Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 7/15/24: Photos Expose Secret Service Breakdown At Trump Rally, Dems Give Up On Replacing Biden, Trump Rewrites RNC Speech For Unity, Dem Floats Wild Putin Trump Conspiracy

Episode Date: July 15, 2024

Saagar discusses new aerial photos showing the secret service breakdown at Trump's rally, secret service culture of incompetence, Democrats give up on dropping Biden, Trump rewrites RNC speech to focus on unity, Dem strategist floats wild Putin staged assassination on Trump conspiracy, MSNBC pulls Morning Joe over concerns on Trump coverage.    To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: https://breakingpoints.com/   Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. But there were some dark truths behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. Enter Camp Shame, an eight-part series examining the rise and fall of Camp Shane and the culture that fueled its decades-long success. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus.

So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John. Who's not the father? and subscribe today. his irresponsible son, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. They could lose their family and millions of dollars? Yep. Find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. I'm also the girl behind Boy Sober, the movement that exploded in 2024.

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Listen to VoiceOver on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, Ready or Not 2024 is here and we here at Breaking Points are already thinking of ways we can up our game for this critical election. We rely on our premium subs to expand coverage, upgrade the studio, add staff, give you guys the best independent coverage that is possible. If you like what we're all about, it just means the absolute world to have your support. But enough with that. Let's get to the show.

Good morning, everybody. Happy Monday. We have a great show for everybody today. Unfortunately, a couple of things. Crystal, actually, one of her kids is sick and she's not able to make it this morning. It was an emergency, so I'll be holding down the fort. Luckily, I do have some practice at this now, at this point. Now, of course, we have full spectrum coverage here at Breaking Points this morning of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday. We brought you two breaking news segments over the weekend, breaking some of that down, but we're going to go a full through the timeline of the events, some of the fallout, what we know about the shooter so far, the FBI investigation, President Biden's response.

We'll then dissect exactly what we know about the Secret Service's colossal failure here in preventing this attempted assassination, some of the holes that have opened up, and some of the background also into the problems inside of this agency that are now glaringly revealed after this incident. We're going to talk a little bit about President Biden and his political future. His political future appears saved more so now by the attempted assassination and some of the news coverage and some of the planning going on now behind the scenes by the Democratic Party, how they think that they can

weather this and perhaps go all the way to election day without more calls from elected officials calling on Biden to drop out. We're gonna give everybody a preview of the RNC, which of course kicks off today and will go all the way to Thursday. Some news about Donald Trump and the speech that he has given and about also some changes that he's made to that speech in the wake of his shooting, how he's feeling exactly and how this will change the presidential election race going into 2024.

We'll finally end the segment on a funny note. Somebody who you saw very recently here on this program, the advisor to Democratic billionaire mega-donor Reid Hoffman, has apparently been caught in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, who you saw in our CounterPoints debate against Cenk Uygur about Biden staying in the race. Well, he apparently was caught telling journalists in the hours after the attempted assassination that the entire thing was apparently staged. So a real view into the Democratic elite mind and some of the conspiracies that harbor there. As we said at the top, this is a full spectrum Breaking Points coverage. Thank you to everybody, our premium subscribers, who enable us to be able to put out that breaking news coverage and to

continue doing this show here every day Our own Emily Jasinski is on the ground at the RNC. So throughout the week. We'll check in with her about what's going on She'll be doing interviews and other things and then don't forget We also the entire crew will be on the ground for the offer the DNC, which is in August in Chicago So thank you to all of our premium members. You're the guys who enable us to continue doing this work. Let's start with the attempted assassination on Donald Trump, and I'll try and just start at the very beginning of the incident. So let's go ahead and play some of the video here. This was in Butler, Pennsylvania, approximately 6.15 p.m. You saw Trump. He was in the middle of his speech, only five minutes or so.

Immediately, you see shots begin to ring out and Secret Service agents who jump immediately on top of the president. The most striking things is that you can see the incredible confusion going on behind Donald Trump. And unfortunately, that heartbreaking scream that you hear in the background is people realizing that an innocent bystander, just a normal person who woke up on Saturday. He was excited to go to the former president's rally, lost his life, and was shot. ER doctor who was on the scene said that he was shot in the head and almost certainly a fatality immediately after it happened. We know a little bit more about that individual,

and I'll bring you some news about him. But what you're watching, obviously, is just an incredibly chaotic scene. You have these Secret Service agents. We can actually hear them on the microphone that is being picked up there But what you're watching, obviously, is just an incredibly chaotic scene. You have these Secret Service agents. We can actually hear them on the microphone that is being picked up there where they're saying, get down, get down. Then they realize that the shooter is down. They say that the threat has been neutralized. As Trump begins to rise, they bring him up and they surround him and create a barrier with their own bodies around the former president.

One of them is actually checking him for wounds while he is standing there. Trump, obviously, is both, he's a little bit confused in the immediate moment, but then he says, wait, wait, wait. And that is their, one of the most iconic moments where he shouts, fight, fight, fight to the crowd, puts his fist up, also creating that iconic image that we have now all probably seen over the weekend where you can see the Associated Press photographer was right below him and was able to capture Trump with his fist in the air, blood on his face, and the American flag flying high in the background as he is rushed to his vehicle. Let's go to the next part here as well. Put that image, please, up on the screen. This is where a lot of the

questions now are centering. What the hell happened here with this response from law enforcement? So what you can see directly in front of you, this is a map that's been put together. You can see the stage where Donald Trump was speaking in Butler, Pennsylvania. You can also see where the wounded rally attendee was sitting. You can see behind where the law enforcement countersnipers were positioned on the rooftop. There's been a lot of discussion around the actions of those countersnipers. But then over to the left on that building rooftop was the location of the gunman's body. So there's a lot of questions here about how exactly a gunman is able to walk on to a rooftop with a direct line of sight to former President Donald Trump.

He's able not only to walk onto the rooftop, he's able to get into the prone firing position and then able to squeeze off some seven to eight shots at the former president. Let's go and put the next graphic up, please. That is also very helpful in kind of discovering what happened here. This shows you actually on the ground image, and also realizes just how close that this individual was able to get.

We're talking about 130 yards that this individual is able to get from the former president, and one of the most obvious and direct lines of sight. Now, there's big discussions here about the failures of the Secret Service, but I think that image actually puts everything together quite well. You can see exactly where the shooter was, you can see where the Secret Service snipers were, and you can also see where Donald Trump was there on the stage. And unfortunately, in the path of that assassin's bullet, an innocent bystander was hit in the head while he was covering his own family. Just absolutely tragic in the results that have happened here. What I think that this

image underscores most for us is the failure and some shocking questions that now have to be asked of the Secret Service and how exactly they allowed something like this to happen. Everything that we're beginning to learn now behind the scenes points to absolutely colossal incompetence. Let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen in terms of what we know about the shooter. They've released his name. The individual's name here is Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, about a 40-minute drive from the Butler, Pennsylvania rally where Donald Trump was attending. There is very little known about Mr. Crooks. He was a 20-year-old man. He was killed by Secret Service counter snipers after he

took shots at the former president. The thing is, though, is that all we really know about him so far is that he recently graduated from high school, 20-year-old, does not appear to have had a significant social media presence. Discord confirmed that he did have an account with them, but they claim, at least for now, that the account has been taken down and that he was not known to have engaged in any political discussion or anything related to the investigation. The authorities say that they are fighting and searching for any clues to the motive of Mr. Crooks. But in terms of what we know about him so far, it's just some smatterings that have begun to come out from some of his classmates.

So we actually have here a student in class who was in the classes with Mr. Crooks, claimed that he was, quote, bullied almost every day and relentlessly because of his appearance and for being an outcast. Let's take a listen to what he had to say. He was bullied almost every day. In what way? Can you explain? I mean, he would sit alone at lunch. I mean, he was just an outcast, and you know how kids are nowadays.

So they're going to see someone like that and they're gonna target him because they think it's funny or whatever so it's the best way I can describe it and it's honestly kind of sad like I don't want to say this is what provoked it but you never know you said he was a loner yeah um I want to say he was a loner more because he was just, he was quiet, but like he was just bullied. Like he was bullied so much. So much. This was high school?

Yeah. What did they, do you remember at all what they said to him or called him? No. He was just made fun of, I guess, for the way he dressed or his appearance. Made fun of for the way he dressed. We can't surmise a lot. All we know really about Mr. Crooks is also what he was wearing on that day. He was wearing khaki.

I think it was pants and with a T-shirt that was tucked into it. The T-shirt was of a gun YouTuber, very popular. But, you know, he's not a political person. And the shirt itself doesn't mean anything in and of itself. The FBI has now taken control of the entire investigation. They also cast a little bit of shock at the Secret Service. They said, yeah, it's surprising that this individual was able to get in contact. Here's a little bit about what we know that's broken overnight. The FBI is now telling us that the gunman, quote, appears to have acted alone.

