right now. but, truthfully, this is a big part of the sickness in our culture right now. and it's translated into this horrific event than thank goodness, the former president is okay. but it's sobering moment for all of us it's important that we respect institutions like the fbi and the secret service. these, these, these, these agencies are populated with professionals i disturbing and distressing and historic day in american politics. a former us president attempted assassination. i'm michael holmes. do stick around kim brunhuber will pick up our breaking news coverage right now. this is cnn breaking news and this is cnn's breaking news coverage of the attempted assassination of former president donald trump. i'm kim brunhuber so we are learning more about the man the fbi says tried to assassinate former president donald trump

investigators say he was thomas mathew crux, a 20-year-old from bethel park, pennsylvania. public records show he was a registered to vote as a republican, and he made a small donation to a democratic aligned group. the fbi says he opened fire on trump at a rally in butler, pennsylvania before counter snipers shot and killed him now as for trump, he says the bullet pierced his ear and a spokesperson said shortly after the attack that he was doing fine it all happened while cameras were rolling. have a look at this. >> you said take a look what happened when you're ready on.

you you ready good to know let me get much let. me get my shoes your head got it well, as you heard, there there was a

series of pumps and you saw the former president raised his hand to the side of his head the secret service rushed to the stage and eventually moved trump from the stage to the armored limousine. as you can see there. and as he was being taken from the stage, you could see there was blood on the side of his face. officials say one person who was attending the rally is dead and two others were critically injured. now, as for the gunman, this video here appears to show him after he was shot by law enforcement investigators say he fired from a top of building, as you can see from this map here, trump was on the stage, which is also marked on the map hours later, trump was seen in this video exiting his plane on assisted in new jersey. the video it was posted to social media by his campaign. remembers of the different law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation, updated reporters early sunday morning this evening, we had what we're calling an assassination attempt against our former

president, donald trump it's still an active crime scene. as i mentioned, we have a number of agents on-scene we also are working closely with other federal agencies. our state partners, and our local police partners as well. we do not currently have an identified a motive though. are investigators are working tirelessly two attempt to identify what that motive was within about ten to 15 minutes. a number of sounds were heard and it became apparent that shots were being fired in that direction. it was a chaotic scene law enforcement, i believe, acted heroically quickly identifying and neutralizing the threat as well as responding to assist the various victims how the fbi has established a tip line on its website hoping to get more video and pictures related to the shooting that website is

fbi.gov slash butler evan perez explains what else investigators know about the suspect and what they're still trying to learn and we know that they were working to verify the identity of the shooter, his name is thomas mathew crooks, a 20 20-years-old, and he's from bethel park, pennsylvania now that's the scene right now of a of a massive, massive police presence police on the scene. there have cordoned off a very large area around the home where he believed he is believed to have spent been living recently. and so that's where the the focus of this investigation is now. but it took a little while as the fbi said at the press conference, a little while ago, that he didn't have any identification on him, on his person. when the

secret service shot and killed them there on that rooftop as a result it took additional work. they do biometric data, do dna testing to be able to verify his identity and so this location of where he was living or at least at the last known where place where he was living and where the fbi is now trying to get evidence is embezzled park, which is outside of pittsburgh the rally where this incident occurred, where the attempted assassination of the former president occurred is in butler, which is about an hour away. on the other side of pittsburgh. again, all of this western pennsylvania and now of course the work begins to try to understand what the motivation was how long has he been planning this whether he get the gun, how long has he been been working on this and

really, if there was anybody else at all who was connected, this connected to this so this assassination attempt and all of that, of course is now where the fbi is focused on in addition to obviously some of the some of the some of the additional questions that we all have from watching that scene how was this gunman allowed to get to that location that on that roof up with a clear view of the former president and not stopped before he got those shots off donald trump issued a statement via his truth social platform saturday evening and it says in part, i want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the rally who was killed and also so to the family of another person that was badly injured. >> it goes on to say, i was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. i knew immediately that something was wrong in that i heard a whizzing sound shots and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. much bleeding took place, so i

realized then what was happening well, the shooting happened shortly after trump began speaking to the crowd of supporters. now, this video clip offers a unique perspective of what transpired and how to look and especially listen right, here we top of the roof they'll go over there he's on the roof, buddy?

