Ep. 2004 - Trump’s "Unity" RNC BEGINS…PLUS Trump Documents Case DISMISSED
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Well, folks, tonight, the Republican National Convention begins. President Trump is, in fact, on the ground in Milwaukee, Wisconsin right now. He's expected sometime this afternoon to announce his vice presidential pick. We'll get to that in a little bit. First, all the latest updates on the assassination attempt against President Trump that happened on Saturday. According to The Washington Post, the FBI is saying the investigators have not yet identified any ideology fueling the gunman. I have an idea of what the ideology is. He didn't like Donald Trump. It just

I don't know. It might be a mystery wrapped in an enigma. I'm going to go with he didn't like Donald Trump. You've heard a lot of stuff about how he was a registered Republican. It appears that this particular shooter who had given some money to Act Blue, which is a Democratic super PAC, it appears that he registered Republican in order to vote against Trump in an open primary in Pennsylvania. With that said, apparently,

This particular shooter acted alone. That is, of course, what they are saying right now. We have no evidence to the contrary. At this point, we're also finding out new details about the shooter. Thank God he was a terrible shot. Apparently, not only was a terrible shot, he actually had applied to be on the school shooting team. And he was a bad shot so bad that they rejected him from the school shooting team, which is presumably the reason he missed the shot. Although, of course, only through the grace of God was President Trump not killed. His head exploded on national television. I mean, truly.

Because you can see in the original assassination attempt video, when President Trump shifts the angle of his head at the last moment to look at a chart that they put on a big screen. And in doing so, he shifts the angle of his head so the bullet travels through his ear as opposed to through the back of his head.

According to the Wall Street Journal, investigators found rudimentary explosive devices in the shooter's car parked near the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. They also found bomb-making materials at the family home one hour to the south. Again, the FBI says that he acted alone. Crooks had not been on the FBI's radar as a possible threat before the shooting. Investigators found no indications of mental health issues either.

According to the Wall Street Journal, he appeared to have little social media presence or much record of political activism. He appeared to have an account on Discord, a social media outlet popularized by video game enthusiasts, but he hadn't used it much. He hadn't posted with the account in months, according to a spokeswoman for the platform. On President Biden's inauguration day, Crooks gave 15 bucks to Progressive Turnout Project, a Democratic-aligned political action committee that rallies voters.

One of his classmates, a person named Sarah DeAngelo, said he never outwardly spoke about his political views or how much he hated Trump or anything. She recalled him playing games on his laptop during homeroom before the school day began. Apparently, people described him as a possible school shooter at school. Again, always there are red flags. She said he was somewhat of a loner. He didn't have a friend group. He didn't fit in with everybody else.

As a sophomore, he was photographed in the yearbook wearing a T-shirt of an American flag with the faces of past presidents at Mount Rushmore. And as a senior, he won a $500 National Math and Science Initiative Star Award. So again, we just don't know that much about the shooter at this point. What we do know is that this could have been significantly worse and it was bad enough as it was. The man who died, his name has now been announced. His name is Corey Comparatore.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro announced his death yesterday, announced the circumstances of his death, pointed out that he died a hero. Apparently, he dived on the bodies of his family members in order to protect them from the shooter and in doing so was shot in the head and killed. Here is Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. We lost a fellow Pennsylvanian last night, Corey Comparatore.

I just spoke to Corey's wife and Corey's two daughters. Corey was a girl dad.

Cory was a firefighter. Cory went to church every Sunday. Cory loved his community. Most especially, Cory loved his family. Cory was an avid supporter of the former president. He was so excited to be there last night with him in the community. I asked

Corey's wife, if it would be OK for me to share that we spoke. She said yes. She also asked that I share with all of you that Corey died a hero, that Corey dove on his family to protect them last night at this rally. Obviously, obviously a tragedy. Josh Shapiro.

Went on to talk about the necessity of taking down the level of rhetoric, which, of course, has become the order of the day. It comes off better for Josh Shapiro, as we'll see, than President Biden, who attempted to make that same pitch last night. Meanwhile, all the questions surrounding the activities of the Secret Service here continue to swirl. How exactly did the Secret Service miss the shooter in the first place? Why exactly was that roof not cleared? Again, it was only about 150 meters.

From the place where President Trump was speaking, it was the only building in the area that did not have Secret Service on top of it, well within the range of a normal AR-15. The range of a normal AR-15 is maybe 500, 600 meters if you're a decent shot.

In this particular case, he was extremely close. And again, it's only through the grace of God that President Trump is not dead. Not only that, video has now emerged showing that the shooter had plenty of time to get ready. People saw him climbing on the roof of the building. They commented on this. They were videoing him.

Where was local law enforcement? So we've been told by Secret Service professionals that the way that typically these sites are secured is there's sort of an interior area that is controlled by Secret Service. And then slightly outside of that perimeter, there's another area where they coordinate with local law enforcement. As we will discuss in a moment, local law enforcement signally failed here, not only because they allowed a shooter to get onto the roof of the building, but also because a member of local law enforcement apparently had an actual physical confrontation with the shooter on the roof.

And apparently, according to the Associated Press, a local cop actually confronted the shooter on the roof and then had to retreat because the shooter swiveled the gun around. And then when the shooter swiveled the gun around, he went down the ladder up to the roof, the local cop,

And at that point, he swiveled back around and started shooting at the president. According to the Associated Press, a local law enforcement officer climbed to the roof and found Crooks. That's the name of the shooter again. I normally don't mention the names of mass shooters or shooters on the show. This is an exception when you try to kill the president of the United States. A local law enforcement officer climbed to the roof and found Crooks who pointed the rifle at the officer. The officer retreated down the ladder. The gunman quickly fired toward Trump. That's when U.S. Secret Service gunman shot him. So presumably, if not for the cop having distracted the shooter, he might have gotten off a better shot.

Again, the questions continue about how the gunman got so close to the president in the first place. Kevin Rojek, the agent in charge of the FBI's Pittsburgh field office, said it surprised him the gunman was able to open fire on the stage before the Secret Service killed him in the first place. The Wall Street Journal calls it the most stunning failure for the Secret Service in decades, which clearly is true since we haven't had a major assassination attempt on a president or presidential candidate in several decades. The last major assassination attempt on a presidential candidate

It was, in fact, on President Ronald Reagan going all the way back to the early 1980s in which President Reagan was shot at very close range. Here's the video of the shooter. Again, he had plenty of time to get ready up on top of that roof. We can hear President Trump's voice in the background. Somebody is filming. And then you can hear people discussing the fact that there is someone on the roof with a gun right there. Right there. See him?

He's laying down. See him? Yeah, he's laying down. What's happening? Yeah, look. There he is. Look how much time there is. Someone calls an officer.

