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--:-- Georgia Howe: The Secret Service is under fire for what some are calling a slow response to the attempt on President Trump's life on Saturday. How is a gunman able to set up a clear shot just 130 yards from the former president? And what is the agency saying in response to the criticism? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Monday, July 15th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: The rally-goer killed in the attack was a veteran firefighter, husband and father of two. Corey died a hero. Corey dove on his family to protect them last night at this rally. Corey was the very best of us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And legacy media is being criticized for downplaying the violence directed at President Trump as a newly energized GOP kicks off the 2024 Republican National Convention. Donald Trump and the people around him perceive themselves to be under threat. And that's all that matters. That is not legitimate.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Tim Pierce: So, how significant was the security failure? Hey, Georgia, this was a catastrophic failure. Within hours, President Biden ordered a swift and thorough independent review of the event. House Speaker Mike Johnson has said that the security failure will also be a top priority of House investigators. And then, of course, there will be many law enforcement reviews of what happened on Saturday.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But to begin, one major question is how did the shooter even get into a position to take shots at Trump? The gunman set up on a plain white rooftop of a building that, according to the New York Times, was within 130 yards of the president's podium. That's barely over the length of a football field.
--:-- Tim Pierce: On top of that, the shooter was seen crawling on the roof by potentially dozens of rally goers who pointed him out to security, as well as a local police officer who reportedly backed off after the shooter pointed his gun.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now where is the criticism coming from Professionals or from Trump himself Well Trump and many others have actually been extremely complimentary of the Secret Service agents who reacted to shield the former president with their bodies But some aspects of their response are now generating a lot of questions such as how the Secret Service didn't hustle Trump immediately from the stage, even despite Trump's order to wait.
--:-- Jonathan Gilliam: It took forever, in my mind, from the protector standpoint, it took forever for them to get on him and even longer for them to react and get him out of there. And as you can see right here, I just I can't believe what I'm seeing is these Secret Service agents don't know whether to holster their gun or keep it out, put their sunglasses on or take it off.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He should have been out of there so fast that the people didn't even realize that he had gone yet.
--:-- Tim Pierce: There were questions over whether the Secret Service was given enough resources to adequately protect the former president. Here's Congressman Mike Walls of Florida, a former Green Beret, on Fox News.
--:-- Mike Walls: There should have been an agent posted on that building that have cleared that building where the sniper was. And when you don't have those resources, you're reliant on local and law enforcement. And Dana, I could tell you, we love our police, but I've been to many rallies. I've seen many times local law enforcement are enjoying Trump and watching Trump. You just don't have that level of protection that you would with an expanded Secret Service detail.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Waltz said that multiple requests have been made to expand Trump's security detail, and they have all been denied. Now, the Secret Service has denied that those requests were made or denials given.
--:-- Tim Pierce: But then there are also staffing questions that have focused a lot on the Secret Service's commitment to DEI hiring decisions. Here is a CBS clip of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheadle describing her diversity goal of a 30% female workforce for the agency.
--:-- Kimberly Cheadle: I'm very conscious as I sit in this chair now of making sure that we need to attract diverse candidates and ensure that we are developing and giving opportunities to everybody in our workforce, and particularly women.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And the underlying question there is how those diversity goals have impacted readiness. Specifically, critics have pointed out the fact that female agents in most cases aren't tall enough to adequately shield the head and torso of a larger male target.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Regardless, a lot of unanswered questions here, so plenty of fodder for investigators. Definitely. It'll be interesting when that report comes out.
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--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: So, Amanda, it's now been widely reported that Comparator died shielding his family. What do we know about those final moments?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, we know that he dove onto his family when he heard those gunshots ring out In a Facebook post one of Comparator daughters he was a father of two she said that her dad threw her and her mother to the ground and he used his body to shield them from bullets She said he died a real life superhero Comparator and his family were sitting behind the president during the rally.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: And in addition to his tragic death, two other Trump supporters were gravely injured in the assassination attempt and they remained in the hospital until Sunday. They've been identified as 57-year-old David Dutch and 74-year-old James Copenhaver. It's unclear if they've since been released.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Reports and video of that chaos indicate that Trump supporters work together to try to help those victims. Here's a video of an emergency room doctor who is covered in blood talking about how he tried to assist Comprator.
--:-- Emergency Room Doctor: Somebody over there was screaming, he's been shot, he's been shot. So I made my way over. I said, I'm an emergency department physician. Let me help you. The guy had spun around, was jammed between the benches. He had a headshot here. There was lots of blood and he had brain matter. I did CPR, did chest compressions as well as a brief form.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, we've also heard from numerous family members of Comprator. What have they said?
