Secret Service director plans to ‘stay on’ as calls grow for her resignation
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle tells ABC News she plans to stay on despite calls growing for her resignation over the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on Saturday.
In an exclusive interview, Cheatle called the shooting “unacceptable” and said the “buck stops with her,” called the situation “unacceptable,” but has no plans to step down.
“It was obviously a situation that as a Secret Service agent, no one ever wants to occur in their career,” Cheatle said.
Responding to reports that law enforcement officers had seen the shooter before the shooting, Cheatle said she didn’t have all the details.
“Seeking that person out, finding them, identifying them, and eventually neutralizing them took place in a very short period of time, and it makes it very difficult,” she said.
Former U.S. Secret Service special agent for former President Reagan, Tim McCarthy, joined “Cavuto: Coast to Coast” Monday to weigh in on the assassination attempt on former President Trump.
McCarthy, who was assigned to Reagan when the former president was shot by John Hinckley Jr. on March 30, 1981, said that incident and what happened at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania Saturday were both failures.
“There’s a lot of questions to be asked and answered. And I said it was a failure,” McCarthy said, later commenting that the Secret Service is “going to have to do a hell of a deep dive” to see what needs to change.
McCarthy said Trump “did the right thing” but ducking down as he soon as he realized what was happening.
“God bless him for being so alert and doing that because it certainly helped,” he said.
Former President Trump said during an interview with ABC News on Monday that he has rewritten what was supposed to be a “humdinger” of a speech after a shooter attempted to kill him on Saturday, and will now present one aimed at “unity.”
Trump spoke with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl over the phone, when Karl asked him about his close call with an assassin’s bullet and if it had changed him.
Karl said Trump told him he didn’t like to think about it, but he thinks it has had an impact.
Trump also reportedly told Karl he saw the Doug Mills photograph of a bullet flying past him, marveling that had he turned his head he could have been killed.
Trump also reportedly spoke to Karl about his conversation with President Biden after the attempted assassination, telling the reporter Biden was “very nice…he couldn’t have been nicer.”
The event led Trump to even re-write his speech that he is scheduled to give at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night.
“Trump told me that in the wake of the shooting, he has completely rewritten his convention address, saying he had written a humdinger, but now it’ll be more of a unity speech,” Karl reported. “As for the injury to his ear, he says he’s doing fine and hopes the bandage will be off by the time he gives his convention speech on Thursday night.”
The suspected gunman who shot former President Trump before he was killed by U.S. Secret Service agents was not affiliated with the military, the Pentagon said Monday.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was shot and killed moments after opening fire on Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. One attendee was also killed and two others were wounded.
“We’ve confirmed with each of the military service branches that there is no military service affiliation for the suspect with that name or date of birth in any branch active or reserve component in their respective databases,” deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters in an off-camera briefing.
Singh added that the Department of Defense doesn’t plan to change its force posture following the shooting.
She said approximately 1,700 National Guard members and a small number of active duty personnel will be providing support to local authorities from Monday through Thursday in Milwaukee during the Republican National Convention.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., confirmed Monday that he’d been briefed by the FBI on the investigation into the assassination attempt on former President Trump.
“This morning, I was briefed by FBI Deputy Director Abbate on the investigation into the assassination attempt on former President Trump,” Durbin said.
The Democratic senator said he’d requested a closed-door, in-person briefing next week with the U.S. Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI for all Judiciary Committee members when the Senate is back in session.
Rep. Wesley Hunt spoke with Fox News Digital ahead of Republican National Convention events on Monday and relayed his takeaways from watching the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
“What it really articulated in my mind was the idea of what combat really means to me and to watch his courage under fire,” Hunt said.
“He knelt down and he wanted to put his shoes back on, stood back up, and then told the crowd to fight because he wanted to walk off that stage with dignity,” he added.
Hunt, a West Point graduate and War on Terror combat veteran, said he had seen horrible things while serving in the military.
“But nothing compares to watching a man that I admire, and a man that is fighting for this country, and is fighting for our values, and is fighting for our way of life every single day become a political target. For what? For what?,” he asked.
Hunt added that he believes Trump will be President of the United States again and emphasized his disgust for some social media posts regarding Trump surviving the shooting.
“We should all be appalled by what we saw,” Hunt said, adding that some tweets were “utterly disgusting.”
President Biden said it was a “mistake” to say “bull’s-eye” when he referenced former President Trump last week, a remark that has been scrutinized in the days since the former commander-in-chief was shot during a campaign rally.
In a clip of an interview with NBC News slated to air Monday night, Biden was asked about using the term while talking about Trump.
“It was a mistake to use the word,” Biden told Lester Holt. “I didn’t say crosshairs. I meant bullseye. I meant focus on him. Focus on what he’s doing. Focus on one of his policies. Focus on the number of lies he told. The debate focus.”
“I mean, there’s there’s a whole range of things that, look, I’m not the guy that said I want to be a dictator on day one,” he added. “I’m not the guy that refused to accept the outcome of the election. I’m not the guy who said they won’t accept the outcome of this election automatically. You can’t only love your country when you win. And so the focus was on what he’s saying and I mean the idea.”
Some Republicans have blamed rhetoric used by Biden and Democrats at-large for the shooting of Trump on Saturday. Biden made the remarks on a phone call with donors last week.
“I have one job, and that’s to beat Donald Trump,” Biden reportedly said. “I’m absolutely certain I’m the best person to be able to do that. So, we’re done talking about the debate. It’s time to put Trump in a bull’s-eye.”
Biden was asked whether his words could incite political violence from his supporters.
“Well, I don’t think, okay. How do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real?” he said. “When a president says things like, he says. Do you just not say anything, becacuse it may incite somebody?”
“Look, I have not engaged in that rhetoric. Now, my opponent is engaged in that rhetoric. He talks about it being a bloodbath if he loses, talking about how he’s kind to forgive over and actually, I guess, suspend the sentences of all those who were arrested and sentenced to go to jail because of what happened in the Capitol.”
Biden noted Trump’s remarks after Paul Pelosi, husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was brutally attacked in the couple’s San Francisco home.
“I’m not out there making fun of, like, I remember the picture of Donald Trump when Nancy Pelosi’s husband was hit with a hammer,” he said.
Charles Marino, a former Secret Service Special Agent and the CEO of Sentinel Security Solutions said the Secret Service’s plan to protect former President Trump and the crowd at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania a “catastrophic failure.”
Marino was a guest on “The Claman Countdown” on Fox Business Monday, when host Liz Claman asked him about where things broke down, leading to the attempted assassination of Trump.
