Day 1 of the 2024 Republican National Convention

Our live coverage of the RNC has moved here.

Former US President Donald Trump appears with a bandaged ear on the first night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 15.

Donald Trump stole the show at the Republican National Convention on Monday night in his first public appearance since surviving an assassination attempt two days ago.

A bandaged Trump, now the official Republican nominee for president, appeared alongside his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.

Here are the top takeaways from the RNC’s first night:

Trump picks Vance Trump called Vance just 20 minutes before publicly announcing his VP pick on Truth Social, a source told CNN.

The choice reflects Trump’s belief that Vance is an effective communicator who can sell Trump’s populist agenda.

Vance now vs. then Vance is something of a double-edged sword for Republicans, who are betting on his ability to communicate Trump’s message but will have to contend with the senator’s own history.

Prior to running for his Senate seat in 2022, Vance was a strident critic of Trump — material Democrats are certain to replay for the duration of the campaign.

VP also-rans get their moments Delegates and convention-watchers heard from several other Republicans who Trump considered for the vice presidential nod, including South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

Ron Johnson’s Ron Burgundy moment Two days after the shooting, many Republican speakers delivered cooler-than-usual rhetoric — except Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, who called Democratic policies a “clear and present danger to the country.”

Johnson’s spokesperson said it was a mistake, and that the senator delivered an old version of his remarks that had been erroneously loaded into the teleprompter instead of a new version calling for unity.

Read more takeaways.

In a rare joint intelligence bulletin, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned Monday of potential “retaliatory acts of violence” in response to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, according to Politico.

The bulletin didn’t mention any specific targets, according to Politico, but noted that extremists have conducted or plotted attacks against “political or ideological opponents” in the past.

The warning comes as law enforcement agencies investigate the events and potential motives leading up to the assassination attempt. 

As CNN previously reported, Capitol Police said Monday that they are already “operating in a heightened threat environment” due to threats against lawmakers, adding that they are working with “federal, state and local partners on a comprehensive plan to protect the Members of Congress” during both the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention.

Returning to the campaign trail for the first time after an assassination attempt on his predecessor, President Joe Biden is expected to point to policies – not personality – to make the case against former President Donald Trump.

In advance of public events in Nevada today, Biden unveiled new actions to lower housing costs, including a plan to cap rents charged by certain landlords. Officials say the moves are aimed at easing a significant financial burden felt by voters.

But it also allows Biden to sell voters on the substance of his proposals, instead of attacking his rival’s morals and bellicose personality.

The Biden campaign has pledged to stay away from more divisive rhetoric in the wake of the assassination attempt.

Biden told NBC News that he meant to “focus on him, focus on what he’s doing” when he referenced putting Trump in a bullseye during a call with donors, even as he slammed Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 election outcome and other campaign trail rhetoric.

During the interview with Lester Holt, Biden conceded that using the term “bullseye” was a mistake.

A senior adviser told CNN the campaign’s directive was to use discretion on all Trump-related matters “until further notice.” 

Read the full story.

Second-quarter fundraising reports show Democrats outraised Republicans in competitive congressional races, while several vulnerable Senate Democrats burned through cash.

The filing period spans April 1 through June 30, well before Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump, and just three days after the CNN presidential debate.

Here are the main takeaways:

Senate Democrats maintained their financial edge

Democrats outraised their Republican opponents in the nine competitive Senate races on CNN’s list of the 10 seats most likely to flip, as they tried to defend their narrow majority.

House Democrats in most competitive races posted big hauls

Democratic candidates outraised their GOP opponents in 21 of the 22 House races rated as Toss-ups by The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, the most competitive category. Republicans hold a razor-thin majority in the House.

Outside groups poised for big role

The reports also show the leading outside groups and super PACs hauling in huge sums as they prepare to blitz the battleground airwaves with campaign advertising.

In the fight for the Senate, the Senate Majority PAC, which is affiliated with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, raised $44.3 million and entered July with $124.3 million banked.

Trump’s growing Silicon Valley appeal

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Elon Musk – who endorsed the former president Saturday less than an hour after he survived the assassination attempt – is prepared to plow about $45 million a month into a new group, America PAC, recently launched to support Trump’s bid.

Read the full funding update.

Forrmer President Donald Trump shakes hands with his vice presidential pick JD Vance during the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 15.

The political marriage between President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance wasn’t an instant match. Earlier this year, as Trump was working to seal the GOP nomination, Vance had yet to even be approached by the Trump campaign about the possibility of joining him on the ticket. The first time Vance’s team began to realize that Trump was formally considering him was when he received vetting paperwork for the running mate process in June.

The relationship blossomed in the spring and summer over joint appearances at campaign events and closed-door fundraisers in California, where Vance, a former venture capitalist, helped Trump connect with wealthy tech entrepreneurs, such as Vance’s close friend, prominent investor David Sacks.

Their final meeting before Monday’s decision took place at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club on Saturday, sources told CNN. One source familiar with the discussion described their time together as “the final interview before getting the job.”

Lobbying for North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio continued until the final hours. But Vance ultimately had the backing of voices with tremendous sway, including the former president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., former Trump senior adviser Steve Bannon, and Tucker Carlson.

That trio argued that Vance had the strongest relationship with Trump and that he would be the most loyal if selected, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.

They also argued that Vance can appeal to working-class voters, who are seen as essential to winning the key battleground states in November, given his upbringing in a poor Rust Belt town. The sources said Vance’s wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance — the child of Indian immigrants — was someone they thought could appeal to minority voters.

Read the full story.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance said late Monday night that he is “just overwhelmed with gratitude,” after officially being selected as former President Donald Trump’s running mate. 

Vance appeared alongside Trump on the first night of the Republican National Convention after the pair was formally nominated as the GOP ticket for the 2024 presidential election.

Donald Trump has gone from an insurrection to a resurrection.

The searing picture of a nation in dystopian decline that defines the ex-president’s politics was largely missing on the first night of the Republican National Convention.

In its place was a sense of the divine — a pulsating belief in miracles among thousands of Republican delegates and a feeling that God spared their hero after he was nearly killed in an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

Thousands of Trump supporters in Milwaukee on Monday night hailed their leader, elevating him from MAGA superhero to saint-like status.

Trump, a white bandage over his wounded right ear, stood below the stands of the Milwaukee Bucks NBA arena. He didn’t speak to the crowd, but mouthed “thank you” over and over again.

Usually, Trump’s face projects anger or rage or sarcasm. But on Monday night, it wore unusual emotion. It looked as if tears welled in Trump’s eyes. A man who normally projects strength and seeks to dominant every room he enters betrayed a trace of wistfulness and vulnerability, as might befit someone coming to terms with their life being saved by a stroke of luck and a turn of the head.

Trump’s supporters have long seen him as a God-like figure and his own campaign has played into the trope with advertising. He’s styled himself as the secular prophet who leads a populist movement.

For Trump’s millions of American fans, Monday night was a validation of their faith in God and the ex-president and the righteousness of his mission.

Read the full analysis.

President Joe Biden sat down with NBC’s Lester Holt on Monday in his first interview since the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

Biden grateful Trump’s OK but slams his rhetoric

He mentioned Trump’s comments after the rally of White supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 — when Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides” — and the former president’s denial of the 2020 election that led to the 2021 insurrection at the Capitol.

Biden declines to speculate on shooting’s impact on election

He said he is more focused on Trump’s health and safety at this time.

President admits his “bullseye” comment was a mistake

During a July 8 call with donors, Biden said: “It’s time to put Trump in the bullseye,” according to a summary of the call provided by his campaign.

“I meant to focus on him. Focus on what he’s doing. Focus on his policies, focus on the number of lies he told at the debate,” he said.

Biden feels safe with the Secret Service

He said the agency continued to have his “full confidence” and it was an “open question” whether the Secret Service should have anticipated the shooting.

JD Vance is no surprise as Trump’s VP pick

Biden pointed out the staunchly anti-Trump views Vance held before he became a senator: “If you go back and listen to some of the things JD Vance said about Trump…,” Biden said, laughing as he trailed off.

Read the full story.

Trump looks at the crowd at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Monday, July 15.

Republicans got their first look at the Trump-Vance ticket tonight.

The admiration was clear, even as vice presidential nominee JD Vance gave former President Donald Trump a bit of space as they settled into their new partnership at the Republican National Convention on Monday.

Talking to delegates here, there is broad approval for Trump’s choice, but questions remain about what Vance brings to the ticket. 

One Wisconsin Republican said he still worries whether Trump can win the suburban counties here — and said he is eager to hear Nikki Haley speak at the convention tomorrow.

Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has called for a “full-scale investigation” into the assassination attempt against the former president. 

“We need to understand what happened because clearly mistakes were made,” Vance told Fox News on Monday night.

Vance said he was playing mini golf with his kids when the assassination attempt happened Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania. 

“I don’t know enough about the security protocols, but I was a United States Marine. And 150 yards is not nearly enough of a security perimeter,” Vance said.

But Vance did not repeat his claim that the Biden campaign’s rhetoric “led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination,” which he shared in a post on X shortly after the shooting.

Snipers were stationed inside the building where a gunman climbed the roof and attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump, a source familiar with the investigation tells CNN.

The source said the local sniper team hailed from the Butler County Emergency Services Unit. 

The team, according to the source, was located on the second floor providing overwatch of the crowd at the rally.

Democrats were eagerly watching the Republican convention tonight, too, focusing their attention on the newest man in the race: Sen. JD Vance. 

While there’s no question the race will revolve around Donald Trump, Democrats believe Vance offers significant opportunities — on abortion, his previous criticism of Trump, and more. 

President Joe Biden called Vance “a clone of Trump.” That was no accident. It’s a bumper sticker message Democrats will continue to use.

Former US President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance, appear during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday, July 15.

Donald Trump appeared at the Republican National Convention on Monday night after officially becoming the Republican nominee for president earlier in the day. The event comes two days after the former president survived an assassination attempt.

Trump appeared alongside his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, with a bandage over his ear, where he was wounded in the shooting. Vance became the official vice presidential nominee on Monday, shortly after Trump called him to tell of his decision.

Here’s a recap of the top moments from the first day of the RNC:

Official nominees: Trump officially received enough delegates to win the GOP presidential nomination. The delegation from Florida put him over the top, with Eric Trump awarding the state’s delegates to his father. Vance was also formally nominated as his potential vice president.

VP pick: Vance said that during a phone call with Trump, the former president told him “You’re the guy who can help me in the best way.” Vance was elected to the Senate in 2022 after receiving a boost from Trump in the primary. That was a reversal from six years earlier when Vance was a key voice in the “Never Trump” movement during the 2016 election.

Speeches: Several lawmakers and other officials spoke, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Sen. Tim Scott, and Rep. Byron Donalds. Here are some of their key quotes:

Biden interview: Biden defended himself against criticism of his rhetoric that has been spotlighted in the aftermath of the assassination attempt, but said it was a mistake to say it was “time to put Trump in a bullseye.” He said in an interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt that he told Trump how concerned he was in a phone call after the shooting. Several Democratic sources tell CNN there are still private efforts to nudge Biden to step out of the race.

Latest on assassination attempt: The FBI has gained access to the phone of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the Trump rally shooter. Investigators have also conducted “nearly 100 interviews of law enforcement personnel, event attendees, and other witnesses.” Authorities previously said they believed that Crooks acted alone and they had not yet been able to identify his motive.

Read more takeaways from the RNC.

Sen. JD Vance, Republican vice presidential candidate, attends the first day of the Republican National Convention on Monday, July 15, in Milwaukee.

Asked to plainly state his view on abortion, JD Vance said the top of the ticket will dominate the Republican Party’s view on the issue, which involves certain exceptions and leaving laws up to individual states.

“My view is that Donald Trump is the leader of the Republican Party and his views on abortion are going to be the views that dominate this party and drive this party forward. His views are very simple,” Vance said.

“You got to follow your heart. You have to believe in reasonable exceptions, because that’s where the American people are, and you’ve got to let individual states make this decision,” he said. “That’s how I think we build some bridges and have some respect for one another.” 

In 2021, Vance told Spectrum News 1 that “two wrongs don’t make a right,” when asked if he believes in exceptions for rape and incest. 

“It’s not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term. It’s whether a child should be allowed to live, even though the circumstances of that child’s birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society,” Vance said at the time. “The question is really about the baby.”

Asked to address criticism for calling rape and incest “inconvenient,” Vance said Monday night, “Democrats have completely twisted my words.”

“What I did say is that we sometimes in this society see babies as inconveniences, and I absolutely want us to change that,” Vance said.

Vance sought to paint Democrats as the ones with a radical position.

“My grandma, the woman who raised me was pro-choice. She used to say ‘safe, legal and rare.’ And I remember, you know, that was her understanding of what the Democratic Party view was,” Vance said.

“Now the Democrats are saying taxpayer-funded up until the moment of birth, unlimited, that’s ridiculous,” he said.

Donald Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, said he doesn’t hide from his prior harsh criticism of the former president – whom he once called a “moral disaster,” “reprehensible” and possibly “America’s Hitler” – arguing that his initial skepticism could help him “make a good case” to Trump skeptics in 2024. 

As CNN’s KFILE reported, Vance said in 2016 and 2017 that Trump was “cultural heroin” and “just another opioid” for Middle America. 

“I bought into the media’s lies and distortions. I bought into this idea that somehow he was going to be so different, a terrible threat to democracy. It was a joke,” Vance said.

Vance argued his prior skepticism could be an asset. 

Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee claimed in her Republican National Convention speech Monday that the Biden administration has hired 85,000 new Internal Revenue Service agents to “harass hardworking Americans.” 

Facts First: This claim is false.  

The Inflation Reduction Act – which Congress passed in 2022 without any Republican votes – provided an about $80 billion, 10-year investment to the IRS. The agency plans to hire tens of thousands of IRS employees with that money – but only some will be IRS agents who conduct audits and investigations. Many people will be hired for non-agent roles, such as customer service representatives. And a significant number of the hires are expected to fill the vacant posts left by retirements and other attrition, not take newly created positions. 

The 85,000 figure comes from a 2021 Treasury Department report that estimated the IRS could hire 86,852 full-time employees — not solely enforcement agents – over the course of a decade with a nearly $80 billion investment.  

Read more fact checks of statements made at the RNC.

In an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt on Monday, President Joe Biden claimed that it was concluded he did nothing wrong in his handling of classified documents after he left the office of vice president.  

Facts First: This claim needs context. CNN reported that while special counsel Robert Hur’s report released earlier this year did not charge Biden with a crime, it found the president willfully retained classified information, including top-secret documents, and knew he was in possession of some documents as far back as 2017. Biden also shared some of that information with the ghostwriter of his 2017 memoir. 

