NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Sunday, September 15, 2024

Episode Date: September 16, 2024

Trump safe following multiple shots fired near his Florida golf club, FBI investigating; Trump and Harris campaigns react to latest apparent ‘assassination attempt’; New focus on Secret Service after assassination attempts; and more on tonight’s broadcast.

Tonight, the Secret Service opens fire on a suspected gunman while former President Trump was golfing, the FBI calling it a possible assassination attempt. Mr. Trump is safe and unharmed, the Secret Service rushing him to safety. Authorities saying the suspect had an assault-style rifle and had these two backpacks, the photos of police pulling him over and taking him in. What we're learning about the Secret Service response just months after the failed assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. The new precautions they're now taking to keep the candidate safe.

Three Americans allegedly detained in Venezuela, accused of trying to kill that nation's leader. The historic SpaceX mission splashes back down to Earth. The amazing images. NBC News exclusive video, the Idaho murder suspect transported to the new city where he'll be tried for killing four college students. This is NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. Good evening. We're coming on the air with another horrific and historic moment in America. The FBI says there has been another possible attempt on former President Trump's life. Mr. Trump is safe and was not harmed.

But law enforcement sources say that while the former president was golfing at one of his courses in Florida, the Secret Service fired in the direction of a person with an AR-style rifle. The Secret Service says they found these two backpacks and a GoPro camera before the suspect was then found in a car on I-95 and taken into custody. For his part, Mr. Trump says he is glad to be alive. This comes just months after a gunman grazed the Republican presidential candidate's ear during a rally in Pennsylvania. The Secret Service was blamed for allowing that shooter to get too close. Tonight, we are tracking the late-breaking details, the political fallout, and what it means for keeping our leaders safe in America today. Let's begin with Kathy Park

in West Palm Beach, Florida. Tonight, the FBI investigating what they say appears to be an apparent assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump. Shortly before 2 p.m. on Sunday at Trump International Golf Club at West Palm Beach, the U.S. Secret Service personnel opened fire on a gunman located near the property line. As a precaution, agents rushed the former president to safety. According to sources, Trump was between the fifth and sixth hole when the incident took place. What they do is they have an agent that jumps one hole ahead of time to where the president was at. And he was able to spot this rifle barrel sticking out of the fence and immediately engage that individual, at which time the individual took off.

Officials say two backpacks and a rifle were found in the bushes. And there's also a GoPro on the fence there where he was intent on filming what was going on. We were able to locate a witness that came to us and said, hey, I saw the guy running out of the bushes. He jumped into a black Nissan and I took a picture of the vehicle and the tank. The license plate tracked by law enforcement on I-95. The sheriff's office in neighboring Martin County says they stopped this black Nissan and took a suspect into custody. There was a lone driver in the vehicle. That driver is now in custody and in the hands of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

This happened just two months after an assassination attempt. The former president shot and wounded at a rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania. FBI officials have not released a motive in that investigation. Tonight, Senator Lindsey Graham posting on X, he spoke with the former president, writing, he is one of the strongest people I've ever known. He's in good spirits and he is more resolved than ever to save our country. And Kathy joining us now live from outside the Trump International Golf Club. And Kathy, the security response, understandably, has been huge. Lester, that's right. It was huge, but also immediate as well. At this hour,

there is a large security perimeter around the golf course right now, several roadblocks in and around this area as the investigation presses ahead, but officials are saying there is no longer a threat with the suspect now in custody. Lester? Kathy Park starting us off tonight. Thanks. I want to bring in Tom Winter now, our law enforcement and intelligence correspondent. And Tom, we're learning more about the suspect. What do we know? That's right, Lester. Three senior U.S. law enforcement officials tell us that the suspect has been preliminarily identified is Ryan Wesley Ruth, born in February of 1966. They say this is the person they believe is responsible for this incident today in what has been described by the FBI as an apparent assassination attempt. It was the quick thinking of a witness, Lester,

that not only photographed this individual's car, according to police, but also the license plate. They took that license plate, put it into a database, and using license plate readers were to determine not only which highway he was on, I-95, but the general direction that he was going, which led to that arrest that Kathy referenced earlier. Lester, taking a step back here, there are discussions at the most senior levels of federal law enforcement as to the amount of threats that former President Trump, as well as his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, are receiving and what is to be done about their security.

