Transcripts For BBCNEWS Americast 20240922

Now on bbc news, americast. How can america keep its politics safe . Safe for everyone, but particularly safe for the candidates who are running for the presidency . It is, of course, a huge issue now. There have been two attempts on Donald Trumps life. There is a potential threat, of course, to everyone who is involved, and it has an impact on america because in a practical sense, how do people go out and campaign if theyre unsafe doing so, but also on a kind of undermining of Democracy Sense as well, that the whole nation feels itself to be unsafe and unable to be properly democratic. Donald trump has been talking about the second attempt on his life and using it, its fair to say, for his own political gain. Theyre doing things in politics that have never been done before in the history of our country, and worst of all, with their Open Borders and bad elections, they have made us into a third world nation, something which nobody thought was even possible. I americans deserve a campaign based on the issues. We try and keep it on the issues. And god has now spared my life. It must have been god. Thank you. Cheering. Not once, but twice. And there are those that say he did it because trump is going to turn this state around~ hes going to turn. This country around. Hes going to make i america great again. And maybe. So how does america protect its president ial candidates . Welcome to americast. Americast. Americast from bbc news. Hello, itsjustin in the worldwide headquarters of americast in london, england. I thought wed decided that wasnt funny any more. Its sarah here and im in springfield, ohio. And its marianna, aka miss information. Also in london, also in what we are still very boringly calling the worldwide headquarters of americast. Ok, its not funny, but were doing it all the same, and theres quite a lot that falls into that category. Anyway, sarah, youre in an interesting place. Explain where you are and why. Well, everyone will remember that springfield, ohio is where Donald Trump said that haitian migrants were taking peoples pet cats and dogs and using them for food. Completely untrue, totally baseless rumour of which there had been a little bit online, but that he used during the president ial debate to try and highlight immigration. And that then brings us to the president ial stuff. And of course, it has been one of the things the Trump Campaign have been saying is that the rhetoric about trump being a threat is one of the things that have led to people trying to kill him. Were going to be talking in a second to a former Secret Service agent. But first, lets focus on the Secret Service itself and whether its failing, because there is a real debate now, isnt there, about not just about the Secret Service, but about The Way its funded, about The Way its set up and about who actually is able to get its services . Yeah. People have started to talk about the fact that there clearly are not enough resources with the Secret Service. Now, trumps Team Cast aspersions that he is being deliberately denied extra security. From the white house, Joe Biden says, well, its time for congress to send more money to the Secret Service so that they can do more, because actually, theyre under huge strain because theyre giving full president ial protection to the president. To the president , biden, obviously, and just about as much to both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Thats very unusual. And then theres some other figures like Hillary Clinton who get more than normal amounts of protection. So, yeah, so theyre hugely under strain. And theres an economic debate to be had about who should pay for that, which ultimately goes down to congress. But of course, you know, were six weeks away from an election. This is obviously going to get very political as well. Yeah, and its interesting, isnt it, this business of who gets what level of protection and whether someone who is running for president gets a certain Level And Someone else doesnt . And as is crucial in the trump case, we should listen to a clip about this, what if youre a former president and you know that there are a lot of threats against you, and then youre running for president . Well, you got to understand, the Golf Course is surrounded by shrubbery. So when somebody gets into the shrubbery, theyre pretty much out of sight, right . And at this level that he is at right now, hes not the sitting president. If he was, we would have had the entire Golf Course surrounded. But because hes not, the security is limitedi to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible. So that was rick bradshaw, whos the Palm Beach County sheriff. Hes talking about, of course, the Golf Course where the second attempt on Trumps Life seemed to be about to happen. There was certainly a man in the bushes with a gun. And sarah, that led then, didnt it, to a whole set of other questions about, well, hang on a second, why are you making these kind of grades of coverage when there is an obvious threat to this guy . Yeah, and i think this is the first time, actually, people have ever talked about giving full president ial levels of security to somebody whos a candidate or a former president. But youve got to look at the threat. Youll remember, justin, Barack Obama got secret Service Protection much, much earlier than a president ial candidate would normally because there were more threats made against him, because he was the first Black Man who looked like he had a chance of becoming president. Donald trump, for other reasons, you know, has a serious Security Threat against him. So, yeah, people are starting to ask questions about whether he deserves the full whether he deserves the