Transcripts For MSNBC Alex Witt Reports 20240916

Include golf. The problems that they will have to add resources that continue to be out in the open to ensure, even drones, particularly, to ensure they got the area covered and they feel safe that they are not within proximity of a sniper shot. Stay with us and for all of you joining us here. We are at the top of the Hour. 3 00 p. M. Here on the east coast. Critical news that happened about one Hour and five or 10 minutes ago in West Palm Beach, florida, while on the trump international Golf Course, the Secret Service stepped in because they heard gunshots. They do not know if this was a target for former President Donald Trump are not. There is no confirmation of that, but of course, in the effort to have safety around the former president , they whisked him away. This is what were getting from the Secret Service. They have taken him someplace safe. We do not know if you someplace within the trump international Golf Course, located in West Palm Beach but that is in close proximity to maralago which is in Palm Beach proper. He may have had access to an armored vehicle. And traveled back to his home. Certainly over the years, they have established safe rooms for the former president , both during his tenure as president and since. Were not sure of his whereabouts we know that Secret Service says he is safe and that he was not harmed. Again we have to reiterate that we do not know if he was an intended target to. We do not know what kind of a gun was used. Frank figliuzzi, formerly of the fbi and now is national Security Analyst with us, suggest the fbi will certainly be able to figure out what it is but the secret Service Agent might be trained well enough to know if this is a rifle, if it is a gun, there is no description yet differentiating gap between the two. We are going to try to get to the bottom of all of this. We have the Palm Beach County Sheriff will be having a News Conference at some time soon to inform us on what they have found. Back to you, frank. Lets talk about drones. Do think that would already be in effect right now, drones in the area looking for somebody or more than one person . Again, we have no idea of the source yet of these gunshots, nor do we know if it was plural. We do not know if it was more than one. Drones are the future of Law Enforcement. In fact, in many areas, they are the present. There counties right now in america whose first response to a 911 call is to send a drone. They get there faster and get through traffic. They can survey the House Or Business and they can go back to the responding officers. Secret service has said after butler, pennsylvania, we need an increased use of drones. The first drones that go up, if indeed there going up and i would recommend they are, would be from Palm Beach County Sheriff. Again the advanced Sheriffs Department is used to a lot of this. Secret service may or may not have it on the ground. In West Palm Beach, on the ground may not have them available, of course. Buts, the sheriff certainly would, as with they have helicopters and aircraft. I think that is happening now. I think there might even be a call to go out to say, if you heard something, to the public, if you heard something, if you heard the gunshots, please lets call in. Let us know what you know. Theres always the possibility that this was something that sounded a lot like a gunshot, but theyre not quite certain. Again, im confident that when agents think they hear a gunshot, it is probably a gunshot but i will also offer this, if somebody really wanted to target Donald Trump, which sadly, We Saw just recently, this kind of haphazard random, ineffective thing, would be unlikely to happen. If someone truly has planned and thought about this, they would be much closer and there would be no doubt that this was a targeted situation. So, if i were forced to engage in conjecture here, i would say this may not be related at all to Donald Trump. Okay. I do wanted to say that we are getting some reaction online. I am comfortable reading that which Lindsey Graham has posted. Dust Mite Executive producers to check on that which one of the former President S sons has posted which takes a lot further and offers information we cannot verify. But what Lindsey Graham says is just spoke with President Trump. He is one of the strongest people i have ever known. He is in good spirits and he is more resolved than ever to save our country. Lindsey graham has posted that, as you can see, atop the Press Release from the trump vance campaign. That was from the Trump Campaign Communications Director Sankey is a following gunshots in his vicinity. No further details of his time. Im hesitant to read what else has been posted, but i will leave that to our standards to double check on that. So, let me bring back in jake traylor. And even covering the Trump Campaign. Do you know if Theres Anything that has changed as a result of this in terms of the former President S plans for campaigning . Are you getting any word on that . Because lets face it, places that are open Air Present a level of concern these days. We saw what happened in july with him and what has potentially happened today, if, indeed, he was a target. That has not been established. What are you hearing about his plans . At the moment we are not hearing too much from the campaign and We Saw, of course, this is a different situation than in july when We Saw for short an attempted assassination against the former president but for a few Hours we would have almost a Media Or Campaign blackout were we were trying to get more information from the campaign and you to safety and caution, we were not learning a lot. That seems to be a bit of the case right now. We know the former president was taken to a safe place. We do know that, despite these shots which have not been independently verified yet, the president is safe and no contact was made whatsoever. But in terms of what the week ahead looks like in terms of Battleground States that he was going to visit. He was going to go to michigan and North Carolina and New York and d. C. We have not heard if theres going to be a shakeup to the Campaign Schedule yet. Over the past few weeks, ever