- An absolutely extraordinary failure by the Secret Service here. According to Susan Crabtree reporting for RealClearPolitik, she says, "This is the problem my Secret Service sources have cited. Secret Service's resources were diverted away from Trump. Why? Because Jill Biden had a local event

They followed agency protocol applying to Trump as a former president, according to two sources within the Secret Service community. There were also many supplemental agents from different field offices, not Trump's regular detail, providing security at the rally because Trump's regular detail has been overworked, some working seven days straight and only two counter snipers. That, of course, is an insane story, given the fact that the threat level to President Trump is so much higher, obviously and clearly than the threat level to, say, Jill Biden. It's more on the Secret Service's failures in just one second.

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I just want to send a hug to anyone

So my role in the Secret Service is the RNC coordinator. So that is my purview. Any questions regarding yesterday's event can be directed to our public affairs office out of D.C. That is a stonewalling from the Secret Service agent, Audrey Gibson Chichino. That is the Secret Service RNC coordinator. The question, in case you couldn't hear it, was I don't understand why it is you have one of the most significant events in the Secret Service's history and no one from Secret Service has publicly decided to take questions about what exactly happened.

Full-scale disaster for the Secret Service, and honest to God, they are lucky as hell, as obviously the country is lucky as hell, that President Trump was not murdered up on that stage. The tragedy occurred nonetheless. Well, President Biden is reacting to this tragedy, and now we are going to get the walk back, but it's not a real walk back.

So the walkback that we are seeing from the Biden administration, from the Biden White House, is an acknowledgement that we need to cool the rhetoric, that the rhetoric has to calm down, which, of course, is something that I have been saying for years in this country, is that when you declare that your political enemies are such a threat to the republic, that if they are elected, it will be, say, the last election. It'll be the end of America, that you and your friends are going to end up in actual jail. You're not joking about it. You actually mean that.

When you say that sort of stuff, you are exacerbating political divides to the extent that somebody could take you seriously and then go attempt to shoot the president of the United States in the head, for example. Well, yesterday about 2 p.m., President Biden comes out and he makes a statement. Now, it's pretty clear politically speaking

And politics, of course, is enmeshed in all of this because President Biden is running a really rough reelect campaign against President Trump by polling data. Donald Trump is leading him by about three points nationally. If Donald Trump were to win the popular vote by three points, then he has a 100% chance of winning the Electoral College, according to Nate Silver, the poll analyst. Joe Biden, until the assassination attempt, was the center of the news, specifically because he's clearly in mental distress. He is a person who clearly

is sundowning late in the afternoon, evening. We'll get to that in a moment because as it turns out, he did yet another Oval Office address in which he struggled to make it through a telepromptered address. So he did an event about 2 p.m. yesterday. He was flanked by the Vice President Kamala Harris, the Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. He issued a rather banal statement saying an investigation was underway. He said that he had called President Trump. Here is what President Biden had to say. This is about 2 p.m. Eastern time yesterday.

Last night, I spoke with Donald Trump. I'm sincerely grateful that he's doing well and recovering. And we had a short but good conversation. Jill and I are keeping him and his family in our prayers. As this investigation continues, here's what we're going to do. First, Mr. Trump is a former president and nominee of the Republican Party, already receives a heightened level of security.

And I've been consistent in my direction of the Secret Service to provide him with every resource, capability, and protective measure necessary to ensure his continued safety. Second, I've directed the head of the Secret Service to review all security measures for the Republican National Convention, which is scheduled to start tomorrow. And third, I've directed an independent review of the national security at yesterday's rally to assess exactly what happened.

and we'll share the results of that independent review with the American people as well.

So that was his rather blasé statement yesterday. That was earlier in the day. Now, the Biden team is saying, and they've leaked this to Axios, for example, that Biden is going to try to get out in front of this. He's going to try and make himself as public as possible here, mainly because it doesn't require him to take any serious questions about his fitness for office. He's been able to shift the narrative because of this horrifying circumstance away from himself. And now the entire focus of the American electorate is on President Trump.

which gives President Trump the possibility of actually reshaping this election in extraordinary ways, meaning that President Trump, as we will see, is going to completely shift the tone and tenor of the RNC. There's a capacity here for President Trump to win 40 states. I am not kidding.

President Trump is now in a position, politically speaking, because he can actually be a voice for unity, which is what he is going to do. The way that he responded, by the way, to Joe Biden's statement here is by putting on Truth Social a two-word statement, UNITE AMERICA in all caps. He's reshifting his entire campaign messaging.

That also comes with the risk, presumably, of the fact that the focus is now back on Trump, meaning that when all the focus was on Biden, politically speaking, that means that Biden is going to lose because no one likes Joe Biden as president. They think that he's done a terrible job. And they also happen to think that he is quite old. I mean, the fact is that after Joe Biden finished that mid-afternoon statement yesterday, he shuffled out of the room looking like Mr. Burns from The Simpsons. He's holding his hands in a bizarre way. And here is some video of him walking away from the podium,

That video is not particularly flattering to Joe Biden. I mean, he's holding his hands stiffly in front of him. He can barely move.

He can barely move. Merrick Garland has to reach behind, make sure the door is open wide enough that Joe Biden can get through. Remember that the news cycle until the assassination attempt was all about the fact that Joe Biden might be ousted by his own party because he's trailing in polls and clearly declining every single day. But the focus has now shifted back to Donald Trump. Donald Trump responds to that press conference, as we say, by saying, unite America. We'll talk about Trump's messaging in just one second. But it also puts Biden on the defensive because the reality is that as we discussed yesterday on the show,

The people have been heating up the rhetoric to the point where there was an assassination attempt against Donald Trump, have been doing so for 10 years, and they include people like Joe Biden, who all the way back in 2011 was suggesting that Tea Partiers were terrorists, that they were akin to terrorists. He's a person who suggested that Mitt Romney wanted to put black people back in chains. Joe Biden has spent large swaths of his career engaging in the most extraordinarily radical type of rhetoric with regard to his political opponents, full-scale demonization.

And now Joe Biden has to try and walk that back. We'll get to that momentarily. First, you work hard to support yourself and your family, but it might seem as though you're taking a step back every month instead of moving forward. When the bills are higher than what you bring in every month, you have to swipe that credit card to cover the difference, and the debt keeps adding up. But if you own a home, my friends at American Financing can help you break free from that cycle. American Financing is saving people like you an average of $854 a month. Think about what you could do with an extra $800 every month and not having to worry about those minimum monthly payments.

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credit card debt, and you need to rejigger that. If you need help getting out of your credit card debt, you should call my friends over to American Financing. That's 800-685-5696, 800-685-5696. Okay, so Joe Biden made two statements yesterday. There was the earlier statement. Then around 8 p.m., he made another statement from the Oval Office. Now, again, because of his sundowning, there had been a lot of talk about the idea that he was going to pre-tape this.

And then apparently after it leaked that he was going to pre-tape it, he decided to do it live, which as it turns out, imagistically was a bad idea because he fumbled and bumbled his way through a very short six minute televised address. He made a bunch of significant errors. We'll go through them as we see them. The message that he was attempting to purvey is a fine message. The problem is that coming from Joe Biden,

who refuses to dissociate from his central campaign message, which is that his opponent is a fascist who is going to destroy the country wholesale and turn himself into a Hitlerian dictator, it rings pretty false.