“Look, we saw a catastrophic failure of the overall security plan. The Secret Service relies on support from state and local law enforcement all over the United States to fulfill their mission,” Marino said. “However, the Secret Service creates and owns the overall security plan, and this extends out to the outer perimeter to include locations that cause concern for elevated threat, like this building location, which had a direct line of sight to the stage. So the Secret Service is not only responsible for creating the plan, but also making sure that it’s effectively implemented.”
He added that if the Secret Service and local police made a joint decision to provide coverage of the building to make sure nobody can get access to the roof, they have to ensure coverage is in place before and during the visit.
“That seems to be the case where that did not occur,” Marino said.
The security expert was also asked about recent news of Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. being given protection by the Secret Service.
“I think the protection of RFK Jr is long overdue. He’s met the criteria for quite some time,” Marino said. “He’s one of the earliest candidates to identify a VP running mate. So this should have been set in motion long ago, especially in this heightened threat environment in the U.S. and divisiveness around politics. So that’s the right decision.”
BlackRock pulled its advertisement from a few years ago that showed Thomas Matthew Crooks, the suspect authorities believe attempted to assassinate former President Trump over the weekend.
Images of Crooks’ appearance in the ad began circulating online after he was identified by officials as the gunman that fired several shots at a Trump campaign rally on Saturday, striking the upper part of Trump’s right ear while the former president was speaking to rallygoers.
One attendee, Corey Comperatore, 50, a former fire chief of Buffalo Township, was killed, and two others – identified by Pennsylvania State Police as David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74 – were injured in the shooting.
The FBI confirmed that Crooks was shot dead.
This is an excerpt of a story by FOX Business’ Breck Dumas. Click here to read the full report.
Forbes deleted an article Sunday titled, “Will Surviving Gunfire Be Donald Trump’s Next Appeal To Black Voters?”
The article, written by Forbes contributor and “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) expert” Shaun Harper, was published a few hours after a shooter attempted to assassinate
former President Trump during a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
In the article, Harper floated the idea that Trump may use surviving the shooting as a new way to connect to Black voters.
This is an excerpt of a story by Fox news Digital’s Lindsay Kornick. Click here to read the full report.
Two victims who were injured during an assassination attempt on President Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania Saturday are still being treated, a staff member at Allegheny Hospital, who requested anonymity, told Fox News Digital.
Law enforcement has identified the two victims as James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon Township, Pa., and David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington, Pa.
The U.S. Marine Corps League (MCL) said Dutch was “one our own” who serves as Commandant of the Westmoreland Detachment #1416 from within the Department of Pennsylvania.
“Our immediate support continues for David and his family as he continues his recovery from this attack,” MCL said in a statement. “We offer solace for David and his family along with eternal thoughts and prayers for all the victims of this tragedy.”
The family of former President’s Trump’s
would-be assassin is cooperating with the FBI and the bureau is looking at the shooter’s laptop.
The FBI confirmed Monday afternoon that the laptop of the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, as well as at least one improvised explosive device from his car is being analyzed at the FBI’s forensic lab in Quantico, Virginia.
The FBI has also found more than a dozen guns at the family’s home. Law enforcement sources tell Fox news that the rifle Crooks used at Trump’s rally on Saturday was a DPMS AR-15 that uses ammunition with a 5.56 mm diameter.
Crooks’ father purchased the firearm in 2013 and it is now in the FBI’s possession.
Donald Trump Jr. told Fox News on Monday that after hearing his father was shot, he called and said he was “the biggest badass” he ever saw.
Trump Jr. spoke to Fox News during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was asked how former President Trump
was feeling and what he said after learning it had happened.
“My first words…the first words out of my mouth were, ‘You’re the biggest badass I’ve ever seen,’ and I actually meant that,” he said. “Everyone these days is a tough guy on the internet or on a keyboard, but when you’ve actually been shot, you can get up defiant, you know, fist in the air telling people to stay in the game to fight. That’s exactly the kind of leadership we need. That’s actually a man that’s been tested.”
Trump Jr. said it was “very tough” to get any kind of information locked down. He said he assumed there were no cell phones in the hospital because of emergency medical equipment.
But he got a call saying his father had been shot, and that was the only information he had.
“It took about 90 minutes to even find out that he’s alive and well, so that was a rough time,” Trump Jr. said. “It was actually a couple of hours later, when you sit down, you start reading it, you start seeing the videos. You…so that’s what it was like. Just the adrenaline dump hits and it’s, it was different. It was a… life changing experience.”
He was also asked about the Secret Service, the oversight hearings on Capitol Hill and what he thought happened that led to his father getting shot.
“I know a lot of those guys and some of them are incredible patriots. I had a Secret Service detail for four years, but I also know, having had it, having been in it, having been both my father as a president, as a candidate, and, you know, my own details, someone to get out on an open roof within 130 yards…I’m not going to be the guy to be conspiratorial, but something went wrong,” Trump Jr. said.
President Biden took to social media to react to Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio
, being chosen as the running mate for former President Donald Trump, arguing that Vance and Trump “want to raise taxes on middle-class families while pushing more tax cuts for the rich.”
“Well, I don’t intend to let them. And if you’re with me, pitch in,” Biden said.
Following the assassination attempt
on former president Donald Trump at a rally on Saturday, the Senate Homeland Security Committee is sounding the alarm over concerns of security failures by the agencies.
“We are gravely concerned by the assassination attempt on former President Trump and the loss of life of an innocent bystander and injuries to several others during a campaign rally in Butler, PA, on Saturday, July 13, 2024,” the letter reads. “In light of Saturday’s shooting, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (Committee) is initiating a bipartisan investigation into how this was able to occur, what security, personnel, or other failures contributed to the attempt, and steps that must be taken to ensure any mistakes are avoided in the future.”
The committee is requesting that the appropriate representatives from Homeland Security, the FBI, and U.S. Secret Service provide a briefing to members of the Committee on the security failures that allowed the incident to transpire.
“Specifically, we would like to understand the security posture at the Trump campaign rally, how the suspect was able to get this close to a Secret Service protectee and cause injury to the protectee, and what steps the Department is taking to increase its protection of presidential candidates and ensure the safety of the election,” the letter continued.
The final request was that the agencies share information on whether any additional security requests were made by former President Trump’s campaign or protective team since November 15, 2022 as well as provide the Committee with updates on this incident and the agencies’ responses on a rolling basis.
President Biden has ordered an independent review of the assassination attempt on former President Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas confirmed Monday.
Per Mayorkas, the review will examine the actions of the U.S. Secret Service and other law enforcement officers before, during, and after the shooting “to identify the immediate and longer-term corrective actions required to ensure that the no-fail mission of protecting national leaders is most effectively met.”
Mayorkas said earlier Monday that a direct line of sight like the one the shooter had to Trump “should not occur.”
He also denied reports that the agency rebuffed requests for more resources for Trump’s detail, saying it was “unequivocally false.”