But investigators remain unsure of his motives, political beliefs. They have not even been able to determine what evidence might yet be on his cell phone. So there's some questions there. We also, apparently, according to them, they found, quote, rudimentary explosive devices in the gunman's vehicle and possible explosives were also found at his residence. We know that Mr. Crooks apparently lived in his home with his parents. Parents are two registered social workers and or counselors. In terms of his own political history, a lot has been made. Listen, you can make of this what you will. He is, quote, registered as a Republican, also donated $15 to a group allied with Democrats on the day of Joe Biden's inauguration. That appears to basically be it. He, quote,

had an engineering degree from a nearby community college, probably associate's degree. He, quote, liked to play chess, video games, and was learning how to code. Unlike most people in his generation, he seemed to have a minimal presence online, leaving no telltale trial of public comments or social media posts in and of itself, frankly, a bit suspicious. I don't know a single 20-year-old who isn't very, very active, or perhaps he had a pseudonymous username or something that has not yet been uncovered. We're waiting on discussions and information from the FBI. Didn't also, though, want to pass over the individual who was killed at the Trump rally, Corey Campatore. And here is Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania who told us a little bit about Corey. Let's take a listen.

We lost a fellow Pennsylvanian last night, Corey Campatore. I just spoke to Corey's wife and Corey's two daughters. Corey was a girl dad. Corey was a firefighter. Corey went to church every Sunday. Corey loved his community. And most especially, Corey loved his family. Corey was an avid supporter of the former president and was so excited to be there last night with him in the community.

I asked Corey's wife if it would be okay for me to share that we spoke. She said yes. She also asked that I share with all of you that Corey died a hero, that Corey dove on his family to protect them last night at this rally. Corey was the very best of us. May his memory be a blessing. Yeah, I think that's very well said from the governor of Pennsylvania. That image was released by Corey's own daughters who say that he dived on top of them in the midst of the shooting. It's very likely, at the very least, that scream, that horrifying blood-curling scream that we heard in that video was people realizing that Corey had been shot, as well as some other individuals who were injured, you know, at this rally.

Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. In this eight-episode series, we're unpacking and investigating stories of mistreatment and re-examining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long.

You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. To most people, I'm the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. Voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships it's more than personal it's political it's societal and at times it's far from what i originally intended it to be these days i'm interested in expanding what it means to be voiceover to make it customizable

for anyone who feels the need to explore their relationship to relationships. I'm talking to a lot of people who will help us think about how we love each other. It's a very, very normal experience to have times where a relationship is prioritizing other parts of that relationship that aren't being naked together. How we love our family. I've spent a lifetime trying to get my mother to love me, but the price is too high. And how we love ourselves. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Listen to VoiceOver on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance.

Wait a minute, John. Who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's your not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John. Who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's your not the father week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This author writes, my father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son, even though it was promised to us. Now I find out he's trying to give it to his irresponsible son instead, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. So what are they going to do to get those millions back? That's so unfair.

Well, the author writes that her husband found out the truth from a DNA test they were gifted two years ago. Scandalous. But the kids kept their mom's secret that whole time. Oh my God. And the real kicker, the author wants to reveal this terrible secret, even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process.

So do they get the millions of dollars back or does she keep the family's terrible secret? Well, to hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. President Biden spoken three times now since the attempted assassination, but perhaps his most high profile comments came in last night from an Oval Office address in which President Biden urged unity. Let's take a listen to what he had to say. Here in America, everyone must be treated with dignity and respect, and hate must have no safe harbor. Here in America, we need to get out of our silos where we only listen to those with whom

we agree, where misinformation is rampant. Our foreign actors fan the flames of our division to shape the outcomes consistent with their interests, not ours. Yesterday's shooting at Donald Trump's rally in Pennsylvania calls on all of us to take a step back. Take stock of where we are, how we go forward from here. Thankfully, former Trump is not seriously injured. I spoke to him last night. I'm grateful he's doing well. And Jill and I keep him and his family in our prayers. But in America, we resolve our differences at the battle box. You know, that's how we do it, at the battle box, not with bullets. You know, we're blessed to live in the greatest country on earth, and I believe that with every soul, every power of my being. So tonight, I'm asking every American

to recommit, to make America, think about it. What's made America so special? Here in America, everyone must be treated with dignity and respect. So that's what we've gotten so far from current President Joe Biden. I'll save the politics for a little bit later in the show. Just note that he did still struggle through some of the sentence there in a mere six-minute Oval Office address. That was the longest, actually, comments that he gave since the attempted assassination, a couple minutes in the immediate aftermath, then a couple of minutes yesterday on Sunday afternoon, and then finally, his 8 p.m. Oval Office address urging unity. So continuing just in terms of the details, I want to make sure

I give everybody that they can. There's a little bit that came out in a report now from the Wall Street Journal where they say that the AR-15 rifle that Mr. Crooks used, we know that it belonged to his father. Now, apparently, the elder Mr. Crooks told investigators that he believed his son had gone to a gun range on Saturday. He became concerned when he could not reach him, and he called police after the news of the shooting. There's going to be a lot of investigation into the Crooks' parents, obviously, because not only was their gun used in the attempted assassination, but, you know, apparently there were explosive devices, alleged or, you know, rudimentary ones that were left at the residence and including in Mr. Crooks' cars. So some questions, you know,

exactly about what they knew and some possible negligence on their own part and what was happening. According to the FBI, according to them, they say Crooks was not known previously to law enforcement, which frankly is a little bit surprising having been covering a lot of these mass shootings and other types of incidents over a long period of time. That's almost always the case. They also claim that Crooks has no history of mental illness. Keep in mind, however, he could have been allegedly treated or whatever by his own parents because they themselves, social worker and counselor, licensed by the state of Pennsylvania. So it's possible that it was kept in-house. This is just speculation on my own part, just trying to piece together some of the details.

But so far right now, I mean, all we can really say is just this is a shocking, insane event really that happened. We should keep in mind, I mean, this is the first time that a bullet has touched a president, even a former president, at a rally like this since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981 here in Washington, D.C. And there were a lot of people who were looking at that previous, you know, incident and thinking about how the Secret Service itself was supposed to reform. We should really keep in mind that was a very, very different time. John Hinckley, the person who attempted to assassinate President Reagan, he was just mere feet away from Ronald Reagan there, and he somehow was able to get a gun there in the presence of the president. There also were significant changes to security protocols in the aftermath of those two incidents, of the JFK assassination and also of the Reagan attempted assassination. After JFK won, that's when the Secret Service, you know, was reformed, at least, you know, for Congress, and they were

supposed to do these sightline investigations. So they were supposed to have counter-sniper teams. After the Reagan assassination, that's actually when they first started doing metal detectors and a lot of other policies implemented over at the White House and also at presidential events. And then slowly the security umbrella has gone forward. And I can tell you that's part of the reason why I was so stunned and me along with many others believed because of the way that the shots were heard on the microphone that it could have been a small caliber bullet and rifle this was even according to the people in the crowd is because the disbelief on everyone's part

was how could anybody even possibly get a shot off from outside of the security perimeter from that sight line just a mere 136 yards away from where the president is speaking directly at the president enough to get mere millimeters away from his face and have a bullet go through his ear. I'm sure you've seen much of this, but we are literally living in a very lucky world where the former president was not assassinated. If he had not turned his head at that exact moment, he would be a dead man. And we would have, I mean, think about footage from the 1960s and compared to the high resolution of where we are today, not to mention, you know, the political and the just civic fallout from what that would look like just what mere days before the Republican National Convention. So literally dodged a bullet. I think the nation and former President Trump, he himself apparently has undergone quite a change in

the way that he's just looking at things. Who knows, you know, if it'll last or any of that. But at the very least, I don't think you can literally get shot in the head and not be a different person on the other end of this. And questions continue to remain about the Secret Service, about the failures in this investigation, about failures in the setup for everything that went down behind the scenes. There also is a lot of questions that continue now about the Secret Service's response, potential cover up here. We haven't really heard a lot from the director of the Secret Service who herself, she was in Aspen, Colorado, whenever this all happened and apparently flew back to Washington. She's released only a very, very short statement. We also, according

to them, they said, quote, that they've made no changes to the security procedures at the Republican National Convention. That itself seems absolutely insane to me. But to help me break some of this more down, Ken Klippenstein, the great journalist who's done some work and has now written a piece here about the Secret Service failures, tracing things all the way back inside of this agency, will join me now to break some of this down. Let's get to it. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight-loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left.

