Las Vegas police scrambled to secure a local hospital for Joe Biden before he abruptly cut his presidential campaign short, according to radio transmissions.
The shocking details suggest that Biden may have had a serious emergency days before he dropped out of the race. At the time, Biden's staff said he had a mild case of COVID.
Biden's medical emergency
A local hospital in Las Vegas received unspecified reports of a medical emergency at 2:15 p.m. on July 17, which proved to be Biden's last day on the campaign trail.
"We stood ready," Mason Van Houweling, CEO of Valley Hospital, said. "We knew we were dealing with more of a medical issue - definitely trauma and any accidents were off the table."
At the time, Biden was meeting with supporters at a local Mexican restaurant and had plans to give a speech to UnidosUS, a Latino group. The speech was cancelled, and Biden flew home to Delaware later that evening.
Secret Service made a "code three" request, which is police code for a "lights and sirens" emergency response.
“Meet at the Valley Hospital ER parking lot. We’re going to meet behind the ER entrances, where the ambulances go,” one of the officers said over radio.
Did White House downplay incident?
Biden was never seen at the hospital, but the emergency response is sure to raise questions about whether the White House was truthful.
“Earlier today following his first event in Las Vegas, President Biden tested positive for COVID-19," his press secretary, Karine-Jean Pierre, said at the time. "He is vaccinated and boosted and he is experiencing mild symptoms."
"He will be returning to Delaware where he will self-isolate and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time."
Biden would remain out of the public eye for several days before formally announcing the end of his re-election campaign from the Oval Office. He had initially shared the news three days earlier in a letter posted online, which raised eyebrows.
While he has not resigned, Biden has mostly faded into the background since he ended his campaign and passed the torch to vice president Kamala Harris. The two put on a united front at an event Thursday in Maryland.
"Folks, I have an incredible partner," Biden said of Harris. "The progress we have made. She's going to make one hell of a president."
A cyber attack has exposed the private data of millions of Americans, the Daily Caller reported. Their personal information, including social security numbers, was posted as a database for sale on the dark web.
One victim filed a lawsuit against the company National Public Data, alleging that it failed to keep private information safe. The legal action stemmed from the actions of the hacker group USDoD, which claims to have obtained the information from the company.
The group put the database up for sale on the dark web on April 8 under the name "National Public Data." It's asking $3.5 million for the trove of information, which includes the addresses, birth dates, and social security numbers of some 3 billion people.
The data goes back decades and even includes information on long-dead relatives. The size and scope of this hack rivals a 2013 Yahoo! data breach that impacted billions of the website's users.
Data Exposed
The breach was the impetus for a lawsuit from California resident Christopher Hofmann. He discovered that his data made it to the dark web after being notified by an identity theft monitoring company.
The plaintiff is seeking monetary compensation and changes to the way data is collected and handled by companies like National Public Data. In his complaint, Hofmann notes that the company scrapes the data from private sources without the individuals' consent.
The company does this to perform background checks, which utilize a wide range of digital data sources. Cliff Steinhauer from the nonprofit National Cybersecurity Alliance told CBS MoneyWatch that the scope of this breach likely includes "everyone with a Social Security number," though the information hasn't been confirmed.
"It's a reminder of the importance of protecting yourself, because clearly companies and the government aren't doing it for us," Steinhauer added. From his view as the organization's director of information security and engagement, Steinhauer contends that this is a hole in the law system.
"They are data brokers that collect and sell data about people, sometimes for background check purposes. It's because there's no national privacy law in the U.S. — there is no law against them collecting this data against our consent," Steinhauer said.
White House Reform
Data breaches are a growing problem as information increasingly finds its way online through many sources. President Joe Biden attempted to keep it out of the hands of foreign adversaries with an executive order he signed in February.
CNN reported that the order was part of an effort to curb foreign nations' ability to compile data on Americans through online intermediaries. Transactions allow data brokers to siphon personal information, such as location, health information, and other useful data.
That information can then be used for anything from garden variety identity theft to international blackmail. Because of this exposure, the administration targeted problematic nations in its effort to clamp down on the practice.