New York Times photographer Doug Mills stunned Americans with the iconic image he captured of a bullet whizzing past former President Trump after grazing his ear at a Pennsylvania rally over the weekend.
The moment remains a focal point as the Republican National Convention kicks off Monday, where Mills sat down with Fox News to share his firsthand account of the shocking ordeal.
“I just happened to be down, shooting with a wide angle lens just below the president when he was speaking. There was a huge flag waving right above his head, and I just happened to be taking pictures at the same time,” he told “America’s Newsroom” in Milwaukee.
“Then, when I heard the pops, I guess I kept hitting on the shutter, and then I saw him reach for his [ear]. He grimaced and grabbed his hand and looked. It was blood, and then he went down, and I thought, ‘Dear God, he’s been shot,'” he continued.
Read more about the iconic image of Trump.
Fox News’ Taylor Penley contributed to this report.
Robert F. Kennedy will receive protection from the U.S. Secret Service, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Monday.
The protection is being given to Kennedy, an Independent presidential candidate, following the assassination attempt of former President Trump over the weekend.
“In light of this weekend’s events, the president has directed me to work with the Secret Service to provide protection to Robert Kennedy Jr.,” Mayorkas told reporters.
Trump joined growing
calls for Kennedy to receive Secret Service protection in the days since the assassination attempt. In a Truth Social post, Trump said it was “imperative” that Kennedy receive the protection detail.
“Given the history of the Kennedy Family, this is the obvious right thing to do!” Trump wrote, referencing the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the 1968 killing of Robert Kennedy, then a presidential candidate.
The FBI announced they have successfully gained access to the phone belonging to Thomas Matthew Crooks, the shooter who opened fire on former President Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The FBI has not detailed any of the information contained in the phone. The agency began its investigation into Crooks and the shooting shortly after the Saturday attack. Agents went to Crooks’ home and the home of his parents on Sunday and Monday. They are investigating the incident as an assassination attempt and possible domestic terrorism.
According to the FBI, the search of Crooks’ residence and vehicle are complete.
The FBI also said they have conducted over 100 interviews of law enforcement personnel, event attendees and other witnesses, and that work continues.
“The FBI has received hundreds of digital media tips which include photos and videos taken at the scene and we continue to review incoming tips,” the FBI said. “We encourage anyone with information that may assist with the ongoing investigation to continue to submit it online at tips.fbi.gov or call 1-800-CALL-FBI.”
A House Homeland Security committee spokesperson said Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., and a ranking member of the committee spoke with FBI Executive Assistant Director Robert Wells on Monday afternoon.
During the call, the committee members were notified that the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office will lead the investigation into the attempted assassination of Trump.
The FBI is focused on Crooks, his motive and potential associations while building a timeline of events and related matters.
They also learned the Secret Service will conduct a separate review of its security protocol.
Green, the spokesperson noted, is pleased at how many interviews the FBI has conducted and that the FBI has gained access to Crooks’ phone.
Additionally, Green was given assurance during the call that the FBI intends to be transparent with Congress during the investigation.
Green plans to schedule a visit to the site of the shooting after the scene has been processed, the spokesperson said.
A virtual meeting between the House Homeland Security Committee and U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is being pushed back to either tomorrow or Wednesday due to the director’s schedule, a senior committee aide tells Fox News.
The meeting was originally scheduled for Monday afternoon.
Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark E. Green, R-Tenn., and ranking member Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., reportedly spoke to the FBI assistant director Monday afternoon.
Cheatle, the 27th director of the United States Secret Service (USSS), was appointed by President Biden
to lead the Secret Service in 2022, making her only the second woman ever in history to lead the agency.
Cheatle has been under scrutiny following the assassination attempt on former President Trump on Saturday.
Former President Trump on Monday, who survived an assassination attempt on Saturday, said it was imperative that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should receive U.S. Secret Service Protection given recent events.
“In light of what is going on in the world today, I believe it is imperative that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. receive Secret Service protection — immediately,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Given the history of the Kennedy Family, this is the obvious right thing to do!”
Kennedy’s campaign racked up $1.4 million in debt by early spring to a private security firm, while the Biden administration has repeatedly denied his requests for Secret Service protection.
Kennedy has assailed Biden for having rejected at least three requests for protection while on the 2024 campaign trail, going back to last year.
Kennedy’s father, the late former Democratic New York senator and U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and uncle, the late former President John F. Kennedy, were both assassinated in the 1960s.
Kennedy appeared on Fox News following the assassination attempt against Trump, and praised the Secret Service agents who rushed to protect Trump amid the shooting, but avoided leveling further criticism at the Biden administration for denying him protection.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, on Monday, was critical of the Secret Service’s security at former President Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday, admitting the gunman should have never had a clear line of sight on the president.
“A direct line of sight like that to the former president should not occur,” Mayorkas, who oversees the Secret Service, told “Good Morning America.”
Trump was shot in the ear on Saturday in an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. One attendee, Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed, and two others were critically injured at the rally.
The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by Secret Service agents after he opened fire.
Mayorkas said he was in favor of President Biden’s call to have an “independent review of the incident” conducted.
“We are going to really study the event independently and make recommendations to the Secret Service and to me so that we can assure the safety and security of our protectees, which is one of our most vital missions in the Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security and across the government,” Mayorkas said.
Still, Mayorkas praised the Secret Service for quickly neutralizing the threat, despite faults with security.
Days after a would-be assassin killed a bystander and wounded two others while trying to kill former President Donald Trump, questions remain about how an armed man was able to climb onto a rooftop less than 150 yards from a major political candidate with a rifle and a clear line of sight.
The modern Secret Service is “stretched too thin” with new responsibilities and protectees, while its budget and manpower haven’t caught up with the times, according to a former agent and security consultant who said there were missed chances in the past two decades that left his former agency overworked.
“They got a real opportunity after 9/11
to ask for increased funding, double the size of the agency, really increase the capabilities, and none of the directors did that,” said Bill Gage, an expert on active shooter response who retired from the Secret Service after 13 years with the agency, including 6 ½ as a member of the counter assault team.
“In a perfect world, you have 30 CS teams and 500 agents,” he said, using the agency’s acronym for the counter-sniper team that took out the assassin. “But the Service just doesn’t have those resources.”
Even a third of that manpower would have been sufficient, he said.
Instead, videos from the rally show just a single CS team returning fire and neutralizing the suspect as a group of agents on the ground swarmed the former president, shielding him with their bodies.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Michael Ruiz
“The View” co-hosts called for gun control on Monday during a discussion about the assassination attempt against former President Trump.
