Some of the agents who were protecting President Trump before his assassination attempt were hastily reassigned and received little training - and the problem hasn't been fixed, whistleblowers alleged.
The security detail for President Trump included Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents who received poor training from Secret Service, sources told Republican senator Josh Hawley (Mo.)
The Secret Service has been slow to answer questions about the security failures that led to the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
Many have questioned why an obvious vantage point on a nearby rooftop was left unguarded. Secret Service has also faced scrutiny for failing to act on reports of a suspicious person before the shots rang out.
Agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) who were reassigned to the protective detail told Hawley that their training was limited to a glitchy, two-hour seminar on the computer.
“Imagine 1,000 people logging onto Microsoft Teams at the same time after being informed at the last minute that everyone needed to login individual," one agent said.
"Once it got rolling, the Secret Service instructor couldn’t figure out how to get the audio working on the prerecorded videos (which I’m told are the same videos as last year). All told, they restarted the videos approximately six times …. The content was not helpful."
The Secret Service said in a statement that its commitment to reform is "unwavering." But another whistleblower told Hawley that the training problem hasn't been fixed since the assassination attempt.
"Nothing new, nothing improved since the assassination attempt on former President Trump," the whistleblower said.
Some have speculated that Trump was targeted in an inside job. The new information from Hawley suggests a less ominous but still troubling explanation: incompetence.
Hawley alleged in an interview with Fox News' Jesse Waters that most of the agents in Butler were with HSI, and the site's lead agent wasn't following the normal protocols.
"She was not checking people's IDs. She did not use Secret Service agents," Hawley added. "Most of the agents there that day were not Secret Service agents. They were Homeland Security agents."
The FBI has been unable to shed much light on the shooting, describing the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, as a lone wolf with no clear motive.
Donald Trump shared the touching story of his youngest son Barron's reaction to the shocking attempt on Trump's life.
In an interview with Mark Levin, Trump said his son was having a tennis lesson when he discovered his father had been shot.
“Barron was outside having a tennis lesson,” Trump told Levin. “He’s a good tennis player. And somebody ran up and said, ‘Barron! Barron! Your father’s been shot!’”
Barron ran to his mother, Melania Trump, who had been watching Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on live TV.
“He loves his father. He’s a good kid, good student, good athlete actually — and he ran, ‘Mom! What’s going on? What’s going on?’”
“She couldn’t believe it. She was actually watching it live, can you imagine? And then I get up, and I let people know I was OK,” he said, recalling his iconic moment of defiance, in which he raised one fist and shouted, "fight! fight! fight!"
Trump said, "I let people know I was OK. But it was a hit, it was a big hit.”
Trump said his wife is too traumatized to bring up the attack, which led her to issue a rare public statement in July condemning the attempt on her husband's life.
“She can’t even talk about it, which is okay because that means she likes me,” he said.
The FBI is investigating the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed by a Secret Service sniper after shooting Trump in the ear from a rooftop less than 200 yards away.
FBI investigators have failed to identify a motive, describing Crooks as a loner with no clear ideology. Trump miraculously survived the shooting by turning his head to look at a chart with immigration statistics, something Trump has credited to divine intervention.
"If I turned around just a little bit less, or a little bit more. If I turned around more or less, it was still the end," he told Levin. "It's God. I know people that have become believers in God because of it," Trump said.
The Secret Service and FBI have been accused of stonewalling Congress, leading many, including Trump, to speculate if something more nefarious was at work.
In a separate interview with Monica Crowley, Trump said he is beginning to question if he was set up.
"I wasn’t thinking this way three weeks ago, but the more you see it, the more you start to say there could be something else and that’s really dangerous for the country," he said.
An anti-Trump lawyer spun a "surprise" Supreme Court ruling against the Democrats as a potential opportunity for the Kamala Harris campaign.
In August, the Supreme Court declined to unblock a Biden-Harris rule barring discrimination in education on the basis of "gender identity."
