officials. this local butler township police department. it's worth reemphasizing. there were a number of agencies on the ground here. the secret service said it was primarily local law enforcement responsible for securing that building. what we still don't know right now is which agency was responsible for that building. why was it that a small team from the butler township police department was the team that actually responded to that original call that there was someone suspicious on the rooftop. >> stephanie gosk, thank you for that. jim, let me bring you in to respond to this, how this might have happened. it's a known place. you know you have a line of sight from that roof and yet you don't have anybody, apparently, with eyes on that roof. and i guess beyond that, the idea from tim, the hd of the secret service that well it was sloped. so there was that issue. >> well, it's not going to play

in peoria because if you watched the video of all the agents standing on top of the roof next to the body of the gunman, they're not having any difficulty standing there. the fbi isn't having difficulty standing up there collecting evidence. numerous video feeds of people standing up there. the slope of the roof doesn't look that steep to me. the roof where the counter sniper team, that is a steep roof, but they're used to getting on those. you know, patrol officers get on roofs all the time. on various calls for burglaries and so forth. so they're not afraid to get on that roof. i hope they're not going to try to settle that to the congress because there's a loser. you're going to lose denying the obvious that you could have got an officer on that roof. secondly, you can't slough this responsibility off to the township police. the responsibility remains always with the secret service to protect the life of their principal. in this case, former president trump. and you made a great point, chris, so did stephanie.

how much time from when the township officer bravely went up there and tried to get up there. these guys are doing everything they can. they're not secret service agents. they're not going to put someone on a roof unless secret service says we want someone on the roof because they don't want to get shot by the secret service sniper. so they're not going to on their own decide to do that. you're going to have to tell them to do that. so they're there. they boost up on shoulders, gets a rifle pointed at him. radio the command post. these things all have a command post. you're sitting there, shoulder to shoulder, township police, state troopers, secret service, atf. whoever's in it. and it comes over the radio that fast. what should have happened then is not as the secret service director described, a search for the gunman and looking for the gunman and all that. that's not the thing to worry about. that should happen, of course, but the thing that should happen immediately when someone says

there's a man on the roof with a rifle is the principal is immediately taken off the dias. that should happen immediately. there's a man on the roof in a rifle and the details should be moving the principal off and getting him out of there. i don't care if the event has to be canceled. no further details need to be known. then the police and agents can search for the gunman and if they find him, arrest him. if they don't, they don't. but it doesn't have to wait. he doesn't stand there give ago speech while you search for a man on the roof. that's absolute nonsense. >> exceptional reporting. we have much more on the breaking news. bob menendez guilty on all counts. new details on what it was like in the courtroom when that verdict was read. like in the courtroom when that

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the moment i met him i knew he was my soulmate. determine if bulkamid is right for you. "soulmates." soulmate! [giggles] why do you need me? [laughs sarcastically] but then we switched to t-mobile 5g home internet. and now his attention is spent elsewhere. but i'm thinking of her the whole time. that's so much worse. why is that thing in bed with you? this is where it gets the best signal from the cell tower! i've tried everywhere else in the house! there's always a new excuse. well if we got xfinity you wouldn't have to mess around with the connection. therapy's tough, huh? -mmm. it's like a lot about me. [laughs] a home router should never be a home wrecker. oo this is a good book title. decades in prison potentially after being convicted in a bribery case involving hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash

and gold bars. plus, we're tracking reaction from capitol hill as he's facing more calls to resign. also, she was his toughest rival but now, she's giving donald trump's unity theme a boost. nikki haley's plans for the rnc and what else to expect on a big night two. and donald trump's rare show of emotion. a bandage visible on his ear as he soaked in cheers from the crowd. we'll take you inside his first public appearance since the attempt on his life. our nbc news reporters are following all of the latest, but we begin with the menendez verdict with ken dilanian. what else are we learning? >> convicted on all 16 counts and new details on how he reacted. we're told he stared initially impassively as the foreperson read the verdict on each of the 16 counts.