since the attempted assassination in july, we have seen a Ramp Up Insecurity from the Secret Service. Former President Trump has had significantly less outdoor rallies since it took place. The outdoor rally he did hosted Bulletproof Glass in front of him. Wishing ramped up measures to protect the former president and to keep Him Safe. We do not know how this impacts campaigning going forward. We are continuing to learn more there. Okay. All right. Again, this is very fluid and im getting conflicting reports, so in an effort to exercise caution and only state the facts, the few that we have at this time, im going to refrain from reporting other things were seeing posted online. Lets get to aaron gilchrist. Hes at the White House, and see if there getting any more information. The Secret Service will be passing on what they know to the White House. Anything new from your Vantage Point . Reporter alex, at this point, nothing new is coming through the White House on what has developed here and you have been noting it, we have covered these sorts of breaking situations. We have covered Breaking News involving shots fired in lots of different scenarios over the years and so, the flow of information sometimes is such that there are lots of streams coming from different directions and sometimes it do not cross and end up going into one place. Were trying to make sure we are Feting Information that is coming into us before we share any of that on television. What we have been able to learn from the united states Secret Service, which in charge of Safety And Security for former President Trump and all former President S, is before 2 00 this afternoon, there was an incident near where the former president was at a Golf Course in West Palm Florida and the Secret Service working with the Palm Beach County Sheriffs office has been investigating the incident since roughly 2 00 this afternoon and really, the important thing here is from their perspective, the former president is safe and at this point, the task for the Secret Service and local Law Enforcement is to piece together exactly what unfolded here to figure out exactly what was heard and why and in this case, the reporting had been from the Trump Campaign that it was gunshots in the vicinity. The activity now for Law Enforcement is to piece together moment by moment exactly what happened, how it unfolded, who might have been involved. We know in this case that the former president was not hurt but there are questions whether there was in Fact Gunfire or hu these are questions in the ether at this point in time to different sources, trying to get information about trying to answers to those very questions. I think right now, as you noted, we are in sort of a Holding Pattern to make sure that we get information that is coming down one stream and flows together and makes sense as we are learning about this incident that was at least in the vicinity of former President Trump. 100 . Stay where you are and let us know if you get anymore information officially from the White House on this. Rob damico is joining us. Give me a sense of how this goes down. Plant two different scenarios. The first is that the former president is there on the Golf Course, a shot is heard, tell me what happens, what exactly happened to this kind of the situation . Right that the Secret Service immediately gets him to the emergency extract plan. What ever they had on there, they probably have the Golf Carts ready, but the probably had armored suburbans fairly close. As soon as they hear gunfire, if they heard it and they think they will just act on and figured out later. The get into the armored vehicle. That is the first thing they do. Get him in an area that we call a harder target then they start looking at moving him to wherever. At that point the trying to figure out where the gunfire came from because you dont want to drive out towards it. You want to drive away from it. The fact that they are on the Golf Course, they have a lots of open area so getting to the vehicle, if youre not sure where the gunfire came from, they probably have a good indication on sound, maybe far off, maybe closer, it depends on what kind of gunfire. They will get him to the Emergency Hardened Targets and extract him and they will have the stay behind agents cornet with Law Enforcement to figure out what happened. By then, he is on route to his Location And Everyone at the location, probably maralago, is now in a lockdown because hes coming back, probably in an emergency, theyre starting to toughen up that target. They may stuff stopped traffic around it. They might have a plan to get him in without having to stop at all. That is kind of what is happening at that time. Get him out, get Him Safe, get him out and figure out what is going on later. They will assume it was a targeted because you want to assume the worst before you start getting evidence that it was not the worst. Is Golf Course is out by the airport. There are some neighborhoods around there that again, i think the more likelihood is there was probably gunshots outside the Golf Course involving Something Else, not targeted, and they are just taking, based on Everything Else come the most prudent the safest route for the former president. Let me ask you. Your familiarity with Secret Service protocol. The first scenario that you described, 100 makes sense. You had also guessed that the Secret Service does advanced sweeps before a president gets anywhere. Of course they will do that. The question is, with a conduct and advanced sweep of the Golf Course yesterday . Early this morning . Might they do it hole by hole. Could they be three or four holes ahead to make sure that everything is clear . Is that a possible scenario . Absolutely. Since he goes there, theyve done the initial assessment and when they find out he is going to go there and play again, the day before or a day or two before, they will go out make sure everything to have the plan is still in the plan. Road closures and fences and all of those things that you are counting on, you want to go back and verify. Somebody probably went out a day or two beforehand and verify that in nature that they know who is on security during the day. Probably