I'm Julian Barnes. I'm an intelligence reporter at the New York Times. I try to find out what the US government is keeping secret. Governments keep secrets for all kinds of reasons. They might be embarrassed by the information. They might think the public can't understand it. But we at the New York Times think that democracy works best when the public is informed. It takes a lot of time to find people willing to talk about those secrets. Many people with information have a certain agenda or have a certain angle, and that's why it requires talking to a lot of people to make sure that we're not misled and that we give a complete story to our readers. If the New York Times was not reporting these stories, some of them might never come to light. If you want to support this work, you can do that by subscribing to the New York Times.

From the New York Times, I'm Sabrina Tavernisi, and this is the Daily. The nation is waking up to a new reality. After former President Donald Trump was injured in an apparent assassination attempt, gunshots, ripping through a Pennsylvania campaign rally and carving their way into the history books.

I heard pop, pop. I think a lot of can read the notes, Trump can hear the music. That was one of those moments where he intuitively understood the moment, understood the image, understood the sound, and behaved in a way that maximized his position going forward. It was really, really something else.Okay, so on the shooter, it wasn't that he somehow passed through a security check or evaded a security check. He was just completely outside the zone that the Secret Service considered the zone of danger, right?The shooter was completely outside the event, on a warehouse roof outside of where Trump was speaking. There's some reporting that he may have attempted to get in earlier, but part of the complication here was that he wasn't actually within the perimeter of the event itself.Got it. What is the Secret Service saying about why it was that that building with an apparent clear shot of the podium was outside the perimeter?Well, the Secret Service is an independent security agency that's responsible for the protection of the President and other senior American officials. Candidates get protection as well, but they don't operate in isolation. When they come to a town, they often coordinate with local law enforcement. Sometimes you'll see, for instance, state police sealing off highways when the motorcade comes through. Well, oftentimes, Secret Service will have control over the event itself while local law enforcement is tasked with controlling things outside of the perimeter. That appears to have been what happened in Pennsylvania. There were four counter-sniper teams on Saturday, two secret service and two local. The building outside the perimeter would typically have been under the purview of local law enforcement.Got it. Basically, secret service was taking care of security inside the lines of that perimeter, and local law enforcement was taking care of the security outside those lines. That's where the shooter was shooting from, outside the lines. Do we know what happened with local law enforcement there? How this shooter getting to the top of a roof ended up falling through the cracks for them?Nobody's quite sure, but the speed with which this happened seems to have been an important dynamic. It wasn't like this guy was camped out for hours. It appears that he scramble up onto the roof of the warehouse, moving rather quickly and planted himself and then fired. So there wasn't a lot of time for law enforcement to react, apparently.What do we know so far about the shooter? What have investigators learned?His name is Thomas Matthew Crooks. He is 20 years old. He's from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, which is about 40 miles from the scene of the shooting. He was generally regarded in school as a quiet, intelligent guy, and he'd been working as a dietary aid at a local nursing home. Investigators told us that he was interested in chess and that he had recently taken up computer coding.What did the authorities say about his motive?They don't know. That is the big question. The public record is very scant. He is a registered a considered Republican. This would have been his first presidential election voting. It appears that he gave $15, according to some reports, to a group that generally identifies as liberal. But mostly, I would say, investigators are exasperated by the lack of any directionality in terms of what his motivation or political beliefs have been. He has, for instance, not written any a political manifesto, and there aren't even a trail of social media posts to fall on. They're really hoping that once they are able to breach his cell phone, that that will unlock a trove of information that will point them in the right direction. But he really is an enigmatic character right now.Do authorities think his attack was highly planned? Is there any indication that more attacks were planned?Nobody really knows. The gun that he used was purchased by his father. Authorities are not clear whether or not his father gave it to him, lent it to him, or if he took it from his father. But they don't believe his father bought it on his behalf. What they did find were some explosive devices. There were apparently some canisters found in the car that he had been driving, which served the purpose of delaying the investigation for hours and hours yesterday as the bomb squad removed and deactivated these devices. A law enforcement official told me that there was also a suspicious device found at his residence. He clearly had some knowledge of both firearms and explosives, but they aren't sure where he picked it up and what he intended to do.This, of course, as you know, is the first time in about 40 years that a current or former president has been wounded in an assassination attempt. Ronald Reagan, of course, was shot in 1981. What fundamentally went wrong here? Is there any way to see this other than as a colossal failure by the environment is frankly inconceivable. I think the other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and folks at the Department of Justice, were fairly unvarnished in private in their criticism of the way that the Secret Service planned this. There are a lot of unanswered questions, and some lawmakers have called for there to be a significant investigation of this. The House