full monty, so to speak. Monty, so to speak. Yeah, i mean, i remember yeah, i mean, i remember with the obama years, with the obama years, i remember being really i remember being really shocked. I was a bit naive, i suppose. Shocked. I was a bit naive, i suppose. I went into a coffee i went into a Coffee Shop in South Carolina Shop in South Carolina they said, no. During the primary when obama during the primary when obama was against Hillary Clinton. Was against Hillary Clinton. And i was saying to these black and i was saying to these black women there, i was saying, women there, i was saying, you all going for obama, you all going for obama, all supporting him . All supporting him . And they all to a person, and they all to a person, they said, no. And they all had kids. They were that kind of age. They had voted in a few elections. Theyd thought about these things. They were all voters. And they all said, we dont want obama to win because hes got a lovely Family And Hell be killed. They were certain that hed be shot. And i found it really shocking, actually, that a nation that that lectures the rest of the world on functioning democracies, etc, can have that level of. And, you know, they werent making it up to there making it up, too there was a real threat, obviously, a set of real threats to obama. But that threat in the background, its always been there. And now with Social Media and all the rest of it, it seems to be accentuated. I mean, its shocking, obviously, that anybody could get this close to a president ial candidate. I think whats surprising, though, is that its a right Wing Figure like Donald Trump who is being targeted, because exactly that story you were telling about peoples fears about President Obama illustrates that often it has been perceived that the threat would come from the right to somebody on the left who was challenging the status quo. And in fact, what were looking at here is just quite the opposite. Yeah, and i think thats a really important point, sarah. And i think that actually tells us something really vital to understand about how this kind of rhetoric on Social Media and then this kind of behaviour offline is not limited to one particular political group or people of one political side or another. A lot of this is about being driven towards extreme points on either side. And theres a new series ive got coming out next week, why do you hate me usa, which looks at exactly this. Whoa, seamless, how does she do it . Yeah, it looks at exactly this. But also, and i think its important to understand this, the different people that become the targets for this sort of hate as well. So youve got people being pushed towards the extremes on either side and then and then acting on the back of that, trying to actually concretely say, right, this happened because of Social Media and this didnt, its sort of impossible, but it appears to play a contributing factor in everything thats happening. And then youve got the different targets of this. So were obviously talking about President S and president ial candidates, but actually, exactly like you said, sarah, about all, you know, the average person, the average school in springfield, ohio. Ive spent some time hanging out with Election Workers in colorado for this new Podcast Series as well. You know, people who are, like, an It Manager who is suddenly like, im being threatened on my way. Im being threatened for doing myjob, and i think most people didnt even know what myjob was before, but they believe im complicit in plots to, you know, steal the Election Or Rig the election process. And that that tends to be, from what theyve shown me and what ive seen, hate and threats coming from people who support Donald Trump and believe the election was stolen. But then youve now got people who are on the left who believe, for example, trumps staged the assassination attempt. Oh yeah, i met one the other day and she lets be blunt about it, kind of think of themselves as rather wonderful people, theres this, you know, how could it possibly be us . How could it be us . Why . I think theyre quite surprised, actually, at the whole thing. The idea that trump is being is being targeted is actually rather annoying for them, because hes not your obvious victim. Absolutely. And i talk to people, even just coming to a place like springfield, ohio, and talking about the atmosphere around the election and not even specific to the story here, there is a genuine fear among lots of people that someone is going to get killed before election day, before election day, that there will at least be another attempt, whether another attempt, whether against Donald Trump or his against Donald Trump or his opponents, because you have opponents, because you have to wonder what these attempts to wonder what these attempts on Donald Trumps life on Donald Trumps life are doing to the very people are doing to the very People Marianna is describing, marianna is describing, who probably believe him who probably believe him that these attempts on his life that these attempts on his life are being inspired by are being inspired by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Joe biden and Kamala Harris. There is an incendiary there is an incendiary atmosphere around here that atmosphere around here that feels really quite dangerous, feels really quite dangerous, to be perfectly honest, to be perfectly honest, and the threat of political and the threat of political violence has never felt violence has never felt more real. More real. Right, on that rather right, on that rather depressing note, i think youve depressing note, i think youve got to go, havent you, got to go, havent you, marianna . Marianna . I do, i do. I do, i do. Ive tried really