The rule repurposes Title IX, a 50-year-old civil rights law barring sex-based discrimination in schools receiving federal funding. Republicans have blasted Biden's expanded Title IX as a contradiction of the law's original purpose to protect women and girls.
The Biden version requires schools to allow students to use bathrooms and locker rooms for the opposite sex and mandates the use of transgender pronouns. The rule also reinstates Obama-era rules that denied due process to students accused of sexual assault.
The Biden administration argued the bulk of the rule could be separated from the challenged transgender provisions, but the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that they could not be severed because they are "intertwined with and affect other provisions of the rule."
The justices agreed unanimously to leave lower court injunctions against the transgender parts of the rule. Republicans have successfully blocked the rule in 26 states.
"[A]ll Members of the Court today accept that the plaintiffs were entitled to preliminary injunctive relief as to three provisions of the rule, including the central provision that newly defines sex discrimination to include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity," the court wrote.
During a discussion on the MeidasTouch podcast, lawyer Michael Popok called the ruling a "surprise" win for Harris and her message that Donald Trump is a threat to the rights of Americans. Trump appointed three of the justices in the conservative majority.
"For Kamala Harris in the campaign, it is a gift, Popok said. "It puts, once again, Donald Trump, his misogyny, his being against women, the platform on abortion, the platform against women's autonomy and reproductive rights, squarely on the ballot for November."
Harris has placed abortion at the center of her campaign, which has deployed broad themes like "freedom" and "joy" while forgoing policy detail. She has been criticized for failing to take clear positions and flipflopping on key issues.
But according to Popok, the ruling could help Harris appeal to Americans on an emotional level, with a message that "we see you."
"'We see you transgender people. We see you people that are concerned about their gender identity being discriminated against. We see you pregnant women. We see you women who don't want to be pregnant,'" he said.
Fans of rapper Fatman Scoop were shocked and devastated at a recent concert after the well-known artist collapsed on stage and eventually died.
According to Breitbart, the rapper, whose real name was Isaac Freeman, died at 53 after suffering a "medical emergency" on stage at Hamden, Connecticut concern on Friday night.
Video footage of the incident posted originally by TMZ showed the rapper warming up the crowd before performing, but eventually collapsing with other people on the stage.
Many reportedly rushed to the state to administer CPR, and many in the crowd quickly realized what was happening.
In a Facebook post, radio station KBXX 97.9 The Box revealed that he had died, writing, "Fatman Scoop has died after suffering a medical emergency at a show in Connecticut, according to his tour manager."
"If you came to party, make some noise," the rapper can be heard saying in the video as he walked around the stage and eventually on a platform on the stage.
Fatman Scoop Collapses on Stage, Video Shows Medical Staff Performing CPR.
Pray for Fatman Scoop 🙏 pic.twitter.com/8xNmd9Voli
— CapitalCityHipHop (@capcityhiphop_) August 31, 2024
After the rapper collapsed, another person on the stage attempted to distract the crowd, though it was obvious to most that an emergency situation was unfolding.
"I just wanna say this, Hamden, where y’all at, make some noise for me," the person said, which didn't work. "How y’all feeling out there?"
It didn't take long for some in the crowd to call out the person attempting to distract. One of the attendees can be heard shouting, "We wanna know what happened to Fatman Scoop!"
Breitbart noted:
Shortly after that, the “All Night Long” rapper was seen being rushed to a local hospital in a stretcher while an emotionally distraught woman declared, “Lord, touch him. Please, Father God! Touch him, Lord, please, Lord. Please, touch him, Father God. Oh my God!”
The popular rapper and his family received an outpouring of support following the tragedy.
"To a legend Rest in power Fat Man Scoop so grateful for you to be apart of my journey & hyping up this universe," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "Life is so fragile! Here one second gone the next ! I LOVED FAT MAN SCOOP !"
Since booting President Joe Biden out of the 2024 presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris has been boosted to the highest levels of (fake) popularity.
A significant part of that boost came from her Democratic allies in Hollywood, of which most in that business are.
