Another Assassination Attempt?
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for every life-saving treatment, for every next step, for every care in the world. Cleveland Clinic. It's Monday, September 16th, right now on CNN This Morning. Former President Donald Trump is safe and unharmed. Attack prevented, a man detained, and the FBI now investigating another apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Plus...

People just don't get it. They don't understand how we're in this situation for a second time. Twice in two months, lawmakers demand answers after this latest close call for the former president and... The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes. Standing firm, J.D. Fance defends his echoing of false claims that Haitian migrants are eating pets in Ohio. And then...

Bad blood. Donald Trump declares his hatred for Taylor Swift after her endorsement of Kamala Harris. All right, 6 a.m. on the East Coast. Here's a live look at West Palm Beach.

Florida on this Monday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. Donald Trump is once again safe following an apparent assassination attempt. The nation once again rocked a tragedy only narrowly avoided and yet another historic moment in an election that has been defined by historic moments. On Sunday, Donald Trump was golfing with a Republican donor at his course in West Palm Beach.

Sources telling CNN the round was a last-minute addition to his schedule, unannounced to the public. The former president was about to putt on the fifth hole when gunshots rang out. Those shots coming from Secret Service agents who spotted the barrel of a would-be assassin's gun. They have an agent that jumps one hole ahead of time to where the president was at. And he was able to spot this rifle barrel sticking out of the fence and immediately engage that individual.

at which time the individual took off. At this time, it's unclear if the gunman fired any rounds himself. Police later finding what they called an AK-47 style rifle and two bags in the bushes around the golf course. A witness on the scene telling police they saw someone run from those bushes and flee in a black Nissan.

that afternoon police detained a man driving a matching vehicle on a highway to the north although authorities have not yet named the suspect gunman cnn's law enforcement sources have identified the man detained yesterday as ryan wesley ralph he has a rap sheet apparently a lot of the crimes are up in north carolina he apparently knew enough

with his previous interaction with law enforcement, that when he was pulled over and detained on I-95 about 40 minutes north of West Palm Beach, he was apparently trying to drive out, perhaps driving back to North Carolina, that he knew enough to stay silent. He did not apparently speak to officers. He was calm.

A source says that Routh is expected to face a mental health assessment. CNN has learned the FBI is conducting a global investigation into Routh's background and that the acting director of the Secret Service is traveling to Florida. It has been just over two months since another would-be assassin attempted to kill Donald Trump, shooting at him as he spoke on a stage in Butler, Pennsylvania. Take a look at what happened. What are you doing? What are you doing? Wait, wait, wait, wait.

Following yesterday's attempt, Trump posting on Truth Social thanking law enforcement, adding the job done was absolutely outstanding. I'm very proud to be an American. Our panel is here this morning. Danelle Harvin, security expert, faculty member at Georgetown's Emergency and Disaster Management Program. Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst, national political reporter for Axios. Megan Hayes, former director of message planning for the Biden White House. And Shermichael Singleton, Republican strategist, CNN political commentator.

Danelle, let me start with you in terms of the investigation here. One of the things we've talked a lot about here is the difficulty of securing a golf course in particular, kind of a sprawling open space with obviously a lot of potential entry points, at least if it's a course that's not

controlled by or is on, say, a military base where some presidents have golfed in the past because of the security concerns. What do you make of what we've heard from the investigators so far as they are looking into this? And what do you see happening next?

Well, it's obviously difficult to secure something with that type of acreage. But clearly the Secret Service was on top of their game. As mentioned, there's an advanced team that was looking out and astutely noticed a barrel sticking out from the gate where it shouldn't be.

You know, the size of a golf course, something like where President Trump was golfing, I mean, you think of a large amusement park. I mean, you need a small army of law enforcement to truly lock that down. This is an individual that enjoys his outdoor sports, clearly, his outdoor rallies. And so that's not going to stop, nor should it stop. And Secret Service will just have to continue to do the job that they did yesterday to make sure that the former president's safe.