hard by The Way, americasters, not to make this joke because its not a very its not to make this joke because its not a very funny topic. However, i should just say to you that justin is dressed like hes a member of the Secret Service for this podcast record, including with our little earpieces in and in his suit. So it feels like me and sarah didnt quite get the memo. Im wearing a suit because i have to go to an undisclosed location to do an undisclosed thing after the podcast, and ive got a very nice Silver Case to go with it that looks as if it should have the nuclear codes in it, but actually has a toothbrush. I dont think well start Dressing Thematically for every episode. For George W Bush after the iraq war, when there were a lot of terror threats, of course, against the united states and personally against George W Bush, but also Barack Obama, also, as weve already been talking about, the potential target of racially motivated attacks. Bill, you are exactly the right person to talk to. What an extraordinary Career Youve had. Uh, im a pretty humble guy. Youre embarrassing me there a little bit. Uh, but, um, yeah, i mean, it is what it is. Great experience. The Secret Service is an incredible job. You know, it takes a toll on your personal life. Youre gone 150, 200 days a year sometimes. And you live by Somebody Elses schedule. But an amazing experience. I got to see and do things that you know, you either dream about as a kid or you see in movies. And you spend a lot of time. Bill, youre describing the schedule of a Broadcast Journalist trying to cover an election campaign, thats for sure. Laughter. We want to try and get into all of your experience, obviously, and learn what we can about the Secret Service. Butjust in headline terms, to start with, when you heard that somebody had, well, a bullet had grazed former President Trump at a rally, and then this week also heard that Somebody Else had got close to him with a rifle, what was your first reaction . Well, you know, if we dont mind, well break down both attempts, because the first attempt, you know, iwasjust it was kind of an off day it was kind of an off day for me and my family, for me and my family, just kind of kind of hanging just kind of kind of hanging out around our house. Out around our house. And a friend texted me and a friend texted me and said, turn the news on. And said, turn the news on. And i turned the news on, and i turned the news on, and it had just happened and it had just happened within a couple of minutes. Within a couple of minutes. And i turned to my wife and i turned to my wife and i said, how could and i said, how could somebody have got somebody have got a firearm into the event . A firearm into the event . Because i assumed it was because i assumed it was someone in the crowd. Someone in the crowd. And the Secret Service and the Secret Service is divided up into two sort is divided up into two sort of sections, if you will. Of sections, if you will. Theres the Uniform Division and then theres the Uniform Division and then the Special Agent side. And the Uniform Division provides security around the white house, the sort of physical security for the white house, but they also sort of man or theyre responsible for the magnetometers at all of these events that physically screen people before coming into the event. And these are some of the most sensitive magnetometers in the world. These uniformed Division Officers are the most highly trained, probably in the world. I mean, can pick up metal shavings in your pocket, theyre so sensitive. And so when i saw that, i turned to my wife and i said, somebody must have had, like, an ai, you know, that are coming out are going to show is that there was some real miscommunication. You know, its not what you see on tv, 0k . So its, you know, perfect world, the service would have put A Thousand agents in butler, pennsylvania, with 100 Counter Sniper teams, and everybody has a Dna Sample on file that the Secret Service has screened, they know everything about everybody in the crowd. You know, agents have these google glasses, lens glasses, that facial Recognition Software thats tied into drones with missiles. You know, thatsjust not the reality of protection. Its not like you see in the movies. Im really interested by that because i wanted it to be more like in the movies, or maybe i dont because of the Freedom Aspect of it. But how high tech is it . I mean, is it you talked about the metal detectors, and obviously there are a lot of very highly armed people around the president or a president ial candidate. But does it go any further than that . Well, there are a lot of, um, what we would call classified here in the united states, the Secret Service has a lot of classified assets that they do use at these events. But just to circle back and answer your question there, a lot of it is low tech. Its just agents on the ground using their critical Judgement And Reasoning and their training, putting together these protective models that the Secret Service has used for decades that have been really successful. And, um, so its kind of a combination of tech and just kind of good old fashioned, um, what we call here in america gumshoe, you know, just agents walking around doing their job. So its a combination of both. But what about online gumshoe, as it were . I mean, are you really aware, are agents really aware, is the service really aware of what people are, how theyre interacting online, and kind of potential threats that that seem to be obvious from peoples Social Media profiles . Or is it, i mean, is thatjust a crazy thing to ask, because there are so many people spewing such a lot of hate that you wouldnt know where to start . No, you know, listen, the