talk to the Police Sergeant who is going to be on shift that day. Then, before he goes out, and advanced team goes out and secure where he will come into and as you talk about, as youre playing golf and are around 18 holes, have the Incident Team and enclosed team and you probably have a team maybe a hole or two before him, keeping an eye on them because theyre within a hole of him and maybe someone out further and someone behind. Again, as We Saw in pennsylvania, the Danger Area is a small arms range, so ar 15, without sites, is probably 200 to 400 yards. With sites, could be further than you are looking at, if youre looking at a Scope Type of sniper rifle, you are looking at 800 or 900 yards. All in that. What is nice with the Golf Course is you dont have a lot of high buildings within that. That take some of the other threats out. They have looked at all of that and have it in a book and every time they go to that, they will brief the team on it. As you talk about all of those things happening in different modes and then again, when a goes down, it is emergency, get him out and get Him Safe. Okay. There are trees, there are things around which they have to move when there on the Golf Course. Any number of interesting sorts of topography there that you can look at as well besides the beautiful Open Spaces. Lets go back to the White House. You have an official statement from the White House for us . We just just got the statement from the White House say the President And Vice president had been briefed about the Security Incident at the trump international Golf Course were former President Trump was golfing. There relieved to know that he is safe. They will be kept regularly updated by their team. President biden is here at the White House. He had gone to his home in delaware earlier in the weekend and returned here late yesterday afternoon. There was an event last night. He is here at the White House. Vice president harris is in washington as well, not on the campaign trail today. Was something of this nature happens, the National Security teams and Homeland Security teams would step in and update them on the information they have available. Im glad to get the official statement. Thank you. Continue standing by. Lets go to Tom Winter. Is joining us on the phone. What is latest that you know . Do we have tom connected . We just lost him. Will try to get him back. I had been told that he was going in and out so maybe he is on the move and we hope he can establish a good connection. Were seeing some notes from him but the information to be shared to be best coming from him. So we have the former Secret Service Special Agent and an msnbc Law Enforcement analyst. Thank you for joining us so quickly. I was asking a former fbi official, a couple of them, in fact, about what would go down immediately. The scenario we are playing is a Golf Course. A former president of the Golf Course, a Gun Shot is heard of some sort that they believe to be gunshots. Tell me what happens initially and i will pose a second scenario for your. Where would Donald Trump have been taken immediately . The first scenario, Golf Course, think of Open Space. There is a very limited place for you to hide. Out in the field and im thinking immediately you want to take him and remove him and evacuate him. You might want to hunker down, too find someplace you can shield. Typically the cars will be nearby. The cars are ballistic and some nature so that is the first place you want to try to get him to go so shield where the shots are coming from. Can remove him . Is he secure enough to move . If you can move him, go to the vehicles. The x is a place where you think the danger exists. If the shots or even in the distance you are still exposed and you do not know what the scenario is. You do not place outside the perimeter of security, what is happening there. To follow up with your second question, where else can you take them . In emergency scenarios, once you get him of the vehicles coming or two at a place we can remove yourself completely from that environment. You want to try to avoid hunkering down. If there is a nearby building, lets say where you are at the Golf Course, you can put him into something called a hard room. A hard room is a room that does not typically have windows and has one way in and one way out. Why do we want that . You want one point of Entry And Exit which means i can take the president and put him in the room and the only Avenue Or Area i have to protect is that one way in and one way out. That is the barrier. The agents posted and armed and prepared to fight if they need to do that. That is the most secure thing to do. Lets go back and say i am able to evacuate the president. I would want to take him away from that area, away from the area of gunshots, if i can. In a scenario like that, i have some options. One option is to take him to a local police precinct. I did that once in the past with one of my protect these when the power went out in New York city. We dont know if it was a terrorist attack. I had a protectee with me at the time. That is when avenue. The term the uses Safe Houses. It is a Safe House to take your protectee to. You taken to hospital if you need to go that route. That is another secure area and often, at the hospitals, there is already an agent there in advance. There is already somebody posted there so if there is an emergency, there prepared to receive it and stop by there. You ideally want to secure him until you know exactly what is going on. President, or any protectee, for that matter, is at their most vulnerable when a movement. We would call it arrival departure. When they are in movement. The scenario is to take them somewhere and hunker them down and secure them until you know what is what penny want to get him out of the area as quickly as possible. You are laying this out so clearly for us and we are able to understand exactly how this goes down. s second scenario, and i think this is particularly pertinent to where this has taken place, the former president was on the trump international Golf Course. We know what of course is look like. They are very Open Spaces. Usually over a very wide expanse of land, especially if it is an 18 hole Golf Course. In terms of securing and doing what you call the security sweeps, the secret Service Sweep for a president , as he is playing, might secret Service Agents have gone ahead . Lets say, two, three, four a that he plays the trump national golf source. It is 10 Minute Drive from maralago. Hes been known to do more than golf there. 