President’s inquiry about Harris that could impact political decision: report
President Biden is expressing new interest in whether Vice President Kamala Harris could defeat former President Trump in the 2024 election, according to a report from the New York Times.
While Biden and his staff have publicly insisted that he is staying in the race, the 81-year-old is reportedly now asking whether Harris could win. Several polls show Harris matching or even exceeding Biden’s performance against Trump as waves of Democrats call on Biden to withdraw.
“To some degree, the vice president is auditioning now for the job and they should help her lean in and I think her leaning in could be beneficial to bolstering Biden” whether he steps aside or not, former Harris aide Ashley Etienne told the Times.
Harris stands as the most obvious candidate to replace Biden thanks in large part to her presumed access to the Biden-Harris war chest should the president withdraw. Any other candidate would face an uncertain path to accessing the tens of millions of dollars donated throughout the race.
BIDEN RESPONDS TO ‘DISENCHANTMENT’ FROM BLACK VOTERS: ‘THEY KNOW WHERE MY HEART IS’
The White House pushed back on the Times report in a statement to Fox News Digital, saying Biden locked in on campaigning.
“That claim is false and The New York Times did not ask us about it. As Jen O’Malley Dillon said, he ‘is more committed than ever.’ And as you heard from the President, he looks forward to campaigning this week,” said White House spokesman Andrew Bates.
Democrats have largely coalesced around Harris being the replacement for Biden should he withdraw, though there remains a question about how she could best assume the role.
65% OF DEMOCRATS SAY BIDEN SHOULD DROP OUT AFTER DEBATE DISASTER, POLL FINDS
“Most Democrats think it should be an open process,” former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., told the Times. “What I would say is the best thing is for Kamala Harris is to win a contested convention fight because it would legitimize her candidacy. If it’s a backroom deal, you haven’t earned it and people want you to earn it. And once you earn it, you get a huge bounce.”
A Friday poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about six in 10 Democrats believe Harris would do a good job as president herself. About two in 10 Democrats don’t believe she would, and another two in 10 say they don’t know enough to say.
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Polls show Democratic voters have continued to sour on Biden as well. A Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll of Massachusetts residents found that 64% of likely Democratic or Democratic-leaning voters want someone other than Biden to face off against Trump. The AP-NORC national survey likewise found that 65% of Democrats say Biden should drop out of the race.
Trump scores latest victory over Biden and it’s not about red or blue
Former President Donald Trump has surpassed President Biden’s longtime fundraising lead, according to donation filings from June.
Republicans hauled in $66 million throughout the month, propelling Trump’s campaign past the current president’s. June saw the GOP’s biggest monthly haul since 2020, according to the Washington Post.
The latest data comes after Trump’s campaign boasted of out-raising Biden for most of the summer. Trump’s campaign announced in early July that it and the Republican National Committee hauled in a staggering $331 million during the April through June second quarter of 2024 fundraising, topping the massive $264 million raked in by the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee over the same period.
And the former president’s campaign spotlighted that it had $284.9 million in its coffers as of the end of June, compared to $240 million for Biden.
AMBER ROSE CLAPS BACK AT JOY REID AFTER CRITICIZING CONVENTION SPEECH: ‘STOP BEING A RACE BAITER’
Meanwhile, Biden’s campaign teeters against waves of Democratic lawmakers calling on him to withdraw.
Even Biden’s nominal allies in Congress have failed to give him ringing endorsements. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., repeatedly saying on Saturday that he’s “our nominee” but he also had a “big decision to make.”
WATCH: 5 OF THE MOST INFLAMMATORY MOMENTS FROM MSNBC HOSTS DURING THE RNC
Warren also seemed to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris being the replacement if Biden did step down, singing her praises as an ideal candidate to prosecute the Democratic case against former President Trump.
“Joe Biden is our nominee, and he has a really big decision to make. Joe Biden has been a transformational president,” Warren told MSNBC, going on to praise his record. “I am deeply grateful to Joe Biden for all that he has accomplished.”
In the face of mounting numbers of Democrats calling on him to step down for fear he’ll lose to Trump, Biden has repeatedly insisted he is staying in the race. Yet Warren, sounding like reportedly skeptical former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., earlier this month, appeared to give Biden yet another off-ramp.