"Countries of concern, such as China and Russia, are buying Americans’ sensitive personal data from data brokers," a senior administration official warned at the time. A report declassified in 2023 revealed that intelligence agencies from all over the world, including the U.S., use this as an intelligence-gathering tactic.
Cyberattacks are a novel threat to personal and national security, and the number of victims is growing. Lawsuits and other actions are vital to stopping this threat, though it's clear more work must be done.
An alleged assassination attempt targeted former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, sparking intense scrutiny of the Secret Service's responses prior to the incident. Chairman James Comer revealed crucial details regarding this oversight, which may have significant ramifications for security procedures.On July 13, during a public gathering in Pennsylvania, an attempt on the life of former President Donald Trump led to heightened Congressional scrutiny that revealed the Secret Service denied additional protection for Trump that had been requested.
The attack occurred at a rally in Butler County, where Trump was addressing his supporters. As the event unfolded, gunshots rang out, resulting in the injury of two individuals and the unfortunate death of one person.
Revealing Insights from House Oversight Chairman
In the aftermath, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer, was interviewed on "Just the News, No Noise." During this interview, he disclosed that there had been explicit requests from the Trump campaign team for enhanced security which were evidently denied by the Secret Service.
Comer's allegations suggest a significant lapse in protective measures afforded to Trump. He stated directly that, following requests for additional security, the Secret Service decided against augmenting protection. The specific reasons for this denial have not been disclosed by the agency.
The implications of such a decision are profound, considering the sizeable resources available to the Secret Service, including an annual budget of $3.1 billion and a staff of 8,100 employees.
Long-term Trends and Criticisms
Comer also articulated a broader critique of the Secret Service, referencing a troubling trend over the past decade where responsibilities are increasingly delegated to state and local police forces. This practice, according to Comer, could undermine the core capabilities and direct responsibilities of the federal agency.
"I [would] like to remind people that the Secret Service has 8,100 employees and they have an annual budget of $3.1 billion but what we've seen over the past decade ... they've started farming more and more of their responsibilities out to state and local police," Comer explained. This delegation has raised concerns about the agency's ability to fully secure high-profile figures.
Given these developments, Comer has called for substantial reform within the Secret Service to rectify these operational approaches and ensure more direct involvement in protective duties.
Impact and Reaction
The incident and subsequent revelations have opened up a fierce debate about the nature of personal security for former presidents and other high-ranking officials. The denial of additional security at such a public and potentially vulnerable setting raises questions about protocol and decision-making within the Secret Service.
This incident has inevitably attracted the attention of various stakeholders, including politicians, security experts, and the public, leading to discussions on how security measures and policies should be adapted in future scenarios.
The debate is likely to continue as more details emerge from the ongoing investigations by the House Oversight Committee. The call for reforms by Comer signals possible future changes in the operations and structure of the Secret Service.
Looking Toward Future Security Enhancements
The controversy underscores the critical need for transparency and accountability in the operations of protective agencies like the Secret Service. The near-tragic event has highlighted potential vulnerabilities and the necessity for immediate and long-term reforms.
The discussions on Capitol Hill and beyond suggest a pivotal moment for security policy surrounding high-profile figures in the United States. Changes in the Secret Service's operational policies could be forthcoming as a result of this incident.
It is a consensus among many that ensuring the safety of former presidents and other dignitaries must be of utmost priority, which requires constant evaluation and adjustment of security measures.
In conclusion, the assassination attempt on former President Trump has unveiled potential systemic issues within the Secret Service regarding response protocols and delegation of duties. This story, brought to light by Chairman James Comer, has propelled discussions on the need for significant security reforms. The incident not only raised concerns about the specific event in Pennsylvania but also about how future security is structured around high-ranking officials in the nation.
Boston field office head of the Secret Service apologized Thursday for breaking into a salon on July 27 to allow agents and others to use the bathroom without permission from the owner during a fundraiser for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Berkshires salon owner Alicia Powers said that a Secret Service agent covered her security camera with tape and then broke the lock on her building. After a number of different people used the bathroom over about two hours and were encouraged to do so by the agents, Powers said they left the building unlocked and vacant.