>> i just seen his hair anybody over there no, that was hitting the first surge she sought for him you're, going right there yes sources say the former president's secret service protection had recently been strengthened. >> the trump campaign says it

plans to increase its own protective measures with 24/7 armed officers and additional security assessments alright. i'm joined now by charles marino. he's a former advisor for the department of homeland security, and there's also a former secret service supervisory special agent and is the ceo of sentinel security solutions thanks so much for being here. so just to start, they've identified the shooter. what are the next steps? what are they looking for here? >> so because this was an official assassination attempt declared by the fbi, the fbi becomes the primary investigative agency. they will be looking through a lot of the things that was previously mentioned there'll be looking at the background of the shooter. any pre-planned and in that went into this, which it appears there was pre-planning. any associations they'll see this individual was on the radar of law enforcement

agencies prior to this act and they'll make sure that it's not part of some type of larger threat that may a still be out there so that's the priority. now, as far as the fbi investigation, it will also include the planning that took place for this rally on the part of the secret service. >> well, they will look at, you know, let's let's talk about that because, you know, the how here it seems to be a massive security failure or we don't have answers yet, of course, but obviously one of the key questions is how could someone have clear access to that roof? >> yes. so look, even though this building was outside, what we'll call the secure site the rally site, where everybody that went in there had to get screened for weapons this building in the proximity and such and the way it was perched and gave a clear view. to the stage was still in the game of

being a concern. so there should have been some attention brought to it. there's going to be a lot of investigation regarding this. what did the secret service have planned to keep eyes on? all of these buildings to make sure that something like this didn't happen as far as the reactionary aspect of the secret service mission that was supper, you saw the agents respond very quickly to the former president, get them down on the ground behind the armor. you saw the counter snipers do what they needed to do to mitigate the threat problem we're seeing is something that takes place and should be recognized during the advanced stage of the secret service's mission where they're assessing the totality of the threats that a unique location may bring, such as high ground, high buildings that look down

onto a potential site. this is going to get a look. the fbi investigation will not be the only investigation. i assure you. congress will likely direct the department of homeland security where the secret service reports to. they will direct the dhs inspector general to conducted an investigation. and of course, congress will hold their own hearings and they'll likely start by calling the director of the secret service to come testify to explain exactly how protection is provided for the former president and others. >> you talked about the secret service response after the shooting being being excellent, certainly was heroic seeing those agents making that wall of bodies there, but they did allow trump to stop and get a shoes. he said, let me get my shoes. he stopped again to shake his fist. there was another moment when terry delay in getting trump into the van

while he he raised his hand in a gesture of defiance. i mean, that seemed like a risky move in context. will that be examined as well? >> absolutely. the totality of the response by the agents, both on the protective detail of the former president, those that were supporting the operation all the way down to the state and local law enforcement officers that were asked to support the operation. all of that will be looked at and look, i think what you bring up is fair to bring up, you know, the important thing here is we don't know what was being communicated. both amongst the agents as they were down behind me armor against safe bodies covering the former president. and we also don't know what was being communicated over the radios. so but this investigation will pull all of that together and see why there was this delayed movement off of the stage to

the vehicle to go to the hospital, you bring a good point because it certainly could be that they heard on the radios shooter is down for instance, and that would maybe minimize the imminent threat to the president. looking ahead, do you expect so i mean, this is clearly a presidential campaign donald trump will have to be out in public again, do you expect protocols to change, for instance, know more outdoor events like this. what more can they do? >> you know i got to tell you it's very hard to limit especially during a presidential campaign. >> having been there myself, it's hard to limit the types of venues that these candidates go to. the name. of the game is to press the flesh right? to be seen, to go to places that may not have a stadium or another large venue to go to. so these are pop-up venues that go to places like the pittsburgh area. so it's hard to do and

the secret service has the job of making sure that all of these sites are protected adequately. so i expect this to continue the next major sites we're going to see are the rnc and dnc. they've both been designated national special security events as the highest designation in the united states for special events there may be some changes to those security protocols as well. we'll just have to wait and see it's striking the level of the shot that it was at the ear, almost perfectly aimed maybe an inch away from being being absolutely tragic. >> charles marino. thank you so much for joining us. really appreciate it. >> you're welcome. thank you. >> former president trump's plane landed at newark airport in new jersey early sunday morning. the white house says us president joe biden spoke with his political rival earlier on saturday following the shooting, and he's returned to the white house early from