Hur decided not to charge Biden primarily because he found that nothing proved a willful intent by Biden to illegally hold on to classified information and because of his cooperation with the investigation. 

During his testimony to Congress in March, Hur was pushed by Democratic lawmakers to declare Biden’s innocence — something he refused to do.  

Read more fact checks of statements made at the RNC.

Amber Rose speaks during the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention on Monday, July 15.

Amber Rose, a media personality and influencer, said Monday that American families were “safer, wealthier and stronger” under former President Donald Trump. 

Rose claimed that high grocery and gas prices didn’t exist under Trump and that wanting a better country for the next generation is something that unites all parents, regardless of political affiliation.

“I’m here tonight to tell you, no matter your political background, the best chance we have to give our babies a better life is to elect Donald Trump president of the United States,” Rose said.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who was on the shortlist to be Donald Trump’s running mate, said the former president addressed him in a phone call as “Mr. Secretary” – suggesting that he may be interested in Burgum for a potential Cabinet role.

“I got a call and had a great conversation with the president. And he said, ‘Hey, Mr. Secretary,’” Burgum told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at the Republican National Convention while discussing how he received the news that he wasn’t selected as Trump’s running mate.

“There’s going to be a lot of work to do between now and then. That’s going to be the focus.”

He praised Ohio Sen. JD Vance as a “solid pick” for the Republican ticket and for being a “small town guy like me. What’s not to love about someone who grew up in a small town?”

Burgum touted Trump’s “strength” and “courage” in the face of this weekend’s assassination attempt and argued that Trump is “uniting” the nation and the Republican Party.

Linda Fornos, an immigrant Latina woman from Nevada, told the crowd gathered at the Republican National Convention that she “made a mistake” in voting for Joe Biden in 2020.

The crowd booed in response and she said, “I’m sorry.”

“This November my vote won’t be taken for granted. And this time, I won’t regret it. Please join me in voting for Donald J. Trump,” she concluded.

Sean O’Brien, the general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said American families know that “the system is broken” and that “working people have no chance at winning this fight.”

President Joe Biden and Donald Trump have been actively vying for the endorsement from the Teamsters, an influential union representing 1.3 million American workers.  

The union traditionally withholds its endorsement until after both parties hold their conventions, and it remains unclear whether – or how – that endorsement will materialize.

O’Brien said that his union is not “beholden to anyone or any party” and said that he wants to work with a bipartisan coalition to “accomplish something real.”

O’Brien praised former President Trump for inviting him. “No other nominee in the race would have invited the Teamsters into this arena,” he said.

He said Trump “is a candidate who was not afraid of hearing from new, loud and often critical voices.”

This post has been updated with more remarks from O’Brien.

JD Vance has had several introductions to the American people: as the author of a memoir on what ails the White working class, as a newly elected Republican senator in his home state of Ohio and, on Monday, as his party’s nominee for vice president.

His wife, Usha, has been by his side through it all.

As the Ohio delegation chanted her husband’s name on the Republican convention floor in Milwaukee, Usha Vance stood beside the first-term senator and applauded as he was nominated by voice vote to be Donald Trump’s running mate.

For years, the senator has described his wife as a key part of his success, dating back to when the two attended law school together at Yale University, where Usha Vance also graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree.

In his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” JD Vance described her as his “Yale spirit guide,” helping him navigate life at the elite university where they met.

The daughter of Indian immigrants, Usha Chilukuri grew up in a suburb of San Diego. After college – two stints at Yale and a master’s of philosophy at the University of Cambridge – she has clerked for two Supreme Court justices – Brett Kavanaugh when he served on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and Chief Justice John Roberts.

Read more about Usha Vance.

The Republican National Convention played a video in which former President Donald Trump urged Republicans to use “every appropriate tool available to beat the Democrats,” including voting by mail. 

Trump relentlessly disparaged mail-in voting during the 2020 election, falsely claiming it was rife with fraud, and he has continued to sharply criticize it during the current campaign.

Trump’s comments in the convention video also included some of his regular false claims about elections. After claiming he would “once and for all secure our elections” as president, Trump again insinuated the 2020 election was not secure, saying: “We never want what happened in 2020 to happen again.” 

Facts First: Trump’s claims are false – slightly vaguer versions of his usual lies that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen and that Democrats are serial election cheaters. The 2020 election was highly secure; Trump lost fair and square to Joe Biden by an Electoral College margin of 306 to 232; there is no evidence of voter fraud even close to widespread enough to have changed the outcome in any state; and there is no basis for claiming that election cheating is the only thing at which Trump’s opponents excel.

The Trump administration’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, said in a post-election November 2020 statement:

Read more fact checks of statements made at the RNC.

Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump with his newly announced running mate Sen. JD Vance on Monday, July 15.

Former President Donald Trump is at the Republican National Convention arena alongside his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.

This appearance comes two days after he survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

They both were formally nominated as the GOP ticket for the 2024 presidential election earlier today.

Trump and Vance were surrounded by the Trump family. The Ohio senator also sat next to House Speaker Mike Johnson who spoke at the RNC earlier this evening. Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson was also seen in the box in the same row as Trump.

The crowd chanted “fight” — the word Trump had shouted several times, while pumping his fist in the air after the assassination attempt.

The crowd also cheered “USA! USA!” and “We want Trump!” as singer Lee Greenwood performed his song “God Bless the USA!”

Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump with his newly announced running mate Sen. JD Vance on Monday, July 15.

Former President Donald Trump entered the arena with a bandage on his ear two days after surviving his assassination attempt.

The large white bandage covered much of his right ear.

During a radio interview earlier Monday, former White House physician Ronny Jackson said the bullet that grazed Trump took part of the top of his ear off.

Former White House physician Ronny Jackson said he medically assessed former President Donald Trump’s wound to his ear after Saturday’s assassination attempt and bandaged Trump up earlier today.

During an interview on “The Benny Show” podcast on Monday, the Texas congressman said he “checked out” Trump’s ear Monday morning and “there was no concussive effect from the bullet” because it was far enough from Trump’s head.

Jackson said that Trump’s injury is “dressed up. He’ll be okay … it’s going to granulate and heal in, and he’s not going to need anything to be done with it.”

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance delved into the phone call he received from former President Donald Trump informing him he had been selected as his running mate.

During the call, Trump explained why he chose Vance to run alongside him, the Ohio senator said.

Vance acknowledged that he wouldn’t have won his Ohio Senate race in 2022 without Trump’s endorsement and that it contributed to the closeness of their relationship. 

 “He said rightfully that we have been very, very close for a long time, but especially since I endorsed you in 2022. And I would not have won that race without Donald Trump’s endorsement,” Vance said. “The president’s trust then and his partnership since then has been something I value a great deal.”

Vance, a father of three, said he became “so embarrassed” when his 7-year-old son, Ewan, began making noise in the background of the call, but Trump brought him on the line.

“He actually has me put my 7-year-old son on the phone. If you think about this, everything that’s happened. The guy just got shot out a couple of days ago and he takes the time to talk to my 7-year-old. It’s a moment I’ll never forget,” Vance said.

At the time he received the call, Vance said he wasn’t sure if it was good news or bad news.

Acknowledging his friend and one of the other top contenders, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Vance said that his approach to the veepstakes was to “enjoy the ride.”

“What an honor to be considered. If it had been Senator Rubio – obviously, Marco’s a good guy, he’s a good friend, so I tried to just have a good attitude,” Vance said.

Vance, who appeared with his wife Usha in Milwaukee today, said, “My family’s very excited, obviously asking a lot of questions about it.”

Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn spoke at the Republican National Convention on Monday about how “life was good and getting better” under President Donald Trump.

The policies of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris “are destroying small businesses,” she said, also blaming them for rising gas prices.

She said that if Trump is reelected, he will make his tax cuts permanent.

Blackburn also said Trump would fire 85,000 Internal Revenue Service agents.

The Tennessee senator also criticized the Democratic president and vice president for their “burdensome” regulations. Meanwhile, she said, the Republican Party’s platform “pledges seven times to cut regulations that are killing jobs and costing you thousands of dollars.”

She highlighted stories of average Americans, including the Black woman owner of a cafe in Milwaukee who voted for Biden in 2020 and now plans to vote for Trump because she believes his policies will be better for small business owners.

President Joe Biden criticized NBC News’ Lester Holt and the news media for focusing on his gaffes instead of fact-checking former President Donald Trump.

In a contentious exchange with Monday, Biden acknowledged having a “bad night” — as he’s previously called it — but said the media wasn’t talking enough about Trump’s performance. 

“Lester, look — why don’t you guys ever talk about the 18 to 28 lies [Trump] told? Where are you on this, why doesn’t the press ever talk about this?” Biden asked. “I had a bad, bad night, I wasn’t feeling well at all, and I had been … I screwed up.” 

He told Holt that he’d “seen pieces” of the debate, but hadn’t watched the full broadcast, rebuffing the idea that watching the full program might help him understand why so many have joined the chorus for him to suspend his campaign.

“I didn’t have to see it, I was there,” Biden said, laughing. “And, by the way, seriously, you won’t answer the question, but why didn’t the press talk about all the lies he told.” 

“We have reported many of the issues that came out of that debate,” Holt countered, prompting Biden to chime in, “No, you haven’t. No, you haven’t.” 

The president struck a defiant note when asked if he’d consider agreeing to another debate before the already-agreed upon debate in September in an effort to “try to get back on the horse,” firing back: “I’m on the horse!” 

And he declined to say what he’d do if he again has another disappointing debate in September. 

“I don’t plan of having another performance on that level,” he said.

As the interview wrapped, Biden couldn’t resist taking one final jab at Holt, telling the NBC News anchor: “Sometime, come and talk to me about what we should be talking about,” after Holt thanked the president for his time.

CEO of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk speaks on stage on the first day of the Republican National Convention on Monday, July 15.

Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, said Monday that having a family is a “dream that feels farther away than ever” for young Americans under the Biden administration.

He accused Democrats of giving “hundreds and billions of dollars to illegals and foreign nations, while Gen Z has to pinch pennies just so they can never own a home, never marry and work until they die, childless.”

Turning Point USA is a nonprofit “whose mission is to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote freedom,” according to its website.

Kirk said he talks to a lot of young people, especially those on college campuses. He said people he talks to are frustrated with things like home prices.

This post has been updated with remarks from Kirk.

Sen. Katie Britt speaks during the convention on Monday, July 15.

Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama suggested in her Republican National Convention speech on Monday that during President Joe Biden’s term, Americans are having to take on two jobs to deal with the cost of living.  

“With President Trump, the tough choice was which job offer to accept, now it’s which second job to take just to pay the bills,” she said. 

Facts First:  The number of workers who hold multiple jobs as a percentage of total employment has never gone above the highest level under Donald Trump, according to Labor Department data.  

While it’s true that the annual inflation rate reached its highest level in more than four decades under Biden (in June 2022, though it has since declined), Americans aren’t necessarily taking on two jobs more than usual to deal with it. In fact, the number of Americans holding multiple jobs as a share of all employed workers was below levels seen before the Covid-19 pandemic throughout 2021 and 2022. It has increased over the past several months, reaching 5.2% in June. The share of workers with multiple jobs hasn’t gone above 5.3% since the Great Recession.

David Sacks, a venture capitalist and former CEO of Yammer, said there would be “four more years of chaos and failure” if Democrats were elected and claimed that the party was “gaslighting the entire country” about President Joe Biden’s fitness to serve another term.

Sacks held a fundraiser for Trump alongside other Silicon Valley venture capitalists at his home last month. He described his home city of San Francisco as a “cesspool of crime, homeless encampments and open drug use.”

The tech investor slammed Biden as “the symbol of an America in decline.”

“This may be our present, but it does not have to be our future.”

This post has been updated with Sacks’ remarks from the Republican National Convention.

President Joe Biden said he feels safe with the Secret Service and that the agency has his full confidence following the failed assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, but said that it’s an “open question” whether they should have anticipated what happened.

The president also pointed to local law enforcement’s role in helping protect the former president on Saturday.

“There’s a major piece of this relates to domestic, local law enforcement. They play a large role. And so there’s a different comp— I’m not saying they weren’t competent, either. I’m just saying it’s a complicated process,” Biden said.

When asked if he was concerned that Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has taken questions publicly, Biden said that he has heard from her and pointed to the briefings that he has received.

Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Monday thanked God for “protecting” former President Donald Trump after an assassination attempt on his life at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

“And we thank him for protecting our next president – Donald J. Trump,” he added.

Youngkin claimed that the economy was better under Trump’s administration and that America, in reelecting Trump, will once again have a “rip-roaring economy that lifts up all Americans.”

“That is our tomorrow. A tomorrow where work is celebrated, where taxes are cut, and inflation is slashed, where we cut red tape, where we unleash American energy dominance, where businesses proudly say, ‘Made in America,’” he said.

Youngkin, a businessman who was elected governor of Virginia in 2021, argued that under Trump, “America had high growth and low inflation,” while under President Joe Biden, “America has low growth and high inflation.”

“Could this election be more simple? It’s common sense versus chaos. Extreme versus weakness,” the governor said.

President Joe Biden said he was “not surprised” that Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump but that he did not agree on the basis for the case’s dismissal.

He added, “The basis upon which the case was thrown out, I find specious, because I don’t agree with Clarence Thomas’ dissent and or the Supreme Court decision on immunity.”

Biden noted to Holt that he had an independent prosecutor review his handling of classified documents, noting that he was “totally cooperative.”

Monday night’s primetime programming is showcasing a far more professional and disciplined GOP and is helping to explain why Donald Trump is, by almost every measure, currently winning this election less than four months out.

There was a stream of Black Republican lawmakers, several of them rising stars, including South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. Delegates then heard from a working mom with two jobs from Arizona and Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, who has a young family. Later in the evening, Sean O’Brien of the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters will become one of the few top union leaders to address an RNC.

And then there’s the pick of vice-presidential nominee JD Vance, an Ohio senator and a clear play for the Blue Wall states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, without which Biden can’t win reelection.

The Trump team is therefore targeting women and suburban voters, culturally conservative union workers, minority voters and Biden’s blue-collar heartland. The president has had real problems with fraying at the edge of the traditional Democratic coalition and Monday night’s program shows the Trump campaign knows exactly what it’s doing.

Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, who was once considered to be a potential running mate for Donald Trump, talked in his address at the Republican National Convention about his struggle of growing up poor and the realities of financially struggling families in America during the Biden administration.

He talked about the struggle of growing up in a poor household with just his single mother in Brooklyn, New York, who “fought for me” and provided him good education.

He said every parent deserves to choose what education their child receives. Donalds also thanked her in his speech and said he is grateful to be her son.

The post has been updated with more of Donalds’ remarks.

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson of North Carolina, now running for governor, made a series of economic claims in his speech at the Republican National Convention on Monday. One about the Biden era was misleading, while another about the Trump era touted pre-pandemic statistics without acknowledging that when Trump left office the economy was in much worse shape. 

