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FBI Update on Extremely Serious Apparent Trump Assassination Attempt; Trump Blames Biden, Harris Rhetoric for Apparent New Attempt on His Life; Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) Defends False Claims About Haitian Immigrants Eating Pets. White House: Biden Just Had A "Cordial" Phone Call With Trump After Apparent Attempt To Assassinate Former President; RFK Jr. Under Investigation For Allegedly Decapitating A Dead Whale. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired September 16, 2024 - 18:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, the FBI shares what it knows about the suspect now charged in connection with an apparent attempt to assassinate Donald Trump on his golf course near Mar-a-Lago. Authorities describing the investigation as extremely serious as new details emerge about the alleged crime and the state of the former president's security.

Also this hour, how this new threat to Trump may impact the presidential race as he tries to blame it on the rhetoric of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. It's a new level of uncertainty tonight in the already volatile 2024 election.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in The Situation Room.

We just learned that President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump had what is being described by the White House as a cordial conversation on the phone, that conversation just a short while ago. We're told the president conveyed his relief that Trump is safe after the apparent attempt to assassinate him. And this comes as we are breaking down all the new information from a briefing by federal and local authorities just a little while ago.

CNN's Randi Kaye is on the scene for us in Florida and just filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Does that mean right there at that spot in those bushes or could it have been, you know, down the street at a restaurant?

JEFFREY B. VELTRI, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, FBI MIAMI FIELD OFFICE: It was in very close proximity to where he was spotted by the Secret Service, in terms of your first question. Whether he was there earlier, our investigation is still looking to determine that.

KAYE (voice over): Ryan Wesley Routh may have been laying in wait from his spot in the bushes at Trump International Golf Club for nearly 12 hours. That's according to court documents unsealed today showing Ralph's phone was in the vicinity of the area starting as early as 2:00 A.M. Sunday morning. Prosecutors also revealed in court documents that the serial number on the rifle recovered from the area where Routh was spotted was unreadable to the naked eye.

Just before 2:00 P.M. Secret Service noticed the barrel of a rifle poking through a fence at Trump International Golf Club. Trump was somewhere between the fifth and sixth hole at the time.

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: When you look at the map, you see a roadway very close to holes five and six, which it would make sense, that that would be a location. If you were going to try to take a shot, it'd be closer and would give you an opportunity to do so, and also give you an escape route.

KAYE: The Secret Service fired on the man with the gun before he fled. He did not fire or get off any shots at our agents. A quick thinking witness at the scene provided authorities with a description of the suspect as well as a picture of the car and license plate.

Martin County deputies detained Routh a short time later, CNN obtained this body cam video of Routh's arrest.

SHERIFF WILLIAM D. SNYDER, MARTIN COUNTY, FLORIDA: The witness from the incident at Trump International was flown to the scene by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and he was able to make a positive I.D.

KAYE: In the bushes at the golf club, authorities recovered an SKS- style rifle with a scope, two backpacks equipped with ceramic tiles for a makeshift bulletproof vest and a GoPro.

Since then, a complicated picture has emerged of Ryan Routh, a 58- year-old small business owner from Hawaii. CNN has learned that Routh supported Trump in 2016, but later dismissed him as a buffoon and a fool.

Routh also mentioned Trump in his book titled, Ukraine's Unwinnable War. Routh traveled to Ukraine in 2022 and encouraged others to sign up to fight. He did an interview with AFP news agency from Kyiv in April that year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Putin is a terrorist and he needs to be ended.

KAYE: Court documents also detail past run ins with the law, including felony convictions in North Carolina. In 2002, he pleaded guilty to felony possession of a weapon of mass destruction and carrying a concealed weapon. Other charges over the years included possession of stolen goods, driving without a registration, and failing to pay his taxes on time.