delaware. mr. biden has been calling for unity in the shootings after math, he says he's grateful to hear trump is safe and well, here is there's no place in america for this kind of violence it's sick it's sick two other he's well, we have to unite this country we cannot allow for this to be half of the rnc cannot be like this. we cannot condone this the trump rally ally that he should have been able to be conducted peacefully without any problem. but the idea, the idea that there's political violence or violence in american life since just on pardo is just not appropriate and we have everybody, everybody must condemn it. everybody reactions. the attempted assassination have been pouring in from across the political spectrum. here's the senate republican leader, mitch mcconnell posting on x tonight. all americans are grateful that president trump appears to be fine after it a despicable attack on a peaceful rally in wellstone or marco rubio, a top

contender to be trump's running mate, said, quote god protected president trump trump's political rivals are also condemning the attack. house democratic leader hakeem jeffries said he was praying for the former president and that political violence is unacceptable. and that's a statement echoed by democratic democrat chuck schumer, the senate majority leader, says he is horrified, but relieved that the former president is safe while one lawmaker who knows all too well what donald trump is feeling right now is steve scalise, the louisiana republican, was himself shot back in 2017. it will happen when he was practicing with the republican congressional baseball team. authorities say the gunman purposefully targeted republican politicians. now serving as the house majority leader, scalise talked earlier with fox news about his reaction to what happened in pennsylvania on saturday here he is a lot of those memories come back on, you know, when when you when

you hear the video, the audio, especially with the pop, pop, pop, it was very similar. the first one or two shots, you're not thinking it's a gun, but shot. but then by the third one beyond it, it's clear what's going on. i was hit early often and went down in the case of president trump you could tell when he was hit, he went down to kind of lay as you pointed out, just that one difference, maybe the turn of the head made all the difference in the world and thank god that he's still alive and okay, but it easily could have gone the other way. so this is one of those days where, you know what god was on the ballfield with me. i think god was there with president trump. sadly, their were other injuries, casualty of civilians that were watching the rally, but this was an assassination attempt clearly, we're gonna have a lot of questions all republicans aren't letting the shooting in pennsylvania delay their national convention. it will run from monday through

thursday as planned in milwaukee, and donald trump will be there to accept the nomination. meanwhile, the biden campaign says, it's pausing political tv ads for the time being. all right. ron brownstein is cnn senior political analyst and the senior editor for the atlantic. and he joins me now from los angeles. ron violence obviously isn't new to our politics here in this country. you've talked about this country being on a violent path. so i want to read you what but what rfk junior said in response to this man who tragically knows all too much about the cost of political violence. he said, quote, it was admits of a time that was probably the most divisive in american history at that time since the american civil war. and we're back into that kind of milieu today. what do you think? this attack says about the current political climate yeah, i mean, we obviously don't know the motive of the shooter or

whether there is going to be a motive that is politically coherent. >> often in this case, there isn't, you know, where you kind of just looking at a disturbed individual? it was kind of acting out on their on their kind of complex of view of the world but having said that there is no question that we are on a trajectory toward greater incidence of threats of political violence and attempts at political violence. you mentioned steve scalise the republican who who was attacked. the governor of michigan, a democrat and attempt to kidnap and kill her. the attack on paul pelosi, threats against supreme court justices, threats against the judges in the trump cases as the political temperature has heated up, and a growing, share of voters in each party view of victory the other side. as an existential threat to their vision of what america is. and those differences are real. you are seeing a portion of people

at the fringes willing to take that onto violence and, you know, obviously january 6 as well. so there's no question the direction we're heading the only real issue is do we want to continue going in this way or can we find a way out of it? >> yeah, that's the question, but already there's been so much finger pointing blaming biden for saying that it's time to put trump in the bullseye, which of course reminds us of sarah palin putting gabby giffords in crime us hairs in that political ad. i mean, democrats were very quick to blame palin after giffords was shot. so certainly one could see this generating more anger as well as fuel for conspiracy theories. >> yeah, absolutely. i mean, you know there's going to be a n4. we've seen accusations from trump defenders really in every venue you know, on social media, on the air, basically saying that democrats invited this. would the way they talk