Robinson said that under President Joe Biden’s administration, “grocery prices have skyrocketed, and gas has nearly doubled.”

Facts First: It is true that grocery prices have jumped by over 20% since Biden was sworn in, but gas prices aren’t double what they were when he took office.

The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was about $3.52 on Monday, according to AAA. When Biden was inaugurated, the national average was $2.39.

Robinson also claimed that under former President Donald Trump, unemployment was “at a historic low.” That was certainly true prior to the pandemic. For instance, in February 2020, the nation’s unemployment rate was at 3.5%, the lowest since the late 1960s. By comparison, the average monthly unemployment rate over the past decade was 4.8%. But when Trump left office, it was at 6.4%, far from historic lows. 

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance told CNN in 2016 that he was “definitely not” going to vote for Donald Trump in that year’s election.

In an interview, CNN’s Jake Tapper pressed Vance, whose 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” had catapulted him to fame as a “Trump whisperer” capable of explaining Trump’s appeal to the White working class,” on his voting plans.

Trump’s vice presidential announcement Monday capped off a dramatic transformation on Vance’s part — from a key voice in the “Never Trump” movement to Trump’s running mate. While CNN’s KFILE has documented many of Vance’s criticisms of Trump during his 2016 run and early into his first term in the White House, the Ohio Republican had fully embraced Trump by 2020 and later won the former president’s endorsement in his successful 2022 bid for the US Senate.

In a statement to CNN last month, Vance cited Trump’s “many successes in office” for changing his mind on the former president.

“I’m proud to be one of his strongest supporters in the Senate today and I’m going to do everything in my power to ensure President Trump wins in November — the survival of America depends on it,” he said.

Republicans are delivering withering criticism against President Joe Biden in every way possible, even with delegates waving signs saying “Trump Success = Biden Failure.”

But even as Republicans are mocking, criticizing and belittling Biden, they sure would like to run against him.

Republicans believe Biden is an easier candidate to beat. Vice President Kamala Harris or someone else would be a wildcard.

It’s ironic, Biden is being booed, but Republicans hope they can keep doing so until November.

Elon Musk is seen on June 19, 2024, in Cannes, France. (Photo by Marc Piasecki/Getty Images)

Elon Musk is planning on supporting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign by committing $45 million a month to a new super PAC backing the former president, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The super PAC, called America PAC, is also backed by the founder of Palantir Technologies and the Winklevoss twins, among others, the report said.

America PAC aims to help registering voters, persuade people to vote early and to ask for mail-in ballots in swing states, one person told the Journal.

Some background: In May, the Journal reported, citing unnamed sources, that Musk has discussed advising Trump should he win the 2024 election.

Musk called Trump directly via cellphone to explore a role that could potentially give Musk significant influence over US policies. It’s not clear based on the Journal’s reporting which party initiated conversations about the potential role.

Alabama GOP Sen. Katie Britt speaks on stage during the first night of the convention on Monday, July 15.

Alabama GOP Sen. Katie Britt on Monday said President Joe Biden is “not capable” of his duties as commander in chief as she told attendees at the Republican National Convention that former President Donald Trump is “the change we need.”

She knocked the Biden administration for its handling of the economy, claiming, “Now our lives are way that much more difficult and way more expensive. Under Biden-Harris, prices are high and expectations are low.”

Making the case that a Trump administration is the better alternative, Britt said, “Biden-Harris keep making things worse and we know that the current president is not capable of turning things around.”

“His weakness is costing us our opportunities, our prosperity, our security, our safety. Each diminished. All in decline, just like the man in the Oval Office and it doesn’t have to be this way,” she continued.

“Let’s roll up our sleeves. Send President Trump back to the White House and get America back on track,” Britt said.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks on stage during the convention on Monday, July 15.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem praised former President Donald Trump as a “fighter” and said “the whole world changed” two days ago when there was an assassination attempt on Trump. 

Noem described Trump as the “toughest man that I have ever met.”

“Nobody has endured more than what he has gone through. They’ve attacked his reputation, they impeached him, they tried to bankrupt him, and they unjustly prosecuted him. But even in the most perilous moment this week, his instinct was to stand and to fight.” 

The post has been updated with more on Noem’s remarks.

Sen. Ron Johnson delivered an old version of his Republican National Convention speech on Monday night in Milwaukee, calling Democratic policies a “clear and present danger to the country,” as former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies, including the Wisconsin senator himself, have called for unity in the wake of the assassination attempt on Trump.

Johnson’s spokesperson confirmed to CNN that the senator delivered an old version of his remarks that had been erroneously loaded into the teleprompter, instead of the new version calling for unity.

Johnson told Republican delegates that Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden have “made our lives less safe and far more expensive,” before criticizing Democrats on border security, government spending and gender policies.

“Today’s Democrat agenda, their policies are a clear and present danger to America, to our institutions, to our values and our people,” Johnson said.

The Wisconsin Republican told the state’s delegates on Monday morning that he was “so pleased” that Trump had decided to alter his planned convention speech to capture a unifying message.

Still, Johnson told the delegation he expected Republicans to continue to draw contrasts with their political rivals.

Johnson said he believes the “vast majority of Democrats” love the country, as Republicans do, adding, “we’ve got different visions, we have different policies, but they love this country.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said while attacking Democrats in her convention speech Monday that “the establishment in Washington” held Transgender Day of Visibility on Easter this year.  

“They promised normalcy and gave us Transgender Visibility Day on Easter Sunday,” the Georgia Republican said. 

Facts first: This claim needs context. Transgender Day of Visibility has been held annually on March 31 since it was started in 2009 as a day of awareness to celebrate the successes of transgender and gender-nonconforming people. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the first day of spring and can change year to year. The holiday happened to fall on March 31 in 2024. 

Responding to Republicans criticizing President Joe Biden, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in an April 1 briefing said she was “surprised by the misinformation” surrounding Easter and Transgender Day of Visibility falling on the same day.   

“Every year, for the past several years, on March 31, Transgender Day of Visibility is marked. And as we know — for folks who understand the calendar and how it works, Easter falls on different Sundays every year. And this year, it happened to coincide with Transgender Visibility Day.  And so, that is the simple fact,” she said. 

The public calls from Democrats asking President Joe Biden to bow out of the presidential race have quieted in recent days, but private efforts to nudge the president and his top aides continue, several Democratic sources tell CNN.

Among the efforts, these sources say, are repeated memos from a seasoned and respected Democratic pollster, Stanley Greenberg, sharing his take that Biden is on track to lose the election, and in a way that does deep damage to other Democratic candidates.

These sources said Greenberg has sent several memos over the past two weeks, since the president’s devastating debate performance, analyzing polling internals he asserts show the president’s position continues to deteriorate because Americans overwhelmingly do not see him as up to serving four more years.

Greenberg has been a leading Democratic pollster for decades and his work includes advising Bill Clinton’s two winning presidential campaigns. He declined comment when contacted Monday evening.

Several Democratic members of Congress also have continued to lobby privately, these sources said, urging top Biden advisers to consider the damage to Biden’s legacy if the president not only loses the White House but Republicans hold the House and capture the Senate majority.

One Democratic lawmaker told CNN some top Biden aides get “the depth of this” but believe it can be turned around and in any event describe the president as adamant in the belief he can win. In his NBC News interview Monday, for example, the president again made clear he has no intention of stepping aside.

The lawmaker’s view was that it was counterproductive to make additional public calls for Biden to step aside right now, because of the imperative of a unified party response to this week’s Republican convention and because of the president’s repeated public statements about staying in the race.

But this Democrat predicted that approach would change if the polling and other data after the GOP convention showed the president’s standing deteriorating more.

A video played at the Republican National Convention featured a narrator making the claim that former President Donald Trump “gave us the largest tax cuts in history.” 

Facts First: This is false. Analyses have found that Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was not the largest in history, either in percentage of gross domestic product or inflation-adjusted dollars.

The act made numerous permanent and temporary changes to the tax code, including reducing both corporate and individual income tax rates.

In a report released in June, the federal government’s nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office looked at the size of past tax cuts enacted between 1981 and 2023. It found that two other tax cut bills have been bigger – former President Ronald Reagan’s 1981 package and legislation signed by former President Barack Obama that extended earlier tax cuts enacted during former President George W. Bush’s administration.

The CBO measured the size of tax cuts by looking at the revenue effects of the bills as a percentage of gross domestic product – in other words, how much federal revenue the bill cuts as a portion of the economy – over five years. Reagan’s 1981 tax cut and Obama’s 2012 tax cut extension were 3.5% and 1.7% of GDP, respectively.

Trump’s 2017 tax cut, by contrast, was estimated to be about 1% of GDP.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonprofit, found in 2017 that the framework for the Trump tax cuts would be the fourth largest since 1940 in inflation-adjusted dollars and the eighth largest since 1918 as a percentage of gross domestic product.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks during the first day of the convention on Monday, July 15.

In her speech at the Republican National Convention, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia claimed of Democrats: “They claim that our economy is thriving, yet hundreds of thousands of American-born workers lost their jobs these past few years.”  

Facts First: This is misleading at best. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show that the number of American-born workers with jobs has grown significantly during President Joe Biden’s administration. About 130.9 million American-born workers were employed in June, an increase of nearly 4.7 million since June 2021, shortly after Biden took office. (This data is not seasonally adjusted, so we have to look at the same month in each year for an accurate comparison. In January 2021, the month Biden was sworn in, about 123 million American-born workers were employed.)

There is always churn in the labor market, so it’s certainly possible that hundreds of thousands of individual American-born workers lost their jobs during this period – but contrary to Greene’s insinuation, there have been far greater gains than losses under Biden for American-born workers as a group. 

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley speaks from the stage on Monday, July 15.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said in his speech at the party’s convention on Monday: “Four years ago, Europe and the Middle East were at peace.” 

Facts First: Whatley’s claim is false. Whatever the merits of the Abraham Accords that Trump’s administration helped to negotiate, in which Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates agreed in 2020 to normalize relations with Israel (Morocco and Sudan followed), there was still lots of unresolved armed conflict around the Middle East four years ago in mid-2020 and when Trump left office in early 2021.  

The list notably included the civil war in Yemen; the civil war in Syria; and the conflicts between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, between Israel and Hezbollah on its border with Lebanon, between Israel and Syria, and what former State Department official Aaron David Miller called “the war between the wars between Israel and Iran on air, land and sea.” Also, the US, its allies and civilians continued to be attacked in an unstable Iraq. 

“It’s a highly inaccurate statement,” Miller, who worked on Mideast peace negotiations while in government and is now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said last fall, when Trump himself made a similar claim about having achieved peace in the Middle East.  

Dana El Kurd, senior nonresident fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC think tank, also called that claim “false” when Trump made it. She said in a November email: “The Abraham Accords did not achieve peace in the Middle East. In fact, violence escalated in Israel-Palestine in the aftermath of the Accords (using any metric you can think of – death tolls, settlement violence, etc).” 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks from the stage during the convention on Monday, July 15.

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene celebrated former President Donald Trump’s GOP presidential nomination but called it a somber moment for the country after the assassination attempt on the former president.

She also prayed for Corey Comperatore, the man shot and killed during the attempted assassination of Trump. “He displayed the ultimate show of life when he shielded his wife and daughter, sacrificing his own life,” she said.

Greene slammed Democrats over policy issues including the border crisis and the economy, while arguing Trump “has and will make America successful again.”

Sen. Tim Scott speaks during the first night of the convention on Monday, July 15.

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott attacked President Joe Biden on topics like inflation and the border during his remarks at the Republican National Convention on Monday.

Scott, who was at one point a potential vice presidential pick for Donald Trump, said inflation is “crushing families” and said the border is hurting working-class families.

The senator talked about his life growing up with a single mother who “taught me to work hard, to take responsibility and reject victimhood.” He attacked cities and states run by Democratic leaders and asserted that conservative values and Republican policies are the ones that “lifts people up.”

“America, we deserve better,” he said to cheers from the crowd.

Scott pressed on the importance of the election in November, saying voters are “not deciding simply the fate for the next four years, we’re setting a course for the next 40 years.”

Karen, from Monaca, Pennsylvania, describes the scene at the hospital that treated Former President Donald Trump on Saturday.

During a meeting Monday evening in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, a woman said she was treated at the same hospital as former president Donald Trump after the attempted assassination.

Karen, who identified herself only by her first name, said she is from Monaca, Pennsylvania, while speaking at a gathering held by Right 2 Liberty, a conservative group.

She told the group that she was at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally before she became overheated and was transported by ambulance to Butler Memorial Hospital for treatment. The high temperature in Butler on Saturday was 91 degrees Fahrenheit, according to CNN Weather.

Karen said she was sitting in a wheelchair in a hospital waiting room when her husband started screaming down the hallway: “Where’s Karen? Where’s Karen? He’s been shot! He’s been shot!”

People in the waiting room were crying as they watched the rally on the television, she described.

Karen said men entered the parking lot with helmets and guns and then former president Trump exited an SUV and walked into the emergency room.

She described a small prayer patients performed in the waiting room for the former president.

Karen added that her husband livestreamed Trump walking into the emergency room door on social media.

CNN watched a livestream of the Right 2 Liberty event, but has not verified Karen’s account.

Former President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance are expected to appear together publicly for the first time tonight since Trump announced his running mate. 

Trump and Vance are expected to appear in the family box at tonight’s convention, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

A GoFundMe set up to support the family of Corey Comperatore, the man killed at Saturday night’s Trump rally, has surpassed $1,000,000.

The fundraiser’s original goal was only $7,000, but has raised over $1 million in just one day, according to a statement from the organizer.

The organizer of the GoFundMe, Jason Bubb, wrote that he is a neighbor, friend, and personal trainer of Comperatore’s daughter. 

The fundraiser has been verified by GoFundMe’s global Trust and Safety team, according to a GoFundMe spokesperson.

The Republican National Convention featured a video attacking President Joe Biden over the price of gas. But the video misleadingly deployed out-of-date figures as if they were current.  

A narrator claimed: “When President Trump left office, gas cost only $2.20. Under Biden and Harris, gas skyrocketed to the highest price in history, over five bucks a gallon.” Later in the video, a young man said, “Within my first year of driving, I’m having to deal with an average of $5.03 across the nation,” and a woman said, “It’s impossible to pay $5.03. We need to care about our people better than that.”

Facts First: These claims about Biden-era gas prices are two years out of date. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline was about $3.52 on Monday, according to the AAA. The national average did, under Biden, hit a record high of more than $5 per gallon – about $5.02, according to AAA data – but that happened in June 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine triggered a global spike in oil prices. The RNC videos offered no indication that the national average has since fallen substantially. 