86 meetings there and has lunch around playing golf or sometimes just goes to have lunch there. In this case we are told he was on the greens playing golf. Given the familiarity of the Secret Service with this location, with a naturally do a full sweep every time the president , who is known to love golf, would go there . Or as best as i would describe it, they take parts of the do slightly in advance of when he would be going there . I guess the question is, when looking for the origin of these gunshots that were fired, that they heard, it could be a singular gunshots, we are not sure. Could it have happened on the Golf Course ahead with the Secret Service . Would they have been sweeping the area . Maybe they come across something. It depends on the distance. To secure an entire Golf Course , that is a big lift. Were talking about an immense amount of manpower. How big is the Golf Course . How spread out is it . In a perfect world if you can secure it, you will but it is likely that they create a zone. I believe heard this before they create this is where they keep everything in that zone as hard and secure as possible and as the Bubble Moves, the security moves. What you are talking about initially you brought up do you have somebody ahead of him . You would. Youd have something like a leapfrogging method. A lot of times, the agents that are there are not there in the traditional dark suits, standing pose. Their elements at times, and it want to give too much away here, but their members that can go in there to pretend to be golfers or to be spectators. An element that is almost in an undercover capacity because theyre able to move around and be around people who are not paying attention to them. If you do have a bad actor, they looking out for the agent, so you want other people who do not look like agents blended into the environment. What youre talking about as far as being ahead is the leapfrog. Do i want him to go to the next male i do not know what is going on there . Absolutely not. There will be an element moving as the Bubble Moves to secure the entire Golf Course, it is a very difficult thing to do and ive been on Golf Courses with sitting President S and it is typically something you do not do because also, if you are securing it, what about the other golfers . It seems like little things to think about but do you lock the whole thing down and nobody golfs . It is unlikely that happened in this scenario. Hes trying to do his golfing, along with other people. The more variables you have, the trickier it becomes. The great scenario is to lock the whole thing down and it is him with whoever he wants to golf with. And put up Metal Detectors and lock it off but in reality, that is a difficult thing to do and most protectees, even President S cup dont like to do that. They do not like to inconvenience other people. It is a very polite and thoughtful thing, but it is something we would come across white a bit as far as how much do we interfere . Does my presence as a president interfere with other people around me . Understandable. I will ask you to stand by as we bring into the conversation right now. Elise jordan, former aide to the george w. Bush white House And State department. We had hoped to have you here to talk about different things going on, but give me a sense of how this kind of an incident plays out politically. We saw the wake of the Assassination Attempt on the former president back in july, that it really struck up online, struck up among his supporters, a sense of Sympathy And Support for him because he had suffered. He was actually his ear was grazed and he bled and We Saw that. This time, that is not the case. The good news is the president is safe somewhere. The former president is save some more. The White House has confirmed that. We await the Sheriffs Department briefing on this as well, but he is reportedly safe. Nonetheless, there will be a political fallout, if you will, from this. Give me the best estimate on how that is out now in that narrative. We have seen the cycle of clinical extremism at play, unfortunately, over the last decade of american politics. There was a great pole on political extremism last year and one of the findings was that over 50 of americans no longer see the political opposition as trustworthy opponents, they see them as untrustworthy enemies. On the scales of radicalization after 9 11, the skills that were used to gauge Radicalism And Extremism in the middle east, by that interior, almost 13 of americans are actually political extremists that are radicalized. Its very scary. How have we gotten to this point when the demonization of the other side where we simply it is no longer politics, it has gotten bigger than that, the calls for violence. The violent rhetoric and look at what happens and this heated rhetoric can only go so far before, unfortunately, it has led to violence on both sides of the aisle so i think it is something that democrats and republicans have to be very cognizant about. What can we all do to take the temperature down . Do you expect there to be calls from within the Trump Campaign to do that . Because, he will reach out to his supporters and say lets take this down. We do not know the source of any gunshots or gunshots. We do not know who is responsible for this. The whole thing has yet to be 100 confirmed from start to finish, how this all played out but do you expect to hear anything from the Trump Campaign about toning down the rhetoric . Toning down the violence . Or would that be atypical of the former president . Remember back to the Assassination Attempt from President Trumps life where there was talk of a new tone and the republican convention was, by trump standards, muted and it did seem like he was trying to take it down a few notches, then by The End of the convention speech, we were back to where we started, so i