I'm Carol Rosenberg from the New York Times. Right now, I'm sitting alone in the press room at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay. I've probably spent around 2,000 nights at this Navy base. I've been coming here since four months after the 9/11 attacks, I watched the first prisoners arrive in those orange jumpsuits from far away Afghanistan. Some of these prisoners, they still don't have a trial date. It's hard to get here. It's hard to get news from the prison. Often, I'm the only reporter here. If you build a military court in prison, out of reach of the American people, it should not be out of reach of American journalism. We have a duty to keep coming back and explain what's going on here. The New York Times takes you to difficult and controversial places. It keeps you informed about unpopular and hard to report developments, and that takes resources. You can power that journalism by subscribing to the New York Times.

From the New York Times, I'm Sabrina Tavernisi, and this is The Daily. In the week since the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, The security mistakes that led to the shooting have come into sharp and shocking focus and have now caused the head of the Secret Service her job. Today, my colleague, Glenn Thrush, on the Secret Service's Historic Failure. It's Wednesday, July 24th. Glenn, You've been reporting on the investigation into the security failures around the assassination attempt of Donald Trump, and they were pretty catastrophic, so much so that the head of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheetle, was hauled before Congress to explain herself. Then on Tuesday morning, she resigned, which puts the blame pretty directly on the Secret Service.

It was a monumental failure. The worst failure in the Secret Service for at least 40 years, and maybe of all time. There was just a tremendous lack of coordination between the group of Secret Service personnel who were tasked with protecting Donald Trump and the local authorities that the Secret Service works in coordination with to control the site around the perimeter of the event.

Okay, so let's unpack that. What have we learned in the week since the shooting about the mistakes that led to this failure?

Quite a bit, Sabrina, and none of it was good for the Secret Service and ultimately for Cheetal. Let's start first off with how the Secret Service divided the responsibility on the ground. The way that this was set up is that there was a perimeter, and inside that perimeter was essentially the province of the Secret Service. So you can think of that as the high security area. It's the area in the direct proximity of where Trump was going to speak. Now, outside the perimeter, it gets a little sketchy. This is the province typically of local law enforcement. Now, they're working under the aegis of Secret Service, but it appears that the level of security, coordination, and attention to that area beyond this fencing was considerably less than inside the perimeter.

Right. This was the thing that came up over and over again, that there were these buildings outside the perimeter that were a blind spot for the secret service. Why was it that those buildings, in fact, were outside the perimeter?

The issue that's emerging, and I think is going to be the story at the end of the day, is communication or the lack thereof.

What do we know about the communication on the ground that day? Maybe start with when the shooter arrived.