Alex Thompson, we heard from the campaign leadership via an email yesterday. They said this is not a matter that we take lightly. This is the Trump campaign. Your safety that we're writing to their staff is always our top priority. We ask you remain vigilant in your daily comings and goings, be observant and maintain a constant level of situational awareness. And the New York Times this morning reports this about Trump's mindset. Former President Donald J. Trump was said to be shocked at what the FBI described as a second attempt on his life in two months.

But he was already cracking jokes about it on Sunday afternoon in phone calls with advisers and allies. Quote, he told me he was always glad to hear from me, but he was glad that he didn't need my services today, said Mr. Ronny Jackson, who doctor who tended to Mr. Trump's wounded ear while traveling with him the day after an assassin's bullet flew within inches of his brain.

at a rally in Butler, PA on July 13th. What have you heard from the Trump camp about the president's mindset and about what all of this says about where we are today? Yeah, when you also saw him joke about on Truth Social when he said, oh, and two, basically that assassins zero, me too. And, you know, the thing is that Trump, even before the assassination attempts, had really

described and framed himself as a martyr and really tried to use martyrdom basically since the first indictments came down. And he says this in the rallies, like, they're not after me, they're after you, I'm just in the way. And all this does is reinforce that message. And martyrdom, I don't think you can underestimate it as a political force. Martyrdom has been a powerful force in politics, not just in American politics, but in world politics forever.

Sure, Michael Singleton. We, of course, want to be careful and precise in our language. We were saying this was the person that was detained. Law enforcement not yet naming him as the suspect. We obviously don't know very much at this point about a potential motive here, and we may never know about that. This man had done an interview with The New York Times about traveling. He did travel to Ukraine. We have video of him in Ukraine. But as you look at how this is kind of playing out in the campaign,

this is another incredibly difficult moment for the country and one that puts the violence in our politics on display. I mean, yeah, it's heightened. And I think the Trump campaign will obviously utilize this to rally their voters. You're already seeing it. The campaign sent out some emails yesterday

I think the response from Democrats, the vice president, her running mate, were pretty on par for what to be expected. But Casey, I got to tell you something. I'm worried about this because what happens if this occurs again with someone who's more talented and skillful? We have to figure out a way to tone down this rhetoric, whether it's from the left on the political side or the right on the political side.

I just don't think that what we're seeing in our politics today bodes very well, particularly, let's say Trump loses this election in November. What happens then compared to what we've seen in 2020? I mean, I have a lot of questions here that I think a lot of Americans are worried about after seeing this occur for a second time. Do you think there's any hope, though, of the...

the rhetoric toning down the last six weeks of an election? - I doubt it, Alex. I doubt it. You know, I would hope that the advisors advising the former president would say, "Hey, look at what's going on in Ohio. "Bomb threats with many of the Haitians. "Many of those folks are innocent people. "They're just trying to make a living, "trying to take care of their families.

that isn't helpful either, right? And so you can look at this from two different paradigms and recognize the rhetoric coming from the former president is not helpful, but also saying the former president is a threat to democracy constantly, constantly. That's also not helpful either. One thing that we have seen in a bipartisan

partisan way, Meghan, is calls for increased resources for protecting the former president. Here was Jared Moskowitz, who's part of the task force that's investigating the first assassination attempt we've seen this cycle against President Trump on our air yesterday. Let's watch.

I'm very concerned about the status of the Secret Service's ability to keep the former president safe in outdoor environments. I went to Butler. I could not believe how close the roof was to the stage. The protocols going on right now and the resources being committed to the former president, in my question, seem to be wholly inadequate.