dont know how long this moment of unity for the country where we come together and say i dont want any political opposition to be under threat of violence. We dont want that. I would love for us to have a Unity Type moments but i think it is probably going to be fleeting, as we have seen in the past. Thank you so much for that. I think we will have you stand by as well to help interpret that what we are going to hear potentially from the Sheriffs Department in Palm Beach county. Lets go to jake right now. The nbc campaign. Hes been following President Trumps campaign. Understand you ha details to share with us about what is to be expected in the wake of this incident. We learning very little at a time when we are trying to gather that altogether to recap where we are at, what we know is that according to the campaign, there were shots fired near the Golf Course that he was playing shortly before 2 00 p. M. Was immediately taken, what they said Work Gunshots were fired, trump was taken to a safe place, where he is now. There was a impact or anything of any kind. The newest reporting were getting right now that we are hearing from sources familiar with the situation is that trump was between the fifth and sixth holes of the Golf Course whenever it happened so who is to say, typically you start on the first and go through. Would you have that confirmed yet if he was toward the beginning of his game or if he had played 18 holes before. We dont know but it is safe to assume that if hes on the fifth or six, he was not too far into the game for the day. Weve been told by the campaign you asked earlier what that means for the Campaign Schedule going forward, we see reinforcements and infrastructure around security ever since the attempted assassination in july. The Trump Campaign has a source familiar has confirmed that the Campaign Schedule for the upcoming week will look the same for the former president. He was supposed to make stops in Battleground States like North Carolina and michigan. Stops in new York State and washington, d. C. The sources confirming that they have no expectation that there will be any difference in that Campaign Schedule going forward and if there are any changes to that, we will continue to let you know but as of now they plan to go forward as normal and we are learning the approximate whereabouts of where he was when it happened between the physical and six whole of the Golf Course when the supposed incident took place. Youre saying it will not affect his schedule for the next week so if youre familiar with that, we want to confirm that we have white House Confirmation from the President And Vice president who been briefed about the Security Incident at the trump international Golf Course or former President Trump was golfing. There relieved to know that he is safe and they will be kept regularly updated by 13. Let me go back to rubbed me go. You think Donald Trump is back at maralago at this point. It is a 10 Minute Drive and mar alago is a place that the President Spent much time during his four years as President So has to be about as secure as any place, Given What was set up for him there during his presidency and also since he has run for president cents. Absolutely. They probably set up a very hard Target Room to bring him, if anything was going on, with all the communications and everything he needs in their. That is the way they do it. That has been there. They did not tear it down. They got him back to that and probably put him in there until the are starting to fit what is going on and talking to the agents left back at the Golf Course, talking to local Law Enforcement. As they get more information, say it was a shooting that had nothing to do with him and they heard the shots and are not talking to local police and confirming that, they will probably let up some of the things that they first enacted when he was coming back. I guarantee that they locked that thing down hard and probably stopped traffic and got him in there and there was a 10 Minute Drive and they probably made it there in six or seven minutes. They got him in there and got Him Safe and then they start looking at Everything Else. That is a prayer to. He has communications in there and everything with Family Members that were in that area also in there as soon as they heard it and the Radio Calls went back to maralago on his Wife And Anyone else, and they got Him Safe. Even if they were in new York State. They are just going to do that until they start hearing from the back channels. Can i ask, if the former president was playing with somebody on the Golf Course, what typically happens to Anybody Else . Obviously, the former president is the party to get Him Safe, because for obvious reasons. But what would happen with Anybody Else . Im just curious. Sometimes theyre just kind of left there. Like i said, the Inner Circle is grabbing him and getting him in the vehicle and getting him out. There agents that are left behind that will probably take care of his guests. It depends on who the guests are. For the Senator Or Someone like that, different things would start happening. If it was a senator that they probably had capitol police, so they might have coordinated a dual extract of both of them, if it was a current Senator Or Something like that that had an escort detail, then they carried or needed their Spec Coordinator that i have beforehand. They said to stay put and will get someone with you. All of those things go on as the group is getting ready, someone is briefing whoevers playing with what might happen. Let me give you new information from when we are just getting this from Tom Winter. We are being told three senior Law Enforcement officials have told Nbc News that one person is being questioned by local Law Enforcement. Investigators are trying to confirm whether or not a gun was found in the bushes near the Golf Course or Donald Trump was playing. So, i will repeat this one more time. Were being told by three senior Law Enforcement officials, this is coming to Nbc News that one person is been questioned by local Law Enforcement and investigators are trying to confirm whether or not a gun was found in the bushes near the Golf Course where Donald Trump was playing. Okay, Frank Figliuzzi, glad youre with me. Former fbi in one of our esteemed colleagues here when it comes to National Security. Someone is being questioned. Give me a sense of again, on a Golf Course, and as it has been reported, somewhere between the fourth that fifth and sixth hole, you have a good shot heard. 