Still, unanswered questions remain, including how safe is Trump and others given the current political environment. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have ordered a paradigm shift. The Secret Service's protective methodologies work. We need to look at what our protective methodology is. We need to get out of a reactive model and get to a readiness model.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE (on camera): And, Wolf, we also learned from that press briefing that the FBI has interviewed seven civilian witnesses at the scene, so they are trying to learn more about just what happened. We also learned today that they are processing items found at the scene that would include those two backpacks, the SKS rifle, and the GoPro.

[18:05:04]

They've collected DNA from that and sent that to Quantico. They're also processing the suspect's vehicle. But there are still those unanswered questions, Wolf. They were asked today at this press briefing if they are sure that he acted alone. They said they're still looking into that. But there isn't any evidence that he didn't act alone, and they are also still trying to figure out just how long he was in the state of Florida before this. Wolf?

BLITZER: Lots of questions remaining. Randi Kaye in West Palm Beach for us, thank you very much.

Let's dig deeper right now with the former D.C. chief of Homeland Security and Intelligence Donell Harvin and CNN chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller.

John, security at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago, the state in Florida, is what is being described as the highest it could possibly be. What does that actually mean from your perspective?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Thank you. That basically means it's a hard location. That means that they not only have sufficient personnel there, but they have countermeasures tools like drones and other things to thwart almost any kind of attack.

That said, that would be unusual for either a former president or a candidate. But at this point with the second assassination attempt in two months they have upped the ante to the point that, to sustain this, they've literally had to borrow people from the presidential protection detail, PPD. So, basically, people who would be working the White House, Biden, his travel, have been diverted to the Trump detail simply because the president, now that he's not campaigning, is not making as much travel, as many trips, and is spending more time at the White House, so they can split off some of those teams.

BLITZER: That's smart decision, indeed. Donell this second assassination attempt Trump is -- involving Trump, is raising a lot of new questions about whether the U.S. Secret Service can adequately protect its chargees. How do you see it?

DONEL HARVIN, FORMER D.C. CHIEF OF HOMELAND SECURITY AND INTELLIGENCE: Well, Wolf, I mean, many people don't know is the U.S. Secret Service has about 4,500 personnel sworn and undercover but they're spread out over about 150 offices. And so, you know, to secure a golf course, you would need a small army.

And so I think that, you know, I want to take a step back. We've been very hard over the last few months on the U.S. Secret Service because of what happened in Butler. Everything that happened yesterday went exactly how it's supposed to. There was an advanced team. They were diligent. They found a threat. They thwarted that threat. They interacted with local and state officials who actually got a tip from the public. And so all layers of what's supposed to happen in terms of protection really occurred.

You know, you've had people on today that talked about budget and authorities. I think that, as John just mentioned, increasing the former president's detail is going to be something that's going to be important. But he's out there, right? He's going to public events. He's not going to stop golfing. And so they need to look at the threat profile and they need to look at how they're protecting him. But I think they did a great job yesterday.

BLITZER: Yes, it was very impressive, indeed.

John, the suspect has what is being described as a very extensive social media presence. What are investigators looking for as they comb through all of this and go ahead and interview more witnesses?

MILLER: Well, they're looking back through his social media presence to really develop a profile. Who is it we're dealing with? Is there issues here with mental illness? Is there hints of violence in any of this material?

But what emerges from it is he's an individual who's reaching out to the North Korean leader. He's reaching out to these -- you know, communicating, sending messages to Biden over social media, Hunter Biden Trump and others. So, you get the idea here's an individual who thinks he's operating on a level where when he sends, and this happened, a tweet to Elon Musk saying I need to borrow a rocket ship to go after Putin, he's trying to find that level and he's not on it.

One has to ask, was this attempted assassination, if that's what it was, something that would have brought him notoriety and the kind of attention he was seeking.

BLITZER: And he had a GoPro video camera there as well.

John Miller, Donnel Harvin, to both of you, thank you very, very much.

Just ahead, how Donald Trump is trying to use this apparent assassination attempt to his political advantage, even as the Harris campaign says it's not political.