Also, the national average on the day Trump left office in January 2021 was about $2.39 per gallon, not $2.20, though it was lower than $2.20 in some states.

The Biden campaign is now fundraising around the selection of Sen. JD Vance as former President Donald Trump’s running mate.

The Biden campaign mounted a robust messaging plan around Vance’s selection, planning statements and research for months for Trump’s final four picks.

Vice President Kamala Harris also presented an appeal for supporters to pitch in $25.

“J.D. Vance might be Donald Trump’s running mate,” Harris wrote. “But, with the help of supporters like you, he won’t be the next Vice President of the United States.”

Sen. Ron Johnson speaks on stage during the Republican National Convention on Monday, July 15.

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson welcomed Republican delegates to Milwaukee at the start of the Republican National Convention programming on Monday evening.

In his brief remarks, Johnson stuck mostly to laying out the vision of the Republican Party, which was founded in the badger state, and drawing contrasts with Democrats. 

Earlier in the day, Johnson praised former President Donald Trump for saying he’ll shift to a unifying message in his convention remarks in the wake of an assassination attempt on Saturday.

Still, Johnson said Republicans would continue to criticize Democrats over policy disagreements.

Former President Donald Trump is expected to make an appearance at the Republican National Convention later tonight, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN.

The source says that timing is fluid.

Trump has privately said he is eager to get to the convention to meet with supporters and allies after surviving an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

This post has been updated.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster speaks with CNN's Phil Mattingly from the convention floor on Monday, July 15.

Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump over the weekend “energized people all over the country.”

Speaking to CNN from the Republican National Convention where Trump officially became the party’s presidential nominee, McMaster said he believes the assassination attempt may have made voters turn toward the former president.

The governor said those attending the RNC this week are fully behind Trump.

“I think his face is the picture of strength in America right now,” he said.

Eric Trump speaks with CNN at the Republican National Convention on July 15.

Former President Donald Trump “understands how close it was” when he survived an assassination attempt on Saturday, but “he is not deterred,” his son Eric Trump told CNN Monday at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Eric Trump also described the moments after his father was escorted off the stage.

He also remarked on how “heartbreaking” the moment was for the nation.

“It’s heartbreaking for this nation. Our nation should not be in that spot ever, ever, ever, ever,” he said.

A video played during the Republican National Convention, which attacked President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy, featured a narrator saying, “The Wall Street Journal has reported today that Americans’ incomes have gone down three straight years.” 

Facts First: This needs context. The RNC video left out an inconvenient fact from the Wall Street Journal report that was published in 2023: one of the three straight years in which inflation-adjusted median household income went down was 2020 when Donald Trump was president. The Covid-19 pandemic played a major role in the decline, but the ad failed to explain that not all of the three years were under Biden. 

Real median household income fell from $78,250 in 2019 to $76,660 in 2020 (all under Trump), then edged down to $76,330 in 2021 (mostly under Biden) and fell more substantially to $74,580 in 2022 (all under Biden). Figures for 2023 and 2024-to-date are not available. 

Attacking President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy, the Republican National Convention featured a video in which a narrator said, “America has reached the highest inflation in 40 years.”

Facts First: This claim is two years out of date. The year-over-year inflation rate in June 2022, about 9.1%, was indeed the highest since late 1981, between 40 and 41 years prior. But inflation has declined sharply since that Biden-era peak, and the most recent available rate, for June 2024, was about 3.0% – a rate that, the Biden presidency aside, was exceeded as recently as 2011.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio praised former President Donald Trump’s choice of Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate, writing on X:

Sen. JD Vance didn’t answer a phone call from Vice President Kamala Harris because it came from an unknown number and he was unable to call back, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Staff for Vance’s team are in touch with Harris’ team, and they are working on setting up a call now, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

A source previously told CNN that Harris called Vance, but the two did not previously connect, and Harris left a voicemail congratulating Vance on his selection as former president Donald Trump’s running mate and welcomed him to the race.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird speaks at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee's Fiserv Forum on Monday. On the screens above her is Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who was formally nominated as Donald Trump's running mate.

The Republican National Convention kicked off Monday in Milwaukee and former President Donald Trump was formally nominated to become the GOP’s presidential nominee.

Click here to see more of CNN’s best photos from in and around the Fiserv Forum, where the convention is taking place through Thursday. 

Chase, left, and Knox, from Tampa, Florida, attend the convention on Monday. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson introduces the roll call Monday to nominate former President Donald Trump as the GOP's presidential candidate.

Former President Donald Trump's sons Eric, center left, and Donald Jr. attend the convention on Monday.

A TV journalist reports from inside the Fiserv Forum on Monday.

Kay Hall and Sharon Henson, both from Texas, pose with a Trump poster on Monday.

President Joe Biden suggested Monday he wasn’t surprised former President Donald Trump chose Ohio Sen. JD Vance as a running mate.

“Even though, if you go back and listen to some of the things JD Vance said about Trump,” Biden said, laughing as he trailed off. Vance was a vocal critic of Trump’s policies and a part of the “never-Trump” Republican movement in 2016.

Biden was also asked whether he felt he had weathered the storm of his debate performance, and pointed to primary voters.

“14 million people voted for me to be the nominee in the Democratic Party. Okay? I listen to them,” he said.

He was also asked a follow up question from his ABC News interview on whether he had watched his debate with Trump.

“I’ve seen pieces of it. I’ve not watched the whole debate,” Biden said.

President Biden is interviewed by NBC News’ Lester Holt.

President Joe Biden declined to speculate on the future trajectory of the 2024 presidential race in the aftermath of an assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump.

“I don’t know, and you don’t know either,” he told NBC News’ Lester Holt when asked how the events could change the election. 

Biden suggested he was focused on health and safety.

He went on to lament high tensions and heated political rhetoric, pointing to inflammatory signage he’s seen on the road as “a very different thing than saying I really disagree with Trump, the way he takes care of taxes.”

President Joe Biden offered some new insight into his conversation with former President Donald Trump after Saturday’s assassination attempt, characterizing the call as “very cordial.”

Trump sounded good, the president said, adding, “He said he was fine. And he thanked me for calling him. I told him he was literally in the prayers of Jill and me and his whole family was weathering this.”

Speaking with CNN after Ohio Sen. JD Vance was selected as Donald Trump’s running mate, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said he would wait until after the November election to replace the senator if needed.

He also referenced his own experience in the Senate, explaining what a candidate would need to prepare.

Delegates during the start of the Republican National Convention at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Monday, July 15.

Donald Trump officially became the Republican nominee for president at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday and chose Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate.

Here’s what to know so far today:

The House Oversight Committee Republicans sent a letter to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on Monday with a new series of document requests and a notice to preserve all documents and communications regarding Donald Trump’s Butler, Pennsylvania, rally, as the committee continues to investigate the assassination attempt of the former president. 

The detailed documents request asks the Secret Service to provide a host of information including text messages and email communications, a list of law enforcement personnel at the rally and any pre-site surveys identifying security concerns about the rally location. 

CNN has reached out to the Secret Service for comment.

The Oversight Committee Republicans asked for some of the requests to be fulfilled before its scheduled hearing on July 22 where the committee has requested Cheatle to appear – and some to be fulfilled on July 29. 

Earlier this afternoon, Donald Trump formally won the Republican nomination during the convention roll call vote.  

House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that Trump had won 2,387 votes.

There were 2,429 votes available but in three states and Washington, DC, the secretary of the convention announced that some votes would be cast “pursuant to the rules and procedures” of the convention.

While it wasn’t specified, these votes match up with delegates in these states won by former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, according to CNN’s delegate estimate. 

One additional vote from South Dakota, which had an unbound delegation, was apparently not counted. These 42 votes make up the difference between Trump’s total and the total number of available votes. 

How the roll call worked: Delegate votes during the roll call don’t always match estimates of delegates won during the primary season, as party rules often allow, or require, delegates to support the presumptive nominee on the floor in the interest of party unity. That’s especially true when a losing candidate releases their delegates and encourages them to vote for the winner, something Haley did earlier this month. 

While Trump’s adopted home state of Florida put him over the top and gave him enough votes to become the nominee, unusually, the roll call was not conducted in even a rough alphabetical order. 

Instead, Iowa and Nevada, two of the states which begin the presidential primary process and which provided the nominating and seconding speakers for Trump, were the first two states to vote. Florida went 21st in the order, and most of the states where Haley won delegates during the primary voted at the end, even though many of those delegations cast all of their votes for Trump on the floor.

Republican governors across America are reacting to Donald Trump’s running mate pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.

Here’s a rundown of the reactions so far:

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said, “it’s a great day for Ohio.” Vance is “consistent with Trump’s appeal to working men and women,” DeWine said, adding that he thought it was good to pick someone younger. “Also, someone who shares his desire to expand the base of the Republican Party.”

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu is critical of Trump but has said he’ll vote for him in November, and praised his running mate choice. “Being a Marine is a big win in my family. As a Dad, he knows the kitchen table issues we all face. Americans have the opportunity to unite behind this ticket and move our country forward!” he said on X, formerly Twitter.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin congratulated Sen. Vance on X. “His passion for America’s prosperity, service as a U.S. Marine, and commitment to our commonsense conservative values are what we need for a stronger America,” he added.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said that he thinks Vance’s selection as Trump’s running mate could help the former president. “He’s a United States senator. He’s been through a tough campaign. He, no doubt, is a great messenger, and I think he helps President Trump in a lot of ways,” Kemp said Monday at a roundtable hosted by Bloomberg News.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was Donald Trump’s White House press secretary, praised the choice. “I think he’s going to be tremendous. Bright businessman, a Marine. He’s going to be a great complement to President Trump,” the Republican governor told CNN at the RNC.

This post has been updated with comments from Gov. Kemp and Gov. Huckabee Sanders.

CNN’s Ali Main, Kit Maher and Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this post.

The Republican National Convention has a range of speakers lined up for its convention this week, including, lawmakers, governors and celebrities such as rapper Amber Rose and Dana White from the UFC, former President Donald Trump’s campaign and the RNC announced Saturday.

Republicans are gathering in Milwaukee, where they officially anointed Trump as their presidential nominee and his VP pick, JD Vance.

CNN reported earlier that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and former Trump aide Peter Navarro, who is expected to be released from prison, would also speak at the convention.

From Trump’s family, sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump; Lara Trump, Eric Trump’s wife and the co-chair of the RNC; and Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancee and former Fox News host, will speak.

Here is the full list of expected speakers.

President Joe Biden is interviewed by NBC News’ Lester Holt.

President Joe Biden defended comments that critics have seized on in the aftermath of the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump, saying in an interview that he was trying to turn focus to Trump when he said that it’s “time to put Trump in a bullseye,” but that it was a “mistake.” 

“I meant focus on him, focus on what he’s doing. Focus on his policies, focus on the number of lies he told at the debate,” he said.

Biden sought to turn the conversation back to Trump’s own words.

Pressed by Holt on whether he has used inciting language, Biden suggested that it was necessary to characterize Trump as a “threat to democracy.”

“How do you talk about the threat to democracy – which is real – when a president says things like he says? Do you just not say anything – because it may incite somebody?” he questioned.

“I am not engaged in that rhetoric. Now my opponent is engaged in that rhetoric: He talks about it’ll be a bloodbath if he loses, talking about how he’s going to forgive all the actions, I guess suspend the sentences of all those who were arrested and sentenced to go to jail because of what happened in the Capitol. I’m not out there making fun of like when remember the picture of Donald Trump when Nancy Pelosi’s husband was hit with a hammer going – talking — joking about it?” he added.

Corey Comperatore, who was killed after a gunman targeted former president Donald Trump at a rally on Saturday.

The widow of rally shooting victim Corey Comperatore shared her husband’s last words as he shielded his family from bullets that ultimately took his life in an interview with the New York Post,

The Comperatore family attended Saturday’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, as CNN previously reported. Helen told the Post that she and Corey were childhood sweethearts who were about to celebrate their 29th wedding anniversary when the family headed to the rally to support former president Donald Trump.

“Me and the kids were all there as a family,” she said. “He was just excited. It was going to be a nice day with the family.”

“It was a bad day,” she added.

Helen told the Post that President Joe Biden tried to call her, but she declined to speak to him since her husband “was a devout Republican, and he would not have wanted me to talk to him.”

But she added that she does not hold the current president responsible for what happened to her family.

“I don’t have any ill will towards Joe Biden,” she said. “I’m not one of those people that gets involved in politics. I support Trump, that’s who I’m voting for, but I don’t have ill-will towards Biden.”

“He didn’t do anything to my husband. A 20-year-old despicable kid did,” she continued.

The family has not heard from Trump, she added.

Nearly 48 hours after the shooting at a Trump rally, investigators are struck by the lack of leads they’re finding about Thomas Matthew Crooks’ mindset and possible motives for his attack.

Even after successfully breaking into his phone and searching his computer, scouring his search history and bedroom and interviewing his family and friends, agents still haven’t found evidence that would suggest political or ideological impetus for the shooting, law enforcement sources told CNN. 

Instead, the evidence they have found appears show typical online activities including an interest in computer coding and gaming — and that has raised more questions. 

The Biden campaign says that Vice President Kamala Harris is ready to take on JD Vance on the debate stage, moments after the Ohio senator was announced as former President Donald Trump’s running mate.

The Biden campaign previously accepted proposed dates of July 23 or August 13. Trump’s campaign has not yet accepted the invitation, according to CBS News.

The campaign argued that Harris is well-positioned to draw contrasts with Vance.

Progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a key Biden campaign surrogate, offered praise of Harris and high expectations for a Harris-Vance matchup.

“She is strong. She knows what she’s talking about, and she doesn’t give an inch. And she has the better end of the argument,” Warren said, pointing to Harris’ positions on Social Security and Medicare, health care, economic issues, and unions. “The debate is going to have to two parts to it: It’s how strong our vice president is and how good her economic issues are. I’m lookin’ forward to this debate.”

The Secret Service had to reschedule the briefing that the agency’s director, Kimberly Cheatle, was expected to give on Monday to House Homeland Security Committee Republicans, a committee source told CNN. 

The source added the committee expects to receive an alternative briefing date from the Secret Service.

Separately, House Homeland Security Chair Mark Green and Ranking Member Bennie Thompson held a call with FBI Executive Assistant Director Robert Wells on Monday to discuss the status of the agency’s investigation into the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, the committee spokesperson said.

The information relayed in the call mirrored information the FBI has released in the last 24 hours. 

On the call, Green and Thompson were notified that the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office is leading the investigation into what it called “potential domestic terrorism and the attempted assassination of President Trump,” according to the source. 

Describing how the investigation is being broken up, Wells relayed to Green and Thompson, accordin to the source, that “the FBI is focused on the gunman, his motive, any potential associations, building a timeline of events, and related matters, while the Secret Service is conducting a separate review of its security protocol.” 