he looked down at the table at time as the verdict was read and grew red. increasingly red in the face as those guilty verdicts came in. no other apparent emotion, but when the jury was pulled, shook his head as if to say, no. we have new sound now from both the senator and u.s. attorney who prosecuted the case. take a listen. >> obviously, i'm deeply, deeply disappointed by the jury's decision. i have every faith that the law and the facts did not sustain that decision and that we will be successful upon appeal. i have never violated my public oath. i have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country. i have never, ever been a foreign agent and the decision rendered by the jury today would put at risk every member of the united states senate in terms of what they think a foreign agent would be. >> this case has always been

about shocking levels of corruption. hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form of cash, gold bars and mercedes benz. this wasn't politics as usual. this was politics for profit and now that a jury has convicted bob menendez, his years of selling his office to the highest bidder have finally come to an end. >> however confident senator menendez seemed to be, the chances of winning appeal in a case like this are remote. this is a huge victory for the justice department because the supreme court has made it very difficult to win a conviction. they had to not just show what the senator received and did the favors for the people he got the money from, but there was an explicit agreement. that's what they proved to the jury and that's a huge win for the doj. >> thank you for that.

now to capitol hill because the senate majority leader is calling on menendez to resign. aly vitali is there for us. what are we hearing from chuck schumer? >> reporter: it's an important person to come out at this moment and someone we've been waiting for his opinion. despite the fact that more than 30 senate democrats. schumer had been mum and now in the immediate minutes after, we heard from schumer saying he thinks that mendez should step down. and really, this is a stunning moment as you see schumer's reaction on the screen saying that menendez must do what is right for his constituents, our country and design. but it's a stunning moment to see someone who was head of the senate foreign relations committee who served in this body since 2006. who had been serving in public life in washington since 1996.

someone who had been a mainstay of the new jersey delegation. now failed by this conviction. of course, he says he's going to appeal it, but you heard that defiant posture that has been such a hallmark of menendez's reactions. the fact now we are still waiting to see what he ends up doing with his independent bid to continue serving in his senate seat, his challenger on the democratic side, congressman andy kim, voicing again his opinion that menendez should step down. that was always a consistent posture from the man who was challenging menendez in this fight for this senate seat in new jersey and now there are a lot of open questions. not just legally, but politically, about what will menendez do. we pointed out, chris, rightly, that just because he's a convicted felon doesn't actually mean he has to resign his senate seat. there are of course mechanisms though for the senate to take by

expelling him from their ranks that would take a two-thirds vote of the senate. we are waiting to see what the number of democrats are that are going to ultimately call for menendez to resign, but we know the number has ticked up just in the last half hour or so that we have been on the air with you. we imagine it could be all senate democrats. a lot of questions here on capitol hill about if menendez resigns early, stops seeking re-election, and of course, then legally, what his posture is on this appeal. >> you're also tracking breaking news on a new letter that is being circulated by democrats to the dnc. talk about it and its significance. >> reporter: this is a significant moment, chris, as we multitask here on multiple breaking stories on capitol hill because while the menendez verdict was coming down, i was also texting sources to confirm the existence of a new letter being circulated by congressional democrats that effectively asks the democratic

national committee and dnc delegates to delay the virtual roll call process that would effectively make biden the nominee well before the convention at the end of august. this is not the norm. it's not something parties typically do, but it was put into place when ohio had a rule on its books about when the democrats needed to put forward their nominee in order to put that person on the ohio ballot, but in the intervening weeks since that rule came into existence and into tension with the democratic nominating calendar, we've seen the state of ohio rectify its rules now in this letter in part, more than 20 democrats i'm told along with my colleague scott wong have signed on to this effort saying hey, ohio has dealt with this rule issue. let' delay this virtual process that could start as early as july 21st, in the next new days, really. this is democrats saying i know the news cycle has turned.