AOC CALLS ‘BULL—-’ ON DEMOCRATS PRIVATELY TURNING ON BIDEN
“Joe Biden is our nominee. As I said before, he has a really big decision to make,” she said. “But what gives me a lot of hope right now is that if President Biden decides to step back, we have Vice President Kamala Harris who is ready to step up, to unite the party, to take on Donald Trump, and to win in November. Remember, 80 million people voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in 2020.”
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Warren’s interview came on the heels of Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., calling for Biden to leave the race this week, joining dozens of House Democrats, Fox News Digital previously reported.
Trump reveals the massive role Elon Musk is playing behind the scenes in his campaign
Former President Donald Trump said at a campaign rally in Michigan on Saturday that he would “rescue the U.S. auto industry from obliteration,” while also touting the recent endorsement of Tesla founder and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Trump told rallygoers that Musk did not tell him about having donated $45 million per month to his campaign and also never mentioned in their conversations Trump’s criticism of electric vehicles.
“I love Elon Musk. Do we love him? I love him,” Trump said. “But Elon endorsed me the other day, and I read — I didn’t even know this — he didn’t even tell me about it, but he gives me $45 million a month, a month. Not 45 million. Gives me 45 million a month.”
“And I talked to him just a little while ago to say I was coming here. How are you doing? And he didn’t even mention it,” Trump added. “I mean, other guys, they give you $2 and you got to take them to lunch. You got to win ’em, dine ’em.”
The former president and Republican nominee said he is not opposed to electric vehicles entirely but said the head of the United Autoworkers wanted them above all else.
“I’m constantly talking about electric cars. But I don’t mean I’m against — I’m totally for them,” Trump said. “But whatever the market says and if it’s 10% of the market, 12%, 7%, 20%, whatever it is, it’s okay. But you can’t have 100% electric cars.”
Trump recalled how conversations with Musk, also the founder of SpaceX, usually revolve around the latest rocket engine techonology.
“He’s a great guy. He really is,” Trump said of Musk. “But, you know, he’s never mentioned to me ‘why are you hitting the electric cars?’ Because he understands. I’m not hitting it. I think it’s incredible. I’ve had them. I’ve driven them. They’re incredible. But they’re not for everybody. Some people have to drive long distances And they tend to be more expensive. And, you know, they’ll probably be made in China because China has all of that material.”
Former President Donald Trump said at a rally in Michigan on Saturday, “I owe immigration my life,” recalling how the slight turn of his head at a rally in Pennsylvania to a sign on border statistics was the difference between the bullet striking his right ear, instead of piercing his skull.
“You know, I was pointing to an immigration border sign when I made this turn, and that thing went that way instead of that way,” Trump told Grand Rapids, Mich.
, rallygoers, recounting the trajectory of the bullet. “So I owe immigration my life. It’s true, it’s true.”
The former president and Republican nominee said he turned his head to point to what he refers to as the “million dollar sign,” which was held up by a crane at the Butler, Pa., rally on July 13. At that moment, a bullet whizzed toward the former president, striking his right ear.
“But that sign was very good. I think I’m going to sleep with it tonight,” Trump said Saturday.
“Then I looked and I said, that’s not good. That’s not good. So I said, immigration. If you think about it right, at immigration, I would have never been looking to the right. And I had to be. It was the only it was the only place that would have saved us,” Trump said. “Every shot was no good for me except for the one direct, direct, and came whizzing by and, I hope we have to never go through that again. Everybody, because it’s so horrible.”
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has not visited the site of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Fox News national correspondent Bryan Llenas asked the Secret Service, “Has Director Cheatle visited the rally site in Butler to do a site walk through or survey since the shooting? If not, why?”
Anthony Guglielmi, Chief of Communications for the U.S. Secret Service, said in response, “The site is an FBI crime scene. We are not conducting that part of the investigation. “
Cheatle will testify in front of Congress about security lapses Monday morning without having been to the crime scene first hand. While she’s being questioned, a group of lawmakers will be touring the rally site Monday morning led by Republican Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee.
U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers, R-Mich., shared highlights from former President Trump’s rally in Michigan and discussed the demand for answers in the assassination attempt against the former president.
He described the Michigan rally and the Republican National Convention as “electric” and said Trump’s agenda is for the working American families. Rogers, a former FBI agent who was previously chairman of the House intelligence committee, said he and Trump had a conversation about a “leadership change” to get politics out of the Department of Justice.