Green intends to schedule a site visit, if possible, once the scene has been processed, the source added.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance has been formally nominated as Donald Trump’s vice president by acclamation.

Trump received enough votes to officially become the GOP’s presidential nominee at the Republican National Convention earlier Monday during the roll call.

Nominating a vice president: Like the nominee for president, the name of a candidate is placed into the nomination and is seconded. A vice presidential candidate traditionally is nominated by acclamation — or voice vote — to avoid a potentially time-consuming roll call vote. Both parties have nominated their vice presidential candidates by acclamation since 1988.

The presidential and vice presidential nominees will give an acceptance speech at some point during the convention.

Vance, a venture capitalist and the author of the best-selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” was elected to the Senate in 2022 after receiving a boost from Trump in a contentious Republican primary.

CNN’s Ethan Cohen, Molly English and Matt Holt contributed reporting to this post.

President Joe Biden told reporters that he views Sen. JD Vance, Donald Trump’s pick for running mate, as “a clone” of the former president.

The remarks were Biden’s first public comments after the news broke that Vance would join Trump on the ticket.

The new Republican vice-presidential pick is the embodiment of Trump’s “America First” policies.

Sen. JD Vance is part of a new generation of pro-Trump lawmakers who reject the traditional US foreign policy consensus. He traveled to the belly of the internationalist beast at the Munich Security Conference earlier this year to rebuke America’s European allies. And at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the US, he explained why America should no longer finance Ukraine’s fight for its freedom.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rebuked Vance’s criticism of the war in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in February.

“To understand it is to come to the front line to see what’s going on, to speak with the people, then to go to civilians to understand … what will (happen to) them without this support. And he will understand that millions … will be killed. It’s a fact,” Zelensky said.

“Of course, he doesn’t understand. God bless you don’t have the war on your territory,” he said.

Sen. JD Vance, with his wife, Usha, on the convention floor on Monday, July 15.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance has entered the Republican National Convention floor.

Vance, Donald Trump’s pick for vice president, is expected to be formally nominated soon.

Vance was joined by his wife, Usha.

Vice President Kamala Harris called Sen. JD Vance after he was named Trump’s running mate, a source familiar with the call told CNN. 

The two did not connect, but Harris left a voicemail, the source said.

In her voicemail, the vice president congratulated Vance on his selection, welcomed him to the race, and expressed her hope that the two could meet in the vice-presidential debate proposed by CBS News, per a campaign official.

Sen. JD Vance’s alma mater, Ohio State University, congratulated the alumnus for being named Donald Trump’s running mate on Monday.

Vance graduated from OSU in 2009 with a bachelor of arts in political science and philosophy.

From our position overlooking the convention floor, the answer to the question of the importance of Nebraska’s one electoral vote can be answered by looking at where the state’s delegation is sitting.

The Nebraska delegation sits in one of the best pieces of real estate on the convention floor — the very front, just to the left of the podium where Donald Trump will accept the Republican nomination.

Nebraska Republican officials told CNN the Trump campaign assigned the seats in hopes of changing the state’s law that divides electoral votes. Nebraska, along with Maine, awards some electoral votes by congressional district, rather than statewide winner-take-all rules. Joe Biden won the Omaha area vote in 2020, but Republicans are working to win back that district.

The reason Nebraska matters? It’s a critical piece of the Wisconsin-Michigan-Pennsylvania roadmap for Biden. The president cannot win reelection on the blue wall alone. He needs Nebraska’s 2nd District as well.

Today, that is very much an open question — whether or not the state law distributing electoral votes is changed.

Delegates have been writing Vance's name in Sharpie on their Trump signs because signs haven't been printed yet.

Delegates at the Republican National Convention have been writing JD Vance’s name in Sharphie on their signs.

Former President Donald Trump announced the Ohio Senator as his running mate earlier today, just before becoming the official GOP presidential nominee.

Idaho delegate Kirsten Lucas Idaho delegate adds Vance's name t a Trump sign after the senator was officially nominated.

Kirsten Lucas, an Idaho delegate, was shading in “VANCE” on a Trump sign after the senator was officially nominated.

Before Vance took the floor, another woman in the rafters was waving a Trump-Vance sign that she shaded in.  

This post was updated with additional details from delegates.

Those close to former President Donald Trump who had been pushing him to choose Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate — including his son Donald Trump Jr. and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson — argued to him that the freshman senator, out of all the top three VP contenders he was considering, has the strongest personal relationship with Trump.

They argued that he’d be the most loyal to serve alongside the former president, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.

They also made the case that Vance can appeal to working-class voters viewed as essential to winning the key battleground states in November, given his upbringing in a poor Rust Belt town in Ohio.

They also pointed to his wife, Usha Chilukuri — the child of Indian immigrants — as being someone who could appeal to minority voters, the sources said. 

The Senate is narrowly divided and Democrats hold a slim majority. But there’s no need for Ohio Sen. JD Vance, whom former President Donald Trump selected as his running mate Monday, to leave the chamber during the campaign.  

It makes sense to look to a senator as vice president: The role’s main official duty is to serve as president of the US Senate, although recent vice presidents don’t tend to spend too much time on Capitol Hill.

In fact, there is a long history of presidential candidates selecting senators as running mates. President Joe Biden was at the end of a long career as a US senator from Delaware when he was tapped as then-Sen. Barack Obama’s running mate in 2008. Biden and Obama both continued to serve in the Senate during the campaign, as did Sen. John McCain, the Arizonan who was Republicans’ pick that year. 

So what does that mean for the seat? Usually, when a senator is elected as either president or vice president, they will resign from their Senate seat in early January after the election.

Vance won his seat in the Senate in 2022 and won’t be up for reelection as a senator until 2028. If he and Trump win in November, Vance would need to resign before taking the oath of office on January 20.

It would then fall to Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, himself a former senator, to appoint a replacement until the next regular state election, when there would be a special election to fill the rest of the term. 

This can be a fraught process. Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich went to federal prison for essentially trying to trade away the appointment to fill out Obama’s term. 

US markets rose Monday as investors processed the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump over the weekend.

The Dow rose climbed 211 points, or 0.5%, closing at a fresh record high. The S&P 500 gained 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.4%.

Bettors raised their wagers that Trump will win the November election against President Joe Biden: A contract betting that Trump will win went for 68 cents on Monday, implying a 67% chance of the former president winning the election, according to election prediction market platform PredictIt. That’s up from 60 cents on Friday. The price of a contract for Biden’s victory cost 26 cents on Monday.

The price of Bitcoin climbed 4%. The Republican Party’s campaign platform promises to “end Democrats’ unlawful and un-American crypto crackdown.”

Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, the former president’s social media company, popped 31.4%.

Former President Donald Trump called Ohio Sen. JD Vance to offer him the vice presidential nominee position 20 minutes before he made the announcement on Truth Social, a source familiar with the process told CNN.

A day after Ohio voters approved a ballot measure to protect access to abortion last year, Sen. JD Vance urged Republicans to embrace a federal ban on abortion to more effectively make the case to voters about the GOP’s position.

Vance’s position stands in contrast to former President Donald Trump’s, who has said the issue should be left up to the states after he reshaped a Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade.

In November 2023, Vance told CNN that Republicans need to focus on “persuasion” to sway voters toward their position, while arguing the GOP needs to press for a national standard banning abortion — either at 15 or 20 weeks — with some exceptions.

“It seems to suggest there needs to be some more interest in this building among Republicans in setting some sort of minimum national standard, whether that’s it’s 15 weeks or 20 weeks or the different ranges that are thrown out there,” Vance told CNN’s Manu Raju and Ted Barrett in the Capitol. “We keep giving into the idea that the federal Congress has no role in this matter. Because if it doesn’t it, then the pro-life movement is basically not gonna exist, I think, for the next couple of years.”

While Vance said he expected a majority of states to adopt their own bans, “there’s some reason I think we should have some minimum national standard.”

 Former president Donald Trump’s selection of Sen. JD Vance as his vice-presidential running mate makes a lot of sense when you consider President Joe Biden’s best remaining route back to the White House.

Most assessments of the electoral map suggest Biden must at a minimum win Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin and add a single electoral vote in Omaha, Nebraska, to get to the 270 Electoral Votes needed to win the presidency.

Vance has a particular talent for talking to voters in the post-industrial Midwest and is the epitome of the transformation of the Republican party into a populist, working class powerhouse that has turned his home state of Ohio from the ultimate presidential electoral bellwether into a solid Trump state.

He won his Senate seat in the Buckeye state by more than six points in 2022. 

But Vance is also abrasive — much like Trump himself — and while he can juice MAGA turnout he may alienate the critical suburban voters, especially women, that usually decide US elections, especially with his hardline position on abortion.

Trump critics are also seizing on the pick to question Trump’s commitment to his new unity message after he escaped an assassination attempt since Vance responded with the most searing reaction, claiming that Biden’s arguments that Trump was an “authoritarian fascist” led the attempt to kill him.

But Trump doesn’t seem to care, perhaps a sign that he’s already convinced he’s going to win in November. And in picking Vance, an ideological populist nationalist in his own image, he’s handed an heir the keys to the MAGA kingdom.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. met with former President Donald Trump in Milwaukee today, Kennedy campaign spokesperson Stefanie Spear told CNN on Monday.

Spear said Kennedy and Trump discussed “national unity” in the days following the assassination attempt that left Trump injured at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday.  

A source familiar with the conversation said the two also discussed Trump’s vice presidential nomination decision.

Trump selected Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate.

The FBI has gained access to the phone of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the Trump rally shooter, the bureau said in a statement Monday. 

The bureau is analyzing Crooks’ electronic devices and has searched his home and car, the FBI said. Investigators have also conducted “nearly 100 interviews of law enforcement personnel, event attendees, and other witnesses. That work continues.” 

The investigative steps are part of the FBI’s initial investigation of the Saturday shooting at a Trump rally, which it is investigating as an assignation attempt on former President Donald Trump and potential domestic terrorism.

Authorities have previously said they believe that Crooks acted alone and that they have not yet been able to identify a motive for the shooting. 

Sen. JD Vance looks on during the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on February 23.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who is chosen to be Donald Trump’s running mate for the November election is largely unknown nationally.

In the most recent CNN poll, 66% of registered voters said they had either never heard of Vance (51%) or didn’t know enough to have an opinion (15%). Among those with an opinion, 13% had a favorable view, 20% an unfavorable one.

Among Republican and Republican-leaning voters, 23% have a favorable view of Vance, 8% unfavorable, 50% have never heard of him and 19% say they’d heard of him but didn’t yet have an opinion.

In 2022, CNN’s exit poll on the Senate race in Ohio showed that he carried 95% of Ohio voters who said they backed Trump in 2020. He also won 73% of voters who said it was most important to them that the candidate share their values, and a majority of voters who said they were casting a ballot in support of their candidate rather than against his opponent. About four in 10 Ohio voters, 39%, said his views were too extreme, 51% that they are not. Independents split about evenly between Vance (49%) and his Democratic opponent, Tim Ryan (49%). And Vance won suburban (58%) and rural (57%) voters by a wide margin.

Why this matters: An April ABC News poll found that 35% of Americans said it was extremely or very important to them who Trump picks as his running mate, 21% said it was somewhat important, and 44% less important than that.

Ramaswamy speaks with CNN on Monday July 15.

Former Republican candidate for president, Vivek Ramaswamy, voiced support for Ohio Sen. JD Vance as Donald Trump’s running mate.

“We used to watch Bengals games at the bar in law school, it’s awesome we’re now here a decade later with JD joining the strongest presidential ticket in our lifetime,” he said. “He’ll be an outstanding Vice President and I look forward to everything ahead for him and for our country.”

Shortly after JD Vance was announced as Donald Trump’s running mate, the Ohio Democratic Party decried the decision.

The Ohio Democratic Party called Vance “an out-of-touch millionaire who launched his political career by taking advantage of Ohio’s opioid crisis and has spent his time in the Senate humiliating himself in the service of a convicted felon instead of working to improve the quality of life for Ohioans.

The organization added, “Ohio has buyers’ remorse. Donald Trump and the country will too,” they said.

Nevada GOP Chair Michael McDonald speaks during the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Monday, July 15.

Some of the speakers who took to the stage to announce their state’s delegates for former President Donald Trump are well-known names in their own right. Here are a few of the key individuals who took a role in the process to nominate Trump:

The Biden-Harris campaign said that JD Vance, who former President Donald Trump picked as his running mate, will “bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people.”

The campaign said it will focus on highlighting the contrasting visions of America: The Biden-Harris ticket, which wants to unify the nation, create opportunity for all and lower costs; or the Trump-Vance ticket, which has a harmful agenda that seeks to take away Americans’ rights, hurt the middle class and make life more expensive, while benefiting the wealthy and “greedy corporations.”

“Billionaires and corporations are literally rooting for J.D. Vance: they know he and Trump will cut their taxes and send prices skyrocketing for everyone else,” she continued.

The campaign ticked off what it said were Vance’s positions:

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who is scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention, previewed what he will speak about in his speech tonight.

He also said he was happy that former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley was invited to speak at the RNC, after initially being kept off the program.

“We have a big tent that is the Republican Party and we are filling it up. In Virginia, we were able to win the Hispanic vote and the Asian votes and more of the Black vote that we’ve seen in recent history. We can do this and this is our chance to not just bring together the Republican party, which you see all over here, but bring together America,” he told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will receive US Secret Service protection at President Joe Biden’s direction, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced Monday.

Kennedy thanked Biden for the decision, as well as the private security firm that he has hired for personal protection and to secure campaign events, in a post on X.

Former President Donald Trump had called for Kennedy to receive Secret Service protection in the aftermath of Saturday’s assassination attempt.

Kennedy’s uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, were both assassinated.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance met with former President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club on Saturday before the rally and assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, a source familiar with the meeting told CNN.

Trump formally named the Ohio Republican as his running mate Monday.  

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum posted a statement after Ohio Sen. JD Vance has been selected as Donald Trump’s running mate. 

Burgum was on Trump’s vice presidential shortlist along with Vance and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

As various committees begin their work of investigating the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump, House GOP leadership is still weighing whether or not a select committee or commission should be established to tackle the congressional investigation. A commission or select committee could provide a way to keep the investigation more bipartisan.

But a source familiar says no decisions have been made. This is expected to be part of ongoing conversations this week at the convention and beyond.

Thomas Matthew Crooks, the shooter at the Trump rally, went to the rifle range at the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club in Pennsylvania on Friday, according to a senior law enforcement official.

On Saturday morning, the shooter went to Home Depot and bought a five-foot ladder before going to the gun store and purchasing the 50 rounds of ammunition, the source said. 