that there's attention in other places but at the same time, i don't want this silence to make people think that all democrats are on board and behind president biden. this letter is a way of them saying we have got questions and problems and we'd like the dnc to say they hear us and give us the time and space to parse out or concerns with president biden before just officially nominating him. >> thank you. we want to go to the rnc in milwaukee where one of donald trump's most bitter rivals, nikki haley, she lasted longer than anyone else and got more delegates, will be in the spotlight tonight. katy tur is in milwaukee for us. this was a will she or won't she. will she be invited, accept, but now, she's going to be there tonight and i wonder what you make of it and what you're hearing from the campaign. >> listen, she wasn't invited to

the rnc up until saturday. now after what happened on saturday, that assassination attempt on the former president trump, she was extended an invitation as the rnc and campaign wanted to project a message of unity. saying that the near death experience that donald trump had changed him and that he realized going forward that he had to have a more unifying message and one of the ways to prove that would be to extend an invitation to nikki haley. you said bitter rival. she stayed in the primary race longer than anybody. even after the donald trump world, the maga world, said she would be excommunicated if she continued on. never the less, she stayed. even after she dropped out, there was a significant portion of the republican party still casting its votes. which was essentially a protest vote against trump. that is the concerning thing here for the donald trump team. for the campaign in the general

election. if donald trump is going to win, he's going to need to have a lock on all of the republican voters that he can possibly have out there. nikki haley represents a lot of people in the republican party or just enough of them to say that they're not comfortable with donald trump. does extending an invitation to her help sway them. now, in her resignation when she stepped aside from the presidential campaign trail, she released a statement saying that she hopes her voters would go to donald trump but since they were protest voters, it's unclear if nikki haley has that sort of sway with them. again, she's speaking here tonight. things look to have changed after what happened on saturday. what will she say, chris? >> to the whole point, and you and i talked about this, whether everything that happened on saturday, for a centimeter or two, perhaps as much an inch, that bullet could have hit his

head and not his ear. we saw some rare emotion from donald trump last night. so take us into the room. what was that like? >> it was really surprising to see, chris. i've covered him closely since 2015. i've been up close and person to donald trump quite a bit. the only other time i could compare that level of emotion to is when he won the presidency in 2016. the surprise on his face when he walked out on stage in new york. it almost looked like he was overwhelmed by what happened at the electorate actually decided to put him in office. but even that doesn't quite compare to this face right here that you're looking at. there was a moment where it appeared he might cry. he just looked different than i've ever seen him. now, when you have a near death experience like he did where a bullet passes right by your head, and there's a picture to prove it, "the new york times"

caught a picture of the bullet going right past his head. i imagine that's going to change a person in a way that maybe nothing else can. it might change his tone. he might sound different on thursday. maybe. but does it change his policy? is it going to change what he's running on? on his platform? does it change the way he feels about the presidency? he's talked about being a dictator on day one. does he roll back that sort of language? does he commit to leaving office? at the end of his term if he were to win? there are questions about what really is going to change with donald trump and there's also quite a bit of skepticism out there because there have been so many moments before where people have said he'd make a pivot. like he'd walk into the oval office and the weight of the office, the weight of the presidency would hit him. he's sit at the resolute desk and realize he had to be more of a uniter and divider.

maybe start with infrastructure instead of a more divisive policy on immigration. there are all these conversations we've had so many times in the past. is this really going to be different? i don't know. but i will tell you even just looking at his face, i've never seen donald trump with a look like that on his face. i've never seen that look. >> he looks almost pensive, katy. >> serene. >> not a word we normally have associated with donald trump. katy tur, thank you. we look forward to hearing more of your reporting at the top of the next hour when she's live from the rnc. thank you for that. i know you're going to be interviewing eric trump so that's coming up at 3:00 eastern time. tune in at the top of the hour. we also have a little bit of breaking news about donald trump and his new running mate, jd vance. the campaign just putting out a notice that on saturday, 5:00 in the afternoon, they are going to

make their first joint appearance at a rally in grand rapids, michigan. really no surprise. one of the handful of battleground states. it's also a place where a lot of folks have suggested that vance going to be spending a lot of time. he is from ohio. the hope is that he can make some inroads with some of those voters in the midwest. michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin. i think you're going to see him a lot in those states. still ahead, democrats label the new addition to trump's ticket as just his mini me. hise you didn't live this strong, this long to get put on the shelf >> a clone of trump on the issue. i don't see any different. e issue. i don't see any different. and are at high risk for fracture, you can build new bone with evenity®.