And later, the city of Springfield, Ohio, responds to new threats as Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, doubles down on debunked claims about pets being eaten there by immigrants.

Stay with us.

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[18:10:00]

BLITZER: We're back with more breaking news on the second apparent attempt to assassinate Donald Trump. The former president issuing a new statement on the phone call he just had with President Biden, describing it as, quote, very nice, a very nice call that was about the Secret Service protection.

Let's get reaction from our political experts who are here with me in the Situation Room. And, Jeff Zeleny, let me start with you. Trump's immediate reaction after the Butler shooting, as we all remember in Pennsylvania in July, was a call for unity, but it's a very different message we're hearing right now. This is what he told Fox News about what we're hearing from President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. I'll read it to you.

This is a quote from Trump. Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country, both from the inside and out. That's a direct quote, quote from Trump. He blames Biden in a new interview, yet calls their phone call conversation, quote, very nice.

[18:15:04]

What do you make of all that?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, it's entirely different from the reaction to a Butler, and the circumstances are different. I mean, we had the image from Butler, Pennsylvania, that was so extraordinary that this happened on live television at a live event and he was able to say fight, fight, fight. So, in the moment it was different, but his rhetoric is entirely different.

He went on to say it's called the enemy from within. They are the real threat, talking about his Democratic rivals. So, look, I mean, I think that just speaks to the, you know, very intense divide right now. But we all remember back to the Republican Convention when that unity sort of pledge and promise lasted about 20 minutes into his speech. And then we've not heard it since.

So, I don't think this is surprising necessarily that it is a different moment. But to a person President Biden, Vice President Harris, Governor Walz, and other Democrats in the House and Senate reached out and said there's no place for political violence. So, the Democrats are basically saying the same thing that they did a couple months ago, but the Trump reaction entirely different.

And I'm told that his advisers aren't really advising him to reach for calls of unity. This is all on him and this is what he feels is appropriate in the moment.

BLITZER: Yes, it's a very different reaction indeed. Alex Thompson, you're the national political reporter for Axios. How much do you think Trump's political standing right now at this point is weighing in to his reaction to this assassination attempt?

ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think a lot of this is just very emotional for him and the fact is that what we're seeing now is the temperature is going to go up, not down, as we go into this final sprint of this race. And that's where you can see basically these next six weeks, it's a tinderbox for political violence on both sides. The fact of the matter is that Donald Trump feels that Democrats did not sort of tamp down the rhetoric after the first assassination attempt, which is why he is, I think, so emotional right now.

BLITZER: Yes, saying the rhetoric, their rhetoric, referring to Biden and Harris is causing me to be shot at. You want to react to that?

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, just I think we have to note that we still don't know a lot about the motivations of the first individual and we're still learning about the second individual. And what does seem to be clear in both instances is these are people who had I think it's a real trouble. I look at the record of the gentleman who was arrested yesterday and wonder how the hell was he able to buy a gun in this country? This is a man who had been charged with having a weapon of mass destruction. This is someone who in North Carolina had barricaded himself in with a gun. I mean, you know, as an American, that concerns me.

And so I think what I -- there's so much about what the president said that I find so disappointing, not the least of which he is ascribing motive to two people we don't know all of their motivations just yet, and that is part of the problem. Alex is right, this tinderbox, we are sitting on a tinderbox, and, unfortunately, the last time we were sitting on a tinderbox on January the 5th of 2021, we know what happened the next day. And rather than de-escalating, it's disappointing to hear a leader, someone who wants to be returned to the White House, escalating that rhetoric.

BLITZER: That's an important point. Charlie Dent, Biden, as you know, has been in Philadelphia today and he addressed the assassination attempt against Trump this way. Watch this. I'll play it for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: There is no, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, those of you who know me, many of you do, no place in political violence, for political violence in America, none, zero, never.

In America, we resolve our differences peacefully at the ballot box, not at the end of a gun.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: What do you make, Charlie, of the contrast in the reactions from Biden and Trump?

CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I agree with Joe Biden, people who use violence to advance a political agenda. That's the definition of terrorism. And, look, I think Donald Trump's already unfair in his criticism of Biden and Harris in this case. I think we all recognize that there's a lot of incendiary language that gets thrown around. And much of it is by Donald Trump, you know? And so, you know, he should accept some responsibility for his own rhetoric.

And it's horrible that people are taking shots at him. We all agree, and we wish it would end, but the temperature is hot and people are saying terrible things. And you look at what's getting posted on social media every single day and people act out. And I wish I had an answer to this. I don't know any of us do.

BLITZER: Yes. I think you're right.

ZELENY: I think if we go back to the phone calls, though. I mean, it is still, I think an appropriate moment and a nice moment when President Biden reached out to him and even the former president said they had a nice phone call. Obviously, you know, there is some bit of decorum that is still left in our process here. So, I think it is nice and appropriate that they've spoken to one another.

BLITZER: At least they had a conversation.

All right, guys, everybody stand by.

[18:20:01]

We've got a lot more coming up, including leaders in Ohio continuing calls for peace after a conspiracy theory about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, leading to threats and threats of violence.

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BLITZER: Springfield, Ohio, has now become the center of false allegations about Haitian immigrants eating pets. And it's leading to bomb threats in the town and growing fear among residents.

CNN's Brian Todd reports on how the baseless claim took off after former President Trump brought it up in last week's presidential debate.

Brian, update our viewers.

[18:25:00]

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, just today tensions in Springfield have been ramped up. The threats have increased because of these false rumors that have been amplified by Donald Trump and J. D. Vance. And we got word a short time ago that officials had to take urgent action at schools there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Two elementary schools in Springfield, Ohio, evacuated today. Two college campuses there, Clark State College and Wittenberg University, shut down, classes being held virtually because of bomb and shooting threats. Some of the threats targeting the Haitian communities at the schools and in town.

DAVE YOST (R), OHIO ATTORNEY GENERAL: A bomb threat, particularly one that disrupts something like a school, is a very serious crime. It's a felony. Whoever's responsible, knock it off. You could go to prison on this.

TODD: Government buildings in Springfield have also received threats in recent days. The threats come in the wake of a disturbing sequence of falsehoods about the Haitian community in Springfield. Republican Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance, who's from Ohio, picked up on internet rumors that Haitian immigrants in the town were eating people's pets. Then former President Donald Trump amplified those rumors at last week's debate.

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people that live there.

TODD: Springfield's mayor and the Republican governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine again had to knock down the rumors.

MAYOR ROB RUE, SPRINGFIELD, OHIO: And we just have no verifiable claim that this is actually happening.

GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): The mayor tells us and the chief of police tells us there's been no, no evidence at all of anyone eating a dog or any Haitians doing any of that.

TODD: Still, J.D. Vance, in an interview with CNN's Dana Bash, doubled down on the false claim, but provided no evidence for it. Then Vance said this.

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do, Dana.

TODD: But then, pressed by Bash on whether he created the whole story, Vance said this.

VANCE: I say that we're creating a story, meaning we're creating the American media focusing on it. Neither Vance nor Trump have moved away from the false claim of pets being eaten in Springfield, even when Trump was asked over the weekend if he would denounce the recent threats.

TRUMP: I don't know what happened with the bomb threats. I know that it's been taken over by illegal migrants, and that's a terrible thing that happened.

TODD: Trump has threatened to conduct large deportations from Springfield if he's elected. Thousands of Haitians, the vast majority of whom are in the United States legally, have settled in Springfield in recent years, many of them to take jobs in new factories. Officials there say the local economy has improved, but there has been a strain on the town's infrastructure.

So far, there's been no actual reported violence toward the Haitian community in Springfield, but one hate speech monitor worries about what's ahead.