Secret Service, you know, you guys, ijust feel like your Law Enforcement and intelligence agencies are Leaps And Bounds ahead, technology wise, than i feel like we are. And thats exactly what i was going to get into there, was that, you know, for the most part, america and britain, not a Surveillance State, right, like China Or Russia . Both of these most recent potential assassins against President Trump and China Or Russia would have in China Or Russia would have beenjailed years ago, or at least the most recent assassin for his anti government feelings, you know, theyjust would have jailed him and you never hear from him again. So for the most part, were not a Surveillance State here in america. Its a free democracy, just like britain. And, you know, within reason you can say or do you know, its a crime in america to talk about assassinating the president as a threat. I mean, you and i can talk about it sort of academically, right . But if i go online and say, i hate the president , he should die, someones going to be looking into that. And these Tech Companies, you know, theyve all all of the these Tech Companies have algorithms that are constantly supercomputers are constantly searching are constantly. Supercomputers are constantly searching for these words and phrases and combinations of words and phrases, and those kind of things get flagged and then they get sent to the Secret Service. In addition, the Secret Service has dozens and dozens of agents and intelligence personnel. Theirjob every day is just to sit there and scrub Social Media and look for these kind of threats. This is really fascinating. But one question when, as laypeople, were watching this stuff play out, its obvious something has gone wrong in both of these Assassination Attempts against Donald Trump. And as you correctly pointed out, there has then started a political debate about funding and about whether or not, well, one whether President Trump has enough security and two, whether its politically motivated, the funding of it. But leaving that aside, how can we tell, as laypeople looking at this, whether the mistake is not enough resources on his Team Or Incompetence . I mean, it certainly appears from what we know about butler, that had more to do with incompetence than strained resources. But i dont know if we can say the same about what happened at his Golf Club in florida. I think human nature, we want to find out, 0k, i want that one thing that went wrong, right . When theres a tragedy or a major incident, were always looking, i want that one explanation. Its a combination of things. Its a combination of the Secret Service, every director since 9 11, not going to congress and asking for more money and resources over several decade, and which causes kind of a ripple effect, right . Decades, and which causes kind of a ripple effect, right . Like a compounding Issue Year after year after year with increasing Mission Demands and sort of stagnant orjust minimal increases in budget and resources. So, you know, ithink its a combination of factors. And so, you know, was Human Error involved in butler, pennsylvania and in the Golf Course . Possibly. I think that will come out in some of the reports. But in my opinion, again, formerly being on the inside, i think its mostly going to be an issue of resources with a little bit of possibly incompetence. Tell us more about the Golf Side of all of this, because you must have spent a lot of your time on Golf Courses. It is weird, something about President S and golf and just the difficulty of looking after them on the course . Yeah, and the Secret Service uses sort of a protective Model Theyve used here in america. You guys are probably familiar from a World War two history, but Dwight D Eisenhower was sort of the first president that the Secret Service had to protect routinely on a Golf Course, and that many years ago, the secret Service Kind of came up with this Golf Course protective model where you have agents, you know, a few holes ahead, you have agents behind, sort of covering the rear guard, and then youre going to have agents directly around the president as they golf. And that protective model is pretty sound. Part of that model is youre going to have agents dressed like golfers that are actually golfing to sort of blend in, playing golf, but actually in the Golf Bag is going to be some weaponry. So, you know, that model has kind of stuck and been very successful. Theres also going to be Counter Sniper teams and Counter Assault teams, like what i was on, the Cat Team, there as well. Listen, Golf Courses are like mini nature preserves, right . I mean, theres wood lines, sand traps, water hazards. You know, im a golfer, i love the game, and what, the average hole is 300 plus yards . You multiply that times 18 holes, and you know, its extremely difficult to protect President S when theyre golfing. Now, President Obama would frequently golf at military Golf Courses. And those were just a little bit easier to protect, because here in america, the President S viewed as the commander in chief. And i can remember multiple times where very high ranking Military Officers would have a tee time, they would have it reserved weeks in advance, and they show up to play and theyre turned away, generals and colonels. So its a weird job, isnt it . Because you do sometimes have a lot of ability to do stuff, but at the same time, youve got this kind of stress in your mind that there is a constant Threat Notjust to the life of the principal, but actually potentially to yours as well . Yeah, yeah. And, um, listen, i have, you know, dozens of stories and i dont want to hyperbole here or over exaggerate, but, you know, there were times where there were serious geopolitical consequences