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we're getting our first look at the new trump vance campaign plane now that vance has officially been added to the republican ticket. there you see it. the latest chapter in what has been a meteoric rise for the ohio senator. he was sworn into congress just last year and now, 39 years old, he's vying to be the third youngest vice president in history, the first millennial in a race where age has been a central issue. steve kornacki is at the big

board putting his more typical hat on. you've been tracking anyone. i'm curious to see what it tells us. >> a lot of attention to him id logically, does he help trump with the midwest stage. what about age? it's loomed over this campaign. this was from before the debate earlier this year. a poll asked if elected would the candidates do you think serve out their term. look at this. more than 40% didn't think biden would serve a full four years if elected. our poll this week, do you consider it a major concern the candidates' mental, physical health. a little over one-third about trump. you see the way age has factored into this. then there's an appetite for younger leadership. this is cbs poll this summer. 53% say politics would be better with more young people in office. here's the interesting one. look at this number for the youngest voters under 30.

nearly 70% say things would be better with younger people in office. and interestingly, one of the things we've seen is that donald trump has been doing better with younger voters than he did in 2020. our poll this week had him trailing among voters under 30 by just four points. so is there an opportunity with vance here just on the age front to put the age of vance in perspective, these are the youngest vice presidential nominees in history. this is how old they were on election day. vance will turn 40 before the election is here, but one, two, three. there have been only four major party vice presidential nominees in history who you have been younger than vance. who would be 40 on election day. another way of looking at it here. how about the gap between the top of the ticket and the running mate. the president and vice presidential candidate. on age, this is the biggest we've ever seen. trump, 78 years old. vance, 40 on election day. a gap of 38 years. these are the other big gaps you

see. notably, joe biden, kamala harris, actually make the list here of the biggest all time. biden, 81 right now. harris will turn 60 before election day. a gap of 21 years though. but again, harris, 60 before election day. biden, 81. trump, 78. vance at 40. really stands out there. the contrast just between the vp candidates themselves. these are the biggest age gaps between vp candidates from major parties that we've seen before and again, one, two, three, four. this is the sixth biggest gap. harris to be 60 on election day. vance to be 40. vance, 20 years younger than harris. more than 40 years younger than joe biden. so the age of jd vance will always been notable when somebody that young makes a major party ticket. with a difference any way you slice it in vance's age from everybody else's being this significant, it does raise a question if there's an opportunity here apart from

ideology, the trump campaign might be able to benefit from. >> i look at those numbers and think kamala harris, 60. 60 is the new 40. how old does that make vance? that's me speaking for my age. steve kornacki, thank you. that takes us to what the democrats think about this and president biden and his campaign are quickly framing vance as extreme, a clone of the former president. >> jd vance has adopted the same policies. no exceptions on abortion. making sure that he supports the new $5 trillion tax cut that trump wants to give in the next administration. signing on to the whole notion of whether or not he says there's no climate change that's happening. he signed on to that sort of trump agenda, which he should if he's running for trump. >> chuck todd is in milwaukee. so the meredith, politico national correspondent. ian ward from politico is with

us who has done extensive reporting on vance. good to have you here. so, chuck, biden was ready for the question about vance and in jd vance, the biden campaign got who they most wanted arguably, but in a new nbc news piece, you write the biden campaign is relieved the pick wasn't rubio, that both rubio and burgum would have been harder to pigeon hold. the vance the best the biden camp could have hoped for? >> if you believe in the biden campaign's theory of the case is that they can create this binary choice for the middle of the road voter which is hey, you may not be, you may not love our positions on x, y, and z, but look at how extreme the maga agenda is. that's what they want to do and the fact of the matter is this is a, this is what i think is the big story so far of this