IMRAN AHMED, CENTER FOR COUNTERING DIGITAL HATE: There are some people that still can't tell the difference between the lies they see on social media and reality. And the fear is that one of them will take real violent action against the Haitian community.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): Officials with the sheriff's office in Clark County, Ohio, where Springfield is located, have also had to debunk rumors that Haitian immigrants were stealing geese out of local parks. Sheriff's officials say they've reviewed 11 months of 911 call records and identified two instances where people actually reported such incidents, but they found no evidence to substantiate those claims. Wolf?

BLITZER: Brian Todd, thanks for that report. I want to bring back our political experts and get some analysis of what's going on. And, Alex, I'll start with you. We're seeing both Trump and Vance doubled down on these conspiracies that they're promoting right now, which have no basis. In fact, these Haitian immigrants in Springfield are there legally, they got permission from the U.S. government to live there. Why do you think they're doubling down on this?

THOMPSON: Well, because it's been a truism throughout all of, you know, Trump's entire political career that when there is a moment where, maybe at a bad moment like he had at the debate, he'll go and he'll throw out anything, often race baiting or, you know, potentially untrue facts, and then basically just double down, and sort of try to take over the news cycle.

He's a believer that all attention is good attention. And the other thing that we're seeing now is that just before we came out here, Governor DeWine said that some of these that some of these bomb threats were actually coming from overseas, from foreign sources, showing that foreign actors are taking advantage of the chaos stewed and making people panic in this small town.

BLITZER: Yes, so worrisome indeed.

Jeff, what do you make of this remarkable admission we heard from Senator J.D. Vance that he was willing to, quote, create stories in order to get media attention?

ZELENY: Look, it's extraordinary even the fact that someone running for the vice president of the United States would create stories and create this narrative, but it's even more so because they're his constituents. He's the Senator from Ohio. He grew up less than about an hour or so from there. So, that is what I just define extraordinary, not trying to use his federal office to try and help constituents, but you know, try and shine this a light of mistruths on there. [18:30:02]

I mean, I think that Governor DeWine, a Republican, and the mayor, a Republican, are asking outside officials to stop making up these claims that are really just inciting not just residents, it's become a magnet for all types of misbehaviors and all types of people looking for trouble and problems.

But I think the most extraordinary thing is this is where J.D. Vance is from. Instead of trying to help, he said he's creating these stories. But all the while, this is also a strategy to keep the conversation on immigration and trying to scare voters here. So, it's not as much of an accident as it may look.

FINNEY: But it's not a conversation about immigration, right? That is what disinformation does. And this is a classic example. This is dangerous, it is racist, it is false, there is no fact. But the whole point of this is to distort the truth, and we've seen this before several times coming up to an election, where there is race baiting and false rhetoric about immigrants, scapegoating immigrants, to distract from the fact that there's not a real policy, right?

If you're someone living in Springfield, you should be saying to yourself, well, I don't think I heard real policy about immigration. It's not about immigration. It's about a political tactic that is designed to weaponize disinformation. You've now got -- you have the Proud Boys and the KKK marching in the streets this weekend. People were so terrified that they wouldn't let their children out of their homes.

So, to the conversation we were just having, it is shameful. Donald Trump knows the impact that this rhetoric can have and is having on this community. As he's complaining about it heads on him, they should stop it. It's endangering people's lives.

DENT: Where I come from, you know --

BLITZER: You're a former Republican Congressman.

DENT: Where I come from, knowingly creating a false story is called lying. And this is really outrageous. And one lesson I learned in public life really early is, I never got in trouble for what I never said. And sometimes, you know, you just got to button it and not post every random thought that's horrible or say things like we've just heard about the Haitian community because there are real consequences. Now, obviously, things are happening. Schools are closing, bomb threats, whatever. There are consequences.

BLITZER: Yes, serious consequences. The Republican governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, a man you know, he's speaking out very aggressively against these various conspiracy theories are promoted by the former president and the senator from Ohio right now. Should more Republicans be speaking out?

