We are learning that the former president has now given his very first interview since surviving this attempt on his life to Selena Zito of the Washington examiner. She just spoke with Trump, and she was at this event just feet away. Selena, thank you very much for joining us. We're really glad and grateful that you're okay. Tell us about this interview. What did the former president tell you tonight?

Well, it's really interesting. I was just a few feet away from him, along with my daughter, who is a photojournalist. And he was aware of that because I was supposed to go to fly to Bedminster with him after the rally to do an interview with him. And so he called me this morning or this afternoon and said, and wanted to know if myself and my daughter were okay. So thats how the conversation started. And then I asked him if I could interview him, just talk to him about those moments and about how this changed him. And thats when he said, well, I was going to do a speech that was going to be a real humdinger. I think those were his exact words. But, you know, everything changed in that moment. And, Abby, you have covered his events before. When you watch him at a rally, he always looks forward, always looks forward. He never looks to his right or to his left. And he had put a screen up that showed a chart, also never does charts. And he looked to his right, something he never does. And as he looked to his right, the bullet grazed right past his face.

And I was standing right there when it happened. And he said in that moment, he understood that everything had changed for the country and for himself.

What is the speech going to be about now? I imagine that the RNC was supposed to be both a celebratory event, but also a time to make the case against his opponent. What did he tell you he's going to focus on now?

He said he was going to focus on bringing the country back together. He thought that it was very, very important that in that moment, when that happened to him, he understood this is what he wants to do, what hes supposed to do. And he talked a lot about when he stood up and theres that sort of iconic moment when he puts his fist up. And he told me that he really wanted to project to people. He said it wasnt about him at that moment. He wanted to reject those people. And he says he loves these people and they are the back. But this is a rust belt area. This is a blue collar, white, working class, mostly crowd. And he wanted to project to the, he thought it was important to project to the country in that moment that everything was okay, that he was okay and the country was okay. And I thought that was, I thought that was really fascinating. And he was in a very good mood. He was, he sounded incredibly upbeat. These moments have a way of changing people, just 1 cm difference. And we would not, we would have him be talking about a much, much different story today.

What about what the last couple of hours, last 24 hours has been like for the former president? Did you get a sense of what's his life like? Who is he being surrounded by? What has he been doing and how has he been coping with that life changing moment that you just described?

Well, he said he's been taking phone calls and talking to people of all different political stripes, of all different stations in life, and people are talking to him and, of course, making sure that he's okay. So I think that he's feeding off of that positive sort of feedback from people. I mean, I didn't ask him who he was with, but, you know, he wasas, I was interviewing him, he was getting ready to leave Bedminster and go to Milwaukee, something he wasn't initially going to do but decided, you know, I'm not going to let anything change me. I need to be there. I'm supposed to be there. I'm going there.

You know, Selena, you've talked to Trump a lot. You've been around him. You've been to so many of these rallies. Trump is, I think, by his very nature, a pretty defiant personality. Do you get the sense that when he talks about unity, that that is a change for him? Do you feel like it's something that he really means or is it something that could fade as the days goes on between now and when hes expected to give a speech?

Well, you know, I think he would argue him that he does unify people, that he does bring together people in the way that he, in particular, in the way that he talks about people from the Great Lakes, Midwest who he feels have, and he believes have been very disconnected from the process, sort of not really engaged, just sort of mechanically voted, but because of the way he talks about the dignity of work, the way he talks about the working class and the way he tries to project this sort of part of something bigger than yourself, that he has electrified them. And so he believes that is unity. I mean, I can't speak for what's inside his head, but based on conversations that I have had with him, I think that he believes that that's very important. And from his perspective, he has done a good job of unifying people. And his coalition is growing. We can't deny that that's happening.

But I think what I'm asking really, I mean, this is the same person who often talks about retribution, about his political enemies, about the other side of the aisle. Do you think he's going to drop that rhetoric? Is that the sense that you got from what he told you?

I got the sense that he believed that he should unify what that looks like, I obviously don't know. I think both sides be really great if we weren't so harsh with each other. And harsh is even a mild word to describe some of the ways that we speak to each other and the way we talk to each other and the way politicians talk. But, you know, I cant get inside his head. But in that moment, I believe that this is very important to him.

Amy all right, well see what he ends up doing. Selena Zito with the exclusive tonight, the very first interview with the former president Donald Trump after this assassination attempt. Thank you very much for joining us tonight, Selena.

Thank you.

And CNN's Whitney Wild is with us now with the latest on the investigation into the shooter's motive. Whitney, what are you learning tonight?

Well, Abby, the motivation here is still very much unclear. And what the FBI has made very clear, though, is that they do believe this was an attempted assassination. They are investigating this as potential domestic terrorism. But as they go through, and they are trying to access the shooter's cell phone because they really believe that that is going to be pretty critical and understandably so into understanding the shooter's mindset. So right now, they have the device. They're working to try to get into it. But as far as a motive that captures the totality of why this person did this, that is still unclear. What the FBI is saying is that at this moment, they are working to determine the sequence of events and the shooters movements prior to this incident. And they have again obtained the cell phone. They have searched the residents. They have searched his vehicle. Upon those searches, they found that there were suspicious devices. We have previously reported that there was explosive material found at the shooter's home as well as in his vehicle. Those devices are now being analyzed at the FBI lab at Quantico. But all of this comes, Abby, as there are very serious questions for the secret service about how this happened.

And what we know is that the building where the shooter was able to get his shot was outside the security perimeter. It was around 150 yards from the former president's podium. And several law enforcement sources I have spoken with have expressed real concern that a building that close was outside the hard perimeter. So the question here Abby becomes, was a member of law enforcement supposed to be stationed at that building or did the secret Service determine through a site assessment that that building didn't pose a risk? Either way, this was a major failure. And there are serious questions for the secret Service. We have not seen anybody go on camera to take those questions from the press, although we have gone back and forth with spokespeople from that agency and we've gotten a little bit out of them. There are still major questions that they need to answer for Abby.

Absolutely. Whitney, wow. Thank you very much for that reporting. And law enforcement officials are also piecing together the gunman's movements around the shooting. CNN's Brian Todd has more on that. Brian, tell us more, Abby.

We have new information on the shooter's movements during and just before the shooting. We do know that he was approximately 150 meters away from where Donald Trump was speaking when he opened fire. That's less than 500ft away from the former president. Also, according to the sheriff of Butler County, Michael Sloop, law enforcement officers saw him on the roof shortly before the shooting. One law enforcement officer hoisted himself up to the ledge of the rooftop, saw the gunman. The gunman saw him, according to the sheriff, pointed his weapon at the officer and at that point, the officer had to drop down here for his own safety. The shooter then started opening fire on those positions also, we're told from a witness, according to witness Ben Macer, who talked to CNN affiliate KDKA, the shooter was seen moving. He saw the shooter moving from roof to roof to roof. It had to have been these roofs right here, these buildings all attached. So one witness seeing him moving from roof to roof to roof before he finally took a position right about there.