“So I know everybody always says, it’s too soon to talk about guns, and we should, because there has been a terrible death of a father of two, that thoughts and prayers should be where we go. I say no. I say now is the time to talk about the common denominator when it came to this assassination attempt, is America’s fascination and obsession with owning guns,” liberal co-host Sunny Hostin said, after also condemning political violence.
Trump was shot in the ear on Saturday in an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. One attendee, Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed, and two others were critically injured at the rally. The shocking attack is being investigated as an assassination attempt and an act of domestic terrorism, and the shooter’s exact motives remain unknown.
Hostin, a rabidly anti-Trump media voice, said she feared the attempt on his life would spark rhetoric about needing more “good guys with guns.”
“I think gun ownership will probably, because of this event, go up in this country instead of going down, and that is my fear. I think we need to have an honest and real conversation about real gun control legislation,” Hostin added.
Ana Navarro, another staunchly anti-Trump host, also demanded action, invoking the race of the killer while doing so.
“I hope that at some point in this country, we do have a conversation about what is happening, because we can’t just react when it is our side. What was this again? It was a 20-year-old lone wolf, White whack job with easy access to a gun, and we have to have a conversation about that, because it wasn’t a drag queen. It wasn’t an immigrant. It wasn’t a pissed-off liberal woman, and this keeps happening, and we need to react not as left or right, not as Republicans or Democrats. We need to react as Americans, and we need to ask better,” Navarro said.
Co-host Joy Behar’s commentary focused heavily on the shooter, Thomas Matthew Brooks
, who was killed by Secret Service shortly after he opened fire. She questioned why no one reported that a 20-year-old “White guy” had recently purchased 50 rounds of ammunition before his ambush.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Hanna Panreck
Nationally syndicated political reporter Salena Zito detailed her eyewitness account of the attempted assassination of former President Trump on Sunday.
Zito, who was at the presumptive Republican nominee’s
campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday before she was supposed to interview him at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, told Fox News’ Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer what happened in the moments before, during and after the shooting.
Zito said she was about three feet away from the former president when she heard a “pop, pop, pop” and because she has been around guns all her life, she said she knew exactly what the sound was when it rang out. But, Zito said, the sound is often mistaken for fireworks.
While he had a red streak on his face, Zito said Trump “didn’t have a crumbling effect.”
“They often say when people see a traumatic event, and it goes in slow motion, they’re absolutely right,” she said. “I immediately saw law enforcement surround him. They formed the protective shield around him. They took a protective stance.” She clarified that the Secret Service “had him go down” and that Trump did not “fall down.”
While Zito said the Secret Service made sure everything was clear, she said she could hear the president ask to get his shoes before he turned to the crowd with his fist and said, “fight, fight, fight.”
“I think he actually said it more than three times,” she recalled. “He raises his fist, and I’m watching this, I’m right there and what I thought in that moment, is that he was trying to, and I think presidents intuitively do this, he wanted people to know, ‘It’s okay, we’re okay.'”
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Kendall Tietz
“Fox & Friends” co-host Ainsley Earhardt recounted receiving the news of the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
Earhardt said she received a phone call from a FOX employee to turn on the television as the president had just been shot.
“To see that happen to someone who wants to give so much to our country is just very emotional and something I’d never experienced before,” Earhardt said. “When Reagan was shot I was 5 or 6 years old.”
She went on to express condolences to the family of Corey Comperatore, the volunteer firefighter, husband and father who lost his life at the rally, “I’m so sorry for the family that did lose their loved one.”
Comperatore died shielding his family from bullets. Two others, David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74, are fighting for their lives.
“I wish them all the best, lots of prayers going up,” she added.
Earhardt concluded, “Stop the vitriol and just move forward as a country the red white and blue is more important than these politics.”
The gunman at former President Trump’s rally purchased ammunition shortly before he attempted the assassination on Saturday, according to a federal law enforcement source briefed on the matter.
Thomas Matthew Crooks has been identified as the shooter, and it is unclear how much ammunition he purchased prior to the rally. Crooks fired on Trump with a rifle several times before being killed by Secret Service counter snipers.
Crooks’ volley struck Trump in his right ear as well as three other people in the crowd. One of the crowd members was instantly killed, and two others were critically injured. Corey Comperatore was killed shielding his wife and daughters. The the others who were injured have not been identified.
Trump recovered from the incident quickly and has stuck with plans to move forward with the Republican National Convention this week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is expected to announce his running mate selection later Monday.
Fox News’ Jake Gibson and David Spunt contributed to this report
Footage from former President Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania shows rallygoers attempting to alert police to the shooter on a nearby rooftop before shots were fired on Saturday.
The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, could be seen climbing into position in the video. He soon fired several shots at Trump, striking the former president and three crowd members, one of whom was killed.
Local law enforcement had responsibility for the building where Crooks was positioned, Fox News has learned. The building was a “rally point” for one of the local counter sniper teams, according to a federal law enforcement official familiar with the security plans
.
The source also said that a team was actually stationed in, or near, the building. There were four counter sniper teams at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, including two from the Secret Service and two from local law enforcement.
The source also added that the Butler County Sheriff’s Department has confirmed that one officer climbed up onto the roof, saw Crooks armed with a rifle and retreated. Soon after that, Crooks began to fire, according to the source. Moments later, a Secret Service counter sniper fired on, and killed, Crooks.
An unknown person could be seen adjusting the window shades inside the home of deceased 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks on Monday, named by the FBI as the “subject involved” in the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
Crooks was killed shortly after opening fire at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday. Investigators later found his vehicle and explosive materials inside.
But Crooks killed one spectator: Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief in Buffalo Township, Pennsylvania. He also critically injured two others, whose names have not been released.
Comperatore was killed while shielding his wife and two daughters from the gunfire.
President Biden addressed the nation regarding the shooting on Sunday night. He called for unity and for cooler temperatures in political rhetoric.
First lady Jill Biden also called former first lady Melania Trump to express her condolences and concern on Sunday.
Former President Trump reflected on the now world-famous photo of him holding his fist in the air after an assassination attempt during an interview published on Monday, quipping you “usually have to die” for it to become iconic.
“A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen,” Trump told the New York Post. “They’re right and I didn’t die. Usually you have to die to have an iconic picture.”
Trump was shot in the ear on Saturday in an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“I just wanted to keep speaking, but I just got shot,” the former president said.
The photo of Trump has been re-posted across social media following the shooting and was on front pages across the country and world Sunday. After shots were fired at the president, Secret Service agents surrounded him, and the former president was seen pumping his fist in the air and telling the crowd to “fight.”
Trump told the Post that he “wasn’t supposed to be here” in the interview following the assassination attempt. Experts have said Trump was extraordinarily lucky to survive, as just a few centimeters and a coincidental head turn were the difference between life and death.
The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by Secret Service agents after he opened fire.