So yesterday, Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, he also said it's time to take down the rhetoric. Many people said it was time to take down the rhetoric. The difference is Josh Shapiro hasn't said that his political opponents are going to literally end democracy. Joe Biden's entire campaign has been about how his political opponents are going to end democracy and institute a fascist dictatorship, that if he does not win re-election, then his political opponent is so evil and so bad that there will likely never be another election, that democracy will be fatally undermined. And so when Joe Biden says,

We all need to take down the rhetoric. I'll take that from him the minute that he's willing to say, including me. If he says, including me, then okay, we can let bygones be bygones. We can have some conversations about what level of political rhetoric is justified by the sort of claims that you are making.

You can talk about Donald Trump's disregard for democratic structures because that's normal. It's a different thing to do that than to suggest that Donald Trump is going to come into office and institute the handmaid's tale, which is precisely what Biden headquarters tweeted out like two weeks ago. Just a couple of days before the shooting, Joe Biden's Twitter account tweeted that Donald Trump would be a full scale dictator. So the minute that Joe Biden is willing to dissociate from the central message of his campaign,

I will take more seriously his talk about lowering the political temperature. And again, I've been consistent on this. I think there are people who are on the right who have spent years saying unhinged things about their political opponents. As in, no one comes before I do when it comes to criticizing the Democratic Party and the risks to the American public that the Democratic Party platform poses.

The dangers on foreign policy, the dangers on domestic policy. I wrote an entire book called The Authoritarian Moment about the rise of authoritarian executive government. That came out just a few years ago. I get it. But there's a difference between saying that and saying that, say, if Joe Biden wins, there will never be another election. And no one actually believes that because you know what I've been saying for years. If you truly believed that your political opposition was so evil that this was the final election, you would actually have a moral obligation to do something violent. But now we are seeing Joe Biden, who's engaged in precisely that sort of rhetoric,

dissociate from the violence. Okay, well, that's fine, but then you have to stop saying the thing. In just one second, we'll get to Joe Biden's actual address from the Oval Office last night. It was not good for him. Again, I think that the message that he is generally stating is the right message. I think that he delivered it really horribly. And I think also that he was missing just that one phrase, including me.

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I want to speak to you tonight about the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics and to remember, while we may disagree, we are not enemies. We're neighbors. We're friends, coworkers, citizens, and most importantly, we're fellow Americans. We must stand together. Yesterday's shooting at Donald Trump's rally in Pennsylvania calls on all of us to take a step back, take stock of where we are, how we go forward from here.

So, again, this sort of rhetoric about how we need to take a step back and take that your central message was precisely the opposite of this thing. It was precisely the opposite of what you're saying right now. You are saying we're not enemies. We're friends. You literally said in the debate that was just a few weeks ago, you said you were asked a direct question. Are the people voting for Donald Trump a threat to democracy? And you said the more they find out about him. Yes.

You labeled what is likely to be 80 million Americans threats to the democracy. That is a hard one to walk back unless you are willing to just clearly say the thing, including me. It's not all that hard. It's not that hard.

Now, many of us in public life, we've said things that we regret. Many of us have said, if I could do it better, I would have done it better. And now I hope to do it better in the future. Or here's a generalized political problem in which I myself have engaged. It happens all the time, but Joe Biden can't find it in his heart to do it. Why? Because he can't let go of the message. Understand, he is stuck now between a rock and a hard place. The rock is that his centralizing platform, his centralizing message is in fact inherently dangerous. That is the big issue.

OK, because that's the rock. And the hard place is that if he keeps embracing that message, it obviously is the impetus for violent actors. That's the rock and that's the hard place. And he can't escape that, except he's going to try and walk between the raindrops here by suggesting that everybody needs to take down the temperature, except for me, except for him. That's the big problem here. And again, I do believe that everybody needs to take down the temperature. I think all of the talk about incipient dictatorship in what is historically the

One of the freest countries in the history of the world is absolutely insane and overwrought and ridiculous, as important as I think politics are. I've been saying that for pretty much my entire career. With that said, Joe Biden is not saying that thing. President Biden continued his Oval Office address last night by issuing his condolences to the families, which, of course, is something that you would imagine that he would and should do. Here he was last night.

Thankfully, former Trump is not seriously injured. I spoke to him last night. I'm grateful he's doing well. And Jill and I keep him and his family in our prayers. We also extend our deepest condolences to the family of the victims who was killed. Corey was a husband, a father, a volunteer firefighter, a hero, sheltering his family from those bullets. We should all hold his family and all those injured in our prayers.

Again, there's sort of two issues here. One is the actual stuff that he's saying, and then the second is how he's saying it. This is the President of the United States at 8 p.m. He has passed his bedtime, and he is starting to lose it in the middle of the speech. Former Trump. Not former President Trump, former Trump. Then he gets into the actual main message of speech, which is that violence is not the answer. And again...

I just wish that your party agreed after having winked and nodded at violence on college campuses throughout this year on behalf of Hamas. I wish they had not winked and nodded and tried to bail out protesters. If you are Kamala Harris during the BLM riots of 2020, I wish that they had not soft peddled the attempted assassination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. I wish that they had not pretended that the assassination, the attempted assassination of Congress people during a baseball game in 2017 was

had nothing to do with them. I really wish they'd done all of those things. And the only phrase that's missing from this particular address and the one that would have made all the difference was including me. That's it. That's all he had to do. And if he had done that, it would have been a big political win for the president of the United States, because then he could have been a unifying figure. But by eliding that phrase after his political opponent, who he has attempted to use his DOJ to prosecute,

He's targeted him. His entire campaign has been about how his political opponent is Orange Hitler. Ignoring that phrase, including me there, including himself in the critique, is a massive and clear omission. We cannot, we must not go down this road in America. We've traveled before throughout our history. Violence has never been the answer. Whether it's with members of Congress of both parties being targeted and shot, or a violent mob attacking the Capitol on January 6th,

or brutal attack on the spouse of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, or information and intimidation on election officials, or the kidnapping plot against the sitting governor, or an attempted assassination on Donald Trump. There is no place in America for this kind of violence or for any violence ever. Period. No exceptions. We can't allow this violence to be normalized.

Now, again, each one of the cases he mentions, there is a unique case and an individual case, and you actually have to go and look at the circumstances surrounding each case of grouping them all together in one giant basket is, I think, a little bit intellectually dishonest. For example, when you look at the kidnapping plot on Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, that plot was actually fomented by federal agents so much so that the people who were tried in that particular case were not convicted in that particular case. Now,

And not all of these cases are quite the same. And some of these cases involve people who are clearly mentally ill, as the man who attacked Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi. And some of these cases are clearly politically motivated, say the congressional baseball shooting. He says that that was about attacking members of both parties, but it wasn't. It was about targeting Republicans.