Well, we think he arrived sometime after 4:00 in the afternoon based on geo-location data monitored by the FBI, looking at his phones. The first visual identification that we know of comes at 5:06 when he's observed in this really eerie bit of video that shows him milling around the warehouse where he would eventually take the itself.But she did take some responsibility, ultimately. So you would say the fact that the rooftop was outside the perimeter is not an excuse for what happened.I am not offering that as an excuse.Okay. And said that the entire site, including the perimeter and outside the perimeter was the responsibility of the service.She did say the buck stops with us, but didn't actually say why the building was outside an area that they were directly responsible for, not local law enforcement. Exactly. What did she say about why Trump was allowed to go on stage when there was a known suspicious person looking around?She really didn't provide a detailed answer on that one either. Jamie Raskin, who's the top Democrat on the committee, really leaned into that point.Why was he allowed to take this stage with a suspicious person having been identified in the crime?I appreciate the question.Her answer was pretty interesting. I think this is where the entire investigation is headed.If The detail had been past information that there was a threat. The detail would never have brought the former president out onto stage.You distinguish between someone who is suspicious and someone who's threatening. Is that right? I do.There are a number of times at- It's this distinction between a suspicious person and a threat.This person was identified as, suspicious, not threatening.She's using technical language here, but what does she mean really about the difference between suspicious person a threat?Well, that's not entirely clear. That seems to be something of a gray area. If you go to political rallies, you will see all kinds of folks milling around. If the Secret Service stopped political events for everybody who looked a little bit hinkie, there would never, ever be any political speeches. But there is a clear line between someone who is casing out a potential area or seems like they might possess a weapon or is conducting surveillance. I think This entire investigation is going to hinge on whether or not they had enough data points to determine that crooks had ascended up the ladder from being a suspicious person to being someone who could threaten the former president.She makes this distinction because for her, there's a meaningful difference in terms of how the Secret Service should respond or is supposed to respond. But what about once he's clearly identified as a threat? I mean, when people are there shouting, there's a guy on the roof with a gun.This is the juncture here. that there was a sufficient number of agents assigned.I think the big takeaway was that Chetel said very clearly that the Butler event was staffed sufficiently with security, that they had enough personnel to deal with whatever threat present it itself.So it wasn't like this happened because they were understaffed for some reason.Exactly, yeah.So by the end of the hearing, we still don't have many or really any satisfying answers about how all of this was allowed to happen.Look, Look, Sheetal had one of the most epically terrible days on Capitol Hill that any witness has had in quite some time. And as she continued to deflect- I can speak to you in generalities. No, I don't want generalities. I don't know all of the communications. I don't know all of the You could just see the lawmakers on both sides of the aisle getting angrier and angrier and more and more frustrated as the day dragged on.You can't remember. You got a little Alzheimer's, dementia going. I mean, you can't remember.It looks like you guys were cutting corners. That's what it looks like to me. Biden, but he also searched Merrick Garland, the attorney general, and Christopher Ray, the FBI director. He looked up the dates of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, along with dates of Trump rallies. of semi-automatic ammunition. At some point, we don't know if it was before or after that, he drives up to the rally site one more time to scope it out. But this time, and this is where it gets really extraordinary, he brings with him a small drone, and he essentially uses it to fly a pre-programmed path so that he can survey with some specificity what the layout of the site is. It was a little after 05:00 PM on Saturday when local law enforcement observed a young man with stringy hair milling around the perimeter of the rally, and they identified him as being suspicious.Based on everything we've learned about crooks and about how the shooting happened. He was intentional, of course, but he still doesn't seem like someone who actually has the profile of a political assassin.Yeah. With the caveat that investigators might find some connection, he looks a lot like the alienated young men that have been responsible for school shootings and other mass shootings. He spent a lot of time alone and online He had developed, by being online, phenomenal technical expertise. There is something very 21st century about this. In many of these shootings, we've learned to accept some level of ambiguity. It's less about finding one cut and dried motive than a set of circumstances in a person's life. I think that's where we're headed on this one.Glenn, one of the things that's so striking to me is that because we don't have any real answers here about why he did this, that has created this blank canvas for anybody to paint their own picture, to derive their own meaning for this event, because crooks didn't give us one.Yeah, and we've seen all kinds of conspiracy theories floating around. People have also made up political motives, even though the FBI has told us time and again that they haven't found any evidence of that. Sometimes they fabricated them, sometimes they've imputed these motives. But look, just because we don't have a motive doesn't mean there isn't a meaning. From the moment he realized he'd been hit, and you can see it on the video, Trump understood the political benefits of this situation. It came the week before the Republican National Convention, and it fed a storyline that Republicans had been saying about Donald Trump since he got into politics, that Trump was a fighter, that he was a survivor, that he represented the American spirit. But it also added a new one that Trump was somehow blessed that he was protected by God and providence. It lent the candidacy and elevation it had never had before. We don't know how long it's going to last, but for a week, Republicans had a different, more dignified Donald Trump who had just been through the fire.Glenn, thank you.Thank you.We'll be right back. Here's what else you should know today. On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris secured enough state convention delegates to become the Democratic presidential nominee. The Times reports that her state party endorsements now represent about 80% of the nearly 4,000 delegates who will vote on the first ballot at the party convention. She also picked up two more influential endorsements from the two top Democrats in Congress, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffrey's. They said they waited to endorse her until after she had enough delegates to win the nomination. As the momentum built around Harris as the potential candidate- Good afternoon, Wisconsin. She flew to Wisconsin to officially kick off her presidential campaign.Generations of Americans before us led the fight for freedom. And now, Wisconsin, the baton is in our hands.And after weeks of speculation, Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey said he plans to resign from the Senate in late August, bowing to intense pressure from his Democratic colleagues who had pushed him to step down after he was convicted of taking bribes and acting as a foreign agent. Menendez's resignation spared his party from what would have been an ugly fight to oust him at a time when it was trying to refocus all of its energy on retaining the White House and the Senate. Today's episode was produced by Nina Feldman, Diana Wyn, Stella Tan, and Rob Zypko, with help from Mujd Zady. It was edited by M. J. Davis Lynn, fact-checked by Susan Lee, contains original music by Marion Lozano and Diane Wong, and was engineered by Chris Wood. Special thanks to David Badi, Devon Lumb, and the rest of our colleagues on the Visual Investigations team. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Lansberg of WNDYRLE. That's it for The Daily. I'm Sabrina Tavernisi. See you tomorrow.

itself.