But according to Breitbart, not all Hollywood stars are fully in for Harris, and one popular Netflix star, a non-U.S. resident, recently admitted that while she hopes Harris beats former President Donald Trump, she would probably vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein instead.
"Kaos" actor Rakie Ayloa made it clear that Stein would have her support if she were able to vote.
Notably, Ayloa not only voice her support for Stein, but she also added that no matter what, she doesn't believe the United States is ready for a female president.
"I’d say truthfully, no, I don’t think the U.S. is ready for a female president, but that doesn’t mean they won’t vote for one. That doesn’t mean that people won’t vote for [Harris]," the Welsh actress said.
"Maybe new things, innovative things, progressive things only ever happen when we’re not ready for them,” but added, “Maybe by their very nature, they can’t — if we’re too comfortable, we just stick with what we have."
U.S. Isn't Ready for a Female President, Says 'Kaos' Actor Rakie Ayola (https://t.co/xB3pNMhNOc)https://t.co/yb29i4QFZu pic.twitter.com/ugdmGGk5lV
— World Government Watchdog Jeff (@JeffJun80346519) September 1, 2024
She made it clear that she'll still hope for Harris to prevail over Trump.
"I hope that Kamala Harris wins over Trump. But, you know, I’m not there to vote. Is the U.S. ready for that to happen? Not at all," Ayloa said.
While she may not be an American voter, Ayloa knows, like the rest of the world, that this year's election will be one for the history books.
"But then the U.S. wasn’t ready for [Barack] Obama and the reaction to him was everything that’s happened since in terms of where politics has swung," she added.
"So I’d say I hope she wins, but then I’d also say, ‘Buckle up, everybody, because it’s going to be a bumpy ride.'"
While Stein has no shot at winning anything this time around, it's interesting to see who's supporting her over Harris.
The FBI has failed to investigate a significant number of child sex cases properly, according to a damning watchdog report.
An Officer of Inspector General investigation found that 13% of child sex cases were mishandled between October 2021 and February 2023.
For its review, the OIG looked at 300 out of 3,925 cases that allegedly involved a hands-on sex offense against a child or similar offense. 42 of the cases reviewed were flagged as requiring "immediate attention."
In one of those cases, the FBI's inaction led to a minor victim being assaulted by a registered sex offender for 15 months after the FBI first received a tip about the perpetrator.
"After we raised this incident to the FBI’s attention, the FBI took appropriate action, and the subject was indicted on federal charges," the OIG said.
The OIG found "substantial non-compliance" with requirements to promptly report child sex abuse to state and local law enforcement and social services.
"We also found that when FBI employees made a report, they followed FBI policy and reported the abuse within 24 hours of learning the facts
in only 43 percent of the reports and fully documented only 17 percent of the reports," the investigation found.
The internal review came after the FBI's failure to investigate sexual predator and former Team USA women’s gymnastics physician Larry Nassar. The Justice Department reached a $138.7 million settlement with Nassar's victims this year.
A lawyer for Nassar's victims, John Manly, said the OIG report proves the FBI hasn't kept its promises of reform.
"This report makes clear that the FBI is simply not doing its job when it comes to protecting our children from the monsters among us who stalk them,” said John Manly. “Despite years of promises and numerous congressional hearings it’s now clear that the Larry Nassar scandal could happen again today.”
The FBI often cites its role in combatting sex crimes to fend off criticism and threats of defunding from Republicans, who say the FBI has been weaponized against conservatives.
“Ensuring the safety and security of children is not just a priority for the FBI; it is a solemn duty that we are committed to fulfilling with the highest standards. The FBI’s efforts combating crimes against children are among the most critical and demanding undertakings we do,” the agency said.
Kamala Harris pledged to keep "fighting" for student loan forgiveness after the Supreme Court shut down a second attempt by the Biden-Harris administration to erase billions in debt.
The ruling is a blow to Harris' presidential campaign, which has a support base of young liberal voters who are more likely to have college debt.
President Biden pledged to wipe student debt in 2020, but his efforts to do so have stretched his legal authority, leading to a series of court defeats.