So, of course, worth noting that the Secret Service did prevent anything bad from happening to former President Trump yesterday. But that said, I mean, you've worked in the White House. You understand kind of what's required here. Does there need to be more for President Trump?

the protocols that are in place are there for a reason, right? So the president and the vice president have things that are different from the former president or people who are running because there's a continuation of government. And that's what is allowed by the budget and Congress. I think that there is a budget problem. I think there is a resource problem. I think that

the Secret Service and our federal law enforcement is wholly underfunded to do these things. We have UNGA coming up. They are responsible for all these world leaders. Secret Service is responsible. The U.N. General Assembly. Sorry. No. Are coming in, you know, into the U.S. Secret Service is responsible for them. They're responsible for the president, the vice president, everyone running, the former presidents. I mean,

the National Security Advisor, the Secretary of Treasury, like there is a mass amount of people and they have a very limited resources. They rely so heavily on our other federal law enforcement partners and their local law enforcement. They are not resourced enough. So I don't necessarily know that the measures in place aren't enough. I just think overall...

in that holistic scale, they are not resourced enough. All right, fair enough. Coming up here on CNN this morning, J.D. Vance amplifies false statements about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio. Those remarks sparking violent threats in his home state's small town. Plus, Donald Trump lashes out at Taylor Swift following the megastars endorsement of Kamala Harris. And we continue to bring you the latest developments out of Florida and the calls for heightened security around the former president following the apparent second assassination attempt

against Donald Trump. - I would imagine the next time he comes at a golf course, there'll probably be a little more people around the perimeter, but the Secret Service did exactly what they should have done.

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He's a former president running for reelection again. We have to be able to keep him safe. This is getting embarrassing for the agency. The idea that they haven't changed the protocols and we're still giving him the same sort of protection in these outdoor areas is unacceptable. So look, if the Secret Service now gets the point, right, and they're now going to change their protocols, well, congratulations. But it should have happened after the first attempt two months ago.

That was Florida's Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz questioning why Donald Trump is not getting more protection after another apparent assassination attempt. But according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff, the former president is getting the protection that he's entitled to. The golf course is surrounded by shrubbery. So when somebody gets into the shrubbery, they're pretty much out of sight. And at this level that he is at right now, he's not the city president. If he was, we would have had this higher golf course around it.

But because he's not, the security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible. The White House was quick to respond to the latest apparent attempt on Trump's life. President Biden expressing relief that the former president wasn't hurt and condemning all forms of political violence. Kamala Harris calling the incident deeply disturbing and raising concerns about more violence going forward.

uh danelle harvin can i bring you back into this conversation because when we are you know covering violent events uh shootings or you know attempts there's often conversations about people repeating the actions of others or copycat kind of situations uh we obviously heard quite a bit from the sheriff here about the details

of this. What concerns do you have about how or whether this might lead to additional problematic incidents?

Well, I have concerns, but just not just me, my federal law enforcement friends who I heard from yesterday. You recall after the Butler incident, the Secret Service was concerned. It prompted the FBI and DHS to put out a joint bulletin, what we call a JIB, a joint intelligence bulletin to state and local authorities about their concerns at a very high level with copycat or repeat type of attacks. And so, you know,

The threat environment is really unique. And, you know, I think we should take a moment to appreciate that when you're looking at the security detail of Donald Trump, you know, in normal times, normal election times, I'm sure it'd be probably overkill, be more than what you need. But what we have right now is a threat environment where, you know, two months ago, you had a gentleman who was two years out of high school,

come within centimeters of killing the former president. And now you have a gentleman who's well into his 50s. And so from when you're looking at the threat assessments, that's a wide range of individuals, but potentially a wide different range of grievances that you have to protect someone for. And it's quite difficult. All right. Danelle Harvin for us this morning. Danelle, very grateful to have your expertise. Really appreciate you being on the show.

Coming up next here on CNN This Morning, the Polaris Dawn crew returns home. The successful splashdown is going to be one of the five things you have to see this morning. Plus, a four-word post from Donald Trump revealing to the world how he really feels about Taylor Swift.

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All right, still ahead here on CNN This Morning, more details about the gunman who got dangerously close to Donald Trump and what an apparent second assassination attempt says about our political climate. Plus, anti-Haitian bomb threats have shut down hospitals and schools in Springfield, Ohio. What Senator J.D. Vance is saying about the rumors that sparked them.

If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do.

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We've had three consecutive days of threats. The Sheriff's Department did go back through the last 11 months and we just have no verifiable claim that this has actually happened. Your pets are safe in Springfield, Ohio. They absolutely are. It's crazy I have to keep saying that. It would be helpful if they understood the weight of their words and how they could harm a community like ours.