DENT: Absolutely they should be condemning this. This is outrageous. I mean, this is your own community you're talking about. If I'm an Ohio Republican, I'm saying, you know, we have nice people in our state. They don't eat their pets. I mean, these are good, honorable people and, you know, it's simply not true. And it puts a stain on Ohio unfairly.

FINNEY: Businesses in Ohio actually recruited these Haitian migrants because people in the town would not take the jobs because they're too manual. It's manual labor. People didn't want to do it. So, they had a labor shortage. That's part of why people came there. So, legally, they were recruited to come there, you know what I mean?

BLITZER: Do you think, Jeff, there's any reason to think these claims about immigrants eating dogs and cats and other pets are going to eventually hurt the GOP ticket?

ZELENY: I would be very surprised. I mean, potentially on the margins with some undecided voters or the moderates who, you know, may not be all on board with the Harris policies but they may just be so frustrated with this. But I think the bottom line is, there's not an immigration policy discussion really on either side. What has Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown said about this? Perhaps he's talked about it. What have other members of Congress said about it?

But, look, I mean, I think this shines a light on the fact that there needs to be a broader conversation about immigration policy in the U.S., and that's not what this is. But I would be surprised if this really damages a Republican, certainly in Ohio. I mean, this is a deep red Trump country.

THOMPSON: It's not like this is the first time that Trump has just thrown out sort of this chum into the water. And, you know, is nativism too good to check. And now they're talking about -- and now they've justified it, because they say, well, now you know what's going on in Springfield.

BLITZER: Do you think it's going to hurt the Trump campaign with independent voters in these key battleground states, more moderate, independent voters?

THOMPSON: I think maybe in the suburbs of Atlanta, Governor Kemp has sometimes talked about this, you know, former Nikki Haley voters that really were just throwing a protest vote for Trump. Maybe a few of them are turned off in a really close race. That could make a difference.

BLITZER: It looks like it's going to be a really close race. All right guys, thank you very, very much.

That's just ahead. How did a suspected gunman get so close to former President Trump yesterday, just two months after he survived a shooting at his Pennsylvania rally? Former Obama National Security Adviser Susan Rice will be here.

[18:35:02]

We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Extremely serious, that's how the FBI describes yesterday's apparent attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. The agency saying it's determined to provide answers to what led up to the events that took place as the former president of the United States was playing a round of golf.

Susan Rice is joining us right now. She served as President Biden's domestic policy adviser, as well as national security adviser in the Obama administrations. Susan, thanks so much for joining us.

You know well the threats our country's leaders face. You worked in the White House for years with presidents. You worked very closely with the Secret Service. How do you assess the way the Secret Service handled this second assassination attempt against Trump?

SUSAN RICE, FORMER DOMESTIC POLICY ADVISER, BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: Well, Wolf, before I answer that, I think it's critical to say that, you know, what happened yesterday and what happened in July is horrible.

[18:40:07]

There really is no place in this country for political violence. Vice President Harris and President Biden have been absolutely clear about that. Their administration is one that exactly two years ago held an unprecedented bipartisan summit at the White House called united against hate, against hate-fueled violence and this kind of political violence. So, they have been cognizant of this concern for a long time. And it is absolutely unacceptable and unconscionable.

The secret service has said in their own estimation, obviously it's very early hours after the attempt, that they think their systems worked. And, clearly, the gunman was not able to get off shots. The Secret Service apprehended him and that all appears to be good. But, clearly, this needs further investigation, further understanding.

I have had great experience with the Secret Service. I have myself been a protectee. I have enormous respect and admiration for the men and women of the Secret Service. They are under enormous strain and duress, and I think President Biden was absolutely correct in not only reaching out to former President Trump today, as he did in July via phone call, but also in calling on Congress to provide the Secret Service with the resources it needs as the demands on it continue to increase.

BLITZER: Yes, I spent seven years as a White House correspondent, and we're closely with the Secret Service, and I'm grateful for all that they do. So important, indeed.