One attendee, Corey Comperatore, 50, a former fire chief of Buffalo Township, was killed, and two others were critically injured at the rally. It’s being investigated as an assassination attempt and an act of domestic terrorism, and the shooter’s exact motives remain unknown.
This is an excerpt of an article by Fox News’ Hanna Panreck
UFC President Dana White posted about former President Trump in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania.
White, who is reportedly set to speak at the Republican National Convention, posted an iconic image of a bloodied Trump being escorted offstage following the shooting and called him an “American bad a–.”
“I’m on a plane right now flying to Italy and my phone has been blowing up with text messages from people informing me @realdonaldtrump was shot,” White wrote on Instagram Saturday. “I am absolutely SICK to my stomach and in complete shock. I still don’t know how bad it is or if he’s ok. But @mickmaynard2 just sent me this picture and I’m praying President Trump is 100% healthy.
“This image perfectly reflects EXACTLY the man I know Donald Trump to be. He is the toughest, most resilient, AMERICAN BAD A– on this planet. I hope the weak coward that shot him gets what he deserves, and I can’t WAIT to stand up on stage with him on Thursday and introduce him at the Republican National Convention and tell the WORLD exactly the character of the friend and man I KNOW!!”
The would-be assassin was identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks and a federal investigation was launched in the hours after the shooting.
This is an excerpt of an article by Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos
CBS “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan addressed her comments chiding former President Trump for not “lowering the temperature” with a statement he issued following an assassination attempt against him on Saturday.
“Our country has been living in a heightened threat environment for some time now. Yesterday’s assassination attempt against Mr. Trump confirmed our greatest fears. Last night, we reported on inflammatory statements made by some of our elected or political leaders and some of those who had called for calm,” the anchor began.
“Mr. Trump issued a statement after his traumatic experience, and I noted that his statement did not include a call to lower the temperature. It was not meant as a critique, but rather an observation I made in the moment of that breaking news,” Brennan continued.
She concluded, “Today, he said, that, ‘In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand united’ so, in that spirit, let’s all hope for a safe campaign for all of those involved. And the former president and his family deserve our empathy after what happened. I wish him and his family the best as he recovers from the attempt on his life.”
Brennan came under fire Saturday night for calling out the former president’s Truth Social statement shortly after being rushed off a Pennsylvania rally stage bleeding from his right ear.
“He is recovering from these injuries now, this was a traumatic event, no doubt, for him,” Brennan said. “But I did notice there was no call for lowering the temperature, condemning all political violence, and really trying to signal to his supporters as well not to retaliate or have any kind of escalation here.”
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin ordered flags to be flown at half-staff on Monday in honor of Corey Comperatore, who was slain in the attempted assassination of former President Trump on Saturday.
Flags are to be lowered from noon on Monday through Tuesday evening, the order reads.
“Virginia stands in solidarity with and extends prayers to all Pennsylvanians, especially those who remain in critical condition and their families,” Youngkin said in a statement.
Comperatore was killed while shielding his wife and daughters at Trump’s rally in Butler, PA. Two other rallygoers were also shot, and they remain in critical condition.
The shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired on Trump and the crowd from the rooftop of a nearby industrial building. The investigation into his motives and the attack is still ongoing.
Trump himself was grazed by the bullet on his right ear. He is moving forward with campaign plans and is attending this week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Local law enforcement had responsibility for the building where Thomas Matthew Crooks fired several shots at former President Donald Trump on Saturday, according to a federal law enforcement official familiar with the security plans.
The building Crooks fired from was a “rally point” for one of the local counter sniper teams, according to the source, who also pointed out that team was actually stationed in, or near, the building. There were four counter sniper teams at the Trump rally in Butler, Pa on Saturday, two from the Secret Service and two from local law enforcement.
This source also added that the Butler County Sheriff’s Department has confirmed that one officer climbed up onto the roof, saw Crooks armed with a rifle and retreated. Soon after that, Crooks began to fire, according to the source. Moments later a Secret Service counter sniper fired on, and killed, Crooks.
Fox News’ Jake Gibson and David Spunt contributed to this report
MSNBC pulled its flagship AM program “Morning Joe” from airing on Monday in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Trump.
Viewers who tuned in Monday expecting to see the staunchly anti-Trump program, hosted by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, were greeted instead by continued NBC News special reporting on the attempt on Trump’s life on Saturday. A spokesperson said “Morning Joe” will resume airing on Tuesday.
According to a CNN report, a person familiar with the decision said it was made in part over fear that one of the show’s many guests over a four-hour broadcast “might make an inappropriate comment on live television that could be used to assail the program and network as a whole.”
According to CNN’s report, Cesar Conde, the chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, decided to yank the show in consultation with MSNBC president Rashida Jones, as well as the show’s co-hosts.
The call by MSNBC to keep “Morning Joe” off the airwaves shocked political observers, with some conservatives saying it demonstrated a lack of trust in one of its most high-profile shows to sensitively cover a fraught situation.
“The fact that Morning Joe’s own network can’t trust its flagship brand not to spew reckless and inflammatory crap during breaking news tells you all you need to know about the credibility of the MSNBC line-up,” a veteran Republican consultant told Fox News Digital.
The news stirred up the left, too.
Liberal journalist Jeff Jarvis fumed on X, “What the f—, MSNBC? You preempted your excellent weekend programming… and now you’ve silenced [Morning Joe] in favor of your anodyne streaming news cos-play called Now? This is when we need the analysis and conversation these shows bring us (yes, with controversy; that is how public discourse works through it: with discussion). It is shocking that NBC/Comcast do not understand their own company’s programs and raison d’etre.”
Scarborough and Brzezinski have a complicated history with Trump. The two hosts
stood out in their bullishness on his political chances in 2015 and 2016 and frequently interviewed him on their show, but they became two of his most vehement critics after he became president.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ David Rutz and Brian Flood
A rabbi and head of the American Faith Coalition is speaking out about the “open miracle” related to former President Trump’s close call at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally on Saturday.
“I cannot see the recent attempted assassination of former President Trump as anything but an open miracle that has left an indelible mark on our collective consciousness,” Rabbi Pincas Taylor of Plantation, Florida, told Fox News Digital on Monday morning.
He said this is why, “regardless of our political affiliations, we must stand united in condemning all forms of political violence, as such actions are a threat to the very fabric of our democracy and to the principles upon which this great nation was founded.”
After shots rang out at the rally on Saturday and Secret Service agents covered Trump on the floor of the stage, the former president, once he was standing again, gave the crowd a fist before he was ushered offstage.
He was taken to a medical facility and declared “safe” afterward. He is now already in Milwaukee for the start of the Republican National Convention.
Taylor added that “in the face of this miracle” on Saturday, “we must also recognize the need to tone down the political rhetoric that has become all too common in our society.”