Oversight Committee will call the head of the Secret Service to to justify over the next couple of weeks.What has Trump said since the shooting?He's been relatively muted. I think one of the really amazing moments and something which has been overlooked, Joe Biden called up Donald Trump, and they seem to have had a civil exchange. I think it was this very, very rare and brief moment of comity in this campaign, which is just suffused with negativity and hostility. Then Trump called for national unity, and he's basically kept up that vibe for the past 24 hours. But in his signature defiant way, he wrote in a text message to supporters, I will never surrender. And on True Social, he called for his supporters to stand united and not to allow, quote, evil to win. But he really seems to be toeing the line between his typical bombast and adopting a tone which is a little more conciliatory at a moment when Americans, of all political stripes, are extremely uneasy, and many are just frankly terrified.What have been the other reactions to this assassination attempt? What's been happening in Washington? What have the people been saying?Democrats and administration officials have called for unity, essentially saying that this was not just an attack on Trump, but an attack on democracy.Look, there's no place in America for this violence. It's sick. It's sick.President Biden made it very clear in a couple of appearances over the weekend that he condemned the violence.We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.And said that this reaction, regardless of your political stance, was completely unacceptable. Republicans had a wider range of reactions. There were some in the party who took a measured approach.Everyone needs to turn the rhetoric down.Like from Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.You have political opposition and political opponents, but we're all Americans, and we have to treat one another with dignity and respect.But you also heard some Republicans taking a far different approach. You had people like Mike Collins, a a firebrand Republican from Georgia, writing on social media that Joe Biden sent the orders to shoot Donald Trump. Wow. Obviously, there's no evidence for that.I do believe that Joe Biden is responsible for the shooting today.You had Lauren Boebert from Colorado in a television interview saying, Joe Biden responsible for the shooting.Everyone who has called him a fascist, everyone who has called him a threat to democracy, who said that he should be- Essentially saying that it was democratic rhetoric that caused this.Again, there's been no evidence whatsoever yet that the shooter was motivated by that rhetoric. But that was a common Republican talking point that you saw emerging to say that using all of this description of Trump as an existential threat to democracy had somehow now whipped up people to enact violent acts.Okay, so there are some cross currents of rhetoric here in the aftermath of the shooting, and we see some signs of unity, but it seems undeniable that this is a very fraught political moment. How much have you been hearing in your reporting about the possibility of further violence?It's a huge fear, and it's building upon concerns that FBI and Justice Department officials have talked to us about for months and months and months that they are worried about violence springing up in this election. On a call on Sunday, they reiterated that the threat level is really high. For months, they've been telling us that they're worried about shootings, spawning copy cats. Also, outside of violence, it's this wave of misinformation that tends to accompany these big events that can also create a bad cycle. People get whipped up, and that in turn incites more violence. I think there is a level of tremendous uncertainty. Political conventions, as we have seen in years past, are a gathering point for all kinds of folks, mostly people who are engaged in peaceful protests, but it's also been catalytic for individuals who want to create all kinds of problems. I think if there is a silver lining, it is that this near miss, this near national catastrophe has alerted law enforcement agencies, particularly the Secret Service, to up their vigilance to the highest possible level. So to a certain extent, like a near miss of an eyeliner potentially crashed it might have the positive impact of having people pay more attention at a time of what appears to be maximum danger.Glenn, what happens now? I mean, you mentioned political conventions. The Republican National Convention is starting on Monday. Do we have any idea of how that event will play out given what just happened, how this changes things?Well, first and foremost, I think you're going to see a level of security at both conventions. That's unprecedented. In terms of the political impact, that's a little harder to predict. This presents Donald Trump with an enormous opportunity to reset his image, but it's an entirely unpredictable political environment, and the situation could change. I think its greatest meaning, its most resonant meaning, is that our politics is changing and moving into a darker and more dangerous place. The question is, are we entering an age where political violence becomes commonplace, or is this a moment where we realize collectively that this is not the future we can accept?What happens in the next few days is going to be quite important to help give an answer to that.Indeed.Glenn, thank you.Thank you.We'll be right back. Here's what else you should know today. On Saturday, Israel conducted a major air strike in the Southern Gaza Strip that it said targeted Hamas's top military commander, who was allegedly one of the architects of the October seventh attack on Israel. Gazan Health Authority said that at least 90 people died in the assault. But by Sunday night, it was not clear whether the commander targeted in the strike, Mohamed Daïf, was a among them. Today's episode was produced by Rob Zypko, Shannon Lynn, Lindsay Garrison, and Stella Tan, with help from Carlos Prieto. It was edited by Patricia Willens, with help from Paige Cawet, fact-checked by Susan Lee, contains original music by Marion Lozano, Diane Wong, Sophia Landman, and Pat McCusker, and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Lansberg of Wonderly. Special thanks to Beth Flynn, Simon Levian, and Jessica Metzger. For The Daily. I'm Sabrina Tavernisi. See you tomorrow.