At first the agents denied that they had broken in. After confronted with video evidence from cameras inside, however, the leadership did apologize.
"He said to me everything that was done was done very wrong,” Powers told Business Insider. “They were not supposed to tape my camera without permission. They were not supposed to enter the building without permission.”
"Violated"
The salon was behind Colonial Theatre, the site of the fundraiser. The salon owner decided to close on Saturday because of the high security presence in the area on Friday and the "chaos" it brought.
She said she felt "violated" by the incident.
“Whoever was visiting, whether it was a celebrity or not, I probably would’ve opened the door and made them coffee and brought in donuts to make it a great afternoon for them,” she told the outlet. “But they didn’t even have the audacity to ask for permission. They just helped themselves.”
Powers’ landlord, Brian Smith, also said that the Secret Service “had no permission to go in there whatsoever.”
The Secret Service agent who apologized offered to have the salon cleaned, to cover the alarm bill for the day, and to come to the shop and apologize in person.
Powers said she would accept the offers.
Another black mark
It's yet another black mark on the Secret Service's reputation after it failed to protect former President Donald Trump from a gunshot that grazed his ear during an assassination attempt on the same day as the Harris event.
Security and communications failures led to a gunman not being stopped before shooting at Trump even though he was noticed as a person of interest almost 2 hours before Trump took the stage at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Another rallygoer was killed by one of the gunman's bullets, and two more were injured.
No doubt this incident will be added to the growing list of investigations into the agency.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A member of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee is sounding the alarm about more assassination plots against Donald Trump, as the former president continues his quest for the White House this November.
"The plots are ongoing … Trump is still out there," said U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., on "Sunday Morning Futures" with Maria Bartiromo on the Fox News Channel.
Waltz hammered the United States Secret Service during the interview, saying: "We are getting more and more visibility on all the Secret Service failures that happened around Butler, Pennsylvania. But not a single person has been disciplined, has even been suspended pending the investigation. They're out still doing security today."
"On top of that, you have multiple assassination plots from the Iranians. This Pakistani national was recruiting females as spotters, he had recruited hitmen and had made a down payment. He was even recruiting protesters as a distraction, and yet the Department of Justice, when they the unveiled the indictment, didn't even name Trump as the target. They tried to soft pedal it and say, 'Oh, it was a politician.'"
As WND reported on Tuesday, federal authorities jailed Asif Merchant, aka "Asif Raza Merchant," a Pakistani man ccused of working on a plot to assassinate a politician "or U.S. government officials" that may have included Trump.
Waltz said the July 13 assassination attempt of Trump in Pennsylvania was not "an isolated incident."
"These plots from Iran are ongoing, and when Biden says nothing, Harris says nothing, the DOJ tries to bury it, what message does Iran get? They get that we can keep trying to take Trump out and have no consequences.
"They tried to hack his campaign, or did hack his campaign this week. They're trying to kill him. And we know from the intelligence community, Iran doesn't want Trump back. Why? Because he held them accountable.
"And you overlay that with how has Biden and Harris treated Iran. Well, Iran knows that that they're sympathizers. Just last week we had six American soldiers get sent to critical condition after our bases had been attacked once again, and what has Harris said? Nothing. What has Biden said? Nothing. What Trump knows, what Bibi Netanyahu knows is sometimes you have to escalate and punch the bully in the mouth in order to de-escalate. Biden-Harris continues to appease Iran, and the Middle East is on fire because of it."
Waltz also criticized the FBI for its handling of the probe into the plot to kill Trump.
"The FBI and the Secret Service are moving at a snail's pace with this investigation. And I certainly have encouraged the task force, we need to get in their spaces, we need to see their data, we need to see these encrypted accounts that he had in three different countries, in Belgium, in New Zealand and in Germany.