A lone bike cloaked by a tree’s shade near a Pennsylvania manufacturing facility is a haunting reminder of a gunman’s hail of gunfire that nearly assassinated a former president.
The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, rode the bicycle to Donald Trump’s rally in Butler and ditched it before he opened fire from a roof about 150 yards from where the former president spoke to the crowd of thousands on Saturday, The New York Post reported.
Crooks left the bike behind in plain sight before he climbed to his perch and unfurled a flurry of gunshots that killed a local hero, who shielded his family, nicked Trump’s ear and wounded two others.
A witness first noticed the bicycle around 5:30 p.m. on July 13 – about 42 minutes before the shooting – according to The Post. The security misstep has at least one expert believing “someone was asleep at the switch.”
Paul Mauro, an attorney and retired NYPD inspector who has been involved in several multi-agency security coordination efforts during his career, said a “flying squad” should have nabbed Crooks well before he pulled the trigger.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News Digital’s Chris Eberhart.
Bethel Park High School said it wanted to correct the record on Thomas Matthew Crooks, who allegedly attempted to assassinate former President Trump during a July 13 rally in Butler, Pa.
The Pennsylvania high school released a statement
Saturday saying it had no record of Crooks, who graduated in 2022, having been on or having tried out for the rifle team. The school also said it had no record of Crooks being bullied, despite reports claiming he had been.
“It has been reported that Thomas Crooks was a member of the Bethel Park High School rifle team or tried out for it but was dismissed due to poor performance or because the coach had character concerns,” Bethel Park High School said. “Thomas Crooks was never a member of the school’s rifle team and we have no record of him trying out. The coach does not recall meeting him. However, it is possible that Crooks informally attended a practice, took a shot, and never returned. We don’t have any record of that happening.”
Bethel Park High School also said there is “a painful misconception that Thomas Crooks was relentlessly bullied in school, which may have led to the assassination attempt on former President Trump.” The school district “maintains detailed records, including academic performance, attendance, disciplinary history, and health records,” the online statement said. “According to our records, Mr. Crooks excelled academically, regularly attended school, and had no disciplinary incidents, including those related to bullying or threats.”
The high school said “Crooks was known as a quiet, bright young man who generally got along with his teachers and classmates,” and since graduating, he earned an associate’s degree in engineering science from the Community College of Allegheny County and worked as a dietary aide at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
“It would be wildly irresponsible for us to speculate on his state of mind in the two years since we last saw Thomas Crooks,” the high school said.
The statement also acknowledged there “is a false claim that Thomas Crooks once threatened violence against the school.” In 2019, the school said there was “an unfortunate incident involving threats made by a different student against specific school administrators,” but that had “no connection whatsoever to Thomas Crooks.”
Fox News’ Pilar Arias contributed to this report.
Former President Donald Trump paid tribute to Corey Comperatore in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday during his first campaign rally since the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, a week earlier.
The funeral for Comperatore, an ex-fire chief who was fatally struck shielding his wife and daughters from gunfire, was held Friday at Cabot Methodist Church in small town Pennsylvania.
Trump was not in attendance because of Secret Service concerns, the Associated Press reported, citing a source familiar with the matter.
“Corey, as you know, Corey Comperatore was a brave firefighter who died, funeral yesterday, Trump said Saturday in Michigan. “Shielding his wife and daughters from bullets, who shielded them from the bullets of this… this horrendous person. Corey was a hero. And we will carry his memory in our hearts for all time.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The U.S. Secret Service responded Saturday night to a bombshell report that top officials repeatedly denied past pleas to beef up former President Trump’s security detail, saying in a statement that it depends on “state or local partners” to fill in gaps when it can’t accommodate such requests.
The report from the Washington Post came exactly a week after Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania, while speaking at a rally, prior to his 2024 presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
The gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, had been observed by attendees before the shooting began. The Post reported that, before the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump, top Secret Service officials “repeatedly” denied requests for tighter security measures from Trump’s detail. An official granted the interview to the media outlet on the condition of anonymity.
According to the report, agents tasked with protecting Trump requested additional security resources in the past. These requests involved things such as magnetometers or a larger number of personnel to screen guests. Additional snipers had also reportedly been requested in the past.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Andrea Vacchiano, CB Cotton and David Spunt.
Former President Trump pulled a union worker that he recognized on stage during a campaign rally on Saturday.
Trump was speaking about electric cars when he suddenly recognized an audience member.