can read the notes, Trump can hear the music. That was one of those moments where he intuitively understood the moment, understood the image, understood the sound, and behaved in a way that maximized his position going forward. It was really, really something else.

Okay, so on the shooter, it wasn't that he somehow passed through a security check or evaded a security check. He was just completely outside the zone that the Secret Service considered the zone of danger, right?

The shooter was completely outside the event, on a warehouse roof outside of where Trump was speaking. There's some reporting that he may have attempted to get in earlier, but part of the complication here was that he wasn't actually within the perimeter of the event itself.

Got it. What is the Secret Service saying about why it was that that building with an apparent clear shot of the podium was outside the perimeter?

Well, the Secret Service is an independent security agency that's responsible for the protection of the President and other senior American officials. Candidates get protection as well, but they don't operate in isolation. When they come to a town, they often coordinate with local law enforcement. Sometimes you'll see, for instance, state police sealing off highways when the motorcade comes through. Well, oftentimes, Secret Service will have control over the event itself while local law enforcement is tasked with controlling things outside of the perimeter. That appears to have been what happened in Pennsylvania. There were four counter-sniper teams on Saturday, two secret service and two local. The building outside the perimeter would typically have been under the purview of local law enforcement.

Got it. Basically, secret service was taking care of security inside the lines of that perimeter, and local law enforcement was taking care of the security outside those lines. That's where the shooter was shooting from, outside the lines. Do we know what happened with local law enforcement there? How this shooter getting to the top of a roof ended up falling through the cracks for them?

Nobody's quite sure, but the speed with which this happened seems to have been an important dynamic. It wasn't like this guy was camped out for hours. It appears that he scramble up onto the roof of the warehouse, moving rather quickly and planted himself and then fired. So there wasn't a lot of time for law enforcement to react, apparently.

What do we know so far about the shooter? What have investigators learned?

His name is Thomas Matthew Crooks. He is 20 years old. He's from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, which is about 40 miles from the scene of the shooting. He was generally regarded in school as a quiet, intelligent guy, and he'd been working as a dietary aid at a local nursing home. Investigators told us that he was interested in chess and that he had recently taken up computer coding.

What did the authorities say about his motive?