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: As I mentioned, one of his daughters, Allison, did publish a post on Facebook. Here's a direct quote. The media will not tell you that he died a real life superhero. They're not going to tell you how quickly he threw my mom and I to the ground. They're not going to tell you that he shielded my body from the bullet that came at us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Allison also expressed that her father was a devout Christian. She closed her post by saying, quote, I know that God is proud of the man that came to his gates yesterday.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Comparator's sister also praised her brother for his heroism. She asked for prayers and she stated that hatred has no limits and love has no bounds.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, people have really rallied around this family in the wake of this tragedy. There's a GoFundMe for the Comparators that quickly topped a million dollars. Tell us about that.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Yeah, it's pretty incredible. Actually, Trump's team authorized that GoFundMe page for the family, and they set a goal of $1 million. Donald Trump Jr. posted it to X over the weekend, and it's now brought in millions of dollars.
--:-- Georgia Howe: There were some big donations from folks in the political arena, too, including a combined tens of thousands of dollars from Daily Wire Emeritus Ben Shapiro and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: And what have we heard from Trump and or Biden about the victims?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, in addition to the fundraiser, Trump has said in numerous statements that his love and prayers are with these families. And he also said in a statement, quote, we hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was horribly killed.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Biden also spoke of Comprator during a short statement on Sunday. Here's some audio of that.
--:-- Joe Biden: He was protecting his family from the bullets that were being fired. He lost his life. God love him. We're also playing for the full recovery of those who were injured.
--:-- Georgia Howe: While the Comprateur family is certainly in our prayers today, Amanda, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: You're welcome.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Trump, much of the media is facing harsh criticism for their coverage of the historic event. Here to talk about how the fourth estate has comported itself is Daily Wire contributor David Marcus.
--:-- David Marcus: So, David, there have been a few different criticisms of the media coverage. Walk us through what you're seeing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right. There have been a few different harsh critiques, starting with some outlets, especially newspapers, that really seem to downplay the seriousness of the event. Perhaps the most egregious example was the Denver Post, which ran a huge headline that read gunmen killed in attack with a tiny little headline above it to the right that said quote Trump says he has been shot end quote
--:-- David Marcus: You also have the New York Times that ran a full page headline on their Sunday opinion page calling Trump unfit for office. And while that was clearly planned well before the shooting, they could have held it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Then there was the Atlantic, which ran a story called, quote, the gunman and the would be dictator, end quote. In all these examples, many Americans who were very upset about the shooting, even traumatized to some degree, view this as deeply inappropriate and frankly, as an attempt to limit sympathy and by extension support for Trump.
--:-- David Marcus: Well, it wasn't just print media, though, that got those angry reactions. We also saw some examples on cable news. What were some of the standouts there?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, there were a few things just hours after the shooting. There was some commentary on CNN criticizing Trump for saying fight, fight after being shot in the head. Here's some of that from CNN contributor Jamie Gangell.
--:-- Jamie Gangell: After he was hit, former President Trump got up and said, fight, fight, fight. I think what we're hearing from people is that's not the message that we want to be sending right now.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, I've never been shot in the head, but it seems to me that people should get a little leeway for their immediate reaction, even if one thinks the sentiment was the wrong one.
--:-- David Marcus: Though Trump clearly and always means fight in a metaphorical and political sense, not in the sense of physical violence.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Also on ABC News, we saw Martha Raddatz arguing that Trump supporters also contribute to this kind of rhetoric that leads to violence. And that drew no small amount of ire.
--:-- David Marcus: Well, that brings us to another central point that many have made about the legacy media reaction, and that's the both sides of the issue. What are we seeing in regard to that?
--:-- Georgia Howe: On the more left-leaning channels, there's an all-out blitz to make sure to bring up January 6th or the attack on Paul Pelosi, presumably in an effort to say, hey, look, there's political violence on all sides. And yes, however, when they were covering January 6th and the attack on Paul Pelosi, we did not see any of this insistence on also mentioning the shooting of Republican Congressman Steve Scalise.
--:-- David Marcus: So part of the charge here is clearly hypocrisy. Basically, it looks like the attitude is that if a conservative does something bad, all hell breaks loose. But when it's a liberal, suddenly there's all kinds of nuance and who can say who's really to blame.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, finally, the last time we saw an assassination attempt along these lines was in 1981 with the shooting of Reagan. That was well before this 24 hour news cycle. Now, do you think this story could have legs for more than the week or two of coverage that we're basically accustomed to at this point?
--:-- David Marcus: It's a fascinating question that I don't know the answer to, but it is certainly worth keeping an eye on. After 9-11, which was in the cable news era, the story was front and center for months, which helped to spur action by the government and the American people to secure the nation. But that was not right smack dab in the middle of a presidential election, nor did it have any real political divisions, at least until the Iraq war started.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Everybody seems to be acknowledging that something needs to change in our discourse. But the odds of that actually happening increase if this story doesn't just fade in the rearview mirror like everything else.
--:-- David Marcus: And speaking of mirrors, so much depends on whether the legacy media is willing to take a long, honest look in their own and start to make some changes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, I wouldn't bet on it, but we'll see. David, thanks for reporting.
--:-- David Marcus: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.