70s now in custody. What is your best estimation of how that person got into custody . Are you seeing secret Service Agents running across the Gulf Golf with drones in the air . How do they get somebody who has fired a shot, potentially, in the former vicinity of the former president . It is difficult to not play a Guessing Game here, but if these sources are accurate and some is being questioned and or detained for questioning, like you, i am seeing other reports and trying to be very careful about what we can and cannot report here, i see this as, depending on how many people in the secret Service Detail were actually present at the time, they would immediately turn. Some would take the Protectee Down and put him in a hardened place and others would head toward the sound of the gunfire and try to locate a shooter. I do see that kind of urgent movement occurring, depending on how many agents they have available. The other possibility is that the Sheriffs Office responded quickly and or is almost always nearby, by the way. I cannot emphasize enough with fbi and Secret Service in events like this, the even travel with the protectee, you have the presence nearby. Theres nothing like that, martin or the uniformed officer to send a message that this is Law Enforcement that youre dealing with. That could also have happened. We do not know whereabouts of this takedown occurred or the detention occurred. But, yes, i do see a secret Service Response happening toward the sound of the gunshot and perhaps combined with police. The other thing i will note is if indeed we are looking at an actual shooter, someone who may have been targeting the president , the fbi now will go from monitoring the situation to stepping in and partnering with Secret Service, with the sheriffs, because it might be that their investigative authority would now have to be exercised. Okay. Thank you for thats. I understand we have Ken Dilanian. He has some reportable information. Pardon me . Im getting conflicting information. All right. We do not have Ken Dilanian right now. We will get him in just a moment. So, frank, is Donald Trump is back at maralago, everything is safe right now, i feel like he is back and we know he is safe and the White House is confirmed it according to Secret Service reporting to Law Enforcement saying he is good to go and safe. At this point how much of a scramble is underway to try to figure out how this happened . How much will the fbi be involved . Who takes the lead in something like this . Is a Secret Service . Is it just a partnership . Is it local police or sheriffs communities getting involved . The good news is that, by the way, i have to note that you might have done this but clearly on the Statement Issue by the trump team, you will note that gunshots is plural, so whether that is accurate or not, i do not know, whether looking for one shooter or not, i do not know, but it is interesting that they chose the plural for the word gunshots so that is something worth noting. With regards to the early moments here, and of course, they know far more than we do with regard to the Law Enforcement on the ground but if right now they are questioning somebody, you would see an Fbi Response that would come out of the West Palm Beach Resident Agency of the fbi and the answer to miami and the good news is that the Secret Service and the West Palm Beach Fbi Satellite Office of the Sheriffs Office are joined at the hip and have been because of the presence of the president , now former president. They know each other and their Kids Names and all of that so it is not to right now jockeying for who has the lead, but rather, what do we have right now . And the fbi would be running this Guys Name that is been questioned through every possible database to see who this is. Prior record. Gun owner or not, and the fbi would be going back to all the three Letter Agencies in the Intel Community and saying, have you picked anything up in the last week, in the last month, chapter coming from or looking like this guy about anything planned for a Golf Course . Okay. I have some information. This was from Ken Dilanian. He just offered this and posted a couple minutes ago for us. I will read it exactly. A Law Enforcement official familiar with the matter says the Secret Service fired in the direction of a person with a gun aiming at the Golf Course. It is unclear if there was a realistic chance of hitting trump. The person is in custody and Law Enforcement has the gun. Again, i will read what you have on your screen. And Law Enforcement officials how many with the matter says the Secret Service fired in the direction of a person with a gun aiming at the Golf Course. Unclear if there was a realistic chance of hitting trump. The person is in custody and Law Enforcement has begun. This is from Ken Dilanian, Justice Correspondent with Nbc News. So, let me bring evy back to the conversation right now. Again, former secret Service Agent and now a Security Official with us. Give me a sense of what i just said here. If we break this down, it would appear that Secret Service may have, in a preventative measure , been the ones to fire in the direction of someone who had a gun. Again, this is reporting were getting from Ken Dilanian. But if this is the scenario that played out, does this make sense to you . Is this the kind of thing you see somebody with a gun and they mustve fire in the direction . There is no indication that anyone was hit. We have nothing like that. We do know the person is in custody. And Law Enforcement has the gun. Youre going to engage someone when there is an imminent threat. It means a threat of your own life, your protectees life, or Something Elses life. For the Secret Service to engage that means there was a threat in that moment. The mere possession is not enough that person make a move and try to engage . We are talking about an Open Space