about trump trump calls his opponents communists and fascists and vermin and says they are trying to destroy america and so it's hardly inconceivable that they are going, there have been i mean, threats against election officials and judges in his cases. the whole the whole thing is kind of hurdling a toward a cliff. and it just feels like this is a moment that can be either another escalation or a chance to kind of look at the overall change as i've said before, on the air, i still i was struck by how one of the counterterrorism officials in the trump department of homeland dirty said to me, after january sticks that they were worried we were headed toward a period like the troubles in northern ireland where we're rats and actual attempts of political violence become a routine part of our political life. and this could easily be an accelerant

of a lot will depend on how leaders in each party, including trump himself, respond to it. >> yeah, we might get some answers about the direction this will all go at the republican convention. certainly this will give the convention a very different tenor what are you expecting? >> i think it's a real open question. ai mean, you know the extension of where trump has been going for the last two years would be to kind of echo what we have seen on social media from some of his allies, which is to say, you know, they try to silence him by indicting him. they tried to silence him by putting a gag orders on him, and now they've tried to silence him by attempting to kill him that i think will be an initial instinct, but there is another opportunity here. i mean, donald trump is leading in this race and this may be a moment for him to try to a speak to a broader segment of

the society than he usually has and to, and to basically you know, kind of raise the question of whether this is where we want to go. i think you'll get some of the former it's possible you'll get some of the latter as well but, you know, again, how political leader there is respond to this. i think we'll have a lot to do with whether we see it is just another turn of the screw or a chance to kind of reverse the trajectory that we're on, doesn biden was very quick to come out to denounce this. he stopped the campaign ads. what do you think? his response will be in terms of the logistics of campaigning in the wake of this well, i think it's going to change the way they the way he talks about donald trump. >> i think that's inevitable at least for awhile. i think substantively, everything that was true about the way in which donald trump has and might in the future interact with

american democracy yesterday is still true today. but whether you want to describe it in the, you know, kind of pointed and confrontational terms that denmark, democrats and certainly trump critics have moved toward in the and this environment. i don't know. i mean, i think i think there's going to be a natural instinct to pull back from that. i, again, i wonder if the parallel is going to be true in terms of trump pulling back from the way he describes his political opponents, i also think it's going to make it tougher for those democrats who have been trying to find a way to nudge by i didn out of the race, i think this freezes things in a way that helps him because anything that kind of runs down the clock toward the democratic convention makes it harder to move him aside. it is a big shock and thinking about kind of the tactical political advantages. i think is kind of a smaller part at this point. in thinking of what it says about the road that we are on

politically and why all the different things we have seen from scalise shooting to january 6 to the whitmer threat to this is part of a continuum that is pointing us in a very clear direction that we have to choose whether or not we want to continue careening toward yeah, the theme i'm getting is that this country is at a crossroads and this is a vital moment in our history right now. ron brownstein in los angeles. appreciate your insights. now, earlier, my colleague michael holmes spoke with irina booker, a reporter with the local we'll newspaper or the butler eagle, and she was in the crowd during the rally and described what she saw when shots rang out we had a reporter actually in the enclosed media area, but i was with the other visitors and i just heard several gunshots and everyone around me including

myself. >> we all ducked down woman behind me was praying there is a mother in front of me who is telling her her children to crouch down then you soon after that, people started standing up and started being evacuated by secret service where were you you went there to cover a rally. >> i mean, we were you in disbelief initially what went through your mind? >> i think i was in shock for the first few moments because i wasn't i wasn't close to the bleachers or where former president trump was standing? i didn't see what was happening until i got the information in bits and pieces i was definitely in disbelief and i think everyone around me was as well a number of people started

evacuating before calls for evacuation took place. other people just started filming on there bones and as i was talking to some folks it just seemed like everybody was was in a daze. people were telling me that they saw a shooter on the roof. other people where saying other other things. and so there seemed to be a lot of confusion i spoke with a man who performed cpr on the fatally wounded victim again just a sense of of yes. but bill burns older men, like you said, everybody is still reeling from this fairly open, large area where a different local events are held the rally

was held hold outdoors, entirely outdoors and the neighborhood which the rally took place, i would call it a fairly quiet neighborhood leading up to the rally driving into the parking lot. you could see neighbors holding lemonade stands it is really fairly quiet. neighborhood. that's how i would describe it. >> well, leaders were quick to express shock and dismay at the attempt on the former president's life, french president emmanuel macron said his country shares the shock and indignation of the american people more than a dozen other countries condemned the attack with many saying, there's no place for violence in a democracy all right, for more, let's head over to london where nic robertson standing by. so nick plenty of solidarity from world leaders.