"What was that all about? There's so much to get to the bottom of, but the plots are ongoing, Maria. Trump is still out there."
The U.S. Secret Service, once a highly respected federal law enforcement agency, is not doing so well on the PR front these days.
Just a few weeks after the agency was dragged for nearly allowing former President Donald Trump to be assassinated by a 20-year-old weirdo with a rifle at a Pennsylvania rally, the agency was once again humiliated for its actions during a Kamala Harris event.
News broke last week regarding an Atlanta fundraiser put on by Harris's campaign, during which the Secret Service reportedly took over a local salon owner's business and allowed people to use the restroom without authorization, while duct-taping the video cameras.
The salon owner reported that someone from the agency in charge of securing the business left the doors unlocked and the tape hanging off the cameras after they departed the area, Fox News reported.
What happened?
It was reported that the salon owner said the agency picked the lock of her business before turning it into a VIP bathroom area, and covering the cameras to hide the evidence.
While the agency initially apologized for the incident, it later hinted that it might not have been responsible. USSS spokeswoman Melissa McKenzie said as much in a statement.
"The U.S. Secret Service works closely with our partners in the business community to carry out our protective and investigative missions," McKenzie said.
She added, "We hold these relationships in the highest regard and our personnel would not enter, or instruct our partners to enter, a business without the owner’s permission."
The spokesperson failed to name who was responsible for the situation, which was caught on camera.
Salon owner's report
The owner of the Salon described the mess that she walked into after the alleged incident took place.
Fox News reported:
Powers told Business Insider that "several people" who were "in and out for about an hour-and-a-half – just using my bathroom, the alarms going off, using my counter, with no permission."
"And then when they were done using the bathroom for two hours, they left, and left my building completely unlocked, and did not take the tape off the camera," she added.
Though the owner didn't go into detail, she reported that the agency contacted her in the wake of the reports about the break-in.
The agency can't afford many more hits on the PR front, as it already has a massive black eye.
Former President Donald Trump's airplane was forced to make an emergency landing due to a mechanical failure on Friday afternoon, the National Pulse reported. The GOP presidential candidate was on his way to a rally that evening in Bozeman, Montana.
The Trump family got another scare weeks after an assassination attempt on Trump as the former president's private jet made an emergency landing in Billings, Montana. Trump released a video statement after the landing but didn't mention the mechanical issue.
"I just landed in a really beautiful place: Montana. So beautiful, flying over, and you just look down and that's the way it's supposed to be. I'm here to do some fundraisers and most important to support Tim Sheehy who's running for the U.S. Senate, and we think he's going to do really well. We're going to have a rally. And it'll be a lot of fun," Trump said on a video shared on X, formerly Twitter.
Successful Rally
Despite the emergency landing, Trump would go on to his scheduled rally 120 miles from Billings in Bozeman, Montana, on Friday evening According to Montana Right Now's report, supporters from all over the country showed up at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse.
Trump spoke to an eager crowd along with Tim Sheehy, the state's GOP candidate for U.S. Senate. One of the attendees told the news outlet that it was a great turnout for Trump in the Treasure State.
When asked about anything "surprising" at the rally, another attendee said that it was "just how supportive Montana is," the unnamed person told Montana Right Now. "I was not expecting everyone to show up this big. Everyone was sitting out here for a long time like it was just such a great showup."
While spectators celebrated the substance of the rally, Trump is lucky to be alive after a safe emergency landing that came weeks after an assassination attempt. According to CBS News, Trump's grown son, Eric Trump, was "infuriated" in the aftermath of the shooting on July 13 because failures in security allowed it to happen in the first place.
However, he also was thankful that his father lived through it. "I'm not an overly mushy person ... but, you know, somebody was watching down on him because it could have gone very, very differently," Eric Trump said in the days following the shooting.
Another Brush With Death
It seems Trump is no stranger to these kinds of harrowing situations. The New York Post reported that Donald Trump coincidentally shared the story of another emergency landing he lived through at a speech on Thursday.