“Are you the same guy? Yes? No kidding,” Trump said. “Pretty good memory, right? Unlike somebody else that I happen to be running against.”
The Republican then encouraged the worker to get up on stage and joked around with him.
“He’s a serious union guy, a United Auto Workers [worker],” Trump said. “He does not carry guns. Come on up here, look at him. Look at the shape he’s in.”
“I’m glad to see this guy,” the union worker said energetically at the podium. “I told you, we’re gonna get 85 million of us out there to vote for him. So let’s go home from this rally and do our part.”
Fox News host Jesse Watters recently conducted a sit-down interview with former President Trump to discuss last week’s failed assassination attempt.
The interview, which will premiere on “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Monday night at 8 p.m. ET, featured both Trump and his vice presidential candidate JD Vance. Vance currently serves as a U.S. Senator representing Ohio.
The three men discussed the assassination attempt against the former president last week. Gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks
shot at Trump from a roof in the middle of a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, wounding the presidential candidate on his right ear.
Trump revealed during the interview that he was not warned about Crooks by the U.S. Secret Service.
“Nobody mentioned it,” the former president replied. “Nobody said it was a problem.”
“[They] could’ve said, ‘Let’s wait for 15, 20 minutes, 5 minutes.’ Nobody said…I think that was a mistake,” he added.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News Digital’s Andrea Vacchiano.
‘West Wing’ creator spins scenario in an effort to save Democrats
Aaron Sorkin, the creator of the ’90s NBC drama “West Wing,” suggested on Sunday that the Democratic Party nominate a Republican, Senator Mitt Romney, to stop former President Donald Trump. Back in 2012, Sorkin lobbied Obama to repeatedly call Romney a liar at debates.
“Nominating Mr. Romney would be putting our money where our mouth is: a clear and powerful demonstration that this election isn’t about what our elections are usually about, but about stopping a deranged man from taking power,” Sorkin touted in an op-ed for the New York Times, before noting other Democrats weren’t polling well against Trump either.
President Biden is facing mounting calls to drop out of the race following a rocky debate performance. A recent poll also found that 65% of Democrats want Biden to drop out.
“The problem in the real world is that there isn’t a Democrat who is polling significantly better than Mr. Biden. And quitting, as heroic as it may be in this case, doesn’t really put a lump in our throats,” he wrote.
DO THESE POTENTIAL BIDEN REPLACEMENTS HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BEAT TRUMP?
Sorkin suggested that “Democrats nominating a Republican” could be the “healing event” everyone wanted after the assassination attempt against Trump.
He also imagined former President Obama “full-throatedly endorsing his old rival” at the Democratic convention.
“And Mr. Romney could make the case that the Democrats are putting country before party in ways that the MAGA movement will not, and announce his bipartisan cabinet picks at the convention as well,” he wrote.
“The writing staff would tell me I was about to jump the shark, that this is a ‘West Wing’ fantasy that would never, ever happen. But as Bradley Whitford used to say, ‘Isn’t the biggest fantasy on television a mafia boss in therapy?’ The Democrats need to break the glass and this is a break-glass plan, but it’s more than that. It’s a grand gesture. A sacrifice. It would put a lump in our throats,” he continued.
Comparing the fictional opponent to his own TV president, “Jed Bartlet” in “West Wing,” played by Martin Sheen, Sorkin wondered, “What if Bartlet’s opponent had been a dangerous imbecile with an observable psychiatric disorder who related to his supporters on a fourth-grade level and treated the law as something for suckers and poor people? And was a hero to white supremacists?”
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Sorkin, in 2012, authored a kind of fan fiction, via NYT opinion columnist Maureen Dowd, that imagined the fictional “West Wing” president, Jed Bartlet, coaching then-President Obama on his debate performance against Romney. Speaking of the man he now wants Democrats to nominate, Sorkin lobbied Obama to say to Romney: “You’re lying, Governor.”
Conservatives took issue with the idea on X, with some pointing out how the Democratic Party treated Romney when he ran in 2012.
One pointed out that Biden, who was vice president at the time, told a crowd at a rally in Virginia that Romney would “put y’all back in chains.”
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Romney, a strong critic of the former president, has not thrown his support behind him.
“With President Trump, it’s a matter of personal character,” he said in June. “I draw a line and say when someone has been actually found to have been sexually assaulted, that’s something I just won’t cross over in the person I wouldn’t want to have as President of the United States.”