Local officials from Springfield, Ohio, begging Donald Trump and J.D. Vance to stop spreading false claims about Haitian migrants eating pets in their city. This morning, in-person classes at two colleges in Springfield have been canceled after one school received a bomb threat and a threat of a potential shooting targeting members of the Haitian community.

It comes after two Springfield hospitals were also placed on lockdown on Saturday following bomb threats to those facilities. Ohio Senator and Vice Presidential Candidate J.D. Vance, who helped spread the rumor that was ultimately repeated by Donald Trump on the national debate stage last week, told our Dana Bash that he still stands by these now debunked claims.

The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes. If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do, Dana, because you guys are completely letting Kamala Harris coast. You just said that this is a story that you created. So the eating dogs and cats thing is not accurate. We are creating...

Dana, it comes from firsthand accounts from my constituents. I say that we're creating a story, meaning we're creating the American media focusing on it. I didn't create 20,000 illegal migrants coming into Springfield thanks to Kamala Harris's policies. Her policies did that. But yes, we created the actual focus that allowed the American media to talk about this story and the suffering caused by Kamala Harris's policies.

And joining our panel now is CNN chief political correspondent and the anchor of State of the Union and Inside Politics, Dana Bash. Dana, good morning. Quite an interview. Are you going to yell at me? I don't plan to. Good morning.

Nor will you ever be told to shut up on our set. Thank you, Casey. We're so grateful to have you. This was quite an interview. And, I mean, he did hit on part of what has made me turn this story over in my head so many times, which is that there is certainly a policy argument to be made. Exactly.

around all the issues of immigration at the city of springfield is facing but the reality of what they have done in terms of eating pets is having real world implications for the thousands possibly tens of thousands of people who go to school in this community who need hospitals in this community and there he seemed to acknowledge you well we're we created this yeah yeah i mean there was kind of a pregnant pause when i heard him say we if we have to create stories and that's what we'll do when i

what you created a story. And then he kind of, I think he realized what he said and moved on and went after me again. But I think even just kind of, if you take a step back, what he did at the beginning of our interview, Casey, was take issue,

with the fact that I quoted the mayor of Springfield, and this is before we had him on. We brought him on after the interview, but I quoted him from a few days earlier where he was pleading with federal officials not to say this because they are putting the lives of the residents of Springfield in danger. And then Vance then sort of accused me of telling him that he's inciting violence.

Again, this is my reporting, and then the mayor of Springfield came on again. -Yeah, who you heard there at the top. -Came on again afterwards to say... And look, I think that's really the point, and you nailed it right at the beginning here, is that it's not as if there aren't real discussions that should be had about what is a legal -- not illegal -- a legal program that was signed into law not by the state, but by the state itself,

not by Joe Biden, but was signed into law earlier by, I believe it was by Bush, but was definitely done way before Joe Biden. It is true that Joe Biden's

administration has decided that because things are so dire in Haiti, which is basically run by gangs now, that they should be given the ability to have temporary status, be given parole in order to get into the country. And it is also true, because I did some reporting about this, a lot of it on Saturday before this interview, that there are a lot of employers in Springfield

who are so grateful to have these Haitian migrants there because they were trying to grow the economy in Springfield, which had been decimated in the '70s and '80s, and they didn't have workers to help do that. Now they do. Questions about integrating in schools and with language and taking driver's tests, changing the laws, those are really legitimate questions. Eating dogs and cats, that is steeped in racist tropes, and that's...

There's no other way to say it. Yeah. Alex Thompson, do you have any reporting or have you had conversations about how things are going between Donald Trump and J.D. Vance when he's out there doing things like this, where he is basically saying, well, we created this and then trying to backtrack and...

kind of the way that he is handling these kinds of things? - Yeah, I mean, this is why, this is not a bug, but part of the reason why J.D. Vance was picked. And actually, I think J.D. Vance is running the Trump playbook. There's sort of a truism through Trump's entire life that all attention is good attention. And honestly, this latest example of what Springfield, Ohio, it reminds me very much of 2015, 2016 Trump talking about a Mexican judge

Can Mexican judge can't treat him fairly, throwing out just race baiting attempts because it changes the conversation. And now we've spent the last five days talking about Springfield, Ohio, obviously talking about these unverified claims and denouncing the race baiting. But we've been talking about Springfield, Ohio, the last five days instead of the debate performance where honestly, like Kamala sort of kicked his butt.