But she did take some responsibility, ultimately. So you would say the fact that the rooftop was outside the perimeter is not an excuse for what happened.

I am not offering that as an excuse.

Okay. And said that the entire site, including the perimeter and outside the perimeter was the responsibility of the service.

She did say the buck stops with us, but didn't actually say why the building was outside an area that they were directly responsible for, not local law enforcement. Exactly. What did she say about why Trump was allowed to go on stage when there was a known suspicious person looking around?

She really didn't provide a detailed answer on that one either. Jamie Raskin, who's the top Democrat on the committee, really leaned into that point.

Why was he allowed to take this stage with a suspicious person having been identified in the crime?

I appreciate the question.

Her answer was pretty interesting. I think this is where the entire investigation is headed.

If The detail had been past information that there was a threat. The detail would never have brought the former president out onto stage.

You distinguish between someone who is suspicious and someone who's threatening. Is that right? I do.

There are a number of times at- It's this distinction between a suspicious person and a threat.

This person was identified as, suspicious, not threatening.

She's using technical language here, but what does she mean really about the difference between suspicious person a threat?

Well, that's not entirely clear. That seems to be something of a gray area. If you go to political rallies, you will see all kinds of folks milling around. If the Secret Service stopped political events for everybody who looked a little bit hinkie, there would never, ever be any political speeches. But there is a clear line between someone who is casing out a potential area or seems like they might possess a weapon or is conducting surveillance. I think This entire investigation is going to hinge on whether or not they had enough data points to determine that crooks had ascended up the ladder from being a suspicious person to being someone who could threaten the former president.

She makes this distinction because for her, there's a meaningful difference in terms of how the Secret Service should respond or is supposed to respond. But what about once he's clearly identified as a threat? I mean, when people are there shouting, there's a guy on the roof with a gun.

This is the juncture here. that there was a sufficient number of agents assigned.I think the big takeaway was that Chetel said very clearly that the Butler event was staffed sufficiently with security, that they had enough personnel to deal with whatever threat present it itself.So it wasn't like this happened because they were understaffed for some reason.Exactly, yeah.So by the end of the hearing, we still don't have many or really any satisfying answers about how all of this was allowed to happen.Look, Look, Sheetal had one of the most epically terrible days on Capitol Hill that any witness has had in quite some time. And as she continued to deflect- I can speak to you in generalities. No, I don't want generalities. I don't know all of the communications. I don't know all of the You could just see the lawmakers on both sides of the aisle getting angrier and angrier and more and more frustrated as the day dragged on.You can't remember. You got a little Alzheimer's, dementia going. I mean, you can't remember.It looks like you guys were cutting corners. That's what it looks like to me. Biden, but he also searched Merrick Garland, the attorney general, and Christopher Ray, the FBI director. He looked up the dates of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, along with dates of Trump rallies. of semi-automatic ammunition. At some point, we don't know if it was before or after that, he drives up to the rally site one more time to scope it out. But this time, and this is where it gets really extraordinary, he brings with him a small drone, and he essentially uses it to fly a pre-programmed path so that he can survey with some specificity what the layout of the site is. It was a little after 05:00 PM on Saturday when local law enforcement observed a young man with stringy hair milling around the perimeter of the rally, and they identified him as being suspicious.Based on everything we've learned about crooks and about how the shooting happened. He was intentional, of course, but he still doesn't seem like someone who actually has the profile of a political assassin.Yeah. With the caveat that investigators might find some connection, he looks a lot like the alienated young men that have been responsible for school shootings and other mass shootings. He spent a lot of time alone and online He had developed, by being online, phenomenal technical expertise. There is something very 21st century about this. In many of these shootings, we've learned to accept some level of ambiguity. It's less about finding one cut and dried motive than a set of circumstances in a person's life. I think that's where we're headed on this one.Glenn, one of the things that's so striking to me is that because we don't have any real answers here about why he did this, that has created this blank canvas for anybody to paint their own picture, to derive their own meaning for this event, because crooks didn't give us one.Yeah, and we've seen all kinds of conspiracy theories floating around. People have also made up political motives, even though the FBI has told us time and again that they haven't found any evidence of that. Sometimes they fabricated them, sometimes they've imputed these motives. But look, just because we don't have a motive doesn't mean there isn't a meaning. From the moment he realized he'd been hit, and you can see it on the video, Trump understood the political benefits of this situation. It came the week before the Republican National Convention, and it fed a storyline that Republicans had been saying about Donald Trump since he got into politics, that Trump was a fighter, that he was a survivor, that he represented the American spirit. But it also added a new one that Trump was somehow blessed that he was protected by God and providence. It lent the candidacy and elevation it had never had before. We don't know how long it's going to last, but for a week, Republicans had a different, more dignified Donald Trump who had just been through the fire.Glenn, thank you.Thank you.We'll be right back. Here's what else you should know today. On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris secured enough state convention delegates to become the Democratic presidential nominee. The Times reports that her state party endorsements now represent about 80% of the nearly 4,000 delegates who will vote on the first ballot at the party convention. She also picked up two more influential endorsements from the two top Democrats in Congress, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffrey's. They said they waited to endorse her until after she had enough delegates to win the nomination. As the momentum built around Harris as the potential candidate- Good afternoon, Wisconsin. She flew to Wisconsin to officially kick off her presidential campaign.Generations of Americans before us led the fight for freedom. And now, Wisconsin, the baton is in our hands.And after weeks of speculation, Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey said he plans to resign from the Senate in late August, bowing to intense pressure from his Democratic colleagues who had pushed him to step down after he was convicted of taking bribes and acting as a foreign agent. Menendez's resignation spared his party from what would have been an ugly fight to oust him at a time when it was trying to refocus all of its energy on retaining the White House and the Senate. Today's episode was produced by Nina Feldman, Diana Wyn, Stella Tan, and Rob Zypko, with help from Mujd Zady. It was edited by M. J. Davis Lynn, fact-checked by Susan Lee, contains original music by Marion Lozano and Diane Wong, and was engineered by Chris Wood. Special thanks to David Badi, Devon Lumb, and the rest of our colleagues on the Visual Investigations team. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Lansberg of WNDYRLE. That's it for The Daily. I'm Sabrina Tavernisi. See you tomorrow.