and its a bit of a dij vu, isnt it . Similar to the rally. Line of sight issues. These are all difficult areas to secure and we are seeing a similar set up here, being outdoors, trying to secure someone. Line of sight issues. At this point, when we are hearing the gunshots and the exterior, it is interesting because before we have the confirmation, i was having that thinking in my head that this is odd to have Gunshots Exchange if they had nothing to do with trump outside of his Golf Course. It is likely that the person may be tried to enter the secure perimeter. There is a Entry Point and maybe it happened there. The Person And Interface with some kind of security, whether was Secret Service at a checkpoint or local authorities. When you are securing events like this, there will be a Secret Service are in addition to local authorities. Having this person apprehended, it will be an investigation. The first and we want to know, is there Anybody Else there . Are you acting alone . That is the most important thing. We never want to dismiss it because sometimes it could be a decoy or distraction, someone is going to do something here to distract from Something Else happening somewhere else. Immediately want to make sure that nothing like that is transpiring. In addition to securing your protectee. Just to piggyback on what was said earlier, protectees a really by themselves. There was other people you will try to secure everyone with the protectee. It is unlikely that you would leave somebody behind, especially shots are being fired. It is not just protecting the lives of the protectee, youre also protecting the people around them. That is the threat. Wherever President Trump goes, he is the threat and he and any other protectee makes the lives among them vulnerable. Is a Contingency Plan to make sure that your protectee is not the only one safe, and everyone around. You do not want to be that haphazard with other peoples lives. Your goal is to protect life. Once the u. S. Secret service is going to be part of this investigation to some degree, they will look and the Fbi And Anyone else involved. Was this person eight known a person. If he or she should up at this point, have they shown up to other places . It is something called multiple sightings over distance and time. Has person gone to other events . Other venues . Are they on any Watch List . Will go through the Social Media any posts. To the Post Anything sharing anything . Then a deep dive of getting subpoenas for the Search History and Phone Records and anything like that. Weapons. Searches. Not just the weapons on that site but any other weapons that they saw with the shooter at the trump rally, he had and research on creating other kinds of bombs. Check to see if anything is in the residence. Any other bombs or bomb making paraphernalia. All of these things will be at place. Interviews with Family Members and places that they worked. Employers. To get a good picture of who this person is or persons. The bigger ask is there is a bigger coordinated effort like this involved scheme. Is this local or something from overseas . Overseas threats are very valid thing. Okay, evy, i will ask you to standby. Aaron gilchrist returning to us from the White House. I understand you have more Information And Reaction from the Vice President to share. Reporter the White House shared that President Biden and Vice President harris have been briefed on the situation with what was going on there in West Palm Beach. The Vice President has tweeted or posted on x on her official account, then retweeted from her personal account,briefed on the report of gunshots fired her former President Trump and his property in florida. Im glad he is safe. Violence has no place in america. This is something for the vice President Say repeatedly both in her official capacity and the past couple of months speaking out political violence and noticing that in this instance, we know that the Vice President and President Biden have the Homeland Security teams working around the clock making sure that they are staying updated on incidences of significant nature we have a former president who is a Secret Service per protectee and the republican candidate for president in this election cycle, this rises that level of making sure that the President And Vice president are flagged to this and kept abreast of what is happening as the situation develops. You noted the reporting from Ken Dilanian about it seems like the secret Service Agents were the ones that fired a shot or shots, as we are trying to understand exactly what transpired in this area. This is something that the President And Vice president would be updated on as the information becomes clearer and we do anticipate there will be a briefing coming up in the next little bit. Thank you for that and for keeping us abreast of that. You mentioned to Ken Dilanian reporting there, that we had something to somewhat cooperates that on one detail. This is from Kelly Odonnell who has written that she is spoke with federal Law Enforcement sourcing that the suspect was outside of the gulf club property, which would sink to some degree with what Ken Dilanian says and for all of you, we are trying to piece this together just like you are, i am sure. We are awaiting a News Conference which will happen until 4 30, we are told. We will get there as soon as we can. Frank figliuzzi, as we go back to you, its ugly how difficult it is to secure an Open Space area, how do you go about doing that in a Golf Course . It is so open on so many levels for the kinds of things that could be accessed with a gun. Could you ever be completely clear of an area like that . Could it be completely secured . We would be talking about extraordinary measures, which really are unrealistic, given todays budgets, resources, you can never be 100 secure around a protectee and now, of course, we are learning that this shooter might have been positioned outside of the Golf Course. We are in a new realm were open air events now, your protectee is run by bullet resistant glass and you think you have a fairly safe environment with a wide open grassy Golf Course where you could look at the roster of players that have signed up to play at