Donald Trump, as you know, Susan, is blaming President Biden and Vice President Harris, claiming the suspect in this particular case acted based on their rhetoric, referring to Biden and Harris. How do you respond to that claim from Trump?

RICE: I mean, it's extraordinarily disappointing and irresponsible, perhaps not surprising. This is not something that should be politicized. This is not something that should be a subject for fundraising or for raising the temperature and inciting violence. There is nothing that President Biden or Vice President Harris have done that would, in any way, shape or form, lead to violence against Donald Trump. That's just unfair and despicable.

But, really, that's not the point. The point here is, you know, that we're living in times when, you know, the temperature has gone way up. There are real threats out there and our leaders have a responsibility to bring down the temperature.

That's precisely what Vice President Harris and President Biden are doing and have done consistently. They understand that responsible leadership, calls for sobriety, calls for unity, bringing people together, not fear mongering, not hateful rhetoric, not divisive rhetoric that pits one American against another. And I wish we would hear the same out of former President Trump.

BLITZER: On this other story we're following, as you know, Springfield, Ohio, is now dealing with bomb and shooting threats in the wake of these false claims from Trump and Senator J.D. Vance that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. What do you make of all of this?

RICE: I mean, it's horrific. And that kind of, you know, blatant lies, which they continue to feed, knowing that they're untrue, is really an example of what I was just saying, an effort to stoke fear and hatred and division and to attack innocent people in this country, Haitians who are here, predominantly, the vast majority of them, legally, as you're reporting said, legally.

And this, to me, raises a much wider concern, which if you really listen to what J.D. Vance and Donald Trump are saying, they are talking about taking mass action against Americans who are in this country legally, American citizens. Now, we're talking about, first of all, these Haitians who are here legally, they're immigrants. Donald Trump said on Friday that he wants to send legally -- Haitians who are here legally, back to Venezuela, of all places.

But this is part of a larger picture. Recall that Stephen Miller, who was former President Trump's -- one of his closest advisers, his immigration guy and still a very close adviser, said that under the Trump administration, they had begun a project on denaturalization. And he said, in 2025, that project will be turbo charged.

[18:45:00]

Understand what that means, Wolf. That means that American citizens, citizens who have been naturalized and there are millions of them in this country, can be denaturalize and forced to leave the country. That is frightening agenda.

It's terrifying that there is a plan to take away citizenship from Americans who have lawfully earned that citizenship who are law abiding, tax-paying, husbands, wives, children, parents in this country, ripping families apart because they don't like where those people came from.

That is not the country we are. We are a nation of immigrants, many of us, and that kind of divisive and demonization of whole swaths of our population put millions of Americans, American citizens at risk.

And this is really the agenda that scares me the most.

BLITZER: Well said. Susan Rice, thanks for joining us.

And we'll be right.

RICE: Thank you, Wolf.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:50:13]

BLITZER: The newest apparent attempt on Donald Trump's life prompting a phone call to the former president for President Biden just a little while ago.

Let's discuss the unique dangers for those who have served in the Oval Office. We're joined by presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Doris has written a brand new book entitled "The Leadership Journey", there you see the cover, "How Four Kids Became President". We'll discuss that.

Doris, thanks very much for joining us.

First of all, give us your perspective on this second assassination attempt on Donald Trump and how seems to be impacting him.

DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Yeah, I wondered if the second attack would make him feel like he did at the first attack, that he wanted to talk about the unity of the country, that he felt he was a changed man. That didn't last as long as we might have hoped.

But here it seems not to have lasted at all. And he's already talking and blaming the Harris campaign for what has happened. It just makes me sad because there were two previous attacks in history where it really did change the tone of the race and of the person himself. When Teddy Roosevelt was shot in the chest, right, as he was about to deliver a speech. And the blood was coming out and he's still delivered the speech, 84-minute speech saved only by the spectacles and the speech that had been in his pocket.