that there was a sufficient number of agents assigned.

I think the big takeaway was that Chetel said very clearly that the Butler event was staffed sufficiently with security, that they had enough personnel to deal with whatever threat present it itself.

So it wasn't like this happened because they were understaffed for some reason.

Exactly, yeah.

So by the end of the hearing, we still don't have many or really any satisfying answers about how all of this was allowed to happen.

Look, Look, Sheetal had one of the most epically terrible days on Capitol Hill that any witness has had in quite some time. And as she continued to deflect- I can speak to you in generalities. No, I don't want generalities. I don't know all of the communications. I don't know all of the You could just see the lawmakers on both sides of the aisle getting angrier and angrier and more and more frustrated as the day dragged on.

You can't remember. You got a little Alzheimer's, dementia going. I mean, you can't remember.

It looks like you guys were cutting corners. That's what it looks like to me. Biden, but he also searched Merrick Garland, the attorney general, and Christopher Ray, the FBI director. He looked up the dates of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, along with dates of Trump rallies. of semi-automatic ammunition. At some point, we don't know if it was before or after that, he drives up to the rally site one more time to scope it out. But this time, and this is where it gets really extraordinary, he brings with him a small drone, and he essentially uses it to fly a pre-programmed path so that he can survey with some specificity what the layout of the site is. It was a little after 05:00 PM on Saturday when local law enforcement observed a young man with stringy hair milling around the perimeter of the rally, and they identified him as being suspicious.Based on everything we've learned about crooks and about how the shooting happened. He was intentional, of course, but he still doesn't seem like someone who actually has the profile of a political assassin.Yeah. With the caveat that investigators might find some connection, he looks a lot like the alienated young men that have been responsible for school shootings and other mass shootings. He spent a lot of time alone and online He had developed, by being online, phenomenal technical expertise. There is something very 21st century about this. In many of these shootings, we've learned to accept some level of ambiguity. It's less about finding one cut and dried motive than a set of circumstances in a person's life. I think that's where we're headed on this one.Glenn, one of the things that's so striking to me is that because we don't have any real answers here about why he did this, that has created this blank canvas for anybody to paint their own picture, to derive their own meaning for this event, because crooks didn't give us one.Yeah, and we've seen all kinds of conspiracy theories floating around. People have also made up political motives, even though the FBI has told us time and again that they haven't found any evidence of that. Sometimes they fabricated them, sometimes they've imputed these motives. But look, just because we don't have a motive doesn't mean there isn't a meaning. From the moment he realized he'd been hit, and you can see it on the video, Trump understood the political benefits of this situation. It came the week before the Republican National Convention, and it fed a storyline that Republicans had been saying about Donald Trump since he got into politics, that Trump was a fighter, that he was a survivor, that he represented the American spirit. But it also added a new one that Trump was somehow blessed that he was protected by God and providence. It lent the candidacy and elevation it had never had before. We don't know how long it's going to last, but for a week, Republicans had a different, more dignified Donald Trump who had just been through the fire.Glenn, thank you.Thank you.We'll be right back. Here's what else you should know today. On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris secured enough state convention delegates to become the Democratic presidential nominee. The Times reports that her state party endorsements now represent about 80% of the nearly 4,000 delegates who will vote on the first ballot at the party convention. She also picked up two more influential endorsements from the two top Democrats in Congress, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffrey's. They said they waited to endorse her until after she had enough delegates to win the nomination. As the momentum built around Harris as the potential candidate- Good afternoon, Wisconsin. She flew to Wisconsin to officially kick off her presidential campaign.Generations of Americans before us led the fight for freedom. And now, Wisconsin, the baton is in our hands.And after weeks of speculation, Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey said he plans to resign from the Senate in late August, bowing to intense pressure from his Democratic colleagues who had pushed him to step down after he was convicted of taking bribes and acting as a foreign agent. Menendez's resignation spared his party from what would have been an ugly fight to oust him at a time when it was trying to refocus all of its energy on retaining the White House and the Senate. Today's episode was produced by Nina Feldman, Diana Wyn, Stella Tan, and Rob Zypko, with help from Mujd Zady. It was edited by M. J. Davis Lynn, fact-checked by Susan Lee, contains original music by Marion Lozano and Diane Wong, and was engineered by Chris Wood. Special thanks to David Badi, Devon Lumb, and the rest of our colleagues on the Visual Investigations team. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Lansberg of WNDYRLE. That's it for The Daily. I'm Sabrina Tavernisi. See you tomorrow.