what are you hearing there really as concern condemnation it's all there and i think you only have to look at the headlines in newspapers here in the uk today i'm sure he's gonna be replicated across europe. >> this is something that is clearly getting a lot of attention. clearly getting a lot of concern on one of the first to express concern was that was from viktor orban, the prime minister of hungary. he actually met with president but former president trump last weekend, mar a-lago they are pretty close politically. they have the same political style, their populist. we also heard from the british prime minister shocked, condemning this violence. we've heard from the indian prime minister of pakistan's prime minister so many different european figures and leaders, but it's all across the world. this is what the australian prime minister anthony albanese had to say any act of violence is in a front to that and must be condemned

unequivocally this was an excuse inexcusable attack on the democratic values that australians in americans share and the freedom that we treasure ai say, with regard to political issues. this isn't a day for politics this is a day to unite to express our concern regardless of one's political views. there is no place for the events that we saw today yeah in the last hour we've heard from the italian prime minister, the german chancellor, the spanish prime minister yen stoltenberg, the secretary general of nato. all the. talking about there worries, concerns, offering sympathies and support. and that's what we heard from president zelenskyy as well from ukraine speaking about it

zemmour. and as you azerbaijan. donald trump on an assassination attempt on donald trump's lives a terrible crime that can only be condemned and which demonstrates how serious the challenges to democracy are globally incorrect. violence in any form and anywhere must absolutely not prevail in those. i am confident america will rise to the challenge. i wished mr. trump a speedy recovery, strength, and support to all those who have been affected on trump and condolences and sympathies and concern. >> we've now just heard so that coming from chinese officials talking about what president xi there has to say as welcome making, speaking of concern, i mean, before this even happened, there was already plenty of handwringing around the world in terms of the state of politics here in the u.s certainly this won't help it went to tall look, i mean, the rest of the world looks at the united states

through this prism of this is a country that has a lot of guns or gun violence is not uncommon. >> and they also see it through the prism of this very divisive political situation right now, a divisive already in recent years but now in a poll heated political campaign with additional pressures on both sides, this is going to raise that level of concern. europe isn't unfamiliar with political violence, with attacks on leaders, just back in may this year, the middle of may, robert fits so the slovakia and prime minister was shot at close range, 71-year-old gunman got just a few feet from him, fired into his stomach and it was only last week that robert fitzer was actually able to get back on the public political stage, if you will. he also, by the way, is a populist is sort of pro-putin is right? leaning, seen as a very, very divisive character but then you really

have to go back a couple of decades in europe and it's sort of, it's cyclical. the political violence there, assassination attempts. it was early naughtiest when there was a spate of shootings stabbings of political figures, killings in some cases. but it's a europe's not not immune to this. but i think the sense here that it's much more likely to happen in the united states. and the sensors, well, the current political environment in the united states is volatile and why do people around the world, why are they concerned? they're concerned quite simply because what happens in the united states, how the united states goes, how the economy fares, affects the rest of the world it is a connected world, and this is why it's ending up as we see today on that on the front pages of the british newspapers, which quite frankly it's almost surprising from when this happened. british time that they getting it on the front page, several pages actually inside that particular

newspaper featuring the shoot, the shooting attempt on donald trump nick, thanks for putting it all in international context for us. appreciate that recapping our breaking news, the assassination attempt on former president donald trump, the suspect who was shot and killed by authorities has been identified as 20-year-old thomas mathew crux of bethel park, pennsylvania public, records show he was a registered republican to take a look at the terrifying events that unfolded when the gunman opened fire. listen to this said, take a look at what happened are you ready you

ready good to know let me get let me get my lessons. >> i let me get my shoes so we're going to move to

advisers say trump is fine, but one man who was attending the rally is dead, and two others critically injured. >> the fbi is appealing for the public's help in the investigation. political columnist salena zito was just feet away from trump at the pennsylvania rally and she spoke with cnn's anderson cooper about what she saw the moments before and after the shots rang out. here she is just before the president went on, i did talk to him backstage just for a few minutes. i was set to interview them after the rally. but i think it's just interesting to note that he was very excited very happy to be in pennsylvania. i think he recognizes the importance of the state and the importance of this rally, this all going to wisconsin and so i was in the bumper to bumper. is that area where journalists go? that is sort of surround this stage with the, with the audience