In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. In this eight-episode series, we're unpacking and investigating stories of mistreatment and re-examining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head

to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. To most people, I'm the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. Voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's more than personal. It's political, it's societal, and at times it's far from what I originally intended it to be. These days, I'm interested in expanding what it means to be voiceover, to make it customizable for anyone who feels the need to explore their relationship to relationships. I'm talking to a lot of people who will help us think about how we love each other. It's a very, very normal experience to have times where a relationship is prioritizing other parts of that relationship that aren't

being naked together. How we love our family. I've spent a lifetime trying to get my mother to love me, but the price is too high. And how we love ourselves. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Listen to VoiceOver on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John. Who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's your not the father week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This author writes, my father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son, even though it was promised to us. Now I find out he's trying to give it to his irresponsible son instead, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up.

So what are they going to do to get those millions back? That's so unfair. Well, the author writes that her husband found out the truth from a DNA test they were gifted two years ago. Scandalous. But the kids kept their mom's secret that whole time. Oh my God. And the real kicker, the author wants to reveal this terrible secret, even if that means destroying

her husband's family in the process. So do they get the millions of dollars back or does she keep the family's terrible secret? Well, to hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Joining me now is independent journalist Ken Klippenstein. He is an authority and a good friend of the show. It's good to see you, sir. Hey, good to be back. So Ken, you and I were just talking a little bit. I think it would be very useful for the audience. I went over already the aerial photographs and others that show the stunning Secret Service sale of failure at the Trump rally that led to the attempted assassination. failed on just in the last decade or so, which really give us a picture. And you wrote a little bit about this. Let's put this up there on the screen. You wrote how the Secret Service missed the Trump shooter and why we are going to be blamed for it. So Ken, let's go back a bit,

a little bit in time. And just from your memory alone, tell us about some of the failures inside the Secret Service that set up a culture of incompetence that led to this incident. Yeah, this is a culture that people that have worked in the agency have tried to draw attention to. There was a report just last night that a bunch of Secret Service agents got together and are trying to send a letter, I believe, to Congress to try to address some of these problems. I would encourage anybody curious about the agency and in disbelief about their ability to drop the ball on something like this, as indeed

many liberals, at least on Twitter, were. Within hours of the shooting, one of the top trending terms on Twitter, if not the top trending term, was the word staged, the belief that the shooting was staged, which I think speaks to the lack of understanding people have for how many scandals that this agency has been embroiled in. In the course of my reporting on it, looking back at many of the scandals that I've just read peripherally from following the news, I stumbled across my own report about their deletion of January 6th text messages

that were unable to be obtained by Congress. And this was just something I forgot because I come across so many of these different things. And so, I mean, this is a scandal-plagued agency that has deep, deep cultural problems that proceed by a long shot. What happened this weekend, which was a shooter being able to get within several hundred feet of the president and able to situate himself on top of a roof

with an AR-style rifle, and the fact that the Secret Service was unable to clear that, now it wasn't within the direct range that the crowd was. They're supposed to pass them all through a magnometer that checks for, you know, metal objects, weapons. But, you know, there's a lot of, I've been seeing in the discourse, a lot of debate over, you know,

oh, this was local law enforcement's responsibility. Well, that's just moving the goalposts because the whole point of an agency like this is to be able to anticipate problems like this so that you don't have to farm it out to local law enforcement, which isn't going to have the resources or training necessarily to be able to respond to these things. So that's kind of the context behind all this. That's exactly right. We actually have the video. I mean, this is one of the craziest videos where you have an individual in the immediate aftermath, a witness telling the BBC about how he tried desperately to alert the police, local law enforcement, and others that there was a gunman on the rooftop in the two minutes or so before the shooting. He was not the only person who noticed him. There's been multiple other

video evidence of showing people begging law enforcement, saying that person is up there and he has a gun. Let's take a listen to that interview. We noticed the guy crawling, bear crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50 feet away from us. So we're standing there and we're pointing at the guy crawling up the roof. he had a gun right he had a rifle right we could clearly see him with a rifle absolutely um we're pointing at him the police are down there running around on the ground we're like hey man there's a guy on the roof with a rifle and the police were like huh what you know like like they didn't know what was going on you know we're like hey right here on the roof we can see him from right here. We see him. You know, he's crawling. And next thing you know, I'm like, I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, why is Trump still speaking? Why have they not pulled him off the stage?

I'm standing there pointing at him for, you know, two, three minutes. Secret Service is looking at us from the top of the barn. I'm pointing at that roof, just standing there like this. And next thing you know, five shots ring out. So you're certain that the shots came from that guy on the roof? A hundred percent. A hundred percent. And he was up there for a couple of minutes.

He was up there. You saw him up there for a couple of minutes. Absolutely. At least three to four minutes. And you were telling police and the Secret Service? We were telling the police. We were pointing at them for the Secret Service who were looking at us from the top of the barn. They were looking at us the whole time when we were standing by that tree. Could they see him?

Binoculars. Could they see him? Probably not because the roof, the way the slope went, he was behind where they could see. But why is there not Secret Service on all of these roofs here? Yeah. I mean, this random guy sees a guy three to four minutes, he's saying, before the shooting, Ken. So just take us through what that reveals about the failure in that, quote, middle tier of the perimeter. That's what's being described to us. Yeah, so what's interesting is that this is not an urban setting.

There were not a number of buildings that would have been difficult to clear. This was one of the only buildings in the vicinity, so it would not have been hard to clear. And in fact, it's been reported that a member of local law enforcement actually climbed up a ladder and saw this guy and pointed it, but then the shooter pointed his weapon at him and then he fled. This is exactly the reason that you need

a specialized force that can be trained to respond to high stress situations like this. You know, we can criticize that member of local law enforcement all we want, but they might not be trained for those kinds of high pressure situations and so that's why you and so if you look at the secret services response um once once the shooting began then the response was very quick what this was was an intelligence failure and what's interesting about that is if you look at uh just exactly one

week prior to the shooting there was an interview that that went pretty unnoticed with George Stephanopoulos of ABC who was interviewing the director of Secret Service, Kimberly Cheadle. And he brought up in a question that looks really prophetic now, and I would encourage people to look that up. He brought up specifically the question of polarization and political extremism within the country

in the context of the election and asked her if she thought that this was, you know, going to be something to be concerned about. And she gave the most just token answer where she said, quote, it's definitely something we look into. And that was all she had to say about it. And this is an agency that we've allocated all this money to. Earlier this year, the intelligence community put out its first ever what's called open source intelligence strategy. And this was signed by both the CIA director and the director of national intelligence. And the document says that they want to make this the primary means of intelligence

collection. And what's so interesting about this case is that it's a real stress test of that idea and it fails because as far as we know, this kid wasn't on social media. And so all this money that we're throwing into these gee whiz technology to try to hoover up all this information from social media platforms, use AI and all sorts of algorithms that private companies, frankly, can make a lot of money off of,

failed to catch this guy and are going to fail to catch the next lone wolf who's described as a loner because those people are not online. It's a failure of the system that we increasingly rely on to collect intelligence because there are all sorts of ways that threats behave that aren't going to leave that kind of digital exhaust. Right, and to take it just again back is you don't need to do all of that.

You could actually just do your job at a very basic level, and then you could have prevented this entire thing. The only headline that should have come out is crazy guy, you know, arrested at Trump rally with a gun outside, not even at Trump rally, outside the Trump rally with a gun. Didn't, shouldn't have been able to get anywhere near the rooftop, not let alone break off shots. Now you're highlighting a very important thing here, which is that a local law enforcement actually confronted this person on the rooftop. And then apparently the gunman pointed his rifle at him. The guy retreated. And in that moment of retreat is exactly when the shots

broke off towards Trump. It could possibly have saved Trump's life in that he would probably not, you know, he didn't feel like he was in the, or he was rushing the shots in that moment. At the very least, still a little bit of a Uvalde situation. Now, as you said, to be fair, perhaps not trained, probably shocked that something like this happened, but still very surprising. We also know a little bit about the failure here, is that allegedly this rooftop was known as a, quote, well-known high priority vulnerability. Here's a, quote, senior Secret Service source telling that to NBC News. Let's take a listen. I want to get your reaction. And at this hour, we do have some new information for you. A senior Secret Service source familiar

with the planning of yesterday's event tells NBC News that the roof where the shooter was located was a well-known high priority vulnerability. It was identified just the day before during a security walkthrough. We've also just learned that there were two counter-sniper teams on site and that the counter-sniper did not need approval to shoot. One source telling NBC News that prior protocols were not followed. The FBI now says the alleged shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks,