He said he was in a helicopter with Willie Brown, Kamala Harris' ex-lover when they were forced to make a quick landing. The story came up when speaking about Brown, who was the San Francisco mayor at the time.
"I know Willie Brown very well. In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought, maybe this is the end. We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing," Donald Trump said.
"This was not a pleasant landing, and Willie was – he was a little concerned," the former president added. There are accounts that Brown did indeed survive a crash landing at a school playground in September 2004, though it's unclear if that's the incident involving Trump.
Trump is tough as nails and certainly a survivor. Thankfully, his plane landed without incident, but like the assassination attempt, it leaves many uneasy thinking about the "what ifs" had things gone differently.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The records of a police department scheme to stop travelers and seize whatever cash they might be carrying with them have been uncovered by the work of the Institute for Justice.
The organization confirmed it has obtained records about cash seizures, drug seizures not involving cash, and other cases.
The fight, a "prolonged" dispute the organization, said involves an annual search-and-seizure blitz on Interstate 85 in Spartanburg County, South Carolina.
During a five-day campaign, law enforcement officers confiscated nearly $1 million in cash from travelers along that route.
The institute said it requested records from the series of seizures just days after the 2022 campaign, but it took until now, and a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, to get them.
The lawsuit over the 2022 events were filed by lawyers Adrianne Turner and Jake Erwin.
Spartanburg County responded to the lawsuit by releasing 262 pages of records it had previously attempted to withhold, the institute explained. "The documents, which include all available incident reports from Oct. 2-6, 2022, show a systemic program of pretextual traffic stops. Since these operations began in 2006, the search-and-seizure machine has ensnared potentially thousands of innocent drivers."
"Operation Rolling Thunder turns traffic enforcement into a ruse," explained institute lawyer Rob Johnson said. "The primary goal is not road safety, but to pull over and search as many vehicles as possible to find drugs and cash. When law enforcement found cash, they seized it – whether they had evidence of wrongdoing or not."
The report from the institute pointed out that the Supreme Court, in a 2000 ruling, said "mass enforcement schemes like this are impermissible under the Fourth Amendment."
"Although individual pretextual stops are permissible, the Supreme Court has held the opposite when it comes to a systematic program of roadside stops," Johnson said.
The records now reveal, the institute said, that "When claiming probable cause for a search, officers frequently guess wrong. More than 70% of vehicle searches produced nothing illegal."
Further, "Officers rely heavily on speculation and innuendo. If people look nervous or avoid eye contact, the police count this as evidence of guilt. One officer faulted a driver for simultaneously talking too much and not enough. 'While being vague about his trip, [the driver] would overexplain other things,' the officer wrote."
And the participating agencies refused to keep records of every search, confirmed by the fact that officers searched 144 vehicles but generated only 42 incident reports.
The institute confirmed, "Officers stopped and searched as many as 45 commercial buses. The precise number is unavailable due to the lack of recordkeeping. Officers found drugs on 11 buses and identified six criminal suspects. Yet the police treated all bus passengers—potentially hundreds—like criminals."
The fact is that carrying "any amount" of cash is actually legal, but officers treated any currency "as contraband," the report said. In every case officers found money, they confiscated it, and then pressured the owners to sign "roadside abandonment forms," in which they would give up their right to reclaim it.
"The police treat law enforcement like a competitive sport when they rush to pull over and search as many vehicles as possible within a set timeframe," Johnson said. "This is not how policing should work."
A Pakistani man was arrested and charged with plotting to kill President Trump on behalf of Iran.
Asif Merchant, also known as Asif Raza Merchant, 46, was charged in New York with a murder-for-hire scheme targeting a U.S. politician. Trump was not directly mentioned in the indictment, but sources told the media that he was a target.
The complaint was unsealed Tuesday, but Merchant was arrested in July - just a day before Trump was nearly assassinated at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. There does not appear to be any connection between the two plots.
Trump assassination plot
Merchant was apparently on the radar of law enforcement for some time. He came to the U.S. in April from Pakistan, after spending time in Iran.
On arrival in the U.S., he contacted someone to carry out his murder plot, and the person became a confidential source for law enforcement.