January 6th was a different case in kind than the attempted assassination of President Trump in the sense that the vast majority of people on January 6th who were arrested were arrested for trespassing and were not carrying weapons. And the only person who was actually killed on January 6th was not, in fact, a politician. It was Ashley Babbitt, who was one of the rioters. So again, each one of these cases, but the general overarching point, which is that the heat of the rhetoric should go down, is something with which I generally agree.

But again, here's the problem. Coming from Joe Biden, it rings hollow. So here is the president of the United States again saying that the political rhetoric is too much. We have to cool it down. You know, the political record in this country has gotten very heated. It's time to cool it down. We all have a responsibility to do that. Yes, we have deeply felt strong disagreements. The stakes in this election are enormously high.

I've said it many times, that the choice we make in this election is going to shape the future of America and the world for decades to come. I believe that with all my soul. I know that millions of my fellow Americans believe it as well. And some have a different view as to the direction our country should take. Disagreement is inevitable in American democracy. It's part of human nature. But politics must never be a literal battlefield, a God forbid, a killing field.

Yeah, again, all of this would be fine if he just included that phrase, including me. When he says, we all have to cool it down, we all have to take note, we all have to, we all is a way of evading responsibility if you don't say, we includes me. Otherwise, like at that point, we reads as you. When you are in some sort of argument with your spouse and we say, we all need to, if she accuses you of something, you say, we all need to take responsibility. What you're really saying is you want to avoid culpability. Right?

And then President Biden goes on to mention the Republican convention and suggest that the Republicans need to make their criticisms in good faith. And their candidate was nearly shot to death the other day. Maybe you might want to focus on like your own side for a second, Mr. President. Republican convention will start tomorrow. I have no doubt they'll criticize my record and offer their own vision for this country. I'll be traveling this week, making the case for our record and the vision, my vision of the country, our vision.

And then he says it has to be done in good faith. Then he adds sort of one final botchery in his speech. He says that we solve our issues at the battle box, which first of all, like if we're going to do that, I'm all in favor of battle boxes. That sounds amazing. It sounds like a great TV show. I'm all for golfing for the presidency and battle boxes, but I don't think this is what he meant to say. I'll continue to speak out strongly for our democracy, stand up for our constitution and the rule of law, to call for action at the ballot box. No violence on our streets. That's how democracy should work.

We debate and disagree. We compare and contrast the character of the candidates, the records, the issues, the agenda, the vision for America. But in America, we resolve our differences at the battle box. You know, that's how we do it, at the battle box, not with bullets. The power to change America should always rest in the hands of the people, not in the hands of would-be assassins. Again, there's the message, and then there's the deliverer of the message. And it is not a particularly well-delivered message from the president of the United States.

Now, as we'll say in just a moment, this is not a message that's just coming from the left side of the aisle. It's a message that's being echoed on the right. Some people have more credibility with this message and some people have significantly less. First, you might think you're getting everything your body needs from that green juice that you've been chugging down every morning. You, however, are likely not. Most people still fall short of the essential nutrients that their bodies need to function.

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Also, the images of former President Trump narrowly avoiding an assassin's bullet this weekend should be utterly incomprehensible. But while the world watched in shock, there was a sinking realization. This is not nearly as surprising as it should be. There's a pattern. It's disturbing. The violence against our democracy and anybody who dares to stand up against the left's radical agenda continues to ramp up here at The Daily Wire. This near tragedy and actual tragedy since someone was killed has only strengthened our resolve to expose the truth.

While the mainstream media continue to try to sweep the facts under the rug, we are shining a spotlight on the reality they are desperate to hide from you. The stakes have never been higher. The truth has never been more critical. I mean, you know that. You've been watching the show for the past few days. We can only do that with your support. Go to dailywire.com slash subscribe right now and become a member. It's the moment to join the fight. Visit dailywire.com slash subscribe and join us today.

Meanwhile, again, it is not only President Biden who's been calling for a tamping down of the rhetoric. Speaker Mike Johnson, who will be joining us a little bit later on in the show, he also says that we need to tamp down the rhetoric. The difference is that Johnson has always been a person who uses staid and normal rhetoric as opposed to President Biden, whose entire campaign is based around the idea that his opponent is Hitler. Here is Speaker Johnson saying what has to be said on the Today Show. Again, he's not just him. Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania said the same thing, and he's on the left.

There are people in politics who are responsible and there are people like President Biden who are irresponsible. And the reality is, Speaker Johnson, it comes better from Speaker Johnson. America awakens to a rather surreal morning. This is a horrific act of political violence that ought to be roundly condemned. Obviously, we can't go on like this as a society. You know, our prayers are with President Trump, all the rally attendees, certainly the family of the individual that lost their life and those who were injured. We...

I have gotten briefings from law enforcement. I spoke to Secretary Mayorkas last night and asked him some pointed questions with regard to homeland security and what happened there. I've already announced that Congress will do a full investigation of the tragedy yesterday to determine where there were lapses in security and anything else that the American people need to know and deserve to know.

But in the meantime, we've got to turn the rhetoric down. We've got to turn the temperature down in this country. We need leaders of all parties on both sides to call that out. Speaking of less credible sources saying this thing, here is Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont. He's saying the same thing. Democracy isn't about radical rhetoric. The only problem, Bernie, is that that's been your entire stock in trade for legitimately your whole career. The bottom line is what we need as a nation, what a democracy is about, is not radical rhetoric.

What it is about is a serious discussion of where we are as a nation and how we go forward. You know, in a certain way, Kristen, politics should be kind of boring. You know, our health care system is dysfunctional.

How do we fix it? Well, it's kind of a boring discussion. But we need a health care system that guarantees health care to all people. We have massive income and wealth inequality. Well, maybe a boring discussion. Should three people own more wealth than the bottom half of American society? So I think what we have got to see is serious discussion of serious issues and not this kind of harsh rhetoric that we have heard for the last number of years.

Harsh rhetoric. Again, how about an including me, Senator? How about an including me? This is a quote from Bernie Sanders from January of this year asked about the reelection of former President Trump. He said it will be the end of democracy, functional democracy. He's made that clear. There's a lot of personal bitterness. He's a bitter man having gone through four indictments, humiliated. He's going to take it out on his enemies. We've got to explain to the American people what that means to them, what the collapse of American democracy will mean to all of us.

Again, when you say those sorts of things and then you say, well, we just need some moderation in our rhetoric. I don't believe you until you do it. I don't believe you until you do it. Meanwhile, The Washington Post, they ran an editorial talking about taking down the rhetoric as well, which is hilarious coming from once again, a very extreme newspaper, The Washington Post.

