's crawling. and next thing you know i'm like -- i'm thinking to myself i'm like why is trump still speaking. hy is trump still speaking spot a trend in electric vehicles? have a passion for online gaming? or want to explore the space economy? choose from over 40 themes, each with up to 25 stocks identified by our unique algorithm. buy it as-is or customize to align with your goals. all at your fingertips. schwab investing themes. 40 customizable themes. up to 25 stocks in just a few clicks. ♪♪

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motive. joining me now frank fignuzzi and jim kavanaugh. frank, i want to start with judge cannon dismissing the donald trump classified documents case. what is your reaction to that? >> surprised, but not surprised, andrea. >> yeah. >> i think we've now confirmed that judge cannon has had an agenda that is inconsistent with being a finder of fact and someone who applies the law. i think we're headed toward clearly an appeal that will likely get heard, removed, so that we can move forward with these cases. as someone who led counterintelligence for the u.s. government, led espionage cases, led mishandling of classified information cases i'm dismayed by this because it really puts on hold all the good cases, the good work that's going on. and this is a speed bump in my

opinion, but she's exposed herself for what she is and this will get overturned. >> jim, let's turn to the assassination threat. i want to ask both of you about that, the attempt i should say and what happened saturday. witnesses now say -- we have the video -- they saw someone on the roof, they were calling for help, they were pointing it out to law enforcement. who should be responsible for that oversight? it could have been fatal. >> yeah, the secret service is responsible and, you know, any talk that it should have been the state police or local police, it's wrong. you can't delegate the responsibility. you can delegate a task or ask for assistance. and no police force, no sheriff, no troopers, no township or city police will refuse a request -- reasonable request from the secret service to put a couple of uniformed guys on top of that roof prior to the event. i've been on many of these. that's the way it works. everybody works together. and the secret service has just got to say, hey, chief, can you put a couple of guys up on the roof during the -- when we have

our protectee out front? sure, we would be glad to. you can't lay it off on the state police. look, the secret service -- and i know frank agrees with me -- they are a first class agency. i love them. brother agencies in treasury and they are great people and they do this job right thousands and thousands and thousands of times over. in this one time they didn't. at least left a boom, before the first shot, they didn't have the people in place. what they need to do, the leadership needs to come out of the secret service and say, you know, we accept the responsibility for the failure. we are not shoving this off on the police, the state police or the county police, because you've got to work with the police across the country for security and if it looks like you're, you know, silent and not shoving -- and shoving that responsibility over, which you hear a lot of talk about, that's a bad image for the service. they're great people and they will take responsibility. they need to get out front, though, and take it and not let it get laid off on the

pennsylvania state troopers or the sheriff or anybody else. that's the first thing. the second thing, they did everything great, right up to that first shot. the counter sniper, he killed the assassin and that guy could have kept shooting into the secret service huddle with the former president in the middle, he could have killed those agents and the former president because those rifle rounds would go right through both. they secured him, got him down, cleared the way to the armored vehicle. great job. i do think for anybody who is under protection, should learn a lesson here. you don't want to be a meerkat no matter how pumped up you are and excited that you -- you survived and your followers and pop your head up, making cheers and first bumps because there could be another sniper or the sniper could not be totally down and you could get a head shot. so what you've got to do is get low, listen to the secret service, stay low, get in the

armored vehicle and get away and don't let your emotions overtake you because, you know, we don't want anybody to get injured, the law enforcement doesn't. so other than that, other than, you know, the former president popping up a few times, which you can understand his excitement, but, i mean, it's better not to do that because you're trying to save his life. >> those are very good prescriptions. i just want to pause, you know, i've worked with the secret service as a reporter and had personal experiences that go back to 1976 and they are the gold standard internationally and nationally. so there is no question about that. that doesn't mean that something can't go wrong. it certainly did in 1981 and it did in 1963. frank, you were on a call yesterday with the fbi and the attorney general. what will the fbi now be looking for? what can they learn from the cellphone perhaps? >> yeah, that is the focus right now, they told us, of the

investigation is the shooter's cellphone. and my sense from that is that they might be having some difficulty getting into the phone. in other words, it might be password protected and they might -- they might be having an issue breaking that password or getting it from family members or guessing. they have ways to do this, but don't be surprised if this actually delays their access to the cellphone. i think some americans think, oh, the fbi has the back door key into everybody's passwords and phones. they clearly do not. and so we should be watching how long this takes. there were suspicious devices they told us found in the subject's vehicle, those have been rendered safe and sent to the fbi lab in quantico, virginia. they quickly -- and this is kind of impressive -- they quickly took the deceased shooter's fingerprint, dna, that helped to identify them. they're pouring over the house, doing hundreds of interviews.

there is little to no social media as you've already reported. but the very fact that the fbi decided to quickly have a conference call with the media is unprecedented and they realize where we are. last real quick thought, the fbi on the call noted they are concerned with what they call the spike up in violent rhetoric online. >> frank and jim, thanks to both of you and stay with us because up next the very latest on all of this breaking news, including an update on the classified documents case dismissal down in florida, new information on the investigation into the attempted assassination of former president trump and the security failure in pennsylvania. we will be right back. curity failure in pennsylvania. we will be right back. sure, i'm a paid actor, and this is not a real company, but there is no way to fake how upwork can help your business.

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