Let's watch, Dana, a little bit of what Josh Shapiro had to say on State of the Union in reaction to your Vance interview. Let's watch. The United States Senator from Ohio just came on your show and blamed his own constituents for his own lies.

This guy's so pathetic. This has now taken on a life of its own because of what they incited and people's lives are at risk because of JD Vance. This guy should know better.

I mean, Dana, God forbid something actually happens in Springfield, Ohio. Yeah. If somebody follows through on one of these threats. I mean, well, you've been talking about the fact that there have been, I think today again, there are colleges there that are closed, schools that are closed, hospitals that had bomb threats. And...

Look, it is dangerous. I mean, there's no other way to say it. And it's, again, not just me saying it. It's the mayor of Springfield, the sheriff there, begging people, just, this is fixable. The governor, Republican governor, now he's definitely gone sideways with Donald Trump in his, whatever, Trump's eight years in the public spotlight. But he...

we covered Mike DeWine when he was a senator. I mean, he is one of the most conservative members. He is not a liberal guy. Of the Republican Party. And he is somebody who very much supports this program to have the Haitians come into Ohio. But he also is working very hard to help integrate into the community, helping with resources and not talking about cat memes. Yeah, well, sure, Michael Singleton, let's watch a little bit of what Mike DeWine had to say over the weekend about this very issue. Watch.

This discussion about Haitians eating dogs is just not helpful. And again, these people are here legally. They're here legally and they want to work and they are in fact working. And when you talk to the employers, what the employers tell you is, you know, we don't know what we would do without them. We have hate groups coming in and this discussion just has to stop. Sure, Michael. I mean, look, the governor's right. I mean,

I mean, if from a policy perspective, and I would probably have advised Vance and Trump, look, could you argue that this is a microcosm of some of the issues across the country with immigration about integrating individuals because of cultural differences? You can certainly make that argument and say, look, look at the result of Springfield because of Biden-Harris policies. We need to fix this.

I think intellectually, most people can say, all right, that makes a whole lot of sense. But when you're not doing that and you're making arguments that are steeped in obvious racism, it turns off a whole lot of people. Strategically,

You have to bring in people from the middle. And we've already seen for months now that Trump is still sort of struggling with getting some of those moderate leaning Republicans. Yeah, there you know, there's still some that are still sitting on the fence, not sure if they're going to vote for Harris to sit home. But if you know you need to bring those people over in a state like Pennsylvania, in a place like maybe North Carolina, which is now competitive, yeah.

I'm looking at the data and I'm wondering who are those voters, what type of profile do they fit in, and this type of rhetoric, does it turn them off? And I would say that it probably does. - Well, Megan? - Oh, I was just gonna, and also your point about the rhetoric earlier of like something's going to happen,

All of this is all tied together. So all the rhetoric is terrible. These people in Springfield are now being threatened by their own senator who they elect to go to Washington to advocate for them in this horrible way. And it's just this something bad is going to happen. It's just a matter of time. Well, and Dan, I thought it was I mean, DeWine used the phrase hate groups to describe the people that were coming in here clearly picking up on that.

Yeah, and I mean, forgive me, but there were reports on Saturday of the Proud Boys being there. And I think that was what he was referring to. And I don't know that it was a lot, but that's another thing I brought up with J.D. Vance. Whether it's one Proud Boy or 12, is this really what you want? He did denounce the Proud Boys and talked about their hateful rhetoric. But...

you know, this is the kind of thing. Clearly there are those elements that are listening to what they are saying. Right below the surface and now they're rearing their heads. Yeah, all right. Dana Bash, so grateful to have you this morning. Thank you. Thank you so much. Everyone else is going to stick around. And coming up here on CNN this morning, we've had two assassination attempts in two months. We're going to speak with the creator of Paramount's The Circus about this dangerous new political reality. Plus, the Harris campaign going full T-Swift after her endorsement.