He shared with Fox News Digital his belief that “words have power — and when used irresponsibly, they can stoke actions that threaten our unity and peace.”
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Maureen Mackey
CNN initially reported the Saturday assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump as if the former president had merely fallen off a stage
– a characterization that swiftly earned condemnation from conservative lawmakers and those commenting on social media.
“Secret Service rushes Trump off stage after he falls at rally,” CNN’s headline read shortly after news broke that there was possible gunfire at a Pennsylvania Trump rally.
The headline angered conservative lawmakers, as well as others on social media, who described the headline as “conscious deception” and “disgraceful.”
“‘Falls at rally’? Is this a real headline? This is disgraceful,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., posted to X on Friday evening.
“Even in a horrifying moment such as this they just can’t help themselves,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., posted.
While addressing the crowd in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday evening, Trump was seen abruptly grabbing his right ear before ducking and he hit the ground on stage. Secret Service personnel quickly surrounded Trump before he was escorted off the stage, with his
right ear covered in blood.
Before he was ushered out, Trump appeared to yell “Fight!” while giving a fist pump to the crowd to indicate he was alright.
First lady Jill Biden spoke with former first lady Melania Trump over the phone on Sunday after the assassination attempt against former President Trump, Fox News confirmed.
The White House and Trump campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
The details of Jill and Melania’s conversation have yet to be released. Biden also called Trump himself to express his condolences just hours after the attempt on Trump’s life Saturday.
Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday evening, calling for unity and condemning the attack alongside members of his cabinet.
“My fellow Americans, I want to speak to you tonight about the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics,” Biden said. “Do remember, while we may disagree, we are not enemies. We’re neighbors, we’re friends, coworkers, citizens, and most importantly, we are fellow Americans. We must stand together.”
The attempted assassination of Trump “calls on all of us to take a step back, take stock of where we are,” he added.
Biden said he was “grateful” that Trump is “doing well” and said he is keeping “him and his family in our prayers.” He also extended “our deepest condolences” to the family of Corey Comperatore, who was fatally shot as he shielded his wife and daughters from the bullets.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report
The politicians who are rumored to be in consideration to serve as former President Donald Trump’s running mate in the 2024 election swiftly took to social media to show support for the presumptive GOP presidential nominee after an attempted assassination this weekend in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, who is considered a frontrunner to become the Republicans’ vice presidential nominee across three betting markets, blasted the rhetoric that had been emanating from the Biden campaign and its supporters.
“Today is not just some isolated incident,” Vance posted on X. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum also offered his support for the president on Saturday.
“We all know President Trump is stronger than his enemies. Today he showed it,” Burgum wrote on X.
One of Trump’s most stubborn challengers for the 2024 Republican nomination, former U.N. ambassador and ex-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, also took to social media. It emerged on Sunday that Haley will speak at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday – even though as recently as last week she wasn’t planning to attend the event, which kicks off Monday in Milwaukee.
Haley wrote on X: “This should horrify every freedom loving American.”
“Violence against presidential candidates must never be normalized,” she wrote. “We are lifting up Donald Trump, the entire Trump family, and all in attendance in prayer.”
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Jamie Joseph
Amid a sea of inflammatory political rhetoric this election season, President Biden and White House Cabinet members unequivocally condemned
political violence after the attempted assassination of former President Trump over the weekend, with many also expressing sympathy for Trump and condolences to the family of a spectator killed during the attack.
Vice President Harris wrote on X that “assassination attempts have no place in our nation,” adding that she and her husband, Doug Emhoff, were praying for the family of the deceased victim, identified as a former fire chief, Corey Comperatore.
“As @POTUS said, we must work toward unity as Americans. Assassination attempts
have no place in our nation, or anywhere. Doug and I pray for the family of the victim who was senselessly killed yesterday and hope for a speedy recovery for those injured.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas also condemned “political violence in America.”
“I’m shocked and saddened by the shooting at former President Trump’s rally
and grateful that he is safe. As @POTUS said, there is no place for political violence in America and we must all condemn it,” Blinken posted to X on Saturday night.
“This is not the way that we resolve our differences in America — and it must never be. I’m relieved that reports indicate former President Trump is safe, and I am praying for him and his family and everyone affected by this appalling incident,” he said.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Jamie Joseph
A law enforcement expert joined “Fox News @ Night” on Sunday to detail what happened when an officer at former President Trump’s Pennsylvania rally allegedly confronted the gunman on a rooftop before the deadly shooting on Saturday.
Retired Las Vegas Police Lt. Randy Sutton says the officer was alerted to the gunman, now identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, and was attempting to confront him on the roof, but there was “no ladder” or access point.
The officer decided to reach Crooks by climbing onto the back of another officer, according to Sutton’s sources.
“As he was lifting himself up over the roof line, suddenly the suspect pointed his gun at him, the officer ducked down, and when he did, he fell off the back of the other officer,” Sutton said.
Sutton explained that this was not a situation where an officer committed a “cowardly act,” dismantling an earlier report that the officer possibly retreated when he confronted Crooks.
“This is an officer who made an observation, saw that he was about to be shot, and fell off the back of the other officer,” Sutton said.
Fox News’ Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report
Former President Trump said he is “supposed to be dead” after surviving an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, over the weekend.
Trump described the incident to the New York Post as a “very surreal experience” that nearly killed him as he prepares for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
“The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle,” Trump told the outlet.
“I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead,” the former president added. “I’m supposed to be dead.”
He also addressed confusion about his shoes, as the video of the incident showed agents attempting to rush him off the stage to safety while he says, “Wait, I want to get my shoes.”
“The agents hit me so hard that my shoes fell off, and my shoes are tight,” Trump said.
The former president also praised the Secret Service for their swift action and for killing the shooter.
“They took him out with one shot right between the eyes,” he said. “They did a fantastic job. It’s surreal for all of us.
“He spoke about the photo of him raising his fist and shouting “Fight” three times as the agents attempted to drag him off stage to safety.
“A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen,” Trump told the NYP. “They’re right and I didn’t die. Usually, you have to die to have an iconic picture.”
Trump is scheduled to speak at the RNC on Thursday evening.
RNC 2024: Join America’s conversation here!
FBI successfully gains access to cellphone of Trump’s would-be assassin
The FBI announced they have successfully gained access to the phone belonging to Thomas Matthew Crooks, the would-be assassin who opened fire on former President Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
“FBI technical specialists successfully gained access to Thomas Matthew Crooks’ phone, and they continue to analyze his electronic devices,” the agency wrote in a press release.
Law enforcement sources with knowledge of the situation tell Fox News the weapon Crooks used, a DPMS AR-15 5.56, is now at the FBI’s forensic labs in Quantico, Virginia, along with his phone, laptop and at least one Improvised Explosive Device from his car.