Automaker hits Biden with brutal reality check on tax plan’s impact
Family-owned auto parts manufacturer Husco is preparing for the worst if President Biden is re-elected in 2024.
Company President and CEO Austin Ramirez recently testified before Congress ahead of their plan to allow Trump-era tax cuts to expire, touting the importance of the nearly terminated policy.
BIDEN VOWS TO LET TRUMP-ERA TAX CUTS EXPIRE NEXT YEAR, MEANING HIGHER RATES FOR MANY
“Only by preserving the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act can Congress ensure that uniquely American stories like Husco remain possible,” Ramirez said during congressional testimony this past April.
The matter is likely to be a source of contention during the general election, particularly with Trump pledging to make the tax cuts permanent if he is elected in November.
The expiration of the tax law on December 31, 2025 will mean many Americans will be forced to pay more in taxes unless certain provisions are extended or made permanent. While President Biden has not yet released a blueprint for how to address the upcoming tax cliff, he called for a number of tax hikes in his fiscal 2025 budget proposal.
TRUMP VS. BIDEN: WHERE THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES STAND ON TAXES
“Taxes are a huge part. We’ve got to have competitive taxes. In the U.S., we’ve got the most regressive tax regime in the world relative to R&D,” Ramirez told Fox News’ Pete Hegseth.
The Husco CEO gave Hegseth a behind-the-scenes look into the company’s manufacturing headquarters in Waukesha, Wisconsin, as the Republican National Convention got underway in nearby Milwaukee.
The U.S.’s federal research and development (R&D) tax credit grants companies a reduction in tax liability for select domestic expenses.
“R&D and innovation is how we grow this economy, how we grow Husco. Today in the U.S., we get to expense 20% of our R&D expenses in China. They get to expense 200% of their R&D expenses. That creates a huge barrier to innovation and growth in a thriving American economy.”
BIDEN ISSUES NEW RULE TO CRACK DOWN ON BAD RETIREMENT ADVICE
Ramirez continued, arguing that renewing the tax cut policy would “absolutely” be beneficial to his business.
“Tax cuts create more liquidity for us to invest in equipment and people in our community and doing all the things we need to do to grow,” the company CEO argued.
He concluded by sharing some of Husco’s groundbreaking community service, an opportunity that was granted through the U.S.’s tax policy.
“Husco is a private, family-owned company. We committed to donating at least 10% of our pretax profits every year back to community causes,” he explained.
“Education is just foundational to the American Dream.”
“The biggest project we’ve done here is we built a school on the south side of Milwaukee, serving predominantly minority, low-income kids,” he told Hegseth. “We started the school about seven years ago. We’re now the number one ranked and largest K-12 school in the state of Wisconsin. We’re going to launch a second campus within five years. Our schools will be educating almost 5% of the kids in Milwaukee.”
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Key former international community voice signals acceptance of Trump 2.0
Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson threw his support behind Donald Trump in an op-ed for the Daily Mail on Friday and said the former president was the person for the job, arguing, “the world is at a crossroads.”
“I believe that indomitable spirit is exactly what the world needs right now, and exactly what is needed in the White House,” Johnson wrote after he recalled the assassination attempt against the former president.
The former prime minister spotlighted several potential and current conflicts across the world, including in Ukraine, the Middle East, Europe and Taiwan.
“Having talked to Donald Trump this week, I am more convinced than ever that he has the strength and the bravery to fix it, to save Ukraine, to bring peace — and to stop the disastrous contagion of conflict,” Johnson wrote. “I believe that Trump understands the reality: that a defeat for Ukraine would be a massive defeat for America.”
WHO WAS THOMAS MATTHEW CROOKS? WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT TRUMP’S ATTEMPTED ASSASSIN
Johnson argued that the Ukrainians have shown they can win the war against Russia, and said, “I believe that Trump can end it.”
“He could construct a great deal for the world, in which Putin is ultimately persuaded that Ukraine’s future is as a free, sovereign and independent European country; and that means a two-stage approach,” he wrote.
He said there was a chance for “global rapprochement” with Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin, if Trump wins in November.
“But there is only one way to achieve this outcome — through strength. Washington under Trump will have to show that international borders must be respected, and that the Soviet empire cannot be rebuilt by force,” Johnson wrote.