appears to have acted alone. This all provides new context for the shocking scene last night in Butler, Pennsylvania. So they're saying, Ken, that this was a well-known priority, vulnerability. There was nobody there. There was no barricade or anything. We also, Susan Crabtree over at RealClearPolitics, she's reporting that the Secret Service counter snipers only had some 24 hours to secure the scene, which is very contrary to procedure. So, I mean, the failures on this individual level are just stunning from what we're learning so far. And what's particularly surprising to me is how longstanding the

complaints on the part, I mean, I know former Secret Service that described the lack of resources, not as a whole, because as I was describing, there's investment in all kinds of fancy gadgets, but in the specifics of what they actually need. And you can find no shortage of op-eds and books and interviews of former Secret Service agents describing these problems. So in so many ways, this is almost like a 9-11 kind of event, because we had so many warnings prior to it, and a total failure, a bipartisan failure on the part of both parties to respond to this, and not just surge resources, but surge resources specific to what the people that do the job

need. And, you know, a lot of these people on the, I'm criticizing the institution, the agency, because the people that take the oath, it's a very serious oath. They're willing to put themselves in harm's way. The ones that I know seem to take it seriously, and, you know, to the extent there are going to be efforts to try to throw individuals under the bus just completely misses the point, because this is an institutional

failure that needs to be responded to in a way that ameliorates whatever the systemic failure was. Yeah, you're right. And let's be clear here. Like you said, there are people who literally stormed the stage and jumped on top of the president. You've got the counter-sniper who immediately takes out the shooter with a couple of seconds notice. This is not in any way to denigrate their work. It's to say that at an institutional and leadership, you know, level, this was obviously a glaring failure. And let's talk a little bit about that culture now of incompetence. Just in the last couple of years, we had the news just, what, two months ago that the head of Kamala Harris's Secret Service detail had some sort of mental breakdown, apparently causing a lot of strife

within the agency. In May, we had the news that a petition is circulating within the agency saying that people were not receiving adequate training and that they were worried about insider threats. Then you also talked about the January 6th failure there, and also the cover-up that happened with text messages from some of the agents. I mean, we're talking here, Ken, and that's just three things in the last year, or a couple of years, that tell us about what's going on. Yeah, you can go back to the Obama administration, and as I recall, there was a case where they were soliciting hookers in Columbia. Yes, that's right, in Columbia. And so, yeah, and I was doing research on this,

and we were joking about this before we went on camera. I just stumbled across my own reporting, which I had forgotten, which was the deletion of the January 6th text messages, which would have been central to providing an important window into what exactly happened that day. And so what's frustrating to me about these national security failures

from 9-11 to January 6th and all the things in between is the extent to which the public ends up getting blamed for things. And in none of those cases are high-level officials ever punished. In the case of 9-11, all the intelligence that they had, the failure to share it, nobody was fired for that, much less the kind of institutional changes that are going to prevent something like that. So I would, you know, I really hope that in the response and the justified outrage on the part of the public that this is pointed at the right things and doesn't become the usual partisan football so that we can prevent something like this from happening again. One of the things I want to get your reaction to, we finally have the first statement from the head of the Secret Service. And in her statement,

she says at the very end that she is confident. She says confident, which I'm not sure how she can say this, in the security plan that our Secret Service RNC coordinator and our partners have put in place, which we have reviewed and strengthened in the wake of Saturday's shooting. And there's no taking responsibility inside of this, Ken. There's just, well, we take the responsibility of protecting him seriously. We're going to do a review, et cetera, and all of that. But we have not heard from her. And actually, yesterday, there was a press conference by the Secret Service about Milwaukee and the RNC. They wouldn't answer a single question about the attempted assassination. So it feels like there

is a real cover-up, at least, being attempted of trying to move past this. But I don't think they can. I mean, this is too high profile of an incident that's happened here. Yeah, this is going to be an impossible situation to, you know, ignore. But I think the important thing, you know, as the saying goes, never let a crisis go to waste. And boy, was this a crisis. I mean, we may not get another opportunity like this, God willing. And if we do, it might look a lot worse. So they're really going to need to respond in a way that is not what we've seen so far, which is immediately afterwards, even President Trump, the great critic of the so-called deep state, the national security community, immediately thanked them. Now, again, I have respect for the rank and file individuals, but to say nothing of the institutional failure,

I think says a lot. And it goes back to a point I was trying to make at the beginning of the interview, which is that because of the mystique and because of Hollywood and because of people's impressions of the national security community, I think it's really hard for people to believe, much less understand, that these are fallible agencies just like anything else. And that it's a lot less like a James Bond movie than it is like any job that you're familiar with where things go wrong and people make mistakes and things are dysfunctional. So this is a really important moment not to just defer to, oh, what do I know about the national security? Well, let's trust the experts.

No, you know what you saw here. Everybody saw it. What you saw was pretty much what happened. And that is actually the scary part, right? Because that could embolden some crazy individuals out there who are like, wait, it's this easy? Like you said, they believed Hollywood. They believed. This entire thing was just a crime of opportunity. Yes, you had a crazy person. But, I mean, at the end of the day, he lived 40 minutes away.

He says, I'm going to go and try and kill the president, at least from what we can see right now. In a normal situation, he gets arrested, walking to that place with the gun, and boom, he's going to jail. You're never going to hear about his name again, and everybody just gets to move on. But because of the systemic failure after failure after failure, being able to get onto the rooftop, being able to put shots off, then killing an individual in the crowd and almost killing the former president. Now it is a national scandal. And you think, how could something like this ever happen? So that's really well said about how also I think that the eventual response here is going to try and shift the blame to the public. They're going to increase the national security state the same way that they did after 9-11, but without solving for the basics, which is everybody just here does their job the same way they did. And, you know, people were saying, oh, why weren't there any drones? You don't even need

a drone to do something like this. Just barricade the rooftop up. Now, sure, use the drone if you need to, but we don't need to blow hundreds of billions of dollars, you know, on expansion of technology. You just need to learn how to basic competence of what we're doing. And we'll look to you, Ken, in the coming days about some more news about the investigation and more, but we appreciate your analysis here, man. Thank you. Thanks, Sagar. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin,

it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. In this eight-episode series, we're unpacking and investigating stories of mistreatment and reexamining the culture of fatphobia

that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. Have you ever thought about going voiceover?

I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. To most people, I'm the girl behind VoiceOver, the movement that exploded in 2024. VoiceOver is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's more than personal. It's political, it's societal, and at times, it's far from what I originally intended it to be. These days, I'm interested in expanding what it means to be voiceover, to make it customizable for anyone who feels the need to explore their relationship to relationships. I'm talking to a lot of people who will help us think about how we love each other. It's a very, very normal experience to have times where a relationship is prioritizing other parts of that relationship that aren't being naked together. How we love our family. I've spent a lifetime trying to get my mother to love me, but the price is too high.

And how we love ourselves. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Listen to Boy Sober on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John.

Who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's your Not the Father Week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This author writes, My father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son, even though it was promised to us. Now I find out he's trying to give it to his irresponsible son instead, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. So what are they going to do to get those millions back? That's so unfair. Well, the author writes that her husband found out the truth from a DNA test they were gifted

two years ago. Scandalous. But the kids kept their mom's secret that whole time. Oh my God. And the real kicker, the author wants to reveal this terrible secret, even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process. So do they get the millions of dollars back

or does she keep the family's terrible secret? Well, to hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. At the same time, let's turn now to the political fortunes of President Biden. He appeared to be in a moment of at least crisis and shakiness after his disastrous debate performance.

But Democratic insiders now believe that the attempted assassination on Donald Trump will cool the temperature and shift the story and attention away from those calls for Biden to step down. They now have a plan that they are standing down because of the, quote, fragile political moment. Let's take a listen to Face the Nation, where Bob Costa reports this. I've been speaking with some top Democrats. They believe that those Democrats who have the concerns about President Biden are now standing down politically, will back President Biden because of this fragile political moment. All of that talk about the debate faded almost instantly among my top Democratic sources. As this unfolded, say, it's time for the country to stick together, and that means Democrats sticking together as well.

Faded almost instantly, and it appears now that the Biden campaign wants to use the current political moment actually to extenuate Biden's at least alleged political strengths. We should not forget, though, that before that assassination, this was the attempted assassination. It was the biggest story in the country. And it was a moment of genuine crisis. In fact, the very day of the attempted assassination, President Biden had an insane interaction with members of the House Democrats. I'm going to put this up there on the screen and I'll read from this entire thing. So there's this, you know, the New Democrats, it's a coalition on Capitol Hill. They decide to have a Zoom call with President Biden.