convention is this, you know, and we've been watching it grow and the question has always been is this trump or is this going to be more than just trump. it's pretty clear the eyes and the sort of through line of republican conservative that began with eisenhower, the modern version that you and i grew up with that began with eisenhower, it's time of death. basically when donald trump came down the escalator. you know, if vance, if the trump vance ticket gets elected, that wing of the party is going to be in the wilderness for a generation. the question is what happens to those voters. i know if the biden campaign is well positioned to appeal to them, but they're certainly going to try because i think they see an opportunity here. you've seen some of it. vance and the teamsters president last night, this is an ideology that have been comfortable in the democratic party of walter mondale in 1984. >> it's wild to hear you say

that out loud. meredith, you were breaking all those political stories about the veepstakes while it was unfolding. given everything chuck has said and knowing what team biden thinks about this, i'm curious if the reaction has been uniformly positive among the republicans you're speaking to at the convention. >> so far among the republicans i've talked to, they've been really positive and excited, enthusiastic about the pick of vance. but there are some who have had reservations but you know, listening to chuck, it is so clear what a moment this is for the gop. donald trump could have picked senator rubio. he could have picked north dakota governor doug burgum. two picks that people close to trump say would have been a bit safer and with senator vance, trump is really going with somebody that he not only has a great personal connection with, but somebody who really is the maga heir apparent.

somebody who leans into trump's populist message and could be a leader in the party for decades to come. >> ian, in your new piece, you say vance's advance to the number two spot marks two. one that is personal and one that has swept over the american right as a whole. exactly what chuck was talking about. talk about these transformations based on your reporting. >> right. well, jd vance first rose to prominence as an avatar, this group of conservatives called themselves the new right. elite, highly educated righters, intellectuals, activists, who articulated this framework of the nationalist republican party. a decade ago, these were very fringe people. had no real foothold in the republican party. with trump's victory in 2016, they became more prominent and

with trump's elevation of vance to the top of the ticket, they've now become completely mainstream. this is really the heart and soul of the republican party at this point. that to my mind is a rather remarkable transformation to being in the wilderness to being at the top of the republican ticket now. >> chuck, katy and i were talking, she was talking about looking at donald trump last night. she had never quite seen him that way. that he looked peaceful. that there's a lot of conversation about how a near death experience may have changed him. certainly, he looked emotional when he came out. his ear bandaged. i wonder if he's starting to think about his legacy. he's someone who has always cared frankly, about what people think about him in the moment, but he's also now a president who lost re-election and we know how much he wanted to win this year.

now, this is maybe and jd vance, also about the maga movement, knowing it will continue, what he started when he came down that escalator, and anointing the person who believes he thinks can carry it on. >> well, look, i do think that this pick doesn't happen if trump isn't highly confident he's going to win. and that is another aspect to sort of understand this pick. he did not see it as necessarily something he needed to get to 270 electoral votes and also doesn't see vance as somebody like mike pence. he needed mike pence back eight years ago because he had no relationship with paul ryan who was then speaker of the house. he didn't really have a relationship with mitch mcconnell who was head of the senate republicans, but mike pence did. he knew how washington worked so he needed mike pence for that. also needed pence to appease evangelical voters who were

skeptical of trump back then. this time, he doesn't need a vice president to help him fill in any gaps in his head. i think you're going to see vance, be, if this ticket's elected, i think vance is going to be almost as front and center as trump is. i think he likes vance out there explaining trumpism and giving it the illusion of an intellectual thesis behind it. not everybody thinks there is one, but i think vance is somebody that trump believes you know, gives a sort of intellectual ivy league stamp of approval on what his positions are. >> there's no doubt that donald trump is impressed by his resume. but what about the other big thing that every campaign needs and that is money. can vance help bring it in? >> yeah. absolutely. vance before he became a politician or a novelist was a venture capitalist. he has deep ties in silicon

valley. most notorious ties with peter tale, member of the paypal mafia. he's going to sit out the 2024 campaign, but vance has other contacts in silicon valley. david sax among others who will certainly help him raise money for the trump campaign. his fund raising in the lead up to the election, early up to the election. he fund raised his 2022 senate campaign from silicon valley context. so the wallets he has access to are deep and very open. >> meredith, a source tells us harris reached out the vance after the announcement was made. left a message. congratulated him. welcomed him to the race and expressed her hope that the two can meet in a vice presidential debate. they're always interesting to watch for sure. especially for us who love politics. but they don't generally mean very much. but i'm wondering if a vice presidential debate could take