They don't know. That is the big question. The public record is very scant. He is a registered a considered Republican. This would have been his first presidential election voting. It appears that he gave $15, according to some reports, to a group that generally identifies as liberal. But mostly, I would say, investigators are exasperated by the lack of any directionality in terms of what his motivation or political beliefs have been. He has, for instance, not written any a political manifesto, and there aren't even a trail of social media posts to fall on. They're really hoping that once they are able to breach his cell phone, that that will unlock a trove of information that will point them in the right direction. But he really is an enigmatic character right now.

Do authorities think his attack was highly planned? Is there any indication that more attacks were planned?

Nobody really knows. The gun that he used was purchased by his father. Authorities are not clear whether or not his father gave it to him, lent it to him, or if he took it from his father. But they don't believe his father bought it on his behalf. What they did find were some explosive devices. There were apparently some canisters found in the car that he had been driving, which served the purpose of delaying the investigation for hours and hours yesterday as the bomb squad removed and deactivated these devices. A law enforcement official told me that there was also a suspicious device found at his residence. He clearly had some knowledge of both firearms and explosives, but they aren't sure where he picked it up and what he intended to do.

This, of course, as you know, is the first time in about 40 years that a current or former president has been wounded in an assassination attempt. Ronald Reagan, of course, was shot in 1981. What fundamentally went wrong here? Is there any way to see this other than as a colossal failure by the environment is frankly inconceivable. I think the other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and folks at the Department of Justice, were fairly unvarnished in private in their criticism of the way that the Secret Service planned this. There are a lot of unanswered questions, and some lawmakers have called for there to be a significant investigation of this. The House Oversight Committee will call the head of the Secret Service to to justify over the next couple of weeks.What has Trump said since the shooting?He's been relatively muted. I think one of the really amazing moments and something which has been overlooked, Joe Biden called up Donald Trump, and they seem to have had a civil exchange. I think it was this very, very rare and brief moment of comity in this campaign, which is just suffused with negativity and hostility. Then Trump called for national unity, and he's basically kept up that vibe for the past 24 hours. But in his signature defiant way, he wrote in a text message to supporters, I will never surrender. And on True Social, he called for his supporters to stand united and not to allow, quote, evil to win. But he really seems to be toeing the line between his typical bombast and adopting a tone which is a little more conciliatory at a moment when Americans, of all political stripes, are extremely uneasy, and many are just frankly terrified.What have been the other reactions to this assassination attempt? What's been happening in Washington? What have the people been saying?Democrats and administration officials have called for unity, essentially saying that this was not just an attack on Trump, but an attack on democracy.Look, there's no place in America for this violence. It's sick. It's sick.President Biden made it very clear in a couple of appearances over the weekend that he condemned the violence.We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.And said that this reaction, regardless of your political stance, was completely unacceptable. Republicans had a wider range of reactions. There were some in the party who took a measured approach.Everyone needs to turn the rhetoric down.Like from Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.You have political opposition and political opponents, but we're all Americans, and we have to treat one another with dignity and respect.But you also heard some Republicans taking a far different approach. You had people like Mike Collins, a