So Biden apparently showed up late to the meeting. He then referred to a congressman who has a bronze star, quote, somewhat unintelligibly, and then pulled back before saying more. Sources were telling reporters that they were, quote, aghast and they took it as deeply inappropriate. That was just the first of a crazy confrontation, basically insulting a congressman with a bronze star who was confronting him on his ability to continue running. Let's go to the next part here to just continue to look down a little bit. This was also a crazy moment and literally out of something like Veep. During the Biden call with the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the president said that his staff passed him a note saying, stay positive, you are sounding

defensive. Biden then read the note aloud, according to the participants that were actually on the phone call. So literally, reading the note aloud, almost like some sort of Ron Burgundy situation. And in every one of these congressional meetings, like I'm pulling up the details, you know, here in front of me, with moderate House Democrats, not only did that situation have with Jason Crow, but you had one lawmaker who said on the call, quote, that was a complete disaster. We saw the same Joe Biden from the debate. Another lawmaker says it was awful. A third says members were not holding back. It got tense with Crow for sure. Crow was

the person who told him that he should drop out of the race. At one point, two representatives grilled Biden on how he plans to turn his campaign around. In response, they asked Biden how you're going to win back disaffected voters. Biden said then that part of his plan was that members need to do a better job advertising his administration's accomplishments. So he told them, you're the problem, actually. You're the ones who need to go out there and you need to show what I have done for you. As another congressman highlighted his distressing polling numbers, Biden, quote, tried to interrupt, adding caveats, the congressman then having to interject to finish her question. Crowe's question, the Bronze Star recipient,

prompted what two members were described as shouting from Biden, who went off in a tangent, challenged that congressman to, quote, name me a foreign leader who thinks I'm not the most effective leader, as if any of them are gonna talk to a random House Democrat. He says, tell me who the hell that is.

Biden continued. He says that it was dead wrong that foreign leaders didn't lack confidence in him. And he said, quote, I don't want to hear that crap. He then started continuing to shout at Jason Crow for no reason. Another source told Axios that Biden's answer stressed that the exchange ended then on a positive note where Biden cut things off at the end. He said, if you're really getting input, then I'm not strong enough. And I'd like to know more detail because I want to deal with it.

He then departed early from the call, despite showing up late. He said, I need to go to mass. Then another one of the congressmen who actually said, who was up next for wanting to have a question, he was cut off. His staff basically pulling Biden from the call, saying he has to go to mass before they got to another congressman who said that he thinks that Biden should drop out of the race. That guy apparently was very unhappy that that happened. So look, I mean, this is all crazy. And it's also very telling too, that this was part of the new Democratic coalition, the quote unquote moderates, not really people we would agree with much on this show. But to look to them and actually see that they apparently had a lot more courage

in their confrontation with President Biden, as opposed to the so-called Congressional Progressive Caucus, which barely confronted him at all, that really does highlight kind of what the political dynamics here are, is that a lot of the people who have a lot on the line, maybe in terms of the swing state Democrats and others, they are the ones who are paying most attention to this. But this does appear to have smoothed all that over. I will say the craziest part, though, is this reaction. Let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen. A senior House

Democrat is now saying behind the scenes, quote, we have all resigned ourselves to a second Trump presidency. Now, keep in mind, senior House Democrat can only mean like 15, 20 people, people literally in leadership who are saying this literally on background. I mean, that's just stunning. And what they say here is that, quote, congressional Democrats all consuming angst over President Biden's candidacy has now taken an abrupt backseat in the midst of the wake of an assassination attempt against former President Trump. Democratic lawmakers say that their immediate focus now is on the personal security and that of their staff, not on party's political woes, helping to allow a crucial cool-down period for the embattled. President,

quote, we're all just expressing condolences, keeping our team safe. A senior House Democrat suggested that the atmosphere in the party is too chaotic for internal battles over leadership. Obviously, they talk about the Biden campaign, you know, having these reach out sessions that happened over the weekend. Biden apparently met with Senator Chuck Schumer to shore up some of his support. You saw also that even that individual who I described, Jason Crow, he appeared on television on Sunday, and he was even asked about some of the eroding support. And he says, look, it's a tough business. There's a lot at stake. Emotions can run high. I think the president heard our message very clearly. And in fact, he promised to come back with more

useful information to address our concerns and to answer all of our questions. So look, you can keep all of that in mind. But I mean, the most significant one to me is how Biden is responding to this, which is he's done a very short messages. Now, as I said earlier, I didn't want to get too much into it. But in the span of six minutes, he said some crazy stuff just in that six minute Oval Office address. He said battle box instead of ballot box. He mixed up his words, stumbled over multiple times. These are short. These are basically off of a teleprompter. I mean, this is as layup as layup get, right? There's no crowd. There's no mitigating circumstances. You're looking straight at a camera the way I am right now, except he has a

teleprompter in front of him. Now, as you guys can see from me doing monologues, that's probably the easiest thing to do whenever you are literally reading off of something and it's directly in your line of sight. You don't have anything that is distracting you. We do it here all the time. And that's why it's so shocking that even in that, he finds it so difficult actually to continue. And this is a person who's been doing this now for decades. So it's not like you can even use the excuse that he's new to it or anything like that. We also know that this whole allay our concerns, wait it out strategy, that's a winning strategy for Biden. Remember, next week after the RNC,

that's when the virtual roll call is apparently scheduled to happen and Biden will be nominated basically officially on the DNC before you even get to the convention. So all you have to do is wait it out and survive a week. What's happening this week? The RNC, which we're about to get to, which means that this wait and see strategy by Biden is basically just the winning one, at least for now, because what it means is that all he has to do is just call for unity, use the attempted assassination for his own political survival, and then House Democrats feel awkward calling for it or basically he's appearing presidential right now and it to that virtual nomination, and then boom, he's the nominee. There's not even a talk here about him dropping out or anything, and he is headed to a disastrous defeat in November. So that is the current Biden political fortune. We'll bring you some more news about that tomorrow if anything breaks. But it is pretty

stunning that this event basically, not only did Trump was literally saved, but it appears to have saved the political fortunes of Joe Biden, at least for now. None of the calls that immediately happened in the aftermath of his big boy press conference, you guys remember that, on Thursday, all of that appears to have fizzled out now, and none of the attention is being focused on him, and he's using it very much to his advantage. I will say on the campaign front, they've paused all their political advertising. They're not attacking Trump right now on the airwaves. Everybody's calling for unity. We'll see how exactly they're going to adjust.

We do know that some of their fundraising had taken a massive hit. Some $90 million or something in super PAC dollars were frozen from the Biden campaign, even though he was bragging about all the money at his disposal. So he could have a very, very difficult time now going into this, not to mention the political dynamics of having your opponent literally survive an assassination attempt, get bloodied and put his fist in the air, and probably one of the most iconic photos of all time. So it's going to be a tough road, I think, there for Mr. Biden going ahead. Camp Shane, one of America's longest running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often

unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. In this eight-episode series, we're unpacking and investigating stories of mistreatment and reexamining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today.

Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. To most people, I'm the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. Voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's more than personal. It's political, it's societal, and at times, it's far from what I originally intended it to be. These days, I'm interested in expanding what it means to be voiceover, to make it customizable for anyone who feels the need to explore their relationship to relationships. I'm talking to a lot of people

who will help us think about how we love each other. It's a very, very normal experience to have times where a relationship is prioritizing other parts of that relationship that aren't being naked together. How we love our family. I've spent a lifetime trying to get my mother to love me, but the price is too high. And how we love ourselves. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Listen to VoiceOver on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John. Who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's your not the Father Week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This author writes, My father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son,

even though it was promised to us. Now I find out he's trying to give it to his irresponsible son instead, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. So what are they going to do to get those millions back? That's so unfair. Well, the author writes that her husband found out the truth from a DNA test they were gifted two years ago. Scandalous. But the kids kept their mom's secret that whole time. Oh my God. And the real kicker, the author wants to reveal this terrible secret, even if that means destroying

her husband's family in the process. So do they get the millions of dollars back or does she keep the family's terrible secret? Well, to hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, let's shift gears now to the RNC. We're learning some interesting news just this morning in a new interview that Donald Trump gave to the Washington Examiner. Let's go and put this up there on the screen. This was an interview given to Selena Zito. You guys may remember her. She was really gained fame in 2016 for covering Trump rallies. She actually was present at Butler, Pennsylvania, and has an interesting interview

here with the former president, who is rewriting his convention speech, quote, to focus on unity, not Biden. So I'm going to read a little bit from the interview, just because it is very Trumpian in its speech. He says, the speech that I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger, he said. Had this not happened, this would have been one of the most incredible speeches, he says, aimed though mostly at the policies of Joe Biden. Honestly, it's going to be a whole different speech now, he says. He has switched from planning to excite his voter base to one that demonstrates his belief that the attack on him at a rally had changed the election and campaign entirely. Most Republicans and