It's really great to have all of these women help us beat the smallest man in the world, Donald Trump. All right, 45 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. The Senate is set to vote on a measure this week that aims to require insurance companies to cover IVF treatments. It's the second time the Senate will vote on the bill, but the first time only two Republicans joined efforts to pass the legislation.

The U.S. Coast Guard kicking off a two-week hearing today into the 2023 implosion of the Titan submersible. Former employees of the company that owned the Titan are scheduled to testify. Five crew members were killed and it of course sparked a debate about the future of private undersea exploration. And the Emmy goes to Shogun.

We heard that name a lot at last night's Emmys Awards as Shogun won for Best Drama Series and the Top Awards for Best Actor and Actress. The show ended up winning 18 total Emmys, the most for any show ever in its first season. All right, let's turn now to this. ♪ Say it in the street, that's a knockout ♪ ♪ But you say it in a tweet, that's a cop-out ♪ ♪ And I'm just like, hey, are you okay? ♪

Are you okay? Donald Trump taking on pop icon Taylor Swift after she endorsed Kamala Harris after last week's debate. Trump not mincing words. He posted this, quote, I hate Taylor Swift, end quote. The Harris campaign is obviously embracing the endorsement. Here's my life hack for all of you, all the guys out there, whatever, here's my life hack.

Surround yourself with smart women and listen to them and you'll do just fine. That includes my fellow cat owner, Taylor Swift. It's really great to have all of these women help us beat the smallest man in the world, Donald Trump.

All right, panel's back. Sure, Michael Singleton, the wisdom of saying I hate Taylor Swift. You know what? I actually went to Truth Social to read some of the comments from people on there. And I was surprised a lot of Trump's followers were saying, what in the hell are you doing? This isn't really necessary. Just ignore her. Talk about the policies. I mean, these are people who love the former president and follow him.

I agree with that commentary and advice. It's just not necessary. I mean, we were talking here during the break about some of the advantages for Trump and disadvantages for Vice President Harris. And I do think he has a strong case to make on some issues where that 16 percent of people in some states or 10 percent in other states are saying, you know what, look, I'm not necessarily sure I want to vote for Harris. I want to hear more from Trump on policies. This doesn't help, Casey.

Megan, I mean, it's interesting to me because I feel like other Republicans have actually been really careful not to insult Taylor Swift, even if they are discounting. Here's J.D. Vance, for example, who, as our previous segment shows, not really afraid of saying things that will spark controversy. Here's what he said about Swift. Let's watch.

We admire Taylor Swift's music, but I don't think most Americans, whether they like her music or fans of hers or not, are going to be influenced by a billionaire celebrity who I think is fundamentally disconnected from the interests and the problems of most Americans.

So he says, perhaps fairly, you know, she's a billionaire. She lives a different life than other people. But he does say we admire Taylor Swift's music. And Matt Gaetz was in the spin room after the debate saying that he likes Taylor Swift's music, doesn't like, you know, like her politics. That seems to be a way to thread this needle that Donald Trump is now all of a sudden like he can't not go there.

Yeah, absolutely. And we also saw after she posted her endorsement for the vice president that over 400,000 people went to the site to register to vote. I mean, that's a large number of people that all of a sudden she's activating. And we still have, what, five weeks left or six weeks left of the campaign where it's just more people. And the more you are just drumming up hatred for her, the more her supporters are going to register to vote and get involved. So it's just it seems a little odd that he can't figure out how to thread the needle here, that his ego is that fragile.

uh... alex thompson i mean that this is one of these things to where you know you never wanna raise at something