The Supreme Court shut down Biden's first, sweeping attempt to wipe $400 billion in loans last summer.
That led Biden to announce a new program, SAVE, that either lowers or eliminates monthly payments entirely based on income level.
Republican states challenged SAVE and won injunctions from federal courts in Kansas and Missouri. Then, two different appeals courts ruled differently: the 10th Circuit Appeals Court allowed a portion of SAVE to continue, while the 8th Circuit blocked SAVE in its entirety.
In the latest twist in the legal saga, the Supreme Court shot down a request from Biden's Justice Department to lift the 8th Circuit's injunction.
“The [Supreme] Court expects that the Court of Appeals will render its decision with appropriate dispatch,” the court wrote in a brief order.
The SAVE Plan lowers monthly payments from 10% of discretionary income to 5%. Borrowers with $12,000 or less in debt could have their loans forgiven after 10 years of payments. Those making less than 225% of the federal poverty line, or $32,800 a year for a single person, also don't have to pay.
Republicans have blasted the Biden-Harris student loan efforts as a wealth transfer from working-class and non-college voters to college graduates who lean left.
In a post on X, Harris bragged about the administration's progress in wiping roughly $170 billion in debt.
"@POTUS and I have canceled nearly $170 billion in student debt for almost 5 million Americans," Harris wrote on X. "We are also fighting to defend our SAVE Plan, which has lowered payments for millions of Americans. We won't stop fighting to build an economy that works for every American."
The Harris campaign is on defense over the economy and cost of living, with voters continuing to struggle with the inflation of the Biden era. This student loan ruling won't make the Harris campaign's job any easier.
Despite the constant Kamala Harris hype, she is polling worse than Hillary Clinton was at this point in 2016 - a trend that spells trouble for Harris as she faces the end of her "honeymoon" phase.
The sobering data shows that Harris is "nowhere near" where she wants to be, Republican Karl Rove warned in a Fox News interview.
Rove is no fan of Donald Trump, so his analysis can hardly be dismissed as partisan bluster.
The current RealClearPolitics average has Harris ahead by just over one point nationwide. Both Clinton and Joe Biden performed much better against Trump in their respective polling, Rove observed.
“On this day in 2020, Joe Biden was up 7.1% above Donald Trump in the RealClearPolitics average. And at this point in 2016, Hillary Clinton was up 6.3. And as you remember, the election came down to a handful of votes in a handful of states. And today, in the RealClearPolitics average, Harris is up over Trump by 1.5 in the RCP average and 3.5 in the 538.com.," Rove said.
Both presidential elections in 2016 and 2020 were extremely close, with Trump winning in 2016 despite his polling deficit and losing in 2020 by small margins in a few swing states.
“So this, you know, she’s ahead in both averages, but she’s nowhere near ahead by the numbers that both Biden and Clinton were in,” Rove said. "And as we know, Clinton lost and Biden won by 42,000 votes in three states."
Given the past failure of polls to accurately capture Trump's support, some say Harris' narrow lead paints a misleading picture of the race.
"If the polling errors are anywhere close to what they were in 2016 and 2020, then Trump is in the lead right now," Democratic strategist Julian Epstein told Fox News Digital.
Trump maintains narrow leads in all of the battleground states with the exceptions of Wisconsin and Michigan, where Harris is ahead by one and two points respectively, according to the latest RealClearPolitics averages.
Despite their public jubilation, Democrats are not oblivious to the challenges before them. A Harris super PAC conceded that her private polling is "much less rosy" than the public surveys suggest.
With the Democratic convention behind her, Harris is expected to face more pressure to answer questions and fill in policy details in the weeks ahead.
Harris has her first sit-down interview, a joint effort with running mate Tim Walz, Thursday night on CNN. Many expect that Harris could start to lose support as she comes under closer scrutiny.
Donald Trump's New York conviction is in jeopardy after the Supreme Court's bombshell immunity ruling, according to a legal expert.