for stuff that was happening real time, you know . There were times where. Give us as an example. Well, there was a time in mumbai, india, where we discovered an indian police sniper, but we didnt know it at the time. He was covered in a ghillie suit. And, um, we thought it was an actual sniper. He was looking at obama through his rifle scope, and we had to make a decision. Were we going to immediately burst into this speech with President Obama . So there were times like that, but then there were other times where i went to afghanistan once with, um, the president , the president , President Obama and my Cat Team had been up for like 36 hours, 24, 36 hours straight, and another team relieved us. Theres always a back up plane, a back up Air Force one that flies everywhere with the president in case theres a problem with the primary plane. And we were lucky enough to fly back on the back up plane and it was just my Cat Team, just like 6 or 7 of us and nobody else on the plane. And we got airborne and one of the Flight Attendants came back and said, listen, there was kind of a mess up. We have a bunch of Buffalo Hot Wings and a bunch of cold, ice cold yuengling beer, and we kind of got to of it before we land in germany. And, uh, so we. You managed to . Yeah, we ate all these buffalo wings, drank yuengling. And what a kind of a Dirty Little Secret is on the president ial planes, the president has access to movies that havent been released yet into hollywood. So a president gets them, like, several weeks before theyre actually released. So we were able to watch all these movies that were hadnt even been released yet. So there were there were moments like that in the Secret Service that i rememberjust kind of these like, wow, this is a really cooljob, but there were also times, like i said, that there were really geopolitical consequences if you got it wrong. Bill, its been a real pleasure to talk to you. Im glad to hear there are some perks among all of the risks that you were taking, bill. Thats right. Thanks a lot, bill, really, really huge pleasure to talk to you. Thanks a lot. Absolutely. I love the uk. Im going to go over again and visit some day. So i love you guys and i love the bbc. I listen all the time. Wonderful. Thanks forjoining us, bill. Were honoured to have you. Thanks, bill. Bye, guys. Right, team. Thats all weve got time for today. Good afternoon. More scenes like those behind me expected notjust like those behind me expected not just today for sunday and monday across england and wales in particular. In contrast, we have some decent spells of sunshine further north and west, particularly across highland and grampian scotland. There is a bit of fog around the western isles, northern isles, and certainly the North Sea coast, and it is running through the Central Belt, so im not clear the Central Lowlands during the rest of the day. Lots of sunshine northern ireland, North West parts of england and central and eastern england, but we have a cluster of storms and they could go up elsewhere, again in the south of england and possibly east anglia. It was a warm start, and a warm day. 2a or 25. We could see 21 in the North West highlands and that sunshine. It will turn fresher in the highlands of the night, a little mist and fog, and were generally that low Cloud Or Meander back in off the North Sea, but look at The Rain and thunderstorms further south. It is likely they will start to become more widespread, low pressure thats bringing them closing in. For most of us, Thatis Closing in. For most of us, that is another warm night and a fairly damp start to the day in some parts tomorrow. Grey from the mist and the drizzle, or indeed does downpours. Primarily england and wales will see the most impactful amount of rainfall. Hazardous travel conditions, lots of spray and excess water as well. This is where the Computer Model thinks we will see the wettest weather through saturday, sunday and monday. Primarily england and wales. The coin does flip later in the week, and i will tell you about that later, but you can see, dont take it quite literally, you can see more cloud around england and wales tomorrow, and certainly more widespread outbreaks of Rain And Showery downpours. The low cloud clears back to the east coast, hopefully will clear away from the Central Belt as well, but probably not quite as warm, because we have more cloud and more showery rain. This area of low pressure still meanders across england and wales on monday. Some uncertainty as to how far north it will go, and theres The Rain coming later in the day into the north as well. Behind that, it is likely to turn a little cooler as we head through the middle part of the week. We could have a blast of fairly significant winds on wednesday as well, but you can see from tuesday on theirs more Chance Of Rain being caught in the north as well as in the south. Much cooler and settled on the cards. Live from london, this is bbc news. Israel is continuing its attacks on southern lebanon, saying its Hit Hezbollah targets. Its also intercepting Rocket Fire from across the border. Hezbollah confirms two senior commanders are among 37 people killed in Fridays Strike on beirut. Israels military says it killed 16 terrorists. Israel Hit A Gazan School Being used as a shelter. Hamas says at least 22 people were killed. Iam samir i am samir hussein, live in sri lanka, where i will re bringing you all the latest from these elections. A former Fulham Football Manager tells the bbc that extra precautions were put in place to protect female players from Mohamed Al fayed. Hello, im azadeh moshiri. The Israeli Military says its carrying out more strikes on hezbollah targets in lebanon. These are live pictures from the region