At a June meeting in New York, Merchant told the informant that he had multiple jobs for him, and the victims would be "targeted here,” in the U.S. He told the source to gather people who could execute the plans.
Later, Merchant met with the so-called assassins, who were actually undercover FBI agents. He explained his plot, which involved stealing documents, arranging protests at political rallies, and killing a “political person.”
He said the hitmen would receive instructions on who to kill either the last week of August or the first week of September, after Merchant had left the country. Merchant would communicate from overseas using code words.
Merchant paid a $5,000 advance to the undercover agents.
Tensions escalating
Police arrested Merchant as he planned to leave the country on July 12. The next day, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks tried to kill Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The FBI is investigating the July assassination attempt in Butler. They have yet to release a motive for the shooter, who was killed at the scene.
Iran has long wanted revenge for the assassination of its top general, Qassem Soleimani. Trump ordered the hit on Soleimani in 2020.
Regional tensions in the Middle East have escalated after the leader of Hamas was killed on Iranian soil, allegedly by Israel, raising fears of a wider war. Five U.S. soldiers were injured at a base in Iraq this week in an Iran-backed rocket attack.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A former police chief in a small Kansas town is facing a charge he interfered with the judicial process over a First Amendment fight that included a raid on the local newspaper office – and the home of the 98-year-old newspaper owner who collapsed and died the next day.
The Kansas City newspaper reports the charge will be against Gideon Cody in Marion County District Court.
That's according to Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett and Riley County Attorney Barry Wilkerson, who were given appointments as special prosecutors to review the Aug. 11, 2023, invasion by police of the Marion County Record publication.
They looked at 10,000 pages of documentation and released a 124-page report that analyzed the execution of search warrants in the case.
The report explains the anticipated charge "appears centered on text messages exchanged between Cody and Kari Newell, a local business owner, following the raid."
The searches were done at the home of former Vice Mayor Ruth Herbel and the home of the newspaper's publishers, Joan Meyer, and her son Eric Meyer.
It was Joan Meyer who collapsed and died the next day.
The report acknowledged that Joan Meyer was extremely upset by the searches and may not have died Aug. 12 if the raids had not been carried out. But the investigators noted the officers were not "criminally" responsible for the death.
The warrants for the invasions and searches later were dropped by prosecutors who said there was "insufficient evidence" for them.
Cody quit his job in the weeks following the invasions and searches and multiple lawsuits have been generated, including one by the newspaper which is seeking $10 million for violations of the First and Fourth Amendments.
Herbel also sued and expressed disappointment only Cody would face charges.
The searches were ordered on the false claims that a Marion County Record reporter, Phyllis Zorn, illegally obtained information about Newell's DUI conviction on the Kansas Department of Revenue's website.
Newell was upset that the public record was being available to the town, and a police officer, Zach Hudlin, contacted the state agency to ask about the details.
A state official "said the agency was 'trying to fix' an issue because 'anybody can pull it up,'" so Hudlin presumed wrongly that Zorn falsified her identity to obtain Newell's driving record, the report said.
Officials in the town then, without interviewing Zorn, launched the searches.
The special report now clears Zorn "and everyone else who obtained Newell's information," because it's a public record.
The newspaper alleged it was targeted for retaliation because it was looking into reports Cody left another police department, in Kansas City, while under internal review for allegedly making sexist remarks.
Shortly later the special prosecutors were named to investigate.
The investigators found that there simply was no evidence to justify the raid on the newspaper and the owner's home.
The disastrous situation developed because the Record also had been investigating Newell regarding her possession of a liquor license, which could have been revoked.
One online commenter showed little patience for the officers: "I have no words to describe how I feel about this. I can't believe they didn't have someone for her. A 98-year-old woman with a bunch of men going through her house and they didn't have the forethought to have support for her. What a bunch of jerks and idiots. I wish she had called them a few more names."
And another: "All for a bogus warrant signed off by a corrupt judge, corrupt police chief, and corrupt KBI."