The FBI finished its search of Crooks’ home and vehicle. A little more than a dozen guns were found in the home. Crooks’ family is still cooperating with the FBI, Fox News has confirmed.
ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON TRUMP AT PENNSYLVANIA RALLY LEAVES 2 HURT, 2 DEAD, INCLUDING SHOOTER
House Homeland Security Chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., and Ranking Member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., spoke with FBI Executive Assistant Director Robert Wells on Monday.
A committee spokesperson issued a statement to Fox News on where the investigation stands and what is happening next.
“The FBI is focused on the gunman, his motive, any potential associations, building a timeline of events, and related matters, while the Secret Service is conducting a separate review of its security protocol. Chairman Green is pleased to know the FBI has so far conducted nearly 100 interviews, and has access to the gunman’s phone. Chairman Green was assured by EAD Wells that the FBI intends to be transparent with Congress during its investigation. Chairman Green intends to schedule a site visit, if possible, once the scene has been processed, and looks forward to being briefed by USSS as soon as possible, as do Committee Members.” – House Homeland Security Committee Spokesperson
The FBI said it conducted nearly 100 interviews of law enforcement personnel, event attendees and other witnesses. It has also received hundreds of digital media tips, which include photos and videos taken at the scene.
The agency began its investigation into Crooks and the shooting shortly after the Saturday attack. Agents went to Crooks’ home and the home of his parents on Sunday and Monday. They are investigating the incident as an assassination attempt and possible domestic terrorism.
Trump broke his silence on the assassination attempt on Monday, saying he is alive “by luck or by God.”
“I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead,” Trump told the New York Post. “I’m supposed to be dead.”
“The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle,” Trump also told the newspaper onboard his private plane while heading to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for this week’s Republican National Convention. “By luck or by God, many people are saying it’s by God I’m still here.”
WHO WAS THOMAS MATTHEW CROOKS? WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT TRUMP’S ATTEMPTED ASSASSIN
Trump told the Post that had he not turned his head slightly to the right to read a chart on illegal immigration, the bullet that grazed him would have been fatal.
REPUBLICAN CONVENTION GETS UNDERWAY 2 DAYS AFTER TRUMP SURVIVED AN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
He described the Secret Service agents who rushed at him as “linebackers,” mentioning another one eliminated the gunman with “one shot right between the eyes.”
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“They did a fantastic job,” he told the Post. “It’s surreal for all of us.”
Who is Usha Vance, the wife of Trump’s vice president pick JD Vance?
Usha Vance, the wife of Ohio Sen. JD Vance was thrust into the national spotlight after former President Donald Trump chose her husband as his running mate Monday.
Usha Vance, née Chilukuri, born in 1986, was raised in San Diego, California, and attended Yale Law School, where she met the future Ohio senator, according to a report from the New York Times.
“We were friends, and I liked that he was very diligent,” she told NBC News about how she met her husband in a 2017 interview. “He would show up at 9 a.m. appointments that I would set up for us to start working on the brief together.”
TRUMP ANNOUNCES OHIO SEN JD VANCE AS HIS 2024 RUNNING MATE
“The thing that I remember most about Usha is just how completely forward and comfortable with herself she was,” the Ohio senator said of his wife during the interview. “(She was) so defensive about the things that she really cared about.”
Before law school, Vance received a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale and a master’s in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge.
The pair married in 2014 and have three children together: sons, Ewan, 6, and Vivek, 4, and a daughter, Mirabel, 2.
Vance completed multiple clerkships after her graduation from Yale, according to an Axios report, including for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
FOX NEWS LEARNS BURGUM, RUBIO, INFORMED AHEAD OF VANCE ANNOUNCEMENT THEY WOULDN’T BE NAMED RUNNING MATE
She would later work for Munger, Tolles & Olson, a California law firm that described its culture as “radically progressive,” the report notes.
Vance has also worked to defend the University of California against allegations it violated Title IX and the Walt Disney Company against claims of copyright infringement.
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The wife and mother of three has in the past expressed skepticism of the possibility that her husband could be Trump’s vice presidential pick, telling Fox News last month such a decision would change the couple’s lives.
“I’m not raring to change anything about our lives right now,” she said while noting she is “open” to whatever happens.
‘Morning Joe’ hosts shocked after being only MSNBC show replaced by NBC News feed
EXCLUSIVE – The hosts and production team of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” were “shocked” on Monday by the circumstances of their show’s benching in the aftermath of the stunning assassination attempt on former President Trump, Fox News Digital has learned.
An MSNBC insider said the show’s production team was informed by network leadership Cesar Conde – the chair of NBCUniversal News Group – and Rashida Jones – the president of left-leaning cable affiliate MSNBC – that all MSNBC programming on Monday would be supplanted until primetime by a single NBC News programming feed, which would presumably air across all NBC platforms. Hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were also told and assented.
However, a new episode of “Today” on parent network NBC aired as scheduled on Monday morning with Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb. Those who tuned into MSNBC, NBC’s left-leaning cable affiliate, at 6 a.m. to watch “Morning Joe” were greeted with NBC News special reporting from Ana Cabrera and then coverage simulcasting from its streaming service, NBC News Now. The “Morning Joe” X account announced the show would return on Tuesday.
“A lot of people are pissed off,” the insider told Fox News Digital. They added Scarborough and Brzezinski would have insisted on going on the air if they’d known there wouldn’t be “one feed” for all platforms, as they’d originally been told.
MSNBC YANKS ANTI-TRUMP ‘MORNING JOE’ OFF AIR FOLLOWING ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
MSNBC’s regular weekend programming and hosts were interrupted, as expected, Saturday and Sunday in favor of NBC News special coverage of the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, which wounded Trump and killed one of his supporters.
After three hours of programming hosted by Cabrera and NBC News Now, José Diaz-Balart began hosting for MSNBC at 9 a.m., and the show’s “NBC News Special Report” chyron disappeared in favor of “MSNBC Reports.” MSNBC hosts Andrea Mitchell and Chris Jansing did their normal shows at 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. ET. Left-wing MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace took over live coverage of the Republican National Convention coverage at 4 p.m. ET.
As news broke that “Morning Joe” wasn’t on the air on Monday morning, observers wondered why MSNBC’s flagship AM show was off the air at such a significant time. A CNN report stated a source familiar with the decision said there were worries a guest might make an inappropriate remark about the attempt on Trump’s life; a network spokesman strongly denied that report to Fox News Digital.
The network insider told Fox News Digital a “Morning Joe” producer had been given assurances on Sunday that it wasn’t the plan to just skip “Morning Joe” on Monday, and the show’s hosts were surprised and upset when they woke up to find their program had been seemingly singled out.