The main message of the Washington Post, however, is that the RNC and President Trump are responsible for taking down the rhetoric and that really Joe Biden, well, maybe a little bit. They say Democrats, too, need to recalibrate their rhetoric. But Biden struck an appropriate tone on Sunday. Unity is the most elusive goal of all, but nothing is more important than that right now. But at no point do they call on the president to stop saying that his political opponent will become a Hitlerian dictator, presumably in order to avoid that sort of rhetoric, the Hitlerian dictator rhetoric.

MSNBC told on itself today. They actually pulled Morning Joe off the air after the shooting. Why? Because they were afraid that Joe and Mika were going to whole hog suggest that President Trump may be sort of a little bit, like it's clear they were afraid of something.

There's a reason you pull an entire like your highest rated show on MSNBC off the air. There's a reason that happens. According to CNN, MSNBC will not air Morning Joe. It celebrated politics roundtable program on Monday, opting to instead air continued breaking news coverage of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

It's certain to raise eyebrows. A person familiar with the matter told CNN the decision was made to avoid a scenario in which one of the show's stable of two dozen plus guests might make an inappropriate comment on live television that could be used to assail the program and network as a whole. Given the breaking news nature of the story, the person said it made more sense to continue airing rolling breaking news coverage in this fraught political moment. But Joe and Mika are the anchors. They should theoretically be able to handle that. What they are basically admitting right there is that MSNBC's Morning Joe has become a propaganda outlet for the idea that Donald Trump is Orange Hitler.

Meanwhile, in other breaking news, I mean, there's just too much news happening right now. A federal judge has now dismissed, according to the Wall Street Journal, the classified documents prosecution against Donald Trump on Monday, siding with the former president's argument that special counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed. So that indictment has been effectively thrown out with all of its 40 felony counts. That is the classified documents case. Judge Eileen Cannon, she says that Jack Smith, who's the special prosecutor in this case,

His appointment violates both the appointments and the appropriations clauses. So the appointments clause sets as a default rule that all officers of the United States, whether inferior or principal, must be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. And then the appropriations clause prohibits money from being drawn from the treasury unless that money was appropriated by an act of Congress.

And so Eileen Cannon writes,

The Appointments Clause is a critical constitutional restriction stemming from separation of powers. It gives to Congress a considered role in determining the propriety of vesting appointment power for inferior officers.

The special counsel's position effectively usurps that important legislative authority, transferring it to a head of department and in the process threatening the structural liberty inherent in the separation of powers. If the political branches wish to grant the AG power to appoint special counsel Smith to investigate and prosecute this action with the full powers of a U.S. attorney, there is a valid means by which to do so. He can be appointed and confirmed through the default method prescribed in the appointments clause.

So she is throwing out, dismissing all charges in this case. Presumably that will be appealed. It'll go up to higher courts. It'll end up in the Supreme Court. But bottom line is that classified documents case is absolutely dead. It was already dead prior to the election. Now it is certainly dead prior to the election, all of which is leading Democrats to freak out on a political level. According to NBC News, one Democrat said, quote, we are no longer talking about Joe Biden's age.

But according to NBC News, at a time when President Joe Biden has been struggling to shore up support with fellow Democrats, some professional Democratic political operatives said Saturday's shooting will end up sealing the incumbent's electoral fate. We are so beyond effed, one longtime Democratic insider said, noting the image of Trump thrusting his fist in the air with blood dramatically smeared across his face will be indelible. The presidential contest ended last night, said a veteran Democratic consultant. Now it's time to focus on keeping the Senate and trying to pick up the House. Meanwhile, Axios saying the same thing.

According to Axios, most lawmakers who spoke to Axios said it's too early to say whether the cessation of tensions will last until the DNC next month.

But, quote, we've resigned ourselves to a second Trump presidency, according to one House Democrat. Now, that doesn't mean Republicans should get complacent here. They absolutely should not. They absolutely should not. You can't afford to be complacent in the middle of a historic election cycle. And Joe Biden is a terrible president who needs to be put out to pasture, clearly. Donald Trump must be elected. So don't be taken in by the sort of false waving of the white flag by the Democratic Party here. However,

Are the odds seriously stacked against Joe Biden? Yes. But the problem is that because the assassination story took the wind out of the sails of the dump Biden movement, now they're trapped. Here was CBS News reporting that Biden's challengers have basically stopped calling.

I've been speaking with some top Democrats. They believe that those Democrats who have the concerns about President Biden are now standing down politically, will back President Biden because of this fragile political moment. All of that talk about the debate faded almost instantly among my top Democratic sources. As this unfolded, say it's time for the country to stick together. And that means Democrats sticking together as well. Again, the Democrats are going to try to stick together, but they're going to go down together at this point. Meanwhile, the RNC, as we've mentioned repeatedly, begins today.

Democrats are trying to swivel this into a referendum. The assassination attempt on Trump, they're trying to swivel into a referendum on the evil rhetoric of the Republicans. Good luck with that. Here's Jen Psaki, former White House press secretary on MSNBC, who is trying to say that the RNC is really the place where all of this change needs to happen. And listen, I think the smart thing for President Trump to do is run an absolutely moderate, unifying campaign. If he does that at this point, he's going to win 35, 40 states.

If President Trump does that, he's going to win not only swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. He's going to win Virginia. He's going to win New Hampshire. He's going to win Minnesota. All these are within spitting distance. Here is Jen Psaki, however, trying to scare tactic this thing. I think you're absolutely right. That is the question. And Jen, in fact, we've already seen the finger pointing begin. Some people even blaming President Biden for.

We heard that very forceful condemnation by President Biden of what happened. As someone who used to work with the president, what are you anticipating in terms of he's obviously pulled his political ads forward. But as Carol said, the question is, how long does this moment last and how do you think he sees his role right now?

I mean, I think his role, I'm betting that how he responded was as a human being, which is how we just saw Lindsey Graham at moments during that interview and Senator Sanders and Senator Coons respond. That's how everybody should be responding. For anyone out there who has a platform, who thinks the moment right now is to be political and attack the other party, you are feeding into the danger. You are making it more likely there's retaliation.

I'm incredibly scared. I'm scared for journalists. I'm scared for people who have public platforms of all parties. And that's how people should feel. All right. Maybe, maybe, maybe again, if you're going to impute violent rhetoric to the other side, you know, we've talked on the show about rhetoric that I think is totally inappropriate from the right side of the aisle. We've done it repeatedly on the show. I've never heard that from Jen Psaki about the left.

Like pretty much ever. And herein lies the problem. President Trump, for his part, again, he's running a very smart campaign. He has completely rewritten his convention speech in light of the assassination attempt against him on Saturday, according to the Washington Examiner. He said the speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger. Had this not happened, this would have been one of the most incredible speeches, mostly at the policies of Joe Biden. Honestly, he said, it's going to be a whole different speech now. He has switched, he said, from planning to excite his voter base to one that demonstrates his belief. The attack on him at a rally in Pennsylvania had changed the election campaign entirely.