On top of that, Lester, we're just a little over a week away from the UNGA, the United Nations General Assembly here in New York City, which presents an even larger security concern for the Secret Service. All right, Tom Witter, thank you for laying that out for us. I want to bring in NBC News senior Washington correspondent Hallie Jackson now. Hallie, we're just 51 days out from the election. What are we hearing from the campaigns about all this tonight? Well, let's start with the Trump campaign, Lester, which initially put out a short statement on gunshots in the vicinity of the former president, indicating he was OK. And then a fundraising email not long after contained what seemed to be a message from

Mr. Trump saying before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first. I am safe. The White House says President Biden and Vice President Harris have been briefed and are being kept regularly updated with Vice President Harris have been briefed and are being kept regularly updated, with Vice President Harris writing in a post online tonight that she's glad Mr. Trump is safe and that violence has no place in America. That, Lester, is a sentiment echoed by her running mate, Tim Walls, as well. It would certainly rattle anyone.

Do we have any sense of Mr. Trump's state of mind tonight, Hallie? It's a great question, Lester. And allies who have spoken with him, including his running mate, say he's in good spirits, as they tell it. Mr. Trump had been golfing with a friend when the incident happened, and a source familiar with his thinking tells NBC News Mr. Trump was talking about his golf game after the shooting and is also saying that he is glad to be alive. Remember, after the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Mr. Trump described that attempt on his life as surreal, showing up in person to the Republican convention just a couple days later. Mr. Trump does not have any in-person campaign stops scheduled for tomorrow.

Just this online event on X, formerly Twitter. But it is possible he could decide to appear or speak publicly maybe earlier in the day, given everything that has happened now. Lester. All right, Hallie Jackson, thank you. Today's incident in Florida comes amid serious scrutiny on the Secret Service, just two months since the attempt on Mr. Trump's life in Pennsylvania. That assassination attempt led to the resignation of the Secret Service director. Kelly O'Donnell has more on what this latest incident means for the service. Tonight, a new security challenge for the U.S. Secret Service in what has been a

season of danger and heightened scrutiny. Only nine weeks after gunfire erupted in Butler, Pennsylvania, wounding former President Trump, killing a rallygoer, and injuring two others, the protective agency has been making changes and facing hard questions and consequences. Much of the focus for the July 13th assassination attempt centers on how that gunman, Thomas Crooks, was able to reach a rooftop with a line of sight fewer than 150 yards from Mr. Trump, but outside the protected perimeter. The security failure forced the resignation of then Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheadle. Later, the acting director acknowledged to lawmakers the lapses were unacceptable.

KIMBERLY CHADLE, Director, Secret Service of the United States of America, What I saw made me ashamed. LISA DESJARDINS, Another key issue, lack of coordinated communications with other law enforcement working that day. JOHN BARR, Director, Secret Service of the United States of America, There was clearly radio transmissions that may have happened on that local radio net that we did not have. A bipartisan congressional task force deployed to Butler in the weeks after the shooting. We're going to conduct a full,

thorough and robust investigation. Among the changes, additional agents have been assigned to the former president's protection. Ballistic glass is being used at certain outdoor events for Mr. Trump and Vice President Harris. But today's events happened around a weekend golf game, a stark reminder that any public exposure can put national leaders at risk. Kelly, these are all important questions. What are the next steps that we know of from the Secret Service? Well, Esther, two sources tell me that the acting director of the Secret Service is headed to Florida in response to this incident. In another category, they've been calling on military assets to support their protective operations on certain events involving the

former president. And that is unusual because the military is typically only for the sitting president, not former presidents or candidates. But the dangers and the demand have changed. Lester. Kelly O'Donnell, thank you. Let me bring in NBC News law enforcement analyst and former Secret Service agent Evie Pampouris. Now what happens for security for the former president and other presidential candidates, Abby? Politics is all about pressing the flesh, getting out, being seen, making your case. What happens now? I think first you're going to see a massive increase in assets. The Secret Service has finite power, so you can't hire more agents at the moment. They're going to tap out. They're going to reach out to local law enforcement and possibly the military to help secure these events.

You're looking at mass numbers of people, open areas, a lot of vulnerabilities. This is a second attempt possibly on President Trump, and they are going to take it seriously. They're also going to be looking at these threats coming in. They already had a massive amount of threats, but now the manpower needed to assess these threats coming in to make sure that nothing is, that they're assessing them in the way that nothing can touch President Trump or any of the other candidates. And you know what? You're also going to be looking at the potential of more copycats. All right. That's a worrisome thought. Evie Pampouris, thank you for being with us. Today's apparent assassination attempt comes amid increasingly fierce rhetoric on the campaign trail itself.