“They were shocked,” the insider added of the show’s production team. “It was supposed to be one feed like it was this weekend. It was supposed to be one feed with all NBC News platforms. And right now, people that run [the] show are having pretty heated conversations internally about when it went from one feed to two feeds.”
An MSNBC spokesperson did not immediately respond when asked about “Morning Joe” staffers being blindsided on Monday.
The insider added there was no truth to CNN’s report that there was fear that one of the show’s guests would say something inappropriate about Trump. The show is a hotbed of anti-Trump commentary, while generally being strongly favorable toward President Biden.
A former NBC News top producer, who has spent decades in the TV news industry, said the optics were brutal for the network.
“How embarrassing that MSNBC had to pull its flagship morning news show off the air when there was a news story,” they told Fox News Digital.
BIDEN CALLS INTO ‘MORNING JOE,’ REMAINS DEFIANT ABOUT STAYING IN THE RACE: ‘I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE’
Other critics pointed to the harsh rhetoric that came from the show toward Trump, with whom Scarborough and Brzezinski have a long and complicated relationship. Once highly friendly to him when he first ran for office beginning in 2015, their relationship eventually soured, and they became two of his fiercest critics.
“The whole ball game changes now, after the attempt on Donald Trump’s life that he survived by a millimeter. This kind of rhetoric is unacceptable even by management at places like MSNBC and CNN,” said Fox News contributor Joe Concha.
NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham feels the decision to scrap the program – even if it was only for one day – “says so much about how MSNBC sounds on a daily basis.”
“Few networks have been more aggressive about calling Trump a fascist or comparing Trump to Hitler than MSNBC. This move could be seen as a tacit admission that their regular content has an overly harsh tone. It certainly clashes badly with President Biden’s remarks about how we should all act like friends and neighbors,” Graham told Fox News Digital.
Cornell Law professor and media critic William A. Jacobson believes the decision by MSNBC brass crushes the program’s credibility.
“MSNBC’s mothballing Morning Joe on what could have been the biggest day in the show’s history is humiliating for the hosts and regular guests,” Jacobson told Fox News Digital.
REPUBLICAN CONVENTION GETS UNDERWAY 2 DAYS AFTER TRUMP SURVIVED AN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
DePauw University journalism professor Jeffrey McCall is shocked that MSNBC would preempt its influential morning show in the aftermath of the assassination attempt, which coincides with the opening of the GOP convention, and the possible naming of Trump’s VP pick.
“It really is quite astounding that MSNBC would even temporarily pull the plug on a show that has been the darling of the anti-Trump east coast liberal audience. The MSNBC leadership should consider that if it can’t trust Joe and Mika to keep within the guardrails on such a big news day, then why are they allowed to be on the air the rest of the time? This is a huge news day,” McCall told Fox News Digital.
OutKick founder Clay Travis said it was the “biggest Monday” in Scarborough’s TV career.
“Damn. I’d quit if any of my bosses tried this,” Travis wrote on X.
JOURNALIST WHO WITNESSED TRUMP SHOOTING RECOUNTS MOMENT HE RAISED HIS FIST IN DEFIANCE
Liberal journalist Jeff Jarvis fumed on X, “What the f—, MSNBC? You preempted your excellent weekend programming… and now you’ve silenced [Morning Joe] in favor of your anodyne streaming news cos-play called Now?”
Trump was wounded in the ear by a would-be assassin’s bullet on Saturday at his Pennsylvania rally. The shooter killed one attendee and critically wounded two others before being killed by law enforcement.
Trump will accept the 2024 Republican nomination for president this week in Milwaukee.
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Photographer who took picture of bullet whizzing past Trump speaks out
New York Times photographer Doug Mills stunned Americans with the iconic image he captured of a bullet whizzing past former President Trump after grazing his ear at a Pennsylvania rally over the weekend.
The moment remains a focal point as the Republican National Convention kicks off Monday, where Mills sat down with Fox News to share his firsthand account of the shocking ordeal.
“I just happened to be down, shooting with a wide angle lens just below the president when he was speaking. There was a huge flag waving right above his head, and I just happened to be taking pictures at the same time,” he told “America’s Newsroom” in Milwaukee.
RALLYGOERS DOUBLE DOWN ON TRUMP SUPPORT AFTER WITNESSING HARROWING ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: ‘WE FIGHT HARDER’
“Then, when I heard the pops, I guess I kept hitting on the shutter, and then I saw him reach for his [ear]. He grimaced and grabbed his hand and looked. It was blood, and then he went down, and I thought, ‘Dear God, he’s been shot,'” he continued.
Mills, like many others present, failed to initially realize the sounds were gunshots.
He recalled watching as Secret Service swarmed the former president in a few “split seconds,” obstructing his view of Trump.
“All I could see was them, and [they’re] holding their guns and guns are out everywhere and everybody’s yelling, ‘Get down, get down, get down! Active shooter, active shooter!’” he recalled.
“I probably did not do the smartest thing by running right at it, but that’s what[photojournalists do.].”
SPLIT-SECOND TURN COULD HAVE SAVED TRUMP’S LIFE, EXPERTS SAYS: ‘GOD MUST HAVE BEEN WATCHING DOWN ON’ HIM
Mills said the moment he discovered he had captured an image of the bullet whizzing past Trump was a “surprise” to him.
It happened after he was ushered into a tent and began sending photos of the former president’s now widely-circulating defiant fist pump to an editor.
“I was like, ‘Oh, hell. I remember taking pictures of him when this happened. Let me go back and look.’ I started looking at it. I started sending them right away, and I called one of the editors and said, ‘Please look at these really closely. This might have been near the moment where he was shot,’” he said.
“She called me back like five minutes later and said, ‘You won’t believe this.’ She goes, ‘We actually see a bullet flying behind his head, and I was like, ’Oh my gosh.'”
Mills said he captured the rally images with a Sony a1 camera.
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Special counsel Jack Smith to appeal dismissal of Trump’s classified docs case
Following U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to dismiss the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump, Special counsel Jack Smith said he intends to file an appeal.
“The dismissal of the case deviates from the uniform conclusion of all previous courts to have considered the issue that the Attorney General is statutorily authorized to appoint a Special Counsel. The Justice Department has authorized the Special Counsel to appeal the court’s order,” Peter Carr, Public Information Jack Smith’s office told Fox News Digital.
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Cannon dismissed the case against former President Trump for the handling of classified documents, and some legal experts are calling it a “strongly reasoned” opinion that eliminates the “greatest legal threat” to Trump.
On Monday, Cannon issued a 93-page opinion dismissing the case on the grounds that the appointment of Special counsel Jack Smith to oversee the case was unconstitutional.