a firebrand Republican from Georgia, writing on social media that Joe Biden sent the orders to shoot Donald Trump. Wow. Obviously, there's no evidence for that.I do believe that Joe Biden is responsible for the shooting today.You had Lauren Boebert from Colorado in a television interview saying, Joe Biden responsible for the shooting.Everyone who has called him a fascist, everyone who has called him a threat to democracy, who said that he should be- Essentially saying that it was democratic rhetoric that caused this.Again, there's been no evidence whatsoever yet that the shooter was motivated by that rhetoric. But that was a common Republican talking point that you saw emerging to say that using all of this description of Trump as an existential threat to democracy had somehow now whipped up people to enact violent acts.Okay, so there are some cross currents of rhetoric here in the aftermath of the shooting, and we see some signs of unity, but it seems undeniable that this is a very fraught political moment. How much have you been hearing in your reporting about the possibility of further violence?It's a huge fear, and it's building upon concerns that FBI and Justice Department officials have talked to us about for months and months and months that they are worried about violence springing up in this election. On a call on Sunday, they reiterated that the threat level is really high. For months, they've been telling us that they're worried about shootings, spawning copy cats. Also, outside of violence, it's this wave of misinformation that tends to accompany these big events that can also create a bad cycle. People get whipped up, and that in turn incites more violence. I think there is a level of tremendous uncertainty. Political conventions, as we have seen in years past, are a gathering point for all kinds of folks, mostly people who are engaged in peaceful protests, but it's also been catalytic for individuals who want to create all kinds of problems. I think if there is a silver lining, it is that this near miss, this near national catastrophe has alerted law enforcement agencies, particularly the Secret Service, to up their vigilance to the highest possible level. So to a certain extent, like a near miss of an eyeliner potentially crashed it might have the positive impact of having people pay more attention at a time of what appears to be maximum danger.Glenn, what happens now? I mean, you mentioned political conventions. The Republican National Convention is starting on Monday. Do we have any idea of how that event will play out given what just happened, how this changes things?Well, first and foremost, I think you're going to see a level of security at both conventions. That's unprecedented. In terms of the political impact, that's a little harder to predict. This presents Donald Trump with an enormous opportunity to reset his image, but it's an entirely unpredictable political environment, and the situation could change. I think its greatest meaning, its most resonant meaning, is that our politics is changing and moving into a darker and more dangerous place. The question is, are we entering an age where political violence becomes commonplace, or is this a moment where we realize collectively that this is not the future we can accept?What happens in the next few days is going to be quite important to help give an answer to that.Indeed.Glenn, thank you.Thank you.We'll be right back. Here's what else you should know today. On Saturday, Israel conducted a major air strike in the Southern Gaza Strip that it said targeted Hamas's top military commander, who was allegedly one of the architects of the October seventh attack on Israel. Gazan Health Authority said that at least 90 people died in the assault. But by Sunday night, it was not clear whether the commander targeted in the strike, Mohamed Daïf, was a among them. Today's episode was produced by Rob Zypko, Shannon Lynn, Lindsay Garrison, and Stella Tan, with help from Carlos Prieto. It was edited by Patricia Willens, with help from Paige Cawet, fact-checked by Susan Lee, contains original music by Marion Lozano, Diane Wong, Sophia Landman, and Pat McCusker, and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Lansberg of Wonderly. Special thanks to Beth Flynn, Simon Levian, and Jessica Metzger. For The Daily. I'm Sabrina Tavernisi. See you tomorrow.