Mr. Trump, his running mate J.D. Vance continue to make baseless claims about Haitian immigrants in Ohio. This weekend, there were new bomb threats in that town. Our Maggie Vespa is in Columbus, Ohio, with more. Lester, simply put, Springfield, Ohio, has been inundated by threats. Over the last several days, closing government buildings, schools, hospitals, today effectively closing a local university campus after administrators said someone threatened a mass shooting targeting Haitians. This in light of officials say a false online conspiracy theory alleging Haitian immigrants in that city are eating people's pets, something local authorities stress there is no evidence of.

Haitians telling us they fear for their lives. Many have been threatened. And this theory this week has been a talking point of former President Trump's campaign, including at Tuesday's debate. And earlier today, a source familiar told NBC News Trump is planning to visit Springfield, Ohio soon. Those plans, of course, now likely up in the air. Lester. All right, Maggie Vespa, thanks. Let's turn now to breaking news overseas. A member of the U.S. military is among three Americans arrested in Venezuela. They're accused of being part of a plot to kill Venezuela's dictator, Nicolas Maduro. Six people in total were arrested by Venezuelan authorities, along with the Americans,

two Spanish nationals and a Czech citizen were also detained. The State Department confirmed the arrest of the U.S. service member and said any claims of a U.S. plot to overthrow Maduro are, quote, categorically false. Still ahead tonight, exclusive video shows the man suspected of killing four University of Idaho students being transferred where he's going. Back now with NBC News exclusive video of a suspect in the University of Idaho murders being transferred to the new Bigger County, where his trial for allegedly killing four university students will take place next year. Here's Sam Brock. Clad in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs, Brian Koberger was whisked by sheriff's deputies in the early morning hours Sunday to a waiting plane. Arriving 90 minutes later in Boise,

Idaho at this county jail inside one of those SUVs. Some 300 miles away from the site of the brutal murders of Madison Mogan, Kaylee Gonsalves, Zanna Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin, the University of Idaho students found fatally stabbed in their off-campus home. Koberger charged with the grisly crimes almost two years ago, for which the judge pleaded not guilty on his behalf, receiving a new booking photo and a new venue in Boise. State of Idaho versus Brian Koberger. Following a high stakes week in the case where a Latah County judge granted the request from his attorney. The judge citing concerns about a prejudiced jury pool after years of heavy media coverage in a tight-knit and

insulated community and also a lack of resources to stage a trial of this magnitude. Kaylee Gonsalves' parents telling NBC News they'll go wherever the trial takes place and are at least pleased that a new judge now assumes control. We got to go to Boise, we go to Boise, but we're not going to be quiet about it and go get us a real judge that knows how to get this stuff done. The new judge assigned by the Idaho Supreme Court, the Honorable Stephen Hippler, has pointed to recent high-profile cases in Ada County as proof they're up to the task of a Coburger murder trial. And Sam joins us now. Sam, what's next in terms of court proceedings? Sure, Lester. So the next scheduled hearing is November the 7th. That is the defense's motion

to take the death penalty off the table. Then June 2nd is the scheduled start of the murder trial. But because there's a new judge in this case, that is all within his discretion. Lester. We're back now with news from the Middle East. Houthi rebels in Yemen launched a new missile strike on Israel today. It's their second attack on Israel in two months. The militant group says they used a hypersonic missile to hit Israel hundreds of miles away from Yemen and warned Israel to expect more attacks in the coming days. It comes as Israel says one of its airstrikes was responsible for the deaths of three hostages who were being held in Gaza last year. There are believed to be more than 100 hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip. The four-person civilian crew from SpaceX and NASA's Polaris Dawn mission are

safe and sound. They landed early this morning off the coast of Florida after their five-day mission. They went to the farthest point reached by astronauts in more than 50 years. Two members of the crew conducted the first ever spacewalk by non-professional astronauts. It's a test for the new spacesuits that they were wearing, designed and made by SpaceX, and they're expected to be used in other future manned missions. That's NBC Nightly News for this Sunday. Thanks for watching. I'm Lester Holt. Please take care of yourself and each other.