this time. You can run them and run the employees, which im sure they have already done years ago at this Golf Course, because of Trumps Frequency there, but that guy that shows up outside that perimeter off the property, at the last minute, that would require extraordinary resources and we are heading toward a complete reconsideration of protectees doing things like playing golf and attending a ball game. Going to a concert in the open air, this is new territory, quite frankly. Standby if you will. Elise jordan, i know we only have you for a little while longer, wages on your experience working as an aid to george w. Bush the White House. Give me a sense of how much security is a top of Mind Issue any time a president leaves the White House. To what extent are the conversations and Activity And Work effort done to secure a President S safety . Everything is about security when it is the president of the united states. Security is the absolute number one most important consideration. Constantly, throw any discussion and the Secret Service has always been incredible at making it happen and President S might argue for a situation that the service would not be comfortable with, and they will have their negotiation and the back and forth, but usually the Secret Service make it happen. This is tragic, though, that we have come to this Moment Everything back to the beginning of the White House when President S would let visitors, Normal Americans could come by and stand in line and go in and meet with the president and now we are to this point of the President S are not even able to probably candidates for political office will not be able to open air rallies. It is a disturbing reflection of this moment of political polarization that has morphed into political extremism and now violence. Let me get everybody some very pertinent information. Are getting it and it confirmed from Tom Winter and jonathan who i spoke with earlier. I will read it to as i have it. Four senior Law Enforcement officials briefed on the incident in florida say that an Arstyle Rifle was recovered. One person is in custody, and it is believed to be the person with the weapon outside the Fence Line of the Golf Course. This is according to an official. They said some point, Secret Service spots him and they think he may have been aiming, so they fired rounds. Officials say they do not know where the person was aiming specifically. They say it remains a question as to whether the suspect fired first or fired around at all, or if only Secret Service fired. Again, we are getting a little more confirmation for we have been doing a lot of speculation and a lot of this was among the things, these scenarios, been talking with Frank Figliuzzi and Evy Poumpouras about this. But they say that an Arstyle Rifle was recovered. One person is in custody, believed to be the person with a weapon outside the fence on the Golf Course and he said one point, they can confirm Secret Service spots him and they think he may have been aiming, so they fired rounds. They do not know. Theres no confirmation of where the person was aiming specifically. Remains a question as to whether the suspect fired first or fired around at all or if only the Secret Service fired, but again, the gunshots, and plural, thank you for making that distinction and picking up on that. There have been plural shots fired. We do know the Secret Service did do some firing. We do not know how much. We do not know if the suspect at first fired or fired a round at all but upon citing the suspect to is right now in custody, Secret Service did fire at this person with an Arstyle Rifle who was outside the Fence Line of the Golf Course. Frank, does this started filling in the blanks for you . Are you able to envision how this happened and does this go back to what i was asking you and evy with your expense with the fbi and Secret Service, could it be that the Secret Service began to sweep ahead where the former president was playing, which was between the said school and six full at the trump international Golf Course and there could have been a few holes ahead and that is when they spot something . Or someone, with a rifle . Is very likely. Getting a clear picture as it develops. Its possible that some form of the details, some portion of the detail was up ahead or out on the perimeter of the course at the time. Saw this shooter, the alleged shooter, if he shots, with the Ar15 Style Rifle and evy was right of the money. You asked her, what about preventive the shots and the correct answer that evy gave his it will give Warning Shots of preventive shots are quick lay down fire, what we do is we respond to an imminent threat of loss of life or serious Bodily Harm and i can tell you that our training is that if someone is pointing and ar15 somewhere in your direction or toward innocent people, including your protectee, then you are absolute within the policy to fire back. That is the imminent threat from loss of life. Is a possible he did not get a round off . It is possible and if so, good response by Secret Service. Know how close they were. We how reasonable a shot that was and yes, does it get dangerous . Especially when someone is off the course and there might be a Parking Lot or citizens strolling. I dont know the scenario, but this sounds like it is clearly within the deadly Force Policy. Would someone have to be pointing, aiming a gun in the vicinity . We dont have confirmation of that yet. Would be someone who has been merely seen carrying . This is an Arstyle Rifle. You dont mess around with this kind of thing because it has longrange opacity and violent capacity as well. Just seeing someone holding the gun like that in the general vicinity outside of the specific Property Line of the Golf Course . Green light to fire a shot . Know. Im going to echo echo no, i will at what evy said, i agree with her. The training is it must be an imminent threat. I have been in situations and i am sure she has, as well, i encounter someone holding a weapon but it is not pointed at me. Thank god that we resolved that situation through de escalation. It has happened a couple of times. No, the deadly Force Policy th says imminent threat. Someone has lifted that