Biden, but he also searched Merrick Garland, the attorney general, and Christopher Ray, the FBI director. He looked up the dates of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, along with dates of Trump rallies. of semi-automatic ammunition. At some point, we don't know if it was before or after that, he drives up to the rally site one more time to scope it out. But this time, and this is where it gets really extraordinary, he brings with him a small drone, and he essentially uses it to fly a pre-programmed path so that he can survey with some specificity what the layout of the site is. It was a little after 05:00 PM on Saturday when local law enforcement observed a young man with stringy hair milling around the perimeter of the rally, and they identified him as being suspicious.Based on everything we've learned about crooks and about how the shooting happened. He was intentional, of course, but he still doesn't seem like someone who actually has the profile of a political assassin.Yeah. With the caveat that investigators might find some connection, he looks a lot like the alienated young men that have been responsible for school shootings and other mass shootings. He spent a lot of time alone and online He had developed, by being online, phenomenal technical expertise. There is something very 21st century about this. In many of these shootings, we've learned to accept some level of ambiguity. It's less about finding one cut and dried motive than a set of circumstances in a person's life. I think that's where we're headed on this one.Glenn, one of the things that's so striking to me is that because we don't have any real answers here about why he did this, that has created this blank canvas for anybody to paint their own picture, to derive their own meaning for this event, because crooks didn't give us one.Yeah, and we've seen all kinds of conspiracy theories floating around. People have also made up political motives, even though the FBI has told us time and again that they haven't found any evidence of that. Sometimes they fabricated them, sometimes they've imputed these motives. But look, just because we don't have a motive doesn't mean there isn't a meaning. From the moment he realized he'd been hit, and you can see it on the video, Trump understood the political benefits of this situation. It came the week before the Republican National Convention, and it fed a storyline that Republicans had been saying about Donald Trump since he got into politics, that Trump was a fighter, that he was a survivor, that he represented the American spirit. But it also added a new one that Trump was somehow blessed that he was protected by God and providence. It lent the candidacy and elevation it had never had before. We don't know how long it's going to last, but for a week, Republicans had a different, more dignified Donald Trump who had just been through the fire.Glenn, thank you.Thank you.We'll be right back. Here's what else you should know today. On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris secured enough state convention delegates to become the Democratic presidential nominee. The Times reports that her state party endorsements now represent about 80% of the nearly 4,000 delegates who will vote on the first ballot at the party convention. She also picked up two more influential endorsements from the two top Democrats in Congress, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffrey's. They said they waited to endorse her until after she had enough delegates to win the nomination. As the momentum built around Harris as the potential candidate- Good afternoon, Wisconsin. She flew to Wisconsin to officially kick off her presidential campaign.Generations of Americans before us led the fight for freedom. And now, Wisconsin, the baton is in our hands.And after weeks of speculation, Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey said he plans to resign from the Senate in late August, bowing to intense pressure from his Democratic colleagues who had pushed him to step down after he was convicted of taking bribes and acting as a foreign agent. Menendez's resignation spared his party from what would have been an ugly fight to oust him at a time when it was trying to refocus all of its energy on retaining the White House and the Senate. Today's episode was produced by Nina Feldman, Diana Wyn, Stella Tan, and Rob Zypko, with help from Mujd Zady. It was edited by M. J. Davis Lynn, fact-checked by Susan Lee, contains original music by Marion Lozano and Diane Wong, and was engineered by Chris Wood. Special thanks to David Badi, Devon Lumb, and the rest of our colleagues on the Visual Investigations team. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Lansberg of WNDYRLE. That's it for The Daily. I'm Sabrina Tavernisi. See you tomorrow.