I guess I'm now thinking about this post in the context of what we then saw happen later on in the day yesterday. Violence has become a part of this election cycle. And when you say that you hate someone, and it's clear that there are people in the real world that are willing to take action on your behalf, even like when it's just words from you, this ends up being in the real world. And we obviously, there was a terrorist attack

threat against a Taylor Swift concert in Austria. It seems like maybe everybody should be steering clear of rhetoric like this period. Yeah, but I would not bet on that the last six weeks of the election. The fact is that we, like the rhetoric is likely to get more

angry and more potentially toward political violence these next six weeks than less. We are really marching into a tinderbox these next six weeks. And the fact is that there's a significant chance of political violence on every side here. The FBI has also sort of said there's blaring red lights in terms of violence going on. And the one thing I was just going to add to

your guys' conversation about Trump is Trump is just unable psychologically of letting any slight real or perceived to ever go unanswered. And this has been something that's been going on for nine years. And you saw Kamala Harris really use that to great effect during the debate, whether or not it was talking about his crowd rally sizes or even the fact that she cited, you know, University of Pennsylvania experts to contradict him and

Donald Trump went to UPenn, she knew that, and you saw that he was unable to not respond and not even get on the message because of that. Yeah, I mean, I have to say, that was the thing that stood out to me in the debate. Like, how is it that he just, he doesn't, he doesn't, he doesn't resist it.

It's incredible and it's also, again, to your point earlier, how is this attracting the voters in the middle? How is he going to win with this strategy? Because it's not attracting any of these undecided voters that are in the middle that are going to decide this election. All he's doing is riling up his base and inciting violence on horrible rhetoric.

yet sure lucky the his base is enthusiastic about voting for him again there's no doubt about that the numbers are there they're any locks though when you look at the folks in the middle that I necessarily tied to a particular candidates ideology they want some objectivity they want to see how you're going to guide the country forward based on their concerns that has to be the answer coming from Trump and he's just not doing that as effectively as he could have even do not debate there are ton of moments you can go on after the vice president a lot of issues

And I was surprised by the fact that he just couldn't quite get it across the finish line. Yeah.

All right. Let's turn back now to the developments out of Palm Beach, Florida, just 65 days after the July attempt on Donald Trump's life during that rally in Pennsylvania. The country once again rocked by a second apparent assassination attempt on the former president's life. The back to back incidents have already given way to frustration and finger pointing on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers demanding answers as they confront this violent new normal.

I've talked to members of both parties and people just don't get it. They don't understand how we're in this situation for a second time. It is shaking the confidence, quite frankly, in our institutions. And that is something that's hard to explain to the American people. Joining us now is Mark McKinnon, former advisor to George W. Bush and John McCain's campaign, also creator of Paramount's

The circus, Mark, thank you so much for being here. Always great to have you. Although, of course, the topic today, another difficult one. What do you how do you see what we saw happen on the golf course yesterday? This is obviously the second time in two months. And as we face down these final days of the campaign, we've been noting here that the rhetoric is.

seems unlikely to cool down, considering the circumstances. Well, listen, the bad news, Casey, is that it happened, and it's tragic. The good news is that the system worked. But the bad news is we need more protection. But the good news, again, is that there's been a truly bipartisan response to the notion that we need additional resources. People like Ro Khanna, the most progressive member of the Democratic caucus,

is out there saying we need to look at this and if we need more resources, we need it immediately. So there's a real bipartisan response. So there's no question that there's great concern about this. We have 50 days left. We want to enhance the security for both candidates in any way possible. And that's a bipartisan response. And let's do it and let's do it immediately. And let's turn down the heat. We don't need people like Elon Musk out there

creating situations where people are hearing bad signals and in the wrong way. Yeah, no. And you're referring, of course, to what Elon Musk tweeted in response to this. It was a tweet that he had to then pretty quickly delete after it seems like the community on his own platform was not interested in hearing what he had to say. And Mark, I mean, this

The thing about kind of how the entire environment is right now, what's going on in Springfield, Ohio, for example, that the rhetoric that is being used is generating real world threats against colleges, against hospitals and schools in that community. I mean, what does that say about us?