Democrats have now acknowledged that in the aftermath. Trump said people across the country from different walks of life and political views have called him and noted that he was saved from death because he turned from the crowd to look at a screen showing data that he was using in his speech. Quote, that reality is setting in. I rarely look away from a crowd. Had I not done that in that moment, well, we would not be talking today, would we? Talking as he boarded his plane, Trump then continued saying his speech will meet the moment that history demands. It is a chance to bring the country together. I was given that chance. And he said, God alone prevented the unthinkable

from happening. And he said, fear not. And again, he continued to invoke God for his deliverance. He says, this is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world together. The speech will be a lot different. They asked him a little bit more about some of the events he hailed. Corey Contembori, the former fire chief who was shot and killed at the Trump rally. Trump said that his decision to raise his hand when the Secret Service was leading him off the stage was to let people know that he was okay and that America goes on, we go forward, and we are strong. Of the photograph, he said he believed it was an iconic image. He said that when he stood up and he saw the crowd had not moved, he needed to tell them that he and the country were going to be okay. The energy coming from the people in that moment, they stood there. It's hard to describe what it felt like, but I knew that the world was looking. I knew that

history would judge this, and I knew I had to let them know that we were okay. And so that's very interesting there to learn about the rewriting of the speech. It is one of those things that demonstrates how much an event like this can shake things up, not only in terms of how we internalize it, but for the candidate themselves. I mean, I was reading just this morning, Tucker Carlson gave an interview to Axios about Donald Trump in which he said that, quote, getting shot in the face changes a man. I think you can really say that. So almost dying rocks perspectives. It says Trump has shown little appetite for changing his ways previously, but his advisors tell us Trump plans to seize the moment by toning down his Trumpiness and dialing up efforts to unite a tinderbox America. Quote, I think it's real, Tucker Carlson said, who is speaking, by the way, at the RNC, and says getting shot in the face

changes a man. That is apparently something also echoed by others who spoke to Trump, who said that he seemed almost spiritual in the aftermath, and that's something that is definitely not normal for the former president. Let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen too about the politics going into the RNC. Trump currently is maintaining a major edge over Joe Biden in the battleground states on the GOP convention. So this is from CBS News. So amongst choice for president, battleground states, likely voters, Donald Trump, 50%, Joe Biden at 48%. Now, if you continue in battlegrounds, you actually look state by state. This is again, likely voters. Michigan, 51-49 for Trump. Pennsylvania, 51-49

for Trump. Wisconsin, 51-49 for Trump. These are all must-win states for Joe Biden. And in fact, their own campaign has basically admitted that's the whole ballgame. They're not even going after Georgia. They're not even going after Arizona. They're basically sacrificing Nevada. And this will tell you why. If you look at the likely voters for the polls there, Arizona, 51-49 for Trump. Georgia, 51-49 for Trump. Nevada, 51-49 for Trump. North Carolina, 52-48 for Trump. Now, don't forget, we've seen in the aftermath, New York is possibly in play there for Donald Trump. New Hampshire, possibly in play. You've got other states that look like it could be total blowouts. My state of Virginia, Virginia looks to be certainly in play for Donald Trump.

You've got places like Colorado and others, places that previously were like reddish, you know, 10, 12 years ago that are now being looked at. And if you look at the share of people who definitely will vote, this is another place where you see major enthusiasm. And that's one place, by the way, a lot of people said, you know, Trump is going to get an approval bump from this assassination. Well, if you look just, I'm just talking history. If you look back, Ronald Reagan, he definitely got a major bump from his attempted assassination. But after about two months and he was healthy, it equalized out. What I really think this will lead to is a genuine sense amongst a lot of Republicans who are like, hey, they tried to kill this man. I am actually going to crawl over broken glass to vote for him. So if the enthusiasm gap wasn't big enough already, I think what we're going to see is huge amounts of registered Republicans and others who, it may not even be swing voters, but all you need is for the Democrats to be

depressed because their candidate is incredibly old, feeble, and barely capable of acting as president now, let alone five years from now. But you also have your candidate who they literally tried to kill, somebody tried to kill him, and he barely survived. Well, in that situation, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that a lot of people are going to be crawling out of the woodwork who are registered Republicans who may previously have been on the fence about him. And if we continued down this path of mental and cognitive health, well, if you ask registered voters, do you think that Biden has the cognitive health to serve as president? Only 28% say yes. 71% say no. It's basically 50-50 whenever it comes to the chance of Trump. Choice for president, does Biden have the mental health to serve? 89% of Democrats say actually that Biden does. 32% say Biden does not. But if you

look again at the registered and the likely voters and you look at the overall picture, very, very different. Now, even amongst Democrats though, there is a big divide. You have some 52% who say he should continue running in the race after, and that's actually gone down since the debate. They say he should step aside. They say 48%, so almost 50% of Democrats there saying he needs to go. Now, in terms of beating Donald Trump, voters have a pretty good insight into what's happening. They think that Kamala Harris, only 30% say that she would have a better chance. 32% say a worse chance. 37% basically say same chance as Biden. I think I kind of agree. Either it would be worse or maybe

same just because of how badly Biden is doing right now. But here is the other fascinating thing. And keep in mind, this is before the assassination, this poll was done. Attempted assassination. 53% of Republicans say they are excited to vote for Donald Trump. 33% say satisfied, and only 14% say they are disappointed. There are over a full third of Republicans back in 2016 who said that they were disappointed and or upset about having to vote for Donald Trump. In terms of the VP, there is some interesting stuff here about how this is all going to play out. Keep in mind, this is before the attempted assassination, but he apparently was mulling a, quote, apprentice-style VP reveal at the convention. And considering the convention literally starts tomorrow and we still have

absolutely zero idea about who it is, well, I think it does tell you a little bit about how he is keeping the suspense and was before all of this even happened. Now, what they said is all of the finalists are expected to be at the convention. Trump has decided, obviously, to keep this quiet over the weekend and the attempt at assassination happened. Trump's team themselves, they have no idea. They said nobody knows. They said, for instance, that for the record, I don't know who it is. That's from the freaking campaign manager, Chris LaCivita. Trump was asked about this on Thursday. He says, I would love to do it at the convention or just slightly before the convention, like Monday. Today is Monday, so we'll see. We don't actually know. In terms of how it would

be revealed, the idea behind it is basically to have this mystery person behind the stage. Nobody knows who it is. And then they walk out onto the stage. And that is the big revelation to everybody at the RNC and also to everybody at home. Now, we actually have some polling, kind of interesting, about who Republicans want to be the running mate. Now, amongst registered voters, 61% said they'd be enthusiastic or satisfied with Marco Rubio, 43% with J.D. Vance, 34% with Doug Burgum, 51% Tim Scott, 43% Nikki Haley, 31% Elise Stefanik. So that gives you a little bit of a sense of who people would be most excited about. I'm not sure I'd take it necessarily for granted just because I think whoever Trump picks, they're going to get an instant bump. Listen, there's been a lot of speculation about this. I have no inside

information, zero. Personally, I've tried. Don't worry. I've done my best. But from what we understand is that basically all three were in consideration as of not that long ago. Doug Burgum, Marco Rubio, and J.D. Vance all had interviews with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. I think it was earlier this weekend. All of them have received vetting paperwork. The donors really don't want Trump to pick J.D. Vance. Apparently, Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News and of the Wall Street Journal, has been pushing Trump hard to pick Doug Burgum. Marco Rubio, I'm not sure he has a major donor constituency, but I know for certain donors like Paul Singer and others, major backers of him.