on more significance than in past years. what do you think, meredith? what are you hearing about that? are people talking about a harris vance debate? >> well, this is something i know people close to trump have been really eager about and that's seeing the vice president square off with senator vance. you know, this is an election as steve was going over earlier, where age is really such a big question. and the vp's role really suddenly has an outsized importance in the conversation on the campaign trail. and so having the two of them square off when there is this question about next steps for president biden and of course you know the future of the republican party that donald trump is placing in vance. it could make for a really interesting moment in this election. >> chuck todd, meredith mcgraw, ian ward, so great to have you on the panel. thank you so much. coming up, president biden

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country's political divide to nbc's lester holt. >> i've never seen a circumstance where you ride through certain ways as a country and people have signs there standing, big trump signs with little signs saying f biden and a little kid standing there and putting up his middle finger. that's the kind of stuff that is just inflammatory and kind of viciousness. it's a very different thing to say look, i really disagree with trump, the way he takes care of taxes. >> but in a campaign where positions are so diametrically opposed, can the temperature be turned down and are voters and congress willing to unite behind biden as the nominee? mike memoli is traveling with the president in las vegas. eddie gloud is an nbc political analyst. has president biden managed to shut the door amongst the talk

of congressional democrats and voters of replacing him on the ballot? >> i think the answer is no. the voices aren't going away. in fact, their getting more organized. if you look at the new letter being circulated on house democrats, at least 20 have signed on to a call to the dnc to delay the plans to accelerate what had been the timeline for making the official nominee of the party ahead of the democratic national convention. i also took note of what cory booker said this morning when he said that president biden is the nominee until he makes a decision otherwise. there's the air of uncertainty that led to the back and forth last night between lester holt and president biden. he said he doesn't need to get back on the horse. he's on the horse. >> do you feel like you've weathered the storm of this issue of whether you should be on the ticket or not?

>> look, 14 million people voted for me. >> so when the president talks about listening to those voices, he's also going to be listening to crowds like the one he'll be speaking to here in las vegas in a few hours. we're at the annual conference of the naacp. the president's support among black voters has been so critical not just to getting him in office, but potentially keeping him on the ballot. the president has brought a show of support with him here to las vegas with members of the congressional black caucus from those who have resisted the party saying they're on board him. the president will be with him today and speaking to an audience that's still fully committed to his candidacy. at least for now. >> thank you for that. so, eddie, as we think about the idea of can we turn the temperature down because right after the assassination attempt, he heard it from both sides of the aisle. from trump support ers who had

come out and survived this horrific shooting and it reminded me that during campaigns when horribly negative ads are return, people say they don't like them but then research shows they respond to them. so can you show leadership, can you work to try to turn the temperature down and be successful as a politician? is that the question where we are right now? >> i don't know, chris. first of all, it's great to see you. it's difficult. you know, we can tell the truth about our opponents without demonizing them. we can reveal the implication of their policy positions without making them enemies. we can discuss what our democracy faces without categorizing carte blanche republicans as somehow evil.

but it's very difficult to keep that from happening in our current political discussion, discourse, because we're so deeply divided that differences are read as examples of enemies to hold each other in contempt. it's a part of the cultural of our politics at this moment. >> while voter exhaustion could push some i think to lower the temperature, "the new york times" writes that trump's evangelical followers see this as a fight for something greater. they quoted one delegate as more than just right versus left. this is good versus evil. and i think that there are others on the left, too, who believe this. this isn't just a fight for democracy. this is a fight for the soul of the country. good versus evil. is framing it that way part of the problem and do you think how both men respond to this, they