Later that afternoon, Crooks drove to the rally site in Butler, where CNN previously reported he was spotted by local law enforcement acting suspiciously by the magnetometers outside the event, and then not spotted again until he was perched on that roof.

Authorities are still working toward retracing all of his activities in the days leading up to the shooting and have asked the public for help in building out the full picture of his movements. 

House Oversight Chair James Comer has officially scheduled a hearing on July 22 about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

It’s titled “Oversight of the U.S. Secret Service and the Attempted Assassination of President Donald J. Trump.”

Comer says that Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle will be a witness at the committee’s hearing. CNN has reached out to Secret Service for comment.

House Speaker Mike Johnson offered praise for Donald Trump’s long-awaited vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.

Other House Republican members followed suit, echoing Vance’s background and time in the Senate.

This post has been updated with more reactions to Trump’s vice presidential pick.

Donald Trump Jr. is seen on the convention floor on Monday, July 15.

Donald Trump Jr. told CNN that former President Donald Trump is doing well following Saturday’s assassination attempt.

The former president’s son went on to describe how he found out about the shooting.

When Donald Trump Jr. was able to reach his father, he said the former president was pretty in pretty good spirits and even joked about what happened.

Donald Trump Jr. said his father showed resolve that he’s willing to fight for this country.

“I told him, ‘You’re the biggest bad a** I know,’” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell takes the mic with the Kentucky delegation.

The floor at the Republican National Convention rang out in boos when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell took the mic with the Kentucky delegation moments ago.

Some context: McConnell, who pointedly blamed former President Donald Trump for the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, announced he will support Trump for the presidency after Trump’s final substantive primary challenger — former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley — said she would leave the presidential race.

McConnell did not speak to Trump before he issued his endorsement in March, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Michael McDonald, the Nevada GOP chairman who seconded Donald Trump’s nomination for the presidency, was one of the Trump campaign’s fake electors from the 2020 election.

He was part of the delegation of six Trump supporters in Nevada who submitted phony certificates to Congress claiming they were the rightful electors from that state, which Trump narrowly lost to President Joe Biden.

That was part of Trump’s larger seven-state plot to undermine the Electoral College process and stay in power. This played a major role in Trump’s federal election subversion indictment brought by special counsel Jack Smith.

McDonald was indicted on state charges in Nevada over his role in the scheme, but the case was thrown out last month for jurisdictional reasons. The Nevada attorney general, a Democrat, promised to appeal that decision.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine praised former President Donald Trump’s choice of Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate.

DeWine noted Vance’s accomplishments, including being a father, military veteran and best-selling author. The senator, 39, who hails from Middletown, Ohio, has served the state well in the Senate, DeWine said.

Highlighting Vance’s age, DeWine said that the senator “will also bring a new generational perspective to the ticket.” Plus, his life story “will resonate” with GOP and independent voters.

Vance knows the importance of securing the border and can relate to the many Americans who are struggling with inflation and high housing prices that is “shutting many out of a chance at achieving the American dream,” DeWine said.

Eric Trump awards Florida's delegates to his father.

Donald Trump has received enough votes to become the Republican presidential nominee, with the delegation from Florida putting him over the top.

Eric Trump awarded Florida’s delegates to his father. Trump’s daughter Tiffany Trump and Donald Trump Jr. were standing next to Eric Trump.

Ahead of this moment, Trump announced on social media that he has chosen Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his vice presidential pick.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will now be tasked with appointing a replacement for Sen. JD Vance after former President Donald Trump picked the Ohio senator to be his running mate.

The Republican governor has engaged in high-profile clashes with the former president.

Some context: DeWine has not explicitly endorsed Trump’s third White House bid and recently found himself on opposite sides of the former president in a key Republican Senate primary in the Buckeye State. Trump backed the eventual winner, businessman Bernie Moreno, while DeWine put his name behind state Sen. Matt Dolan.

Though DeWine is a former US senator himself, his allies believe it is incredibly unlikely he would appoint himself to the job if Vance is chosen. Though he has never been close to Trump, DeWine also wouldn’t want a bad relationship with a Republican administration, they say.

Potential picks: For DeWine, the choice of successor is a potentially legacy-defining pick, and finding someone who could appease all party factions, from the establishment class to the MAGA wing, and survive a primary challenge in 2026 would be a top priority, Republicans close to the governor told CNN.

Among those in the mix are Dolan, former Ohio Republican Party chair Jane Timken, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Attorney General Dave Yost.

Another Ohio Republican familiar with DeWine’s operation noted that the governor has often elevated women into critical roles and would likely consider the opportunity to appoint the state’s first female senator.

Donald Trump Jr. speaks with CNN's Kaitlan Collins on the floor of the convention on Monday, July 15.

Donald Trump Jr. made a last-minute push for Ohio Sen. JD Vance in recent days as his father, former President Donald Trump, waffled on the pick, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN.

Donald Trump Jr. urged the former president during a late-night dinner at Mar-a-Lago to pick Vance, arguing he was a true believer in the Trump agenda.

Sen. J.D. Vance speaks during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on May 16, 202.

Donald Trump has named US Sen. JD Vance as his running mate, further elevating the Ohio Republican who has adopted the former president’s populist agenda after years of pointed criticism of Trump.

Vance, a freshman, entered Congress with the help of Trump, whose endorsement helped him win a contentious race in 2022. 

Vance was critical of Trump in 2016, and six years later, Trump publicly humiliated Vance even after endorsing him in the 2022 election. 

In the Senate, Vance has been an outspoken supporter of Trump and often votes in allegiance with the former president’s interests. He opposed a Ukraine aid bill earlier this year, adopting Trump’s criticism of providing more aid. He is also close with Donald Trump Jr. 

Vance, a former venture capitalist, veteran and author, was reported to be among the candidates who received vice-presidential vetting materials from the Trump campaign. 

Vance was a CNN contributor from March 2017 to March 2018.

Sen. JD Vance speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on February 23.

Former President Donald Trump has selected Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate, Trump announced on social media Monday.

The decision further elevates Vance, who has adopted the former president’s populist agenda after years of pointed criticism of Trump. Vance, a venture capitalist and the author of the best-selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” was elected to the US Senate in 2022 after receiving a boost from Trump in a contentious Republican primary. 

The roll call has begun to officially nominate Donald Trump as the Republican candidate for president at the GOP convention in Milwaukee following nominating speeches. Each state delegation will announce how many votes it is casting for the candidate.

Track the delegate count by watching CNN’s special coverage in the video player top of this page.

Trump breezed through the GOP primaries earlier this year and in March secured the 1,125 delegates needed to be the presumptive Republican nominee.

Republican National Committee's chair Michael Whatley gives the gavel to House Speaker Mike Johnson during the first day of the convention on Monday, July 15.

House Speaker Mike Johnson introduced the roll call at the Republican National Convention to nominate Donald Trump as their presidential candidate.

Republicans adopted a new platform for Donald Trump’s third White House run that mainlines the former president’s policies and makes Trump himself a focus of the party. It is a fraction of the length of the 2016 platform and written in Trump’s voice.

Republicans also softened their language on the issue of abortion — angering some anti-abortion activists — and made clear that, like Trump, the party will favor a state-by-state local approach to the issue, meaning they will support efforts to ban abortion outright in some states and allow it to exist in others.

We annotated the full Republican Party platform — their first new platform since 2016. Read it with analysis here.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum arrives at the Republican Jewish Coalition's Annual Leadership Summit in Las Vegas on October 28, 2023.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum received a call, as he awaited in a hotel near the convention center, that he is not former President Donald Trump’s pick for vice president, a Republican close to him tells CNN.

The governor has been a loyal surrogate and soldier for Trump for months, after an unsuccessful bid for the nomination. 

Campaign adviser Susie Wiles called Burgum to give him the news that he will not be the VP pick.

In the immediate aftermath of the shocking assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on Saturday, President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is treading carefully around an extraordinarily delicate moment in American politics. 

The widely understood internal directive at the moment, as one senior adviser put it to CNN, is to be careful on all matters related to Trump “until further notice.” 

The Biden campaign and White House immediately took action after Trump was injured at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, pulling down TV ads, pausing outgoing political communications and postponing the president’s trip to Texas on Monday. 

Those involved in the president’s reelection efforts are wary of doing anything that could signal that they are politically weaponizing the events of Saturday, and have deliberated shifted the campaign’s tone.

And as CNN also previously reported, Biden’s campaign chair and manager wrote an internal note to staff in the moments following the assassination attempt, in part directing all staff to refrain from publicly commenting, including on social media. 

That holding pattern is largely still in place as the Republican National Convention is now getting underway in Milwaukee. A Democratic National Convention political fundraising appeal that went out a few hours ago made only a passing reference to Trump. 

When questioned about the political strategy for the days ahead, Biden aides told CNN that the president’s sit-down interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt this afternoon will offer the clearest cues directly from the Biden himself on the tone that he wants his campaign to deploy moving forward.

Biden allies are also carefully watching the RNC this week to gauge the tone coming from the other side of the political aisle. 

As the Republican National Convention got underway, a moment of silence was held “to pray for the victims and their families,” of the shooting at Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday.

It was followed by a prayer from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Archbishop Elpidophoros.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has been told he’s not former President Donald Trump’s pick for vice president, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

This is a breaking news story, we’ll bring you the latest updates as we get them here.

Donald Trump has made his vice presidential pick, according to a Republican source familiar with the decision.

We will see the pick for the first time at 4:37 p.m. ET, the source said.

The Republican National Convention is underway in Milwaukee, where it’s expected that Donald Trump will be selected as the Republican nominee for this year’s election.

Our reporters will bring you the latest on what’s going on at the convention right here, but if you want to watch the RNC as it unfolds, click the video at the top of this page.

The Biden campaign has sent what appears to be its first fundraising email appeal since those activities were paused in the aftermath of the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump.

“It would mean a lot to Joe to know you have his back today. Especially today,” the email said. 

The email comes hours before the Republican National Convention gets underway.

The stage inside Fiserv Forum, the host arena of the Republican National Convention, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Saturday.

There will be 2,429 delegates attending the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five territories.

The candidate who receives at least 1,215 delegate votes at the convention will become the nominee — which is expected to be former President Donald Trump.

There are three types of Republican delegates:

In order to become the party’s nominee for president, candidates “win” delegates through primaries and caucuses following rules that vary from state to state. Thanks to his sweeping wins during the primary process earlier this year, former President Donald Trump is expected to reach the at least 1,215 delegates needed to become the official nominee at this week’s Republican National Convention.

Bound delegates must vote for a candidate based on primary or caucus results or party rules. They are allocated to candidates based on the results of primaries and caucuses in the various states. Some states allocate their bound delegates proportionally according to statewide primary or caucus results; others use a simple statewide winner-take-all system. 

These methods, plus a few other types of rules, make up the basic building blocks of the Republican delegate allocation process. However, states can combine these methods in systems that are sometimes referred to as hybrid processes. 

The bottom line is that the Republican rules are really 57 separate sets of rules — the national party’s rules, plus one for each state, the District of Columbia, and territories such as Guam and American Samoa. 

Unbound delegates have no obligations to support any particular candidate. In 2024, there will be at least 142 unbound delegates. These will be all of the delegates from Guam, Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota, as well as the congressional district delegates in Pennsylvania. 

There is no official process for a candidate to “win” votes from an unbound delegate. The delegate simply decides whom he or she wants to support and votes for that person at the convention. Candidates are free to use whatever persuasive powers they have to woo these delegates.

The Butler County Police Department Swat Team also fired a weapon on Saturday night at the Trump rally, a law enforcement source told CNN.

That was in addition to weapons fired by the Secret Service and the shooter himself. 

Audio forensics previously suggested that as many as three weapons were fired. 

Milwaukee couple Greg and Patty Reiman are hoping former President Donald Trump does the unexpected and picks a running mate who is not on his shortlist. They both floated his former press secretary and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. 

“I’m all about the governors,” Patty told CNN outside the RNC convention center. “He could surprise us and pick Sarah Huckabee Sanders. You know, he always says he doesn’t want to let you know. He’s given us like five fabulous choices, but I think it’s not going to be one of them. I think it’s going to be a surprise.”

Greg said he didn’t want Trump to choose Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance or Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, but wouldn’t be disappointed if he does. 

Greg also sees value in Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin: “Maybe, he can win Virginia with his help.”

Patty hopes it’s a surprise, telling CNN: “Yeah, it’s kind of fun that way.”

The line up of speakers on the first night of the Republican National Convention will include several GOP lawmakers, a prominent conservative activist and the president of the Teamsters, a source familiar with the schedule tells CNN.

The program will begin at 7 p.m. ET. Prior to the speaking program, the convention will hold its roll call votes starting at 3 p.m. ET to formally nominate former President Donald Trump and his soon to be announced running mate.

Here are some notable names on the program, in the order in which they are scheduled to speak:

A state trooper blocks a road during the police investigation into gunfire at a campaign rally of Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.

The Pennsylvania State Police has reaffirmed in a statement to CNN that it “delivered all resources that the United States Secret Service (USSS) requested,” in the wake of scrutiny about who had jurisdiction over the building where the shooter at the Trump rally took hold before opening fire.

In a statement, State Police Communications Office Director Lt. Adam Reed told CNN that the “PSP provided 40 troopers to assist with securing the inside perimeter. PSP routinely aids our federal partners during large events in Pennsylvania such as the Trump rally in Butler, and will always provide any and all resources needed to ensure Pennsylvanians’ safety.”

He also cited answers from Lt. Col. George Bivens on Saturday in a transcript provided by the department:

New polling from the New York Times and Siena College in Pennsylvania and Virginia finds close races in both states, with no clear leader between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in either state.

The polls were completed before Saturday’s assassination attempt at a Trump rally in western Pennsylvania. 

In Pennsylvania, the survey finds Trump at 48% to Biden’s 44% among registered voters, nearly identical to the findings of a late April/early May Pennsylvania poll from the Times, Siena and the Philadelphia Inquirer. The numbers among likely voters in the new poll are similar (48% Trump to 45% Biden). 

In Virginia, 46% of registered voters say they would vote for Biden, 44% for Trump. Biden carried Virginia by 10 points in the 2020 election, and this is the second recent high-quality poll to find a close race there. Among likely voters, the Times/Siena poll finds 48% behind Biden, 45% Trump. 

In both states, CNN shows and platforms should focus more on registered voter numbers at this point in the campaign than on likely voter numbers, but the likely voter results can be reported for context. 

Biden’s approval rating among registered voters is higher in Virginia (41%) than in Pennsylvania (36%), but in both states, roughly 7 in 10 say they agree that Biden is “just too old to be an effective president,” (73% say so in Pennsylvania, 70% in Virginia). About 4 in 10 say the same about Trump (43% in Pennsylvania, 41% in Virginia).

