Closing the tabs ...
FBI's Jeffrey Veltri says the suspect in the apparent assassination attempt against former Pres. Trump “had an active online presence" and made "public statements ... that he wanted to recruit Afghan soldiers and others to fight for Ukraine.” https://t.co/D5GwOgXxbC pic.twitter.com/NkQeJUx3J0
— ABC News (@ABC) September 16, 2024
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We still need to find out more about what happened, but it makes zero sense that someone with a rifle was able to get in any proximity to Trump after what happened in Butler, which was a tragedy, but could have been a national trauma of epic proportions.
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Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. describes the agency's role in preventing Sunday's apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump, saying, "the protective methodologies of the Secret Service were effective." https://t.co/0DQ7dxZP6v pic.twitter.com/HYmTb5RqWo
— ABC News (@ABC) September 16, 2024
Ed: They tried arguing that after the July 13 attempt, too. We now know that the entire operation was half-assed, but only because
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Durbin says Acting USSS Dir "was open to that idea: of more funding for his agency. But when it comes to additional personnel, he Durbin says "it's not easy to come by. It's not automatic. You don't hire them right on the street. There's a period of clearing them for the position and then training them for the position, giving them on the job experience. It takes a lot of time."
Ed: Yes, Rowe wants more resources, but Durbin points out the fallacy behind getting Congress to do something now. Besides, as I wrote earlier, Congress has increased the personal-protection budget by almost doubling it since FY2016. DHS has a lot more resources it could redirect to the USSS, too.
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.@LarryOConnor: "MSNBC is basically saying that Trump was asking for it." pic.twitter.com/SL63iWbgmz
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 16, 2024
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Mr Trump soon said in a fundraiser email that he was “SAFE AND WELL”. But the apparent attempted assassination would be the second attempt on his life in two months. At the scene, police found an AK-47-style rifle with a sighting scope and a GoPro camera that the suspect intended to use to photograph his exploits, the Palm Beach County Sheriff, Ric Bradshaw, told a press briefing.
The arrest will again shake up a presidential campaign that has in recent months endured one shock after another. The momentum and media focus that Vice-President Kamala Harris has enjoyed following her strong debate against Mr Trump on September 10th will compete now with wall-to-wall coverage of the suspect’s background and the confounding question of how another rifleman could have approached within several hundred yards of the former president without being detected.
Ed: Ronald Rowe's defiant words notwithstanding, this is a question that deserves answers. Routh had been there for 12 hours, and yet no one spotted him before Trump teed off. That's a big problem.
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Top Kamala surrogate Stacey Plaskett: "[Trump] needs to be shot— stopped."pic.twitter.com/tarcqFUFea
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 16, 2024
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Back when Nancy Pelosi’s husband was attacked with a hammer, I was informed that, if the victim of an attack had at any point been “demonized” by a political party, then that political party was responsible for what follows. Indeed, in the immediate aftermath of that ugly incident, the Washington Post recruited no fewer than three of its top writers to draw a direct line between the assault on Paul Pelosi and a series of anti-Nancy political commercials that were run in 2010 — twelve years earlier. The “years of vilification,” the Post proposed, “culminated Friday when Pelosi’s husband, Paul, was attacked with a hammer during an early-morning break-in at the couple’s home in San Francisco by a man searching for the speaker and shouting ‘Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?’” Lest anyone misunderstand what it meant by “culminated,” the paper made sure to spell it out. “For many Democrats,” the piece concluded, “the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband represents the all-but-inevitable conclusion of Republicans’ increasingly violent and threatening rhetoric toward their political opponent.”
If those are, indeed, the rules, then what should we make of the man who tried to kill Donald Trump — that’s the second man to try to kill Donald Trump, for those keeping score at home — having echoed a literal Kamala Harris campaign slogan on his Twitter account?
Ed: I suspect that the answer is that it's (D)ifferent.
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🚨 BREAKING: Trump campaign sends out a LONG LIST OF RECEIPTS of Democrats' rhetoric that "inspired another attempt on President Trump's life"
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) September 16, 2024
The campaign laid out over 50 unique quotes and provided sources for each. pic.twitter.com/V31HlPq8l8
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CNN host Boris Sanchez questioned Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Dan Meuser on Monday about how former President Donald Trump could tone down his “rhetoric” just a day after a second suspect attempted to assassinate him.
On Sunday, federal and local officials confirmed the arrest of 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, who allegedly attempted to assassinate the former president in West Palm Beach, Florida. During “CNN News Central,” Meuser criticized the media and Democrat’s rhetoric as “pretty awful” and suggested there is “work to do on both sides,” however, Sanchez pushed back, highlighting Trump’s past comments.
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JD Vance absolutely DESTROYS Dana Bash for giving Tim Walz and Kamala Harris multiple choice questions during their only joint interview pic.twitter.com/f1uSo4IQC4
— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) September 15, 2024
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