Trump said all across the country, people from different walks of life and different political views have called him. He noted he was saved from death because he turned from the crowd to look at his screen showing data he was using in the speech. That reality is just setting in. He said, I rarely look away from the crowd had I not done that in that moment. Well, we wouldn't be talking today, would we? Again, he says that he is going to speak about unity. He has also announced that he will be making his VP announcement today.

Quick rundown on possible VP candidates who are sort of at the top of the list, unless he goes completely off the board. The ones who have been mentioned publicly a lot are Senator J.D. Vance. J.D. Vance is incredibly young. He's 39 years old. He's most famous for a memoir that he wrote in 2016 called Hillbilly Elegy, which was largely about the predations of the welfare state and the effect that that has on blue collar, low income people.

He was the junior senator from Ohio since 2023. So he's brand new, like brand spanking new. Enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, served as a combat correspondent in the Iraq war. He has a JD from Yale. That means that he's a lawyer from Yale.

He's been a very fiery candidate, obviously. He tends to land on the more isolationist side of the foreign policy spectrum. He also tends to land on the more big government side of the political spectrum, which is a shift from his hillbilly elegy days. He's an incredibly good speaker. He's very, very articulate and he's incredibly aggressive. He would be an excellent attack dog. His politics, as we

as we say, are a little bit heterodox from the sort of normal traditional Republican party, which for some of his supporters is the appeal. Senator Marco Rubio is another candidate who is up for this. Obviously people know Senator Rubio from his 2016 run against President Trump. He's 53 years old. He was the Florida Speaker of the House from 2006 to 2008. He's been a Senator in Florida since 2011 with a JD from Miami Law.

In Rubio's upsides, he's Hispanic, which means that he is going to be able to speak Spanish to an entirely different crowd. Donald Trump is really outperforming with Hispanic voters right now. He also happens to be a really good speaker. The downside is, like J.D. Vance, actually pretty much all these candidates in this race have at one point or other criticized President Trump because of President Trump's various foibles.

Governor Doug Burgum, 67, more in line with sort of the age range that we've been looking at in our presidents. Governor of North Dakota since 2016. MBA from Stanford University, 1980. Extremely wealthy. Has an estimated net worth of $100 million. Excellent on the economy. Excellent on energy. His bona fides are really more domestically laden. And then there are some candidates who are sort of off the board who I think are interesting. So were I President Trump, I would pick Glenn Youngkin.

He's been the governor of Virginia since 2022. He's the governor of a purple state. He's very popular in that purple state. He has an MBA from Harvard, extremely pro-business.

He's the sort of dark pick, dark horse pick, VP pick for Trump. I think that if Trump picks Youngkin, not only is the election over, I think Trump wins a bunch of swing states that he might not otherwise win, mainly because the image that you project going forward here, especially looking for a unity campaign, is going to be one that appeals to those suburban moms. This is actually Trump's opportunity to win back many of the crowds that he's lost in 2016 and 2020 while maintaining the crowd that he picked up in 2016 and 2020. I think that Youngkin might be the single best pick for that.

I'm going to put out there the idea that maybe he goes with someone from New York also, because we know that President Trump really is obsessed with New York. He is from New York originally, obviously. There are polls that show him within spitting distance of New York. If he won New York, not only would this be a landslide, this is almost a 50-state landslide at that point. So not completely crazy to suggest he might pick somebody like Elise Stefanik from New York or Lee Zeldin, who is the former gubernatorial candidate who came within six points of beating Kathy Hochul in an extraordinarily blue state. We're going to find that out very, very shortly. Again,

Too much news happening. Joining us directly from the RNC is Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. Speaker Johnson, of course, is serving as the 56th speaker since October 25th, 2023. He's from Louisiana. Speaker Johnson, thanks so much for the time. Hey, my friend. Great to be with you. So I assume that you're in Milwaukee in preparation for the RNC, which is supposed to begin this afternoon and tonight. So what's the mood in Milwaukee right now?

uh... you know it's a little different that we might have expected uh... there was lots of anticipation and excitement and it's still here but there's a a little bit different feel of course after the events uh... over the last couple days and i wouldn't say subdued i would just say that it's it sort of change the mood people feel the weight of the moment they feel the the weight of of history that's upon us uh... i'll be chairing the proceedings here in a few hours and we go through the mechanics all the procedural things and it builds up to the crescendo of the speeches each night in prime time and ultimately

to President Trump's address. And I think people feel that we're in a very good place, that we're going to win this election cycle, I think, from top to bottom. That's a great thing for the country. But it's more than just a political cycle right now. It's really about, in a very true sense, saving the country and turning us back to where we need to be. And I think people feel that, and it's affected the mood here.

Speaker Johnson, obviously you've spoken out since the assassination attempt against President Trump on Saturday that thank God failed by legitimately centimeters. I mean, it's an astonishing act of God that President Trump was not killed on the stage.

on Saturday. And you've spoken out about the fact that the rhetoric has been too hot. And obviously, I agree. I think it's been one of the signal failures of the Biden campaign has been the centralizing focus on the idea that President Trump is not just a problem if he were to be elected, which is sort of normal political rhetoric, or that President Trump has the wrong policies or anything like that.

There's been a lot of focus from the media for the last 10 years, from the Biden campaign over the last several years on the idea that President Trump is an incipient dictator. I mean, just days before the attempted shooting

President Biden was tweeting out that Donald Trump would be a dictator. The New Republic ran an issue in which the cover was a mashup of Donald Trump's face with Hitler's face. When you say that sort of stuff over and over and over again, as I've said, any shooter is responsible for what the shooter does. But if you keep turning up the temperature on the pot of water on the stove, you shouldn't be surprised when it boils over. And it seems to me that that centralizing message that if your political opposition wins, it's the end of the country, that sort of talk is inherently dangerous.

Well, of course it is. And I've been saying that in interviews throughout the weekend and last night on CNN. I went live a few minutes before President Biden gave his address and I said that same thing. And I pointed out that many of our Democrat colleagues in Congress and, of course, Biden himself, haven't

have done exactly what you said, Ben. They've said that Donald Trump's election will be the end of democracy. People feel like it's a last resort kind of thing. And some people are easy to puss over the edge. I mean, we've got to turn the temperature down. We need to have vigorous policy debates and disputes. Obviously, we don't agree with those guys on anything.

And we provide answers to all the great challenges facing the country. But the way that we do that is really, really important. We've seen a couple of comments that President Trump himself has made over the last day or so. He's spoken to a few reporters and comments he's given publicly. And he said he's even changing his own speech here. He was going to hammer Biden on all of his policies. Of course, we all will. That's easy to do.

But he wants to talk about unifying the country. That's the kind of visionary leadership that we need right now. He's the candidate that can provide it. And if he does that and does it well, I think this election is done in a landslide. I think President Trump will be the next president. And I think he can guide us and our country through what is probably one of the most tumultuous times, the most turbulent times we've had.

probably since the Civil War. I don't think that's even disputable anymore. And so we need that right now. We need steady leadership. We need steady hands at the wheel. We need strong leadership, but we need it to be done in the right way. And I think President Trump gets that.