behind you and the president in front of you. so i was just feet from him we had just moved to his left myself into photographers from the washington examiner. we were just two of his i think it was his last and i heard the pop, pop pop and so the president go down. you could see this little streak of red on his face and then there were three more shots after that. i don't know. i haven't seen much reporting because we've there really was no service out there afterwards but just before the president went on, i did talk to him backstage just for a few minutes. i would set to interview them after the rally. but i think it's just interesting to note did he was very it was very excited very

happy to be in pennsylvania. i think he recognizes the importance of this date and the importance of this rally, this all going to wisconsin and so i was in the bumper to bumper. is that area where journalists so that is sort of surround this stage with the with the audience behind you and the president in front of you. so i was just feet from him. we had just moved to his left myself and two photographers from the washington examiner, we were just two of his i think it was his last and i heard the pop pop pop and saw the president go down. you could see this little streak of red on his face and then there were three more shots after that. i don't know. i haven't seen much reporting because we've there

really was no service out there afterwards but i saw him go down and i i don't think he fell down it from my vantage point, i was maybe three feet from him. i don't think he fell down. i think that he went down to take cover and immediately you saw law enforcement around him on all sides? and he gets back up and i didn't hear him say what two things, something about i need my shoes and i see him lift his his fist up and people were cheering them. and then he kept saying fight, fight, fight and then then the advanced man from trump's campaign really interesting. he weighed on top of us and kept us take-up thing, stay don't they don't don't move. and then they

brought the president right past us. is chest fell down right? but right in front of and then they took him off. and i think we have a picture that that we have a picture. i think that a view i think this was posted on your one of your camps that's i assume the advanced man. it looks like there's several people lying around. you yes, that's actually my daughter and my son-in-law. oh, my gosh. so your daughter and son-in-law were there that must have been turned? >> my daughter is a photo journalist and we were there, we were i was interviewing the president today, ai was going to fly back to bedminster with him and do an interview of long form interview stories ahead of the ahead of the convention. so i had a photographer with me and so yeah it's really interesting and i suspect

there's a lot of journalists to appeal this way your instinct is to keep covering it and. >> apologies for the glitch that you saw there. retired fbi agent and cnn law enforcement contributor steve moore says now that investigators have identified the suspected gunman, they're going to dig deeply into his life areas they're going to they're going to essentially write his biography they're going to find out how he has been healthy, wise, mental health wise for the last five to ten years. what he's doing, what he's going whether he's going to school, they're going to find out to his belief system they're going to look deeply into his online presence, what he's been looking at, what he's been reading and who he's been communicating with and they're going to look at all of his financial transactions for several years back they're essentially going to have a book on him that his

parents couldn't write at the end of this there'll be able hopefully to find out whether number one anybody assisted him. number two, what the motive was and use this as as as a way to understand better the threat to presidents, that threat to candidates, what i'm seeing is that they, they appear to be looking right in the direction of the shooter i think that they had been alerted to the shooter weather by whether by radio or by hearing people screaming they had been alerted to the location of the sticker immediately before they took their shots there you can't just say, oh, there's somebody over there on a roof and shoot so what they're going to be doing is looking waiting until they see a weapon. the problem

is, is that in that in that area on the roof there could have been a slight wall covering him, hiding him. and sometimes i we are hoka snipers to find rain gutters that go out of those little malls and shoot through those so that nobody can see you on the other side. so they may have had a very obstructed view. but once they decided to take the suspect it was immediate. it was quick, it was accurate it was textbook. a sniper will tell you that a shot if you take a shot, 100 to 150 yards, it's not quite a gimme, but it is just about it is it is the shot that you are expected to make flawlessly and so the fact that they allowed that somebody