He really did change his tone. He talked about the fact that he would -- Wilson said he would give up the campaign until he was out of the hospital. He said no, go forward. It's important for that.

And the last speech he gave, the only one he could give after the attack was not filled with invective. It didn't even mention his opponents. And this has been a really vitriolic campaign. So it did change the tone of that campaign. On the other hand, George Wallace, too, when he was shot in 1972 in the stomach and paralyzed from the waist down, he began to reflect on his mortality and he changed his whole attitude towards segregation. He talked about the fact that he'd been wrong. He reached out to the black community. He was able to win an election as governor again with 90 percent of the Black vote.

So these things can have a change. I don't think its going to in this case for so far, it doesn't seem to be. You almost wish it had that it could change the tone of the campaign.

BLITZER: I wish I could.

Gerald Ford, as you know, and you're a presidential historian, survived two assassination attempts, just three weeks apart back in September 1975.

How does that compare to these two attempts on Trump's life now?

GOODWIN: You know, the difference is that those two attempts didn't go very far. Either one of them in the first case, squeaky from the gun, didn't even go off. In the second case, it was deflected, hit a bystander who was then fully recovered.

But I think more importantly, it wasn't a time of political violence, it wasn't a time when we had threats, as we're now having in Springfield. So that it didn't affect much the approval rating of Gerald Ford. It's just seem they went on all they really did was they gave him a bulletproof trench coat, which he said weighed about 50 pounds and he hated to have to wear it. It's now in the museum, the Ford museum, along with the handgun.

So this one I think is coming in a different time in a context where it just feels like how can this be happening again? How is all of this happening in our country? And it makes us want to change somehow the trajectory that we're on.

BLITZER: You've written a really wonderful new book, especially for young readers walking them through how Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Lyndon Johnson, grew up to be presidents of the United States. What are the lessons for today?

GOODWIN: Well, I think the reason I wanted to write it now was that this younger generation has only seeing this politically divisive time, a really difficult, turbulent time in our history.

So I wanted to take my four guys, Blinken, the two Roosevelts, and LBJ, the ones I knew the best and start when they were young when you would watch them evolving into leaders, learning the qualities that you need to be a leader, learning to acknowledge errors and when they made mistakes and grow, learning to accept loss with dignity, learning to have resilience when bad things happened learning to speak the truth to people and being able to communicate with them. And most importantly, having an ambition that was greater than themselves.

And if they can learn those qualities, that'll teach some how to be good team captains in school, how to be good in their athletics, and hopefully how to become good leaders. And someday, those kids will become presidents in the future.

BLITZER: Maybe they will. Doris Kearns Goodwin. Thank you very much.

Once again, the new book is called "The Leadership Journey: Four Kids Became President", and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:59:00]

BLITZER: Tonight, a new twist in a bizarre story for Robert F. Kennedy.

CNN's Tom Foreman is following this for us.

What do we know, Tom?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know it just keeps getting weirder. The National Marine Fisheries Service has confirmed to CNN that they are investigating Robert Kennedy Jr. for allegedly taking the head of a dead beached whale.

Kennedy himself says it's happened some 20 years ago. You mentioned the investigation is his campaigning for Donald Trump over the weekend. His daughter, Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy, originally described this to "Town and Country Magazine" in 2012, saying her dad chainsawed the whales head off, strapped it to the top of the family car and took it home to study because he was interested in such things.

But federal law says you can't do that. So the feds are taking a look and depending on what they find conceivably, Wolf, he could face penalties.

BLITZER: How is RFK Jr. reacting to all of this news now?

FOREMAN: He certainly doesn't really want to talk about it, but he is talking about it and he also says he told the feds they are killing marine mammals with, quote, giant offshore wind farms off the East Coast.

In the past, Trump has said the same thing amid his tirades against wind energy.

It's all false, by the way, there's no proof of this happening, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Tom Foreman, thanks for that update. Appreciate it very much. And to our viewers, thanks very much for watching.

I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.