In Virginia, majorities say they would like to see both major party nominees replaced: 60% say Biden should drop out and there should be a different Democratic nominee, 56% say so about Trump. In Pennsylvania, 57% say Biden ought to drop out and be replaced while 50% say the same about Trump. 

The surveys were conducted July 9-11 among 872 registered voters in Pennsylvania and from July 9-12 among 661 registered voters in Virginia. Results among registered voters have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points in Virginia and 3.7 points in Pennsylvania. (Note that the margin between Biden and Trump in Pennsylvania calculated without rounding is smaller than the error margin, so that race should be reported as having no clear leader.)

Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve speaks during an Economic Club of Washington DC on Monday.

The nation’s top central banker weighed in on the recent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

Powell’s comments come just days after a gunman fired shots at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, injuring the former president and two attendees and killing an audience member.

Powell was first appointed Fed chair in 2017 by Trump, after serving on the central bank’s board of governors, then reappointed by President Joe Biden in 2021. But Powell has fallen out of Trump’s graces. The Republican frontrunner has repeatedly criticized the Fed head, claiming earlier this year that the central bank is only going to cut interest rates to help Democratic politicians win in the upcoming November election, though there isn’t any evidence of that. 

Powell has repeatedly said that the Fed is apolitical — a point he emphasized Monday. Trump said in February he wouldn’t tap Powell to helm the central bank for a third term.

A view of the Republican National Convention floor and stage in Milwaukee on Sunday.

After surviving an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on Saturday, former President Donald Trump will be at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week to accept his third consecutive GOP presidential nomination.

With the convention kicking off today, here’s what you need to know:

See a visual timeline of the assassination attempt and read what we know about the shooter.

Sen. Gary Peters speaks in Detroit in May.

Senate Homeland Security Chair Gary Peters told reporters that the committee is opening a bipartisan investigation into the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, and they hope to “expedite” the process and hold hearings before the Senate leaves for August recess.

“

He added they will use their investigation into the security failures on January 6, 2021, as a “template” for this new effort. “If you recall, we did a comprehensive assessment of security after January 6. In that investigation, we had a number of recommendations and a significant number of those recommendations have now been incorporated into the security practices here at the Capitol,” said the Michigan Democrat.

Peters said that he “spoke at length” with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas yesterday, and that he is being briefed “momentarily” by the FBI. He has not spoken with Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle yet and said that they have not set up a briefing for the full Homeland Security committee at this time - though they “anticipate that will happen soon.”

There will be roughly 1,700 US service members — a majority from the National Guard, as well as a small active-duty component — assisting with the Republican National Convention this week, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said Monday. 

Singh said the service members will be supporting the FBI, Secret Service, and Milwaukee Metro Police Department “for 24/7 operations,” and that their involvement was pre-planned and is not a result of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump over the weekend.

As of Monday, there had not been any requests for additional support from the National Guard, Singh said.

Secret Service agents work with a drone on top of the Executive Office Building during Independence Day celebrations.

Drones are used today by everything from small rural police departments with a handful of members to major federal law enforcement agencies. But they weren’t in the sky over the former President Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania when a gunman shot him and three other attendees from a nearby rooftop.

Some officials want to know why.

“What happened here? I think pretty clearly there was a security lapse, at least. And we need to find out, for example, why were drones not used in the area?” House Speaker Mike Johnson asked on CNN on Sunday evening. “I have not gotten a satisfactory answer on that yet. That seems pretty obvious that you would do that so you could see people on rooftops.”

Experts in the field say that drones are becoming a common tool by law enforcement, even when not doing threat assessment. They can be used for things as simple as traffic control at large scale events, or to help emergency personnel reach people who are having standard medical problems.

Aerial surveillance is much easier with the advances in drones, said Matt Sloane, CEO of a drone firm Skyfire. His company has trained law enforcement agencies from large to small, including the Secret Service, in the use of drones, as well as provided the service itself.

Sloane said his firm has provided drone surveillance for private security firms working at rallies of presidential candidates who are not yet covered by the Secret Service, as well as at major events, such as Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta in February 2019. His service costs about $5,000 per drone per event.

“I’m not accusing Secret Service or any agency of doing something wrong,” he said about the lack of drones at the rally Saturday. “This is newer technology, and the Secret Service has been doing things a certain way successfully for a long time. But there are things out there that can help and are worth considering.”

The Secret Service has thus far declined to answer questions about the lack of drone surveillance and its other decisions on the protection provided at Saturday’s rally.

President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House on Sunday.

White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients sent an email to White House staff Monday morning thanking them for their work and highlighting President Joe Biden’s Oval Office remarks in the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

 Zients included the text of the president’s remarks in his email.

On Saturday, Zients sent another brief note to White House staff saying the president is “closely” tracking the situation around the shooting and will continue to provide updates.

Investigators are about 70% done with their analysis of Trump rally shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks’ cell phone, according to a law enforcement official.

So far, they haven’t come across anything that has given them a hint as to why the shooter tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump, the official said. Investigators are also expected to work on the shooter’s laptop in hopes that reveals clues, according to the official.

The shooter’s parents, who have been cooperating with law enforcement since the assassination attempt, have said Crooks did not appear to have friends and did not appear to have any political leanings, the official said.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks in Los Angeles in March.

Former President Donald Trump on Monday called for Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to “immediately” receive Secret Service protection. 

His post comes two days after the former president survived an assassination attempt.

In a post responding to Trump, Kennedy said: “It is a hopeful sign for our country when a political opponent calls for one’s protection. Maybe our country can unite after all.”

This post has been updated with response from Kennedy.

Former President Donald Trump said in an interview airing Monday that he thought Project 2025 went “way too far” on abortion and said the closely-aligned conservative group was “too severe.”

Trump has sought to distance himself from the conservative blueprint for the next Republican president that has attracted considerable blowback in his race for the White House.

While Trump claims to not know what the group is or who is behind it, a CNN review found at least 140 people who worked for him are involved. 

The former president, who regularly champions his role in appointing conservative Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, says he thinks abortion should be left to the states to legislate. The Republican National Committee recently adopted a platform that is Trump-focused and softened language on abortion and same-sex marriage. 

Trump added that he thought abortion “is not a federal issue” and “would never be a federal issue again.”

The Democratic National Committee has sent a fundraising appeal ahead of the Republican National Convention kicking off in Milwaukee today.

This appears to be the committee’s first fundraising note since Saturday night’s shooting.

The Biden campaign has yet to send any fundraising emails since pausing its advertisements and outgoing communications in the wake of the shooting.

Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming speaks to members of the media ahead of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Sunday, July 14.

Plans for the Republican National Convention have not changed in the wake of Saturday’s assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming said Monday.

“The program has not changed. It hasn’t changed a line, that I have seen,” he told CNN’s Kate Bolduan.

But he said he wasn’t sure if Trump would address delegates from the stage on the first day of the RNC.

Schimming argued that the space in Milwaukee where the convention is taking place is the “most secure place on the face of the planet,” due to the preparations that were already underway before the violence in Pennsylvania occurred.

“This area is secure, and the convention is going to go off as planned. But as with the whole nation, Pennsylvania is on our mind,” he said.

He told reporters he has not spoken with Trump since the former president’s arrival in Milwaukee on Sunday but said he expects Trump will be “reflective” when he does speak, and use the moment to inspire unity.

“I fully expect the President to address [the shooting], but also to make sure that the whole country hears him say that not only that kind of thing is wrong, but this is a point where you can unify the country,” he said.

On Trump’s vice president pick, Schimming said he didn’t have any insight into when Trump would announce his running mate, but said “I don’t think it will wait until Wednesday night, let’s put it that way.”

Former President Donald Trump is expected to announce his vice presidential pick in the next few hours, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

Trump told Fox News earlier Monday that he would make his pick today.

Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Mike Kelly was front row at Saturday’s Trump rally and witnessed former President Donald Trump “go down” when gunfire went off, he told CNN.

Kelly said he heard “Pop, pop, pop, pop,” and “saw the president go down and then I thought ‘Oh my God, somebody just shot the president,’ and then I hear behind me in the stand, somebody crying, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s hurt, he’s hurt.’”

The congressman is from Butler, the town where the rally took place. He was there with his wife and children and said the shooting was a surreal moment as he also saw people with blood on their shirts .

He recalled being concerned about his family and friends once he realized what was happening, adding that he was “caught between a lot of things going on at the same time.”

Kelly said his 9-year-old grandson asked him why someone would want to kill the former president.

He commended Trump’s immediate reaction of getting back up and raising his arm in the air, describing the moment as inspiring as the crowd chanted “USA! USA!”

Former President Donald Trump said he would choose his running mate today, according to Fox News.

Sen. JD Vance speaks to reporters in Atlanta in June.

Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and his wife on Monday got into one of the black SUVs outside their house around 10 a.m. ET. Their car was part of a three-car motorcade of black SUVs escorted by Cincinnati police. 

The departure comes amid speculation that Vance could be chosen as former President Donald Trump’s running mate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this week.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — also potential Trump vice presidential picks — are in Milwaukee for the RNC, where they’re slated to address the convention later this week.

House Oversight Committee members will receive a briefing with the Secret Service on Tuesday, a source familiar tells CNN.

It’s likely Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle will appear next Monday before House Oversight, according to the source.

A formal announcement is expected later.

More than 20 guns are registered to Trump rally shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks’ father, according to records reviewed by law enforcement officials, a source told CNN. All of the registered weapons were purchased legally, the law enforcement officials said.

When investigators searched the shooter’s body, they found a transmitter, one source said. 

A search of the shooter’s car revealed a receiver with wires going into a metal box that contained possible explosives in the trunk of his Hyundai Sudan found parked on the Butler Farm Show Grounds.

Investigators are trying to determine whether a remote control connected to a possible explosive device in the shooter’s car was part of the assassination plot.

One theory investigators are examining is whether the shooter intended to detonate the explosives in his car as a distraction tactic, drawing attention and security personnel away from his firing position and towards the explosion, law enforcement sources tell CNN.

The fact that the shooter was detected by citizens and confronted by a local police officer trying to reach the rooftop may have caused him to speed up his plan and skip over the distraction device, sources are theorizing. 

Sabrina Shulman contributed to this report.

FBI investigators work at the scene of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, the day after shots were fired during a campaign rally.

One of two local counter-sniper teams was supposed to cover the building where the gunman in Saturday’s attempted assassination against Donald Trump was perched, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN.

The source noted it was a designated post in the operational plan.

Pennsylvania State Police said that they were not responsible for the area where the building was located. 

“PSP was not responsible for that area,” a spokesperson for the state police said, responding to an inquiry from CNN. CNN has reached out to Butler County Police Department.

This photo from the US Justice Department shows boxes of classified documents stored in a bathroom and shower in the Mar-a-Lago Club.

Judge Aileen Cannon has dismissed the classified documents case against former US President Donald Trump.

In a ruling Monday, Cannon said the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith violated the Constitution.

“Both the Appointments and Appropriations challenges as framed in the Motion raise the following threshold question: is there a statute in the United States Code that authorizes the appointment of Special Counsel Smith to conduct this prosecution? After careful study of this seminal issue, the answer is no,” Cannon wrote in the ruling. 

CNN has reached out to special counsel Smith’s team for reaction.

Follow our live coverage of the classified documents case here.

The president of the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, where Trump rally shooter Thomas Crooks was a member, said he only vaguely remembers the gunman as one among 2,000 members, deferring comment to the attorney for the club.

Crooks was a member of a Clairton, Pennsylvania sportsman club that has a rifle range of 200 yards, according to the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club attorney. 

Attorney Robert Bootay previously told CNN, “I can confirm that Mr. Crooks was a member of Clairton Sportsmen’s Club. Beyond that, the Club is unable to make any additional commentary in relation to this matter in light of pending law enforcement investigations.”

Dave McCormick, Republican US Senate candidate from Pennsylvania, speaks at a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.

Dave McCormick, the Republican nominee for the US Senate in Pennsylvania, has called on Democratic Sen. Bob Casey to join him to “suspend our negative advertising.”

McCormick and Casey are engaged in a tight race in Keystone State — a key battleground that Democrats hope to hold to maintain control of the Senate.

Casey has yet to respond to the proposal.

Democrat Sen. Chris Coons is pictured as he arrives at the US Capitol in Washington, DC on July 11.

Democrat Sen. Chris Coons, a co-chair for the Biden-Harris campaign, said on Monday that he hopes former president Donald Trump will use his platform at the Republican National Convention to “follow the lead of President Biden.”

Speaking to CNN’s Kate Bolduan, Coons highlighted Biden’s past remarks, including his inauguration address, that have called for unity among the American people.

His comments come after Trump told the Washington Examiner on Sunday that he was going to rewrite his original speech, saying it was a chance to “bring the whole country, even the whole world, together.”

Coons unequivocally condemned political violence, highlighting several events in recent years in which elected officials have been attacked.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has admitted the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Saturday was “a failure” of security.

“An incident like this cannot happen,” he said, noting that President Joe Biden has directed an independent review.

Mayorkas said the government would “deliver answers to the American people to the fullest extent possible.”

The DHS secretary also strongly pushed back on the accusation that he had denied a request for more security for Trump.

“That’s a baseless and irresponsible statement and is one that is unequivocally false,” he said.

At the start of his interview, Mayorkas echoed Biden’s words that “we are so relieved that former President Trump is okay. Our hearts break for the Comperatore family and of course we pray for a speedy and safe, full recovery for those injured,” he said.

The shooter in Saturday’s attempted assassination on Donald Trump purchased 50 rounds of ammunition at a local gun store just hours before carrying out his attack, according to a senior law enforcement official.

An aerial view shows the site during the law enforcement investigation into gunfire at a campaign rally of former President Donald Trump, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 14.

The US Secret Service did not sweep the building from which the shooter in Saturday’s attempted assassination was perched, but instead leaned on local law enforcement to conduct security at that location.

The spokesman added that there was supposed to be local law enforcement posted in that area, but it is not clear where that post was supposed to be located. A source not directly involved but with knowledge of Secret Service operations described possible roaming posts, for example, as part of some operational plans.

The Secret Service regularly and successfully works with local law enforcement agencies to assist with securing events, as is the case in Milwaukee where the Republican National Convention is about to kick off.

Further, the Secret Service utilized two local counter-sniper teams during former President Donald Trump’s rally, in addition to two Secret Service counter-sniper teams. 

The spokesman did not know at the time of CNN’s inquiry which local agency should have been responsible for the building.

Former President Donald Trump said in interviews aired last month that he would announce his running mate at the Republican National Convention.

The presumptive GOP nominee was asked by TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw, “Are you going to tell me who your vice-presidential choice is?”

“I can’t yet, but we have some very good people. I’m going to do it in the convention,” Trump said. The GOP convention will take place this week in Milwaukee.