both said they want to show unity, right? how they both respond to that tell us a lot about what leadership really is? >> well, to a certain degree, because on a certain level, chris, it is the case that we're fighting for the soul of the country. it is the case that for some of us, the policies that donald trump has put forward over the course of his political career, fundamentally undermine the basic principles that define this experiment in democracy. that the way in which he wants to govern threatens to crack the very foundations of our republic and we can make that argument without demonizing him. it's the truth, the fact of the matter it seems to me. and it's important as we cover this to not try to cover this as the traditional presidential horse race. it's politics but it's happening at the register of culture, of meaning. for some people in this country, the current political divide is a representation of their fight for the america they feel

they're losing or the america they feel they want. so it seems to me, let me just say this quickly, chris. some of these folk are the inheriters who threatened this from the beginning. if you think about the constitution and the colonies, the north and south trying to figure it out, you had those who threatened to not join if their concerns were not addressed. then of course that evidenced itself in the civil war and here we are now. you have those people who are willing to throw the entire experiment into the trash bin if they don't get their way. and i think we need to understand that as underlying the political tension in our moment and we have to address it accordingly. >> eddie, thank you so much and please come on the program more. appreciate you. and we'll be right back. progra. appreciate you and we'll be right back. ♪ me and my friends ♪ ♪♪

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in charge and an msnbc contributor. we have a little more information that upon learning the nsc informed the secret service, jim, about this intelligence that they had, the trump campaign was made aware of the evolving threat. the secret service surged resources and assets for the protection of former president trump. all of this was in advance of saturday, which of course is the day of the attempted assassination. let me get your response to this reporting. >> it's very dispushing. over the weekend, i mentioned this case because they never forget. >> let me go back and just let people know what you're talking about. so it was donald trump during his administration who killed this, the leader, the terrorist leader, and this is something

the united states intelligence has been tracking for a very long time. in fact, there has been additional resources put not just to donald trump, but also to others who were involved in that plot. in the plan to kill solemani. >> exactly, chris. solemani was the leader of the republican guard, which is you know, i'm sure i'll get the numbers wrong and or guys will know the strength. it varies. 80,000. 100,000. they have a lot of people and they've been designated terrorist organization. they're a military organization. they have capabilities far beyond a 20-year-old with an ar 15. they have explosive sappers. air to ground missiles. ground-to-air missiles. armored vehicle killers. they have everything. they're a military unit. suicide actors as well. we talked about over the weekend

on msnbc about it. i said you know, the threat to trump from the drone strike has never gone away and these guys have a long memory. so that is disturbing that threat stream popped up you know stronger again prior to saturday's shooting. >> i should say, jim, that tom winter is reporting that officials do stress that there is no indication that thomas matthew crooks, the man named as the person who shot at the former president, has any connection at all to the iranian plot or foreign intelligence. i also want to bring in ken dilanian who confirmed this reporting for us and as jim rightly pointed out, there have been intelligence community tracking of iranian threats since the killing, but tell us what else about this threat against donald trump.

>> it's a good point to know this has been going on for years. it's what the national security spokeswoman told gabe gutierrez in talking about this. they've gotten a stream of intelligence for years about iranian plots to do harm for current and american officials who were involved in that operation to kill solemani. there was specific intelligence in recent weeks that came into the united states that caused specific concern about a plot to assassinate donald trump and that that was passed on to the secret service, which then surged resources to donald trump's detail. now, that of course raises its own question, right? because that was before the shooting. which is now being criticized for the security posture and apparent mistakes made. so that was the result of plus up resources according to this reporting that we're learning

right now. after there have been intelligence about an iranian plot to assassinate donald trump. i'm glad that you stressed earlier, it's important to say that officials are cautioning us. they see no connection between this apparent iranian plot and this shooter in butler county, this 20-year-old thomas crooks. it's a horrific coincidence, but nonetheless the is the case they passed this on to the secret service, which was aware of it, which then surged resources to donald trump's security detail. and as jim was alluding to, there were a number of former officials including former secretary of state mike pompeo, former national security adviser, john bolton, who have taxpayer funded security details to this day because they were under threat of iranian assassination because of the operation. >> ken, jim, thank you for bringing us this breaking news. that does it for this hour. our coverage continues with katy tur live at the