Speaker John, I don't know if you had a chance to actually watch President Biden's address from the Oval Office last night. He said many things about cooling down the rhetoric. The one phrase that that seems to be missing for me was including me. It's one thing for the president of the United States to sort of on a general level, say that the rhetoric needs to cool. It's another thing to say, OK, that includes me as well, since, of course, he's one of the people who's running for president and he is currently the president of the United States. I felt that signal absence. I'm not sure what you thought about that.

Well, I didn't hear the whole speech. I heard parts of it. But if that was missing, that was a glaring miss because, look, he's not only president United States, he's obviously the leader of his party. And there are a lot of lieutenants below him on that totem pole in the party who have just taken this thing to ridiculous levels. What they've said about Trump, what they've said about Trump.

many of us in Congress, is just unconscionable, and it has led to violence. Remember, the assassination attempt on Trump was not the first of these. I mean, my brother Steve Scalise was almost killed on a baseball field a couple of years ago. I mean, we've had attempts on people on both sides of the aisle. It really has gotten out of control. We live in the age of social media. We live in the age of, you know, where voices are amplified that are caustic, and it's a problem. So you need leaders, you need

duly elected representatives of the people to be able to remind them of our better angels, as Lincoln used to say. I've tried to do that. Reagan was a good model for that. He was a happy warrior. That's what we need to be here at the RNC. I'll be reminding all of our colleagues and friends, let's be happy warriors. That's what our party represents. It always has, and we can do that in this moment.

Speaker Johnson, you mentioned that President Trump has already explained to Selena Zito that he has rewritten his entire convention speech. It seems like the entire theme of the convention has shifted from talk of policy to talk of unifying going forward, which makes perfect sense. Have you had a chance to speak to President Trump about any of that and what you expect to see from him this week?

Well, via text, he's been overwhelmed, of course, and I didn't want to be one of those other voices in his ear that he had to answer the call. I look forward to seeing him. I'll be with him, spend a lot of time with him here over the next couple of days. But I've been very heartened to hear what he's saying.

A lot of people don't know this. It was reported a little bit, but way back during Thanksgiving, I was down at Mar-a-Lago with him, and I was doing some fundraising events down the beach the day after we had dinner with him. And when I say we, I was with my sons, my 18-year-old and 13-year-old son. The next morning, they were on the beach while I was doing fundraising events, and they both almost drowned. They got pulled out in a ripped

out to sea into the Atlantic. It's a long story, but they were miraculously saved. A parasailor flew by and saw them going under, almost lost both of them. And President Trump, when he heard about the story the next day, he was so moved by that. And we talked about it at length multiple times about how God had very miraculously saved the lives of both of my sons. And it really moved him a lot. And I've noticed in some of the things he's saying, some of the comments he's saying the last couple of days,

He's echoing some of those things that we talked about. I think he feels truly the providential moment that's before us. This is another thing, just a footnote of history. But when Washington, we used to call George Washington the bulletproof president, right? Remember the famous battle where he was shot, the French and Indian War, where they took multiple shots at him. He had bullet holes in his coat.

That happened less than 50 miles away in the same state of Pennsylvania where the bullet grazed the ear of President Trump. And George Washington used to say that it was the hand of providence that saved him. He wrote that extensively and he believed it. I think President Trump believes that as well. Not to over-spiritualize everything, as you and I are accused of, Ben, right? But this is a big thing. I think God's going to give our nation another chance. And I think President Trump is going to be the leader that does that.

Speaker Johnson, obviously a lot of anticipation today on a wide variety of topics. So we actually just found out that the documents case against President Trump has now been dismissed in Florida. That obviously will be a big relief to the president, considering that that was in all likelihood the most viable case against President Trump. Obviously, we've seen the weaponization of the DOJ against President Trump. We've seen the weaponization of the Justice Department.

or the justice system in New York against President Trump. That has to be a load off his back. I mean, the news is just coming incredibly quickly. And obviously the president is expected to announce his vice presidential pick sometime today, you would assume. Is that what you're hearing? Do you have any indicators as to when he's going to announce his VP pick?

Well, nothing is normal anymore. Conventionally, that's what happens on the first big night of a convention. But we're in unconventional times, right? So I'm not sure. I don't know if he'll tease it a little bit longer or go another couple of days. We can change the agenda here on a fly, as has already been done.

I'm, like I said, I'm presiding over the, I'm chairing the proceedings during the day on all the mechanics, and we may have to change the script a little bit if he's not ready to announce it yet. But, you know, at the end of the day, President Trump knows how to put on a show, right? And he's building the anticipation, and it is great here, and it'll be exciting. I tell you what, really, at the end of the day in this election, Ben, it,

I don't think it really matters as much who the vice president is. I think this is the Trump election, and whomever he names will be an asset to the ticket, I know. But this is about him and his leadership and where we're going to go as a country and all of us together. I'm absolutely convinced we're going to win the White House, take back the Senate, and grow our House majority. And we will have unified government at a unifying time, and we'll be able to fix all these great problems that face the country. We're excited to do it, ready to go.

So Speaker Johnson speaking of exactly what will happen if all of that occurs, if President Trump does go on to win a big victory, if you and the House grow your majority, if the Republicans actually gain back control of the Senate. There's been a lot of talk on the left side of the aisle and in the media about bogeymen and buzzwords like Project 2025. Obviously, that's a 922-page document with a wide series of policy prescriptions. I'm sure some will be taken up. I'm sure many will not be. What exactly is top of the agenda if Republicans take back unified control of the elected branches of government?

Well, not to put the cart before the horse, but we've been working very methodically and steadily on putting together a very aggressive first 100 days agenda for the new Congress. We've got to be prepared to lead on day one because, as I told President Trump, he can be the most consequential president of the modern era and, by extension, us, the most consequential Congress ever.

but we've got to be ready to run that agenda and we will and it'll be the things that the american people want and need and deserve you don't have to uh... look at the polls to know what the problems are we gotta close the border immediately we have to get the economy coming again we know how to do that it's tax policy it's

reducing regulations dramatically it's doing a lot of the things that we did in the first trump administration frankly after the first two years with the greatest economy in the history of the world because we implemented the policies that we all believe in uh... it's about uh... energy policy is a big part of this is about restoring our stature on the world stage we have done nothing but project weakness for the last three and a half years and that's why the world's on fire so it's going to be uh... so exciting to have a strong visionary leader in the white house

and to have uh... the senate and uh... house that better uh... completely in tune together and that's a big part of this as well we were gonna do this in a bicameral fashion what what a concept you have republicans in the senate and the house working together on on a playbook that's been designed right now so we're we're really excited then in the thing that the reason our candidates are running such strong races around the country right now and for these houses because they're out there providing these answers

We have answers to all these great challenges and they're providing it with the right tone. These are serious, credible people because we've got a serious job to do and we're ready to do it. - You know, Speaker Johnson, before the election, obviously there's been a lot of talk of various sort of investigations that are underway in the House. One of them that seems to be gaining steam and should be gaining steam, in my opinion, is the scandal that is the coverup of Joe Biden's health condition. We've seen since the debate an enormous number of stories breaking about the fact that the president of the United States has not held, for example, a cabinet meeting in nine months.

about the fact that two years ago, there were foreign leaders who were commenting on the president's lack of acuity, about the fact that the president has been essentially sundowning at 8 p.m. And there are members of the executive branch who have been participating in what appears to be a pretty obvious cover-up of the president's

health conditions. What sort of indicators have you had that there are going to be moves in the House to take a look at the oversight inside the executive branch? Because obviously, if you have somebody who's not capable of fulfilling the office certain hours of the day, that's a massive problem.