J.D. also, though, has developed a close relationship with Donald Trump Jr. Some people have noted on the schedule, actually, that Donald Trump Jr. is scheduled to speak before the apparent vice presidential pick for Donald Trump. All of them bring their own pluses and minuses to the ticket, and all of them have their own complications as well. So obviously, we're going to wait and see. Now, in terms of Trump, Trump is actually on the ground this morning in Milwaukee. He left yesterday. Let's put D2 up there, please, on the screen. Trump put out a truth yesterday. He says, based on yesterday's terrible events, I was going to delay my trip to Wisconsin and the Republican convention by two days, but I have decided that I cannot allow a shooter or potential assassin to force change or scheduling or anything else. Therefore, I will be leaving for Milwaukee as scheduled at 3.30 p.m. That was

put out yesterday. And there was video that was released that actually showed him on the ground already in Milwaukee. There's also been a reaction from the Trump campaign. They've apparently put out a memo telling staff, quote, not to comment and to avoid dangerous rhetoric. So in this shift, campaign managers of the Trump campaign have called on the campaign to, quote, eschew dangerous rhetoric on social media in a missive sent on Saturday after the assassination. They wrote, we urge you to recognize that political polarization in this heated election. If something looks or feels off, flag it immediately for leadership or an on-site security team. Do not comment publicly on the occurrence of today. We condemn all forms of violence and

we will not tolerate dangerous rhetoric on social media. So that obviously a bit of a shift in tone for the campaign. And they have very much an idea of what they're dealing with. And then finally, let's just check in with the RCP polling average again to look at where things stand. Let's put this right now. This is just general election. Overall right now, Trump leading by 2.7% in the national polling average of everything that's been put out. Only one single poll that was conducted that, let's look, let's see, September, or sorry, July 9th and 10th from NPR actually had Biden up by two points. Every single other one either had the race tied or Trump up by a minimum of two with an average of 2.7. So that

obviously is absolutely shocking to have that happen right before the election. All of that to say is that in general, what we know from political science, at the Republican convention, you usually get a quote convention bump, one or two points. The reason, media focuses a lot on what you're doing. Now, there's not really a lot of evidence that it stays or makes any difference. There's not a ton of evidence that vice presidential picks matter all that much for the ticket. Trump's previous pick of Pence was an exception because he needed to satisfy a lot of those other Republicans. This time around, these people are going to follow him anywhere. Keep in mind, this also comes in the midst of an attempted assassination. So the best that they can really do is just capitalize kind of on the sympathy that people have for Trump, his call for unity.

I think it's probably a smart one, especially when you're in the leading position and you want to set yourself up for what the future would look like on top of trying to contrast yourself with Joe Biden. The central thing here is that dissatisfaction with Biden is policy oriented, but a lot of it is just age too. So the more that you can just look vigorous and what's more vigorous really than surviving an attempted assassination, probably better off you're going to be, especially with every camera in the world that is aimed straight at you. So as I said, we've got our own Emily

Jusinski. She's on the ground in Milwaukee. She'll be doing interviews and other things for us. And we'll be highlighting her throughout the week here on the program. Thank you to our premium subscribers, by the way, for supporting that. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets.

Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. In this eight-episode series, we're unpacking and investigating stories of mistreatment and reexamining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus.

So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. To most people, I'm the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. Voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's more than personal. It's political, it's societal, and at times, it's far from need to explore their relationship to relationships. I'm talking to a lot of people who will help us think about how we love each other. It's a very, very normal experience to have times where a relationship is prioritizing other parts of that relationship that aren't being naked together. How we love our family.

I've spent a lifetime trying to get my mother to love me, but the price is too high. And how we love ourselves. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Listen to VoiceOver on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance.

Wait a minute, John. Who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's your not the father week on the OK Storytime podcast. So we'll find out soon. This author writes, my father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son, even though it was promised to us. Now I find out he's trying to give it to his irresponsible son instead. But I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up.

So what are they going to do to get those millions back? That's so unfair. Well, the author writes that her husband found out the truth from a DNA test they were gifted two years ago. Scandalous. But the kids kept their mom's secret that whole time. Oh my God. And the real kicker,

the author wants to reveal this terrible secret, even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process. So do they get the millions of dollars back, or does she keep the family's terrible secret? Well, to hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, a couple of fun stories that we had to throw in here about the craziness inside of the elite democratic mind. We're going to start first with Dimitri Melhorn. Now, you guys might remember Dimitri Melhorn. He's the advisor to Reid Hoffman. He's the billionaire mega-donor. We recently had

him here on this program, actually, for CounterPoint's debates against Cenk Uygur about whether Joe Biden should stay in the race. It appears now he has actually been caught trying to tell reporters in the immediate aftermath of the attempted assassination that the entire thing was staged. Now, if you didn't know anything about Dimitri, we're going to give you a taste of who he was during that debate. Let's take a listen. In 2016, everybody told Joe Biden to step down. Everybody was sure he was too old. Same people made the same points in 2020, same people are making the same points now. But the democratic process and the deliberative process that chose Joe Biden is the process that we have.

It is how American democracy works. The parties choose candidates, and then the nation choose between them. So yeah, he's the person who wants Biden to stay in the race, debated Cenk about that topic. I thought that's all we would really hear from him. Until days later, we find out that apparently in the aftermath, as I said, he was emailing top journalists memos about how this assassination attempt was staged. Just put this up there on the screen because it's just unhinged. It's insane. So what we find here is that Dimitri is apparently sending out emails on Saturday at 7.34 p.m. Keep in mind, that is after I did a breaking news segment for everybody where it was

obvious and clear that this was an attempted assassination. And if anything, it was a huge security failure. So I believe I filmed mine at like 6.50 or something. The attempted assassination happened at approximately 6.15 p.m. So in this email at 7.34 p.m., he said to sympathetic journalists, which was also apparently sent here to Semaphore, he wrote that one possibility, which feels horrific, alien, and absurd, but it's quite common globally, is that the shooting was encouraged and maybe even staged so that Trump could get photos and benefit from the backlash. Quote, This is a classic Russian tactic, which such as when Putin killed 300 civilians in 1999 and blaming it on terrorists to ride the backlash to winning power. Others who have embraced this tactic of committing raw evil and then benefiting from the backlash include Hamas on October 7th.

If any Trump officials encouraged or knew of this attack, that is morally horrific, and Republicans' decency must demand that Trump should step down as unfit. The other possibility, he writes, is that some crazy anti-Trumper in this chaotic moment decided to assassinate the former president. So that's only a possibility. It's a possibility. Again, keep in mind, I mean, this is a person who controls the flow of billions of dollars in American politics, one of the single most influential donor advisors in all of Washington, D.C. That is one of the reasons why that we had him on the counterpoints debates. But what's more significant here is to just see how unhinged he apparently was behaving behind the

scenes. Put this up there on the screen, okay? Let me give you another example. The guy who he works for, Reid Hoffman, this is just days ago at the Sun Valley Conference for Major Investors, Peter Thiel apparently sarcastically thanked Reid Hoffman for funding lawsuits against Donald Trump because they had turned him into, quote, a martyr, increasing his chances of reelection. From the state, Reid Hoffman then shoots back, quote, yeah, I wish I had made him an actual martyr. So that was a joke just day, apparently, according to him. It was a joke just literally days before all of this happened. Now, we actually have the memo now that we can show you from Dimitri Melhorn that he wrote to these journalists. Let's put this up there on the screen and I'll read from it. He says, one possibility

is that some crazy anti-Trumper, as I said, blah, blah, would assassinate. The other possibility, horrific and alien, is that Trump must step down and seize fit because this was staged. So he goes, so which is it? To be clear, it might have been real. Both pro-Trump and anti-Trump coalitions include violently insane people. As he says, a burning person shot at Steve Scalise. Trump supporters have killed police to start a race war, committed mass murder in a synagogue, etc. Violence happens. On the other hand, I am prone to bias, but this is a classic Putin play. And given the facts seem more plausible. Look at the actual shot. Look at the staging. Look at how ready Trump is to rally. This pampered baby shit his pants when an eagle lunged at his food. Look at how quickly Trump protects himself at the expense of others,

but showed few of those lifelong instincts in this moment. And consider how often Putin and his allies run this play. I know it feels yucky to discuss such a possibility, but in this case, the odds are so high and the stakes are so consequential. We must ask the question. I have skimmed a few headlines just now. All caps. Not one newspaper or opinion leader in America is willing to openly consider the possibility that Trump and Putin staged this on purpose. Ask the question, people. If it proves wrong, we should respond appropriately to a non-stage act of political violence as outlined above. But your credibility and our entire system of truth and justice depend on being certain in the answer. So that's unhinged,

shall we say? Shall we call it what it is? That's crazy. I mean, somehow Putin is now involved in this. And he basically says it is the most likely, the Occam's razor, the most likely explanation for what happened here. Now keep in mind, again, this is at 7.34 p.m. This is more than an hour after the attempted assassination. By this time, we and others already have video from people who are on the scene who are like, hey, I saw a guy crawling up there with a gun. I saw all this happening that was behind the scenes. You saw that the former president, by pure happenstance, turns his head at that moment, gets freaking shot in the ear, and a man is killed who is behind him. And you think that that was staged? Keep in mind this, too. graze his head within the margin of error where a single, you know, flap of a wing of a butterfly moves a wind in a different direction and we get a pink mist shot on live television.