Our politics and, you know, I often want to say this isn't who we are. We've never been here before. It doesn't actually seem to be the case. There have been moments of violence in the past. But the way we communicate, the speed with which all of this moves, the ability of people to do these kinds of things, to absorb the information that's necessary to actually do something in the real world, that has changed.

It has changed. I mean, we truly clawed our way to the bottom, Casey. And the other story we're talking about right now, of course, is J.D. Vance and the latest evolution of the cat story where he said to your correspondent, Dan Abash, that

that he's creating stories. Another way of saying that is, yeah, we lie. We lied about a story. We made it up in order to bring attention to a story that we think needs attention. That's problematic. When you're lying about a story that didn't really happen, creating a negative impression of people in your community that's not true, and now you have colleges shutting down and all kinds of real threats to people's safety in that community, that's a problem.

Yeah. Mark, let me ask you to weigh in also on the conversation that we were just having here about Taylor Swift and what Donald Trump had to say about her. The Truth Social post was, I hate Taylor Swift. There's sort of

the lighter version of looking at this where we're talking about, okay, what impact does this have on Swifties who are taking part in the election, but also kind of the darker undertones again, when we talk about how rhetoric shows up in the real world. I think there's only way to interpret that. And that's more than a bat signal. That's telling his supporters

I mean, that's turning up the volume on his supporters and saying, I hate her. Basically, go after her somehow, whatever that means to. The problem is you have people out there that interpret these things, you know, in ways that we can't manage. And we know that our resources are incapable of providing the sort of safety that we need for our candidates out there.

But, you know, to say that you hate Taylor Swift, that that is, you know, we know what kind of how dedicated and we know how unhinged some supporters of both candidates are. So when you send those kind of signals, if you're a truly dedicated supporter who's unhinged and your guy hates that person, well, you're going to go after him and whatever that means. And it's usually not good.

yeah really uh really difficult uh reality i mean our stephen collinson put it this way um and this is he's talking about the assassination attempt uh incidents like this that they happen at all it speaks to the undercurrent of violence that is a constant shadow over american politics one that's exacerbated by the easy ability of firearms both nominees now address outdoor crowds from bulletproof screens and there will now be fresh fears

that a tempestuous period running up to Election Day could take the country further down a dark road. I mean, I think this is the thing that now, considering this has happened twice, hangs over the remainder of the campaign. Well, not only the remainder of the campaign, Casey, but it really scares us to think about what happens on Election Day or shortly thereafter if it's a really close election. That's really scary. All right. Mark McKinnon for us this morning. Mark, always grateful to have you part of the program. Thanks so much for being here. See you soon.

All right. Alex Thompson, I mean, on that, I mean, we've got two minutes left here about, I mean, the reality is this election is going to be very close. And there have been these markers of darkness as we have hurtled towards November 5th.

Yeah, I mean, the thing is that it is possible that the last January 6th is actually just the first of many January 6th's. That's a cheerful assessment. But it's true. There's a very close election. I mean, you've seen this escalating. We talk sometimes jokingly about the Brooks Brothers riot of 2000. I mean, every single close election, you've seen an escalation of aggression, rhetoric, and now violence every single time.

Well, Megan Hayes, I will say people are, the Capitol is much more prepared, at least from talking to my sources, for what may or may not happen after the election. But your thoughts here? Yeah, I mean, I think that they have to be right. Like, we cannot have another January 6th. Like, regardless, we cannot have that take place on the Capitol. So I think that they have to be more prepared or that

I mean, that will be really detrimental to our country. People feel disconnected, disillusioned and purposeless. And we need political leaders to figure out a way to address these issues, the actual root problem that's causing people to fall into the rhetoric that's causing them to be violent. Yeah, well, and a lot of that is, of course, how easily accessible so much of this is. You know, your phone is in your pocket. The way you can ultimately take action based on all of this is so much easier than it ever used to be.

Thank you all for being with us this morning. I appreciate it. Thanks to all of you for joining us as well. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now. From all over the world, people turn to Cleveland Clinic for our expertise and our compassionate care. As leaders in heart, neurology, and cancer, the future of specialty care is happening right now at Cleveland Clinic. For every life-saving treatment, for every next step,

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