CNN reported on June 5 that vetting materials had been sent to several candidates under consideration to be Trump’s running mate, according to a person familiar with the process. People familiar with the deliberations, however, cautioned that Trump’s search at the time for a running mate was still in flux, and the campaign has emphasized that only Trump would make the final decision.

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson speaks during a press conference on Monday morning.

As the Republican National Convention begins Monday in Milwaukee, the city’s mayor says he remains confident that security is at an appropriate level after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

He continued: “The director of the United States Secret Service continues to have faith in the work that happened over the last 18 months for security, and I have faith and confidence, as well, in the Secret Service, in the Milwaukee Police Department, and other law enforcement agencies that are providing public safety here today.”

Johnson said the perimeter around the convention venue was relatively uneventful overnight, with only two minor arrests.

“Some individuals had a drink or two too much,” Johnson said. “They were intoxicated and then ended up having some interaction with police.”

Because Wisconsin is an “open carry” state, people will be allowed to have firearms within the soft perimeter outside of Fiserv Forum that is not under Secret Service jurisdiction. Johnson said his concern about gun safety goes beyond a single event. “There are far too many people who have access to deadly weapons who should not have access to deadly weapons,” he said.

Dnald Trump will reemerge after an attempted assassination as an even greater mythical hero of his MAGA movement with the Republican National Convention opening today after an extraordinary two weeks that have transformed the 2024 campaign.

Saturday’s shooting is only beginning to distill into a new national trauma. But both the former president and President Joe Biden are gaming out how to navigate the political aftershocks.

An assassination attempt against a presidential candidate, with all the historical allusions it evokes, raises fears that bloodshed will beget more bloodshed as the toxic politics of the last decade threaten to take an even more ominous turn.

In his first interview since the attempt on his life, the former president pledged that his RNC keynote address on Thursday — which had been expected to be an update on his “American carnage” inaugural address in 2017 — would be a “lot different.”

Read the full analysis.

A Capitol Police car is seen in Washington DC on July 8.

In a statement on the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump, Capitol Police say they are already “operating in a heightened threat environment” due to threats against lawmakers.

Capitol Police added that they “have been working with our federal, state and local partners on a comprehensive security plan to protect the Members of Congress” during both the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention.

As CNN previously reported, Capitol Police are planning to send more than 300 officers to help with security to both the RNC from July 15 to 18 and the DNC from August 19 to 22 – the largest-ever deployment of officers from the department to an event outside of DC.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, at the White House in Washington, DC, on July 14.

The Biden campaign and Democratic National Committee held a call with staff in the hours before President Joe Biden’s Oval Office address Sunday, acknowledging the difficult moment the country and team are navigating in the wake of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, a source familiar with the call said.

“We all do this work because we believe in this country and the people of this country and nobody wants to see this kind of violence to anyone, but to also not just be a citizen, but to be someone who works on behalf of this campaign and in the Party to try to navigate a tough time like this is doubly hard.”

DNC chair Jaime Harrison also told staff on the call that he reached out to Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley on Saturday to offer his thoughts and condolences and stressed the party’s commitment to opposing political violence, another source familiar with the call said.

The Biden campaign finds itself navigating a sensitive and complicated political dynamic in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Trump. Top campaign officials sent a note to its staff shortly after Saturday’s shooting urging staff to “refrain from issuing any comments on social media or in public” and pulled its television advertisements.

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on Monday released her first statement since the assassination attempt against Donald Trump on Saturday.

Read the statement in full below:

“I would like to start by extending my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Corey Comperatore, who was killed during the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday, as well as those who were injured during this senseless act of violence.

Secret Service personnel on the ground moved quickly during the incident, with our counter sniper team neutralizing the shooter and our agents implementing protective measures to ensure the safety of former president Donald Trump.

Since the shooting, I have been in constant contact with Secret Service personnel in Pennsylvania who worked to maintain the integrity of the crime scene until the FBI assumed its role as the lead investigating agency into the assassination attempt. I have also been coordinating with the protective detail for former President Trump and have briefed President Biden on the details of the incident. 

The Secret Service is working with all involved Federal, state and local agencies to understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place again. We understand the importance of the independent review announced by President Biden yesterday and will participate fully. We will also work with the appropriate Congressional committees on any oversight action.

The incident in Pennsylvania has understandably led to questions about potential updates or changes to the security for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. The U.S. Secret Service, in conjunction with our Federal, state and local law enforcement and public safety partners, designs operational security plans for National Special Security Events (NSSE) to be dynamic in order to respond to a kinetic security environment and the most up-to-date intelligence from our partners.

I am confident in the security plan our Secret Service RNC coordinator and our partners have put in place, which we have reviewed and strengthened in the wake of Saturday’s shooting. The security plans for National Special Security Events are designed to be flexible. As the conventions progress, and in accordance with the direction of the President, the Secret Service will continuously adapt our operations as necessary in order to ensure the highest level of safety and security for convention attendees, volunteers and the City of Milwaukee. In addition to the additional security enhancements we provided former President Trump’s detail in June, we have also implemented changes to his security detail since Saturday to ensure his continued protection for the convention and the remainder of the campaign.

The Secret Service is tasked with the tremendous responsibility of protecting the current and former leaders of our democracy. It is a responsibility that I take incredibly seriously, and I am committed to fulfilling that mission.”

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle looks on during a press conference in Chicago, Illinois on June 4.

The US Secret Service director on Monday sought to assure Americans that there is ample security in place for the upcoming RNC convention following the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

“I am confident in the security plan our Secret Service RNC coordinator and our partners have put in place, which we have reviewed and strengthened in the wake of Saturday’s shooting,” Kimberly Cheatle wrote in a statement.

Cheatle addressed the USSS’ presence at the Trump rally on Saturday, first extending her condolences to the friends and family of Corey Comperatore, a firefighter who was killed at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

She said agents at the scene “moved quickly during the incident, with our counter sniper team neutralizing the shooter and our agents implementing protective measures to ensure the safety of former president Donald Trump.”

Cheatle also confirmed that the Secret Service was engaged in an independent review announced by President Joe Biden to “understand what happened, how it happened and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place again.”

President Joe Biden delivers a televised address from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on July 15.

President Joe Biden was bracing for a week of political onslaught.

More Democratic lawmakers were expected to publicly call on him to drop out of the 2024 race, a grueling campaign schedule would put his stamina on display and a high-stakes TV interview was sure to once again spotlight questions about his age, health and fitness to serve a second term.

When gunshots rang out at a Donald Trump political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, much of that appeared to change.

At least for a brief moment, politics largely came to a halt. As bipartisan calls condemning the horrific attack on Trump poured in from all corners of the country, the Biden campaign immediately paused TV ads and political communications, and the White House postponed the president’s trip to Texas, where he had planned to attend a fundraiser. He also addressed the nation, calling for a lowering of the political temperature.

Something else largely came to a halt: The calls from within Biden’s own party for him to abandon his campaign for a second term. Until that moment, those calls had been growing by the day since his disastrous debate performance against Trump last month.

Even as the Biden campaign is working to delicately navigate a moment of national shock, some allies of the president are privately hopeful that the assassination attempt on Trump may ultimately end up quelling the Democratic dissent as the party recognizes the importance of standing as a united front.

Read the full story.

Republican Rep. Byron Donalds shakes hands with former President Donald Trump during an event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in June 2023.

Republican Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida said Monday he has not spoken with Donald Trump directly since Saturday’s assassination attempt but he did text with him that night. 

Donalds said that the assassination attempt has given Trump a “new sense of purpose” to move forward with his campaign and return to the White House. He agreed with Trump’s decision to change his Republican convention speech to focus on unity in the wake of the shooting. 

“It can’t go to that level,” he said of intense political rhetoric. “We are all Americans. We are one country.”

Donalds, who serves on the House Oversight Committee, also noted that he wants all of the facts about security lapses on Saturday night before blaming any law enforcement agency or anyone else. 

Images of Donald Trump appear on stage screens in the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 14, ahead of the Republican National Convention.

Many of the questions that predated Saturday evening’s assassination attempt have largely faded into the background as former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden and their respective allies rush to adapt their campaigns to the new landscape.

It’s not yet clear how this contest has been altered, but what begins on Monday with the delegate roll call and concludes Thursday night with the former president’s nomination acceptance speech, clearly marks the start of something new and fraught.

“Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now,” Trump told the Washington Examiner of his convention speech following the assassination attempt.

Trump’s return to the stage, which could come earlier in the week, and his rhetoric at the podium will set the tone both for the final months of the presidential campaign and the near-term future of American politics. The former president has, so far, been restrained in his response to the attempt on his life. Other members of his party have not, with some immediately suggesting – without evidence – that the alleged gunman was driven to act by heated campaign rhetoric.

FBI investigators work at the scene of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, the day after shots were fired during a campaign rally.

Former President Donald Trump was injured in a shooting during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday evening that also killed one rally attendee and left two others seriously injured.

A lot of new details have come to light since Saturday. Here’s what we know now on the attempted assassination:

You can more about how the assassination attempt played in this story, and you can learn more about the shooter by reading this story.

Leaders from around the world continue to respond to the attempted assassination of former US President Donald Trump.

These are the latest to respond on Monday:

We will update this post with more from global leaders as we get them throughout the day.

A view of the convention floor and stage ahead of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 14.

The main event at any national party convention is the official nomination of — and acceptance of the nomination by — presidential and vice presidential candidates.

Delegates at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week are expected to make former President Donald Trump the official GOP presidential nominee. Trump has said he would reveal his pick for running mate at the convention.

Here’s how it could all play out:

Former President Donald Trump is surrounded by US Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, July 13.

It began like any other campaign rally — one that photographer Evan Vucci had covered a hundred times before for the Associated Press.

Former President Donald Trump took the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, greeted his supporters and started his speech.

Then, in a flash, it was chaos.

“Over my left shoulder. I heard some pops, and I knew right away it was gunfire,” Vucci said of Saturday’s assassination attempt. “At that moment, I trained my lens on the stage, and I saw the Secret Service agents coming in and covering (Trump) up. From there, I just went into work mode, and I just started doing my job.”

While many at the rally took cover, Vucci and other photojournalists leapt into action.

Vucci was in the buffer area right in front of the stage when the gunshots rang out. His first thought wasn’t for his own safety but rather documenting the moment taking place in front of him. There are no second chances to capture history through a camera lens.

Take a look at the photos from Saturday here.

A portrait of William Pitt Kellogg, former US senator and Louisiana governor.

On May 7, 1873, Louisiana Gov. William Pitt Kellogg made his way to his carriage following a meeting in New Orleans, when a man named Charles R. Railey confronted him. Railey told him he was frustrated with how he had been governing, as Kellogg walked away.

As Kellogg’s carriage rounded the corner one shot rang out. He raised his hand to his neck as his driver raced them away, and though early reports said Kellogg had been shot in his neck and gravely wounded, it turned out that the bullet had just missed him.

It’s one of the many often forgotten events in US history that I learned about while working on an upcoming book “America’s Deadliest Election, A Cautionary Tale of the Most Violent Election in American History,” with my coauthor David Fisher.

Since the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, many have rightly pointed to the sad, bloody history of violence against American political leaders – the murders of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy, and the attempted assassinations of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford.

America’s story is complicated, especially when it comes to passions about our leaders and what and whom they represent. And while violence should never be the answer, it has occurred more than any of us would want to admit.

Read more about the history of violence in US politics here.

Audrey Gibson-Cicchino, the Secret Service's convention coordinator, center, speaks during a news conference in Milwaukee on Sunday, July 14.

The Secret Service said Sunday that there are no plans to tighten its security arrangements for the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday in Milwaukee.

It was the first on-camera appearance of a Secret Service representative since the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on Saturday. The agency has issued a series of statements following the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, but did not appear during a law enforcement news conference there late Saturday.

The Sunday afternoon news conference on preparations for the RNC did not address the assassination attempt, but federal officials said there were no signs of increased danger at the convention following the shooting.

“Currently there are no known articulated threats against the RNC or anyone visiting the RNC,” said Michael Hensle, the special agent in charge of the FBI field office in Milwaukee.

Firearms will be permitted in a “soft perimeter” around the Fiserv Forum, the venue where the convention will take place, and local officials said state law does not permit them to change those plans.

“Wisconsin is an open-carry state, and therefore Milwaukee and no other jurisdiction in this state can supersede state law,” said Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson.

Carpenters assemble a Trump 2024 sign outside the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 13, ahead of the 2024 Republican National Convention.

An incumbent Democratic president seeking reelection coupled with the unusual circumstances of a defeated one-term president seeking another term set up the 2024 primaries as both unprecedented and uncompetitive.

In the end, both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump romped through the primaries — each clinching the nomination on March 12, just a week after Super Tuesday.

While about a dozen Republicans sought to challenge Trump, there wasn’t much of a contest. That field spent most of 2023 competing amongst itself for who would emerge as the Trump alternative, while the former president largely didn’t engage — even choosing to skip debates.

By the Iowa caucuses, it was clear that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley were the only major candidates left to challenge Trump.

After Trump won a historic victory in Iowa, beating both DeSantis and Haley by 30 percentage points, it became even more clear that despite his 2020 loss and the January 6 insurrection, Trump remained the favorite of the Republican base. Haley stuck around with a stronger anti-Trump message and won the District of Columbia and Vermont but dropped out of the race the day after Super Tuesday.

Read about Trump’s campaign promises so far here.

Former President Donald Trump is surrounded by US Secret Service agents after shots were fired at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, July 13.

Moments after he was shot at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday afternoon, Donald Trump was seen with blood on his ear and cheek as he was rushed off the stage.

Audio reveals how the chaotic shooting scene played out from the view of Trump and those involved in getting him to safety. Trump was in the middle of speaking when several shots rang out. He clasps his ear and ducks as Secret Service agents surround him. “Get down, get down, get down,” one says. Another shot sounds and a woman screams.

Several voices of Secret Service agents are heard — one says “up!” another “stairs are ready, stairs are ready.” Trump can be heard as well but his words are indistinct. More agents go on stage, some holding assault rifles. Trump’s supporters in the background look shocked, while some film with their phones.

After hearing that the shooter is down, Trump and the agents stand up. Here’s what was said:

Trump: “Let me get my shoes, let me get my shoes.”

Male agent: “I got you sir, I got you sir.”

Trump: “Let me get my shoes.”

Another male agent: “Hold on, your head is bloody.”

Male agent: “Sir, we’ve got to move to the car sir.”

Trump: “Let me get my shoes.”

Female agent says, “OK,” before saying something about the shoe.

Trump: “Wait, wait, wait.” He then fist pumps to the crowd. He mouths “fight” three times — a move met with cheers by the crowd.

Trump and the Secret Service team move away from the podium and head to the cars as the crowd chants, “USA. USA. USA.”

You can watch video of the scene here, and read more details from the audio here.