You think that is going to be more like, is that something you're going to trust, you know, in your hands if this was allegedly staged? That's where it's like, what are we doing here? This is psychotic. This is insane. But what's more insane is that this is the mindset of a person who controls billions of dollars in American politics. This is the mindset of the most elite rings of the Democratic Party and the conspiratorial thinking that goes through them. Now, put this up there on the screen too. He eventually apologizes. He says, last night I sent an email and I regret. I drafted it and sent it without consulting my team. He eventually, you know, he apologizes. He says, yet another innocent American life. We must unite in condemnation of such violence in every instance without reservation. Any other topic is a distraction. Unfortunately, I only talked with Reid after I sent that email. I agree entirely with his thoughtful post this morning at Join All America in demanding we lose no more innocent lives to political violence. So he claims he didn't

clear it with Reid Hoffman. At the very least, though, this is a guy who Reid Hoffman trusts a lot. This is a guy who journalists trust enough to be getting emails from him that are something like this. He's lucky that he was. This is probably the first one that's ever leaked because even they were like, hey, this shit is crazy. All right. But look, this is who we're dealing with, folks. These are the people who are propping Biden up. These are the people who are keeping Biden in the race. This is the mindset which has been running this country now for a long time. This is a mindset that runs right through elite media. And the fact that even somebody would ever put this down on paper, who is in a position of power, send it out to people and not expect to get

ridiculed, that's one of the craziest things that I've ever seen. And I'm glad that they burned him and they put this out because he deserves every ounce of condemnation that he is getting. All right, so elite media news. This is breaking just this morning. Just had to put it here in the show because it's delicious. Let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen. Report from CNN's Oliver Darcy. Morning Joe has been pulled from the air Monday because of the Trump shooting. MSNBC will not air Morning Joe, its quote, celebrated politics round table,

opting to instead air continued breaking news coverage of the attempted assassination. They confirmed this decision to preempt its influential and top rated morning show Sunday evening after CNN reached out to them. The network said that the show will resume on Tuesday. The decision by MSNBC to leave one of its most recognizable programs on the sidelines amid a seismic politics news-driven news cycle with the RNC underway is going to raise eyebrows. Now listen to this, because this is the delicious

part. A person familiar with the matter told CNN that the decision was made to avoid a scenario in which one of the show's stable of two dozen plus guests might make an inappropriate comment on live television that could be used to assail the program and the network as a whole. Given the breaking news nature of the story, it made more sense to continue airing rolling, breaking coverage and fraught political moment. Given the gravity and the complexity of the story, NBC and MSNBC have remained in rolling, breaking coverage. As we continue, these networks continue to cross simulcast, alternating between NBC News and MSNBC. So there is one feed covering the assassination and the alleged attempt. Now, there is a lot to be said about that. But for one of the bosses to say, we don't trust our own flagship anchors not to say something

crazy is an insane thing to admit. Because what you're really saying is that we don't want the potential criticism of our flagship anchors in the time when it matters the most. So if that's true, then why should we want them on the air at all? If they can't be trusted in them, this is the thing too about news. And this is something I've learned a lot about doing this business. We do this show basically, you know, all the time, every day, et cetera. And we're on call 24 hours. And most of the time, nothing that important is happening. Like we're bringing the people the news. It's not earth shattering. But one of the reasons that you have to do that is because this is all about trust. This is me coming to you. I mean, I've been doing this job

almost five years now that some of you have been sticking with us between rising and breaking points. You've been watching the show almost every single day. At this point, we have a relationship, right? And so because you stuck with us now through all the ups and downs, not just the big times, but in terms of inflation or, you know, any times we pick random or fun stories or whatever, you know, stuff that is going on, you know, and you know a little bit about me and you have trust in me and you have trust in Crystal, Ryan and Emily and everybody else here at the show about this type of the things that we have in place to both check ourselves, to check each other, to look about what's going on here with the news, to report it to you properly. And if you hear any opinions, especially in a fraught political moment, you're going to know

they're well-considered, that we're coming at it from the long perspective, and you can bake that in. And in fact, I would say it's times like now, I'm not going to say you need us the most, but it's times like now where we feel most gratified because you have the most amount of wanting to know what the hell is going on. And we feel very, very fortunate that you're willing to put your trust in us at that time, in the bad times, the good times, and also in the medium and the downtime. So whenever you take somebody off the air in a breaking news situation, at a time when news consumption is near an all, I mean, I don't have the data yet. I'm willing to bet this is an all-time high for just the last couple of years. We take somebody

off and you say you don't trust them to cover it then, that's actually an admission you should never trust them at all. That's really what I know the most about having done this job now for quite some time. And the sad thing now is I think they're right, is that they're obviously right. In that, look at the way that Scarborough burned all of his credibility on Joe Biden, on saying he has, you know, even more cogent than ever before, attacking the Wall Street Journal. And then three weeks later, admitting, saying, yeah, maybe Joe Biden doesn't need to drop out of the race after they can't cover it up anymore. And then back, you know, changing that, flip-flopping, saying, oh, no,

no, he should stay. Amika Brzezinski saying, actually, I'm cool with him staying. But more so, think too about what's the story I just did, right? These guys, Dmitry Melhorn, these people are crazy. They think that Donald Trump and Putin staged a shooting that came within inches of ending Trump's life for political benefit. That's what they think in the immediate aftermath. Those are the type of people who are on Morning Joe. Remember Donnie Docher, whoever that guy is, who claims that Trump is going to come and kill him? They're nuts. Joy Reid, you know, over at MSNBC, she's locked her entire Twitter feed after the attempted assassination. Why? What happened, Joy? What'd you tweet out there in the past that you're worried that people might come and look at? And I just think it's stunning.

I mean, Lawrence Tribe, he's a lawyer. He's somebody who's been on Morning Joe, elite Democrat, propped up all throughout Russiagate. He literally tweeted out, you reap what you sow after the attempted assassination on Trump. Now, listen, I want to say this, too, because this is important. A lot of people are out there talking about unity, et cetera, like, oh, we've got to tone down the rhetoric. And I don't necessarily disagree with any of that. But a lot of people are also doing the same thing that Democrats and the media did against Sarah Palin in the aftermath of the Gabby Giffords shooting, where they're like, oh, you said,

you know, Biden said something like, we got to put Trump in the bullseye. It's like, guys, that's bullshit, all right? He wasn't targeting Trump for assassination. This is just normal political rhetoric. Now, should it be that way? I don't know, whatever. But I've seen plenty of Republicans do that too. And when Sarah Palin put out a map, which had a quote bullseye over Gabby Giffords

and targeting her for political defeat, that was not legitimate to say that she was trying to incite assassination. We are allowed to criticize each other. We believe in free speech in this country, especially here on this show. And that's not necessarily the grounds. But what we do know with the MSNBC situation here and taking Morning Joe off the air is if they were to say something inappropriate like that, it's more that they don't have the wherewithal to even understand the moment that

they are in. And I think this should be a lesson for everybody. And hopefully, maybe send this to your boomer MSNBC relatives, the people who put their trust. If their bosses can't trust them to maintain their composure, to meet the moment, to deliver information in a timely and a useful manner to their audience when it matters the most, why should you trust them to do it at any time? And take that from somebody who literally does this also for a living. I would be mortified, you know, if somebody, luckily I own my own business here with Crystal, so nobody can make the decision to take us off the air. But that almost makes it more important. We've got to serve as checks on each other, ourselves, the staff,

the production team, and others to make sure that something like this doesn't happen. This is actually an admission by the people who put them on the air every single day, whenever the time's, quote, not that important, that they actually aren't up for the job, that they are doing a lot of damage here in terms of warping the mindset of a lot of voters and other people who do trust them for information. And I would urge all of those people to reconsider that if their own bosses and the people around them don't trust them to not, quote, say something inappropriate in this moment, that tells you everything you need to know about what they're doing over there. Thank you, everybody, sticking with me for this emergency one-man show. I'm waiting on the news about Christmas Kids, but I think the situation will be all right. And the

two of us, you know, plans withstanding, will be here at the desk tomorrow. There will be some programming notes about me later on in the week, but I'll leave that to later. I hope you guys stuck with us through the show. We really appreciate you, all the premium subscribers. We'll bring everybody the news from the RNC throughout the week. It's going to be a big couple of weeks here on breaking, a big couple of months, I think, here on Breaking Points and for everybody, for the entire country. And we really appreciate you sticking with us at a moment in a time like this, a fraught time. We appreciate you. We thank you. And we really appreciate you sticking with us at a moment in a time like this, a fraught time. We appreciate you. We thank you. And we'll see you tomorrow.

Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. But there were some dark truths behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. Enter Camp Shame, an eight-part series examining the rise and fall of Camp Shane and the culture that fueled its decades-long success. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John. Who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's your not the Father Week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon.

This author writes, My father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son, even though it was promised to us. He's trying to give it to his irresponsible son, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. They could lose their family and millions of dollars? Yep. Find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. I'm also the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. You might hear that term and think it's about celibacy,

but to me, voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's flexible, it's customizable, and it's a personal process. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Listen to voiceover on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.