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“If and when he is back in power, later this year, Trump has a massive chance — not just to fix his predecessor’s legacy, but to take the world forward. Donald Trump can see the risk: that a defeat for Ukraine would exact a huge long-term cost on America and the world,” Johnson said.
The former prime minister added that Trump showed he had the “mettle for the job” with his initial response to the assassination attempt.
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Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, after a bullet grazed his ear and Secret Service rushed to protect him.
One rally attendee was killed and two others were critically injured.
The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by Secret Service agents.
Expert explains why what Trump shooter left in plain sight is a haunting symbol
BUTLER, Pa. — A lone bike cloaked by a tree’s shade near a Pennsylvania manufacturing facility is a haunting reminder of a gunman’s hail of gunfire that nearly assassinated a former president.
The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, rode the bicycle to Donald Trump’s rally in Butler and ditched it before he opened fire from a roof about 150 yards from where the former president spoke to the crowd of thousands on Saturday, The New York Post reported.
Crooks left the bike behind in plain sight before he climbed to his perch and unfurled a flurry of gunshots that killed a local hero, who shielded his family, nicked Trump’s ear and wounded two others.
A witness first noticed the bicycle around 5:30 p.m. on July 13 – about 42 minutes before the shooting – according to The Post. The security misstep has at least one expert believing “someone was asleep at the switch.”
FOLLOW LIVE UP-TO-MINUTE DETAILS OF ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION
Paul Mauro, an attorney and retired NYPD inspector who has been involved in several multi-agency security coordination efforts during his career, said a “flying squad” should have nabbed Crooks well before he pulled the trigger.
A “flying squad,” which can have different names, is an untethered, mobile response team that acts as roving surveillance and chases down anything suspicious.
CONGRESS DENIED ACCESS TO CRUCIAL TRUMP PROTECTION PLAN SCREAMS ‘COVER YOUR A– MODE’: EXPERT
Crooks was first identified as a “suspicious person of interest” around 5:10 p.m., the FBI told Congress, according to a lawmaker who was at Wednesday’s FBI briefing and spoke to Fox News Digital on the condition of anonymity.
At 5:30 p.m., a witness spotted Crooks with a rangefinder. Other rally attendees reported Crooks’ suspicious movements to police.
But stationed law enforcement officers can’t leave their posts, in case the suspicious person or item is meant as a diversion, Mauro explained. That’s why there’s a separate team.
“A lot of people have been saying, ‘Why didn’t they go chase them down an hour before the event?’ When you’re that close to event time, you have to guard against a diversion,” Mauro told Fox News Digital.
“Somebody sets something off as a diversion, and now the principal is left unguarded.”
In this particular case, that would have been Trump.
SEE POWERFUL PICS OF ‘HERO’ FIREFIGHTER COREY COMPERATORE’S FUNERAL: ‘THIS IS THE SPIRIT THAT FORGED AMERICA’
“So you’re supposed to remain at your post. The way to assuage that rigidity is to have a flying squad,” he said. “They’ll get reports that x, y, z have been noticed, get a flying squad over there forthwith.
“And if you’re really concerned about him an hour before the event, you make sure you keep eyes on him … but somebody was asleep at the switch.”
At 5:52 p.m., the Secret Service spotted Crooks on the roof, the FBI told Congress, according to a lawmaker.
Twenty minutes later – 6:12 p.m. – Crooks fired several shots into the crowd.
TRUMP HONORS FALLEN FIREFIGHTER DURING RNC SPEECH
One bullet nicked Trump’s ear, and it may have killed him if Trump hadn’t moved his head at that exact moment.
A beloved former fire chief, Corey Comperatore, died while shielding his wife and daughters from a hail of bullets, and two other men were seriously wounded.
Crooks was ultimately shot dead after nearly 30 seconds of gunfire.
Nearly a week after the shooting, there are many unanswered questions, including how Crooks slipped through the cracks and was allowed to fire so many times into the crowd.
There were apparent lapses in planning and/or execution of a safety plan that have to be addressed, Congress members told Fox News Digital.
WATCH: POLICE SEARCH FOR EXPLOSIVES IN CROOKS’ VAN
Crooks reportedly rode the bike to the park, sources told The New York Post, but he was also connected to a white van that law enforcement sources said contained explosive materials.
But what he used and when remains a mystery.
Butler Township police referred questions to the FBI, Secret Service and Pennsylvania State Police.