allowed that roof to be unmonitored, unguarded. that's going to be that's not on the counter. snipers. it is on the planning or the the execution. we don't they could have planned for that roof and maybe something happened in the planning or in the execution of the plan where it was left on guarded, but what i'm thinking though is that how did how did this guy get so lucky that he had decided to take the one place that was accidentally on guarded. that's just going to be something that we're going to have to really look deeply into. >> now on the aftermath of the attempted assassination of donald trump into pennsylvania security was increased at trump tower in midtown manhattan in new york. the building trump's former residence where he sometimes stays, is already watched over by the city's police. it's often a gathering

place for both supporters and opponents of the former president. donald trump's campaign managers say the republican convention will go ahead as planned in milwaukee, starting on monday, a source tells cnn that it's not clear what impact the shooting will have on the convention security plans but trump's campaign is ramping now, his personal security the former president's advisers say he's doing well and looks forward to attending the convention. the walkies mayor is demanding piece saying there's no place for this sort of violence in america want to bring in natasha lindstaedt, who's a professor of government at the university of essex, and she joins us from colchester, england thank you so much for being here with us. so let's start there with the republican convention. obviously this is going to have a huge impact, not just on security, but on the tone of the convention. i imagine it will be entirely different yes, i would imagine that too. i think that's one of the things that i'm concerned

about as soon as the news broke, that there was an assassination attempt joe biden along with other world leaders denounce violence and it will be really important for republicans to maintain it's two champion tolerance and to condemn all forms of political violence and to not let the emotions that naturally would run very high after this as there was an assassination attempt on trump to not let those emotions overtake the need to exercise calm but i'm, not sure that that's what's going to happen at the convention. and we're at a really critical spot in american history but just with this election as well, where we're incredibly polarized, the nation is heavily armed and we have a lot of americans that are very, very upset and so we need to have a moment where we all collectively condemn this

type of violence so that there's not copycat and retaliation that will take place during the election yeah. >> not just armed and upset, but there's a troubling, growing acceptance of political violence as a solution. and that's on both sides yes, that's true. >> i mean, there have been a rise in in active threats against elected officials and 7,500 threats or have been recorded. this keeps going up and up. we've seen attacks on steve scalise a congressman in 2017 and tax on gabby giffords in 2011. and there was a recent survey done by noted terrorists expert last month, robert pape, that showed that 10% of respondents said that they would support violence to prevent trump from getting elected. a third of those owned guns and 7% of those respondents said that they would support violence to get trump elected half of those respondents own guns. so we

have a powder keg, a horrible situation here where as i mentioned, were politically polarized, we are heavily armed and the norms of what's acceptable has changed. and some of this is due to the fact of what happened in january 6 that we've seen political violence and it's been acceptable, deemed acceptable in some ways legitimised by the supreme court. in its decision making. and that's changed the way we think about what is acceptable or not. and i think this is a bigger issue here. this really contrast with the assassination attempt of ronald reagan in 1981, where we felt this was more of an isolated incident driven by someone that was mentally unwell. i think this is part of a much bigger problem that we're facing yeah. >> since you mentioned that, i mean, after reagan was shot in his press secretary james brady was seriously wounded that led to a very successful effort on gun control. i certainly don't

expect this to have the same effects this time, right? >> no, we have 434 million guns in circulation gun culture is one of the big aspects of american political culture and that's one of the key tenants of the republican party. and i don't think that they're going to be quick to denounce the defense i've got someone had access to this type of weapon, but i think it's very clear to see how dangerous it is that you have to cover so many different spots when protecting our lawmakers and our leaders. and this is such a, such a critical time right now that to have all these different factors out there, it becomes very difficult to predict and to keep everybody safe with this tragedy is still fresh. >> it may seem too early to talk politics, but we are in the middle of a presidential campaign. so how do you think

we only have about a minute left, but how how do you think this will impact the campaign itself for both donald trump and president biden well, we've seen a couple of things. >> one biden is pulling his ads out of respect to what happened, you see less chatter, less talk about biden's age, and about pressuring him to step down. and i think you'll get a bit of a boost in support but for donald trump, his support to remain at 46%. but i think this only can help him all right, we'll leave it there really appreciate your insights and fascia. >> lindstaedt, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having tim naftali, cnn presidential historian, and the former director of the nixon presidential library says violence isn't new to us politics, and he warns americans to learn from similar moments in history when the country faced deep division here he is we have seen violence like this before in presidential elections. you.