Alvin Bragg's case against Trump relied on evidence that should never have been allowed under the court's immunity precedent, defense lawyer David W. Fischer explained in a column on Julie Kelly's Substack.
The judge, Juan Merchan, will rule on Trump's motion to dismiss the conviction in September, two days before Trump's sentencing. Trump's request is based on the Supreme Court's immunity decision, which held that a president's "official acts" cannot be prosecuted or used as evidence.
Merchan has consistently ruled against Trump, and many expect that pattern to continue when the judge decides on Trump's motion in September.
Even if Merchan shuts Trump down on immunity, it is likely that Trump's sentencing will be postponed so he can appeal, Fischer argued. Bragg can see the writing on the wall, too.
"That’s the reason why Bragg did not oppose Trump’s request to delay his September sentencing date until after the November election," Fischer wrote.
"Assuming Trump is re-elected, the New York case will evaporate, either through the appellate or political process," he added.
The Supreme Court explained in its immunity ruling that presidents cannot be probed over their official acts, as it would expose their authority to dangerous "intrusion." But Bragg's prosecution of Trump relied heavily on testimony from former Trump staffer Hope Hicks and other evidence that fell within the "outer perimeter" of Trump's presidential duties, Fischer said.
Bragg has dismissed the inclusion of his evidence as "harmless error," but Trump's lawyers argue the error was a much more significant one that corrupted the trial.
"Because of the implications for the institution of the Presidency, the use of official-acts evidence was a structural error under the federal Constitution that tainted [the District Attorney's] grand jury proceedings as well as the trial," Trump's lawyers wrote last month.
The Supreme Court's immunity ruling has already placed Trump's January 6th case in limbo, and a separate classified documents case was tossed by the judge. Another criminal case in Georgia has been delayed indefinitely by the prosecutor's own misconduct.
Democrats, and Kamala Harris in particular, have been left clinging to the flimsy New York conviction to label Trump a "convicted felon."
Donald Trump's sentencing might get pushed beyond the 2024 election, according to a legal analyst, an outcome that would be a devastating loss for Democrat prosecutor Alvin Bragg.
The sentencing in Trump's "hush money" case is set for September 18, but the judge may decide to let Trump's immunity appeal play out first, former prosecutor Elie Honig wrote in The Intelligencer.
"If Judge Merchan chooses to let Trump appeal the immunity issue first, then we’re looking at months, and maybe more than a year, of delay before sentencing," Honig wrote.
The sentencing was initially set for July but was derailed by the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity, which held that presidents are immune to prosecution for their "official acts." The court also barred prosecutors from using "official acts" as evidence.
Trump has used the Supreme Court's ruling to challenge his conviction. Some of the evidence that Bragg used against Trump came from his time in office, including testimony that Bragg called "devastating" and "critical" to the case, Honig noted.
Judge Juan Merchan will rule on Trump's motion to dismiss the verdict just two days before sentencing. Bragg signaled last week that he is not opposed to Trump's request to delay the sentence pending his appeal of the immunity issue, which could go all the way to the Supreme Court.
A delayed sentencing could give Merchan an "off-ramp" to avoid confronting a politically explosive situation, Honig noted.
"He can rule in Trump’s favor, without opposition from the DA, and put off the whole hot mess until after the appeal and, in effect, until way after the election," Honig wrote.
If Trump's sentencing is delayed and he wins the presidency or eventually, his appeal, he may never face sentencing at all, Honig observed.
"If Judge Merchan does grant a postponement pending appeal, then Trump won’t face sentencing until (far) after the election — and, if he wins either that election or his appeal, perhaps ever," he wrote.
Honig was a skeptic of Bragg's prosecution, publishing a widely shared, devastating piece about how Bragg "contorted the law" to get the result he wanted.
Merchan has declined to recuse himself from the case, despite his daughter's past work for Kamala Harris, Trump's opponent in the election. Harris has cited Trump's conviction to attack him on the campaign trail.
Trump's lawyers have told Merchan a delayed sentence "would reduce, even if not eliminate, issues regarding the integrity of any future proceedings."