It is a big problem, and we've been talking a lot about this, the most appropriate ways to go about that oversight. It's a big job. I mean, our oversight committees and all the committees of jurisdiction that have oversight responsibility, and all of them do, have just been worn out this Congress. There's so much to look into. The weaponization of the federal government is a real thing. I served on that select committee before I became speaker, and every stone that we underturned, there was another series of scandals and questions. And so

that's what you find here as well the thing about the mental acuity of president by and is that everybody knows that everyone has and and certainly those in close proximity to his staff leading democrats in washington this is it an open secret uh... but the fact that they tried to cover it up the fact that they went out and said exactly the opposite even recently even within you know uh... a week or two of of the big blunder at the debate uh... tells you a lot of about

you know, his usefulness to the party. I think that there's a lot of interest groups and leftist groups who have been running the country, frankly. That's a big question I get all around the country. Who is running the show? It's clearly not Joe Biden. And now that's on display for everyone to see. So Congress has a role in getting down to the facts and finding out who knew what and when. But I think the results of it are out there now. I think everybody sees this. I think you're seeing that being reflected in the polling. I think people have lost confidence in this president.

And I think they should have. They should have done it a long time ago. And if they had been honest about it, everybody would have known this. Speaker Johnson, obviously another one of the investigations that's now been announced is the House looking into what Secret Service did or did not do in the lead up to the assassination attempt on President Trump. There are a ton of open questions. Secret Service has been effectively a black box to the media with regard to its response.

The real question here that people have been asking is not really about the response to the shooting because once the shot was taken, the shooter was taken down quite effectively and quickly. The question is why this shooter was on a roof 150 meters away from the President of the United States

for legitimately minutes. I mean, there's video that's now emerged of people who are literally pointing up at the guy on the roof and yelling at officers to go do something about this. We know local law enforcement apparently actually confronted the man on the roof. He turned, he swiveled. They then retreated for a moment and that's when he took the shot. You know, you know,

What sort of investigations are planned into Secret Service, their priorities? There's been a lot of questions about staffing at the Secret Service, including questions about DEI at the Secret Service and their prioritization. What sort of investigations do you think would be appropriate there?

Well, it's already begun, and it began just within hours of the event. I had Secretary Mayorkas, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, on the telephone asking him very pointed questions, many of which he did not have the answers for yet. I mean, one of the simple questions was, by way of example, I said, Mr. Secretary, please tell me there was drones covering the area. That's standard practice now. He did not know

at least as of saturday night whether drones are used obviously a drone would have detected someone on the roof there's some very serious questions i had a we had a call yesterday organized a call with all the house republicans uh... some were traveling here somewhere back home in their districts we had everybody on the phone under fifty or so or more and uh... we went through it and we've got a lot of former uh... law enforcement personnel we have guys who worked in u_s_ attorney's offices we have a former f_b_i_ agent who are republican members of the house

there's lots of inside military guys is lots of insight there we're compiling a list of the most searing questions and i'm i'm going to be presenting those to me or kiss today uh... that first hearing on this subject is already scheduled for next monday after this convention we all get back to washington on monday morning uh... we're going to have the uh... the head of secret service this cheetle come in and answer some questions about that as well will be talking with the f_b_i_ there that the f_b_i_ is looking over of the shooter and uh...

the plot there and if anyone else is involved the criminal aspects of this but the the oversight over what happened with secret service and everything else congress has a huge role to play in that we're gonna take it very seriously and be very aggressive about it and it's already begun

Speaker Johnson, obviously one of the big matters of the day is the voting on the GOP party platform. There's been a lot of ink spilled over the nature of this particular platform, which is softer than some other platforms have been on issues like pro-life issues or marriage issues. Can you speak to the importance of the platform? Is it really all that important, generally speaking? Is the perception of the platform itself sort of shifting inside the Republican Party, given the fact that

President Trump is a unique candidate. He is more of a pragmatist than sort of a traditional down the line conservative. And that means that the sort of idea of running on a national platform itself may be a matter of the past, at least for this election cycle.

Well, it feels like that right now. I mean, the platform is really important to party loyalists and party activists. I've been deeply involved in it myself in the past. But to your point, we're in a different moment. It doesn't mean that we abandon any of the core principles of the party or any of the things that we've always stood for. We will stand for those issues. And, you know, it's interesting that in the modern era, the way things go, because of the way media works, 24-hour news cycle, social media and all the rest,

You could probably count on one hand the number of people who actually dive into a party platform and even read it. I mean, you know, most of my constituents don't. Most of the people that I visit with around the country are not aware of what's in that document. So I think it probably matters a little bit less what's on the paper and how we lead and the policies that we actually implement.

And I think we're in a great place. It doesn't matter whether the platform is 60 pages or 16 pages. The Republican Party stands for the core principles. Individual freedom, limited government, the rule of law, peace through strength, fiscal responsibility, free markets.

Human dignity. We believe in the sanctity of all life. I mean, it's listed in our nation's birth certificate, the declaration in the very beginning. We believe in the self-evident truths that God created us. He made us in his image. He's the one that gave us our rights, not the government. And that separates us. That core principle and all those that emanate from it separate us with a wide chasm from the Democrat Party and where they are and where they're headed. These are two completely different visions for America. It's not even really R's versus D's anymore. I mean, it is.

But more than that, it's two visions about who we are as a country, who we're going to be. And I am so grateful these days to be a Republican. Always have been, always will be. And I'm grateful to be on the party and in the party that stands for those principles. And there's 50,000 people out here in this arena for the next three nights that will be enthusiastically supporting that and representing millions and millions and millions of others around the country. This is our moment. This is our time. And I think it could be a real renaissance in the country.

Well, Speaker Mike Johnson, really appreciate the time. Obviously, we'll all be watching closely as the convention proceeds. A lot of news breaking every single moment. Stay safe out there and really appreciate your hard work on behalf of the country. Thanks, brother. Great to talk to you. God bless. All righty, folks, we've reached the end of the show. We'll be back here tomorrow with so much more because the news is like a fire hose at this point. I'm Ben Shapiro. This is The Ben Shapiro Show.