of semi-automatic ammunition. At some point, we don't know if it was before or after that, he drives up to the rally site one more time to scope it out. But this time, and this is where it gets really extraordinary, he brings with him a small drone, and he essentially uses it to fly a pre-programmed path so that he can survey with some specificity what the layout of the site is. It was a little after 05:00 PM on Saturday when local law enforcement observed a young man with stringy hair milling around the perimeter of the rally, and they identified him as being suspicious.

Based on everything we've learned about crooks and about how the shooting happened. He was intentional, of course, but he still doesn't seem like someone who actually has the profile of a political assassin.

Yeah. With the caveat that investigators might find some connection, he looks a lot like the alienated young men that have been responsible for school shootings and other mass shootings. He spent a lot of time alone and online He had developed, by being online, phenomenal technical expertise. There is something very 21st century about this. In many of these shootings, we've learned to accept some level of ambiguity. It's less about finding one cut and dried motive than a set of circumstances in a person's life. I think that's where we're headed on this one.

Glenn, one of the things that's so striking to me is that because we don't have any real answers here about why he did this, that has created this blank canvas for anybody to paint their own picture, to derive their own meaning for this event, because crooks didn't give us one.

Yeah, and we've seen all kinds of conspiracy theories floating around. People have also made up political motives, even though the FBI has told us time and again that they haven't found any evidence of that. Sometimes they fabricated them, sometimes they've imputed these motives. But look, just because we don't have a motive doesn't mean there isn't a meaning. From the moment he realized he'd been hit, and you can see it on the video, Trump understood the political benefits of this situation. It came the week before the Republican National Convention, and it fed a storyline that Republicans had been saying about Donald Trump since he got into politics, that Trump was a fighter, that he was a survivor, that he represented the American spirit. But it also added a new one that Trump was somehow blessed that he was protected by God and providence. It lent the candidacy and elevation it had never had before. We don't know how long it's going to last, but for a week, Republicans had a different, more dignified Donald Trump who had just been through the fire.

Glenn, thank you.

Thank you.

We'll be right back. Here's what else you should know today. On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris secured enough state convention delegates to become the Democratic presidential nominee. The Times reports that her state party endorsements now represent about 80% of the nearly 4,000 delegates who will vote on the first ballot at the party convention. She also picked up two more influential endorsements from the two top Democrats in Congress, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffrey's. They said they waited to endorse her until after she had enough delegates to win the nomination. As the momentum built around Harris as the potential candidate- Good afternoon, Wisconsin. She flew to Wisconsin to officially kick off her presidential campaign.

Generations of Americans before us led the fight for freedom. And now, Wisconsin, the baton is in our hands.

And after weeks of speculation, Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey said he plans to resign from the Senate in late August, bowing to intense pressure from his Democratic colleagues who had pushed him to step down after he was convicted of taking bribes and acting as a foreign agent. Menendez's resignation spared his party from what would have been an ugly fight to oust him at a time when it was trying to refocus all of its energy on retaining the White House and the Senate. Today's episode was produced by Nina Feldman, Diana Wyn, Stella Tan, and Rob Zypko, with help from Mujd Zady. It was edited by M. J. Davis Lynn, fact-checked by Susan Lee, contains original music by Marion Lozano and Diane Wong, and was engineered by Chris Wood. Special thanks to David Badi, Devon Lumb, and the rest of our colleagues on the Visual Investigations team. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Lansberg of WNDYRLE. That's it for The Daily. I'm Sabrina Tavernisi. See you tomorrow.