The FBI had no comment, and the Secret Service and state police didn’t respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
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That continues law enforcement’s radio silence since Saturday’s attempted assassination.
A witness first noticed the bicycle, which was still propped up by a backpack, around 5:30 p.m. on July 13, 42 minutes before the shooting, according to The Post.
Trump mocks his locks at rally, as delighted crowd laughs along
Former President Trump stopped his speech to make fun of his hair during a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Saturday.
“I have to just interject, if you would turn off those cameras… see the screen up there of me? That’s very severe, that comb over that’s a severe sucker,” Trump quipped while looking at a screen showing his remarks. “It looks OK from the other side, but that is very severe. I apologize. Man, I looked up there, I said, ‘Whoa, look at that.’ Wow. That’s like a work of art.”
The remarks came at Trump’s first rally since the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he officially accepted the party’s nomination for president for the third time. It was also the first rally since the former president survived an assassination attempt, coming exactly one week after his brush with death at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
TRUMP SAYS HE ‘TOOK A BULLET FOR DEMOCRACY’ AT MASSIVE BATTLEGROUND STATE RALLY ALONGSIDE RUNNING MATE VANCE
Since the experience, Trump’s campaign has promised to focus more on unifying the country, with the hair joke being the latest example of the former president showing a bit of a softer side.
Voters in Grand Rapids were also the first to see Ohio Sen. JD Vance at a rally since being nominated to join Trump on the ticket, with Vance continuing to make the pitch that Trump will fight for blue-collar workers in states such as Michigan.
RNC DELEGATES, GUESTS MAKE PREDICTIONS ABOUT BIDEN’S POLITICAL FUTURE AMID REPORTS HE MIGHT EXIT 2024 RACE
Trump also hit that theme in his speech Saturday before bringing the conversation back to his hair, touting his proposal to eliminate taxes on tips while noting all the different types of workers that receive them.
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“Barbers get tips. I don’t give mine a big tip because I don’t think they do a very good job,” Trump joked to laughs from the audience.
List of politicians urging Secret Service director to bow out just grew, and the latest is a first
Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., is calling on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign following an assassination attempt against former President Trump at a campaign rally last weekend in Pennsylvania.
Boyle is the first Congressional Democrat to urge Cheatle to step down.
“I am calling on Director Cheatle to resign immediately following last weekend’s shooting of a Presidential candidate in Western Pennsylvania,” Boyle said in a statement on Saturday.
“The evidence coming to light has shown unacceptable operational failures,” he continued. “I have no confidence in the leadership of the United States Secret Service if Director Cheatle chooses to remain in her position.”
TRUMP TELLS JESSE WATTERS THAT HE WAS NOT WARNED ABOUT GUNMAN, DESPITE REPORTS
Trump survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, when gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire from the top of a building. One rally spectator was killed shielding his wife and daughter from the gunfire, while several others were injured, including Trump, who suffered injuries to his ear.
The Secret Service has faced intense criticism in the aftermath of the shooting over concerns about how Crooks was able to gain access to the rooftop that had a line of sight to Trump as he was speaking at the rally.
Several Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, have called for new leadership at the Secret Service following the shooting.
“Last week’s near-assassination of former President Trump was a grave attack on American democracy,” McConnell wrote Wednesday on the social media platform X. “The nation deserves answers and accountability. New leadership at the Secret Service would be an important step in that direction.”
But Cheatle said she has no plans of stepping down from her position.
“I do plan to stay on,” she told ABC News.
SECRET SERVICE RESPONDS TO REPORT THEY ‘REPEATEDLY’ DENIED REQUESTS TO TRUMP SECURITY DETAIL IN THE PAST
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he has “100% confidence” in the Secret Service after the shooting. The Secret Service operates under DHS.
President Biden directed an independent review of security at the rally. Cheatle said in a statement last week that the Secret Service will cooperate in the independent review and work with Congress on any oversight action.
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Republican lawmakers have vowed to conduct congressional investigations into the shooting, and Cheatle is expected to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Monday.
“Americans demand answers from Director Kimberly Cheatle about the Secret Service’s historic security failures that led to the attempted assassination of President Trump, murder of an innocent victim, and harm to others in the crowd,” Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said in a statement. “We look forward to Director Cheatle’s testimony on Monday, July 22 to deliver the transparency and accountability that Americans deserve.”