environment is frankly inconceivable. I think the other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and folks at the Department of Justice, were fairly unvarnished in private in their criticism of the way that the Secret Service planned this. There are a lot of unanswered questions, and some lawmakers have called for there to be a significant investigation of this. The House Oversight Committee will call the head of the Secret Service to to justify over the next couple of weeks.

What has Trump said since the shooting?

He's been relatively muted. I think one of the really amazing moments and something which has been overlooked, Joe Biden called up Donald Trump, and they seem to have had a civil exchange. I think it was this very, very rare and brief moment of comity in this campaign, which is just suffused with negativity and hostility. Then Trump called for national unity, and he's basically kept up that vibe for the past 24 hours. But in his signature defiant way, he wrote in a text message to supporters, I will never surrender. And on True Social, he called for his supporters to stand united and not to allow, quote, evil to win. But he really seems to be toeing the line between his typical bombast and adopting a tone which is a little more conciliatory at a moment when Americans, of all political stripes, are extremely uneasy, and many are just frankly terrified.

What have been the other reactions to this assassination attempt? What's been happening in Washington? What have the people been saying?

Democrats and administration officials have called for unity, essentially saying that this was not just an attack on Trump, but an attack on democracy.

Look, there's no place in America for this violence. It's sick. It's sick.

President Biden made it very clear in a couple of appearances over the weekend that he condemned the violence.

We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.

And said that this reaction, regardless of your political stance, was completely unacceptable. Republicans had a wider range of reactions. There were some in the party who took a measured approach.

Everyone needs to turn the rhetoric down.

Like from Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.

You have political opposition and political opponents, but we're all Americans, and we have to treat one another with dignity and respect.

But you also heard some Republicans taking a far different approach. You had people like Mike Collins, a a firebrand Republican from Georgia, writing on social media that Joe Biden sent the orders to shoot Donald Trump. Wow. Obviously, there's no evidence for that.

I do believe that Joe Biden is responsible for the shooting today.

You had Lauren Boebert from Colorado in a television interview saying, Joe Biden responsible for the shooting.

Everyone who has called him a fascist, everyone who has called him a threat to democracy, who said that he should be- Essentially saying that it was democratic rhetoric that caused this.

Again, there's been no evidence whatsoever yet that the shooter was motivated by that rhetoric. But that was a common Republican talking point that you saw emerging to say that using all of this description of Trump as an existential threat to democracy had somehow now whipped up people to enact violent acts.

Okay, so there are some cross currents of rhetoric here in the aftermath of the shooting, and we see some signs of unity, but it seems undeniable that this is a very fraught political moment. How much have you been hearing in your reporting about the possibility of further violence?

It's a huge fear, and it's building upon concerns that FBI and Justice Department officials have talked to us about for months and months and months that they are worried about violence springing up in this election. On a call on Sunday, they reiterated that the threat level is really high. For months, they've been telling us that they're worried about shootings, spawning copy cats. Also, outside of violence, it's this wave of misinformation that tends to accompany these big events that can also create a bad cycle. People get whipped up, and that in turn incites more violence. I think there is a level of tremendous uncertainty. Political conventions, as we have seen in years past, are a gathering point for all kinds of folks, mostly people who are engaged in peaceful protests, but it's also been catalytic for individuals who want to create all kinds of problems. I think if there is a silver lining, it is that this near miss, this near national catastrophe has alerted law enforcement agencies, particularly the Secret Service, to up their vigilance to the highest possible level. So to a certain extent, like a near miss of an eyeliner potentially crashed it might have the positive impact of having people pay more attention at a time of what appears to be maximum danger.

Glenn, what happens now? I mean, you mentioned political conventions. The Republican National Convention is starting on Monday. Do we have any idea of how that event will play out given what just happened, how this changes things?

Well, first and foremost, I think you're going to see a level of security at both conventions. That's unprecedented. In terms of the political impact, that's a little harder to predict. This presents Donald Trump with an enormous opportunity to reset his image, but it's an entirely unpredictable political environment, and the situation could change. I think its greatest meaning, its most resonant meaning, is that our politics is changing and moving into a darker and more dangerous place. The question is, are we entering an age where political violence becomes commonplace, or is this a moment where we realize collectively that this is not the future we can accept?

What happens in the next few days is going to be quite important to help give an answer to that.

Indeed.

Glenn, thank you.

Thank you.

We'll be right back. Here's what else you should know today. On Saturday, Israel conducted a major air strike in the Southern Gaza Strip that it said targeted Hamas's top military commander, who was allegedly one of the architects of the October seventh attack on Israel. Gazan Health Authority said that at least 90 people died in the assault. But by Sunday night, it was not clear whether the commander targeted in the strike, Mohamed Daïf, was a among them. Today's episode was produced by Rob Zypko, Shannon Lynn, Lindsay Garrison, and Stella Tan, with help from Carlos Prieto. It was edited by Patricia Willens, with help from Paige Cawet, fact-checked by Susan Lee, contains original music by Marion Lozano, Diane Wong, Sophia Landman, and Pat McCusker, and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Lansberg of Wonderly. Special thanks to Beth Flynn, Simon Levian, and Jessica Metzger. For The Daily. I'm Sabrina Tavernisi. See you tomorrow.