mentioned rfk 1968, robert f. kennedy a leading candidate for the democratic nomination, was struck down 1972. george wallace a leading candidate for the democratic nomination. he wasn't killed, but he was paralyzed for life 19-12, the last time that a former president ran for office theodore roosevelt was hit by a bullet it did not penetrate his heart, was actually stopped by his eyeglass case. and his speech. and then didi continued his speech. she finished it. he said it takes more than that to kill a bull moose that gave a name to his party, became the bull moose party violence is not new to our politics. we

need to have this stuff we need, as americans to remember that in the end we are part of. one country and when we create when we spread hatred when we spread poison, when we demonize those who do not agree with us politically we are laying the ground for the kind of violence that sadly reappears every so often in american politics. so sadly, there's nothing new to this. yet again, we have a chosen americans to prevent it from happening again we got ourselves out of this when i say we i mean, not just famous people who are leaders, but local leaders teachers family leaders of all kinds we came to the conclusion that enough was enough and we had conversations

about limiting violence we talked about how to spread freedom. we actually engaged in gun control we got out of vietnam congress investigated abuses by governments we pulled ourselves out of this we had a president who resigned when he realized that he was he had gotten caught and we had members of his own party say that it was time for him to resign in other words, americans chose the country over partisanship. we have done it before, and we need to do it again. >> all right. here is where our breaking news stands right now, donald trump is recovering after apparently being shot during an assassination attempt, the former president says he was hit in the ear au happened in full view of cameras at a rally in pennsylvania on saturday have a look take a look at what

happened over when you're ready on, you no. >> as you can see there on these pictures, you can see trump bleeding from the side of his head officials say one rally attendee is dead, and two others were critically injured the fbi says the gunman was thomas mathew crux counter snipers shot and killed him. he was 20-years-old and from bethel park, pennsylvania public records show he was a registered to vote as a republican and he made a small

donation to a democratic aligned group trump flew into new jersey a short time ago. and in this video, you can see him walking their unaided down the stairs from his plane former us republican charlie dent spoke to us about the need to improve trust in american society into dial back the anger and political violence here political violence is never acceptable and sadly in our country, we've had for presidents of the united states assassinated lincoln garfield, mackinlay. of course, john f kennedy, we had the rfk was assassinated, martin luther king, george wallace was severely wounded. reagan shot gerald ford. there were two attempts on his life. the shooter miss both times, as i recall and so sadly, we have this terrible tradition in congress, you know, the threat level against the elected officials, particularly in congress, is intolerably high. of course, steve scalise, gabby giffords, and nancy pelosi's

husband was attacked with a hammer this is a this is out of control and i think a lot of it has to do with the political discourse that is just so angry so vengeful and so much rage that that's i hate to say it. and of course i hate them social media a lot of people go on social media and say the most vile things. i mean, i haven't even looked at social media tonight. i can't imagine what's being said right now. but truthfully, this is a big part of the sickness in our culture, right now. and it's translated into this horrific event and thank goodness the former president is it was okay. but it's it's a sobering moment for all of us. it's important that we respect institutions like the fbi and the secret service. these, these, these these agencies, there populated with professionals who really don't i've never found them to be partisan during my time in government service. i felt that they were professionals and

they they tried to do their jobs as best they could, but it just seems it's so much of our government it feels like people think that the government has at least a much of the bureaucracy has a, has a partisan inclination. so many folks don't trust institutions to do their jobs and a time like this, it's important that we have trust in the fbi and the secret service to get to the bottom of what happened, we all want to know what happened and it's just it's tragic that this is where we are so many institutions that had always been respected and admired are now tarnished with a partisan taint. in many cases it is unfairly au, in a new memo, the trump campaign says, it is horrified over the attack on president trump campaign managers, susie wiles and chris lacivita told staffers, they are quote, enhancing the armed security presence around the campaign with 24/7 officers and putting additional security measures there's in place. >> they say the highest priority is keeping staff

member safe. the campaign says the republican convention will go on as planned in milwaukee next week. where they will nominate donald trump to be quote, the brave and fearless nominee of the republican party. they also said quote, in moments of tragedy and horror, we must be resolute in our mission to reelect president trump it's our fervent hope that this horrendous act we'll bring our team and indeed the nation together in unity. and we must renew our commitment to safety and peace for our country i'm kim brunhuber, cnn's breaking news coverage of the assassination attempt on former president donald trump continues right now