The Daily Signal - Trump Assassination Attempt ‘Preventable', New Polling Shows Trump Has Small Lead, 41M Evangelical Christians May Not Vote | Oct. 21

Starting point is 00:00:01 Members of Congress have determined that the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump could have been prevented. I'm Virginia Allen, and this is the Daily Signal Top News for Monday, October 21st. The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, was preventable. That's according to the findings of a House of Representative Task Force. 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks crawled onto the roof at a Trump rally on July 13th, and he was within shooting range of the former president while Trump spoke at the podium during that rally. Crooks was shot and killed, but only after firing multiple shots off at Trump. And one of those bullets hit the former president and three attendees wounding two and killing Corey Kappa Tori.

Starting point is 00:00:59 About two weeks after the assassination attempt, a bipartisan house task force was created to investigate how exactly this assassination attempt happened in the first place. There are seven Republicans and six Democrats that sit on this panel. So let's talk about what they found. Put very, very simply, they concluded that the evidence obtained by the task force to date shows the tragic events of July 13th were preventable. The full report, it's 53 pages long, and the findings are based off of 23 transcribed interviews with local law enforcement officials, thousands of pages of documents, from local, state, and federal authorities, as well as testimony,

Starting point is 00:01:39 from the Task Force public hearing in September. Lawmakers said that they found eight critical findings so far within their investigation, and some of the most interesting findings involve issues related to poor communication on the ground at that rally on July 13th. So specifically, the report found that there was inadequate planning and coordination by the Secret Service with state and local law enforcement before and during the rally. There was also no unified command post to facilitate communication between the Secret Service and its state and local partners.

Starting point is 00:02:16 And critical pieces of information about crooks and the escalating threat situation at the complex moves slowly due to fragmented lines of communication and unclear chains of command. We are 15 days away from the presidential election and a lot can change between now and then. It's risky to do too much predicting and to put. too much stock in any poll, but it is worth looking at where the race stands right now. There are seven swing states that are likely to determine who our next president will be. Those swing states include Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina.

Starting point is 00:02:57 Polling from the Washington Post and Schar School, and reported by the Hill, finds the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris does have a slight lead in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. But Trump has a slight lead in Arizona and North Carolina, and both candidates are tied even in Nevada. But each candidate leads the other in these polls by only 3% or less, which is within any poll's margin of air. Interestingly enough, yesterday though, was the first day that pollsters over at the Decision Desicions H.Q. and the Hill began forecasting a Trump victory. Up until this week, their polling had shown Harris in the lead or both candidates tied even. But now their polling indicates that Trump has a 52% chance of winning the election and Harris has a 48% chance. A landslide victory for either candidate does seem unlikely, but it's not completely outside of the realm of possibility.

Starting point is 00:03:53 Because the race is anticipated to be very close, some such as the head of Fox News decision desk, Aaron Mishkin, predicts that we will not know who the winner is until the Saturday following the election. Speaking of the election, the Daily Signal will be bringing you live election night coverage starting around 6 p.m. on November 5th. We'll be closely following those swing states and bringing you analysis as those results roll in. So mark your calendars to join the Daily Signal online on the evening of Tuesday, November 5th at DailySignal.com. One of the key voting blocks that could determine the election, if they indeed turn out to vote, is evangelical Christians. But, A new survey predicts that 41 million evangelical Christians may not vote in this election at all.

Starting point is 00:04:45 The Daily Signal's Tyler O'Neill is covering this story. He joins us now. Tyler, welcome back to the show. Thanks for having me. So 41 million evangelical Christians, that is a lot of votes. Why exactly is this group of people choosing to stay home? What did this survey find? Yeah, so there's a very interesting survey from George Barna at Arizona Christian University's Cultural Research Center. And it's interesting the reasons people gave, they said, you know, a lack of interest in politics and elections, disliking the major candidates, feeling that not one candidate represents their views on most important issues. Of course, thinking that their vote won't make a difference and then saying the election has become too controversial. So those are all reasons they gave.

Starting point is 00:05:30 I think it's important to say that every vote does make a difference. For the record. Yes. even if you're not in a swing state. Well, are there any factors that this survey found that could cause those individuals to change their mind? I mean, we're 15 days away from the election, but even at the 11th hour, could anything cause them to go to the polls? Well, that's the big message for pastors here, is that if pastors go in front of their pulpit and encourage their congregants to vote. Now, of course, just saying vote, not endorsing one candidate or another, I don't think that is the role of a pastor.

Starting point is 00:06:07 pastor, they should talk about different issues that affect Christians. But when it comes to, you know, when it comes to voting, I know there are some churches on both sides of the aisle that do tend to be a little bit too politically. Yeah. And I'm like, no, the gospel does not say you must vote one way or the other. You know, I worked very hard in this story not to, you know, this is an op-ed, and I'm encouraging Christians to vote and pastors to tell Christians to vote. And I'm not saying, you know, vote one way or the other. I'm just saying, you know, voting is a good idea.

Starting point is 00:06:43 Yeah, there's a civic duty there, certainly. And certainly one that these issues do indeed affect evangelical Christians. We will leave a link in today's show notes for Tyler's full piece if you want to dive a little deeper. But Tyler, thanks for your time. Thanks, Virginia. Now it's time for our news flash of the day. First up, intelligence related to Israel's planned response to Iran's most recent missile attack, wound up on the internet last week. The Pentagon and House Speaker Mike Johnson

Starting point is 00:07:13 say that an investigation is underway as to where the leak originated, but it is the job of the U.S. intel community to keep this information safe, and the U.S. failed. I am sitting down with the Heritage Foundation's National Security and Foreign Policy Expert Victoria Coates on the show tomorrow morning to dive a little bit deeper into how this happened and what it means

Starting point is 00:07:35 specifically for Israel. But long story short, Coates says that this leak no doubt damages the Biden administration's relationship with Israel. And speaking of Israel this morning, we learned that overnight, Israel began carrying out air strikes on Hezbollah's financial institutions in Lebanon. Specifically, Israel is targeting banks that Hezbollah is known to use. The strikes are, of course, part of Israel's efforts to dismantle Hezbollah's capabilities to carry out further attacks on Israel. Five men, known as the Central Park Five, have filed a lawsuit against former president Donald Trump. The men were accused of violently beating and raping a woman in Central Park in the 1980s.

Starting point is 00:08:20 They served time in prison before DNA testing later cleared their names. But Trump indicated during his debate with Harris that the men were guilty. And now they're suing Trump for defamation. And finally, 60 Minutes has spoken out, following the ongoing criticism of the news show's editing. of its interview with Kamala Harris. Trump and others accused 60 minutes of editing the interview to make the vice president appear more favorable. 60 Minutes published a statement yesterday denying the allegation.

Starting point is 00:08:52 The show said when we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, a movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate, and on point. Trump has been invited to go on 60 minutes, but so far has declined. With that, that's going to be. to do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for joining us here on the Daily Signal podcast. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on our brand new shows. Like tomorrow morning's conversation with the Heritage Foundation's Victoria Coates as we dive a little bit deeper into this leaked information and how it could potentially harm America's relationship

Starting point is 00:09:28 with Israel. Be sure to catch that conversation tomorrow morning. And would you take a moment to leave the Daily Signal podcast a five-star rating and review? We really appreciate hearing your feedback, and it helps us spread the word to more listeners. Have a great rest of your Monday. We'll see you right back here tomorrow morning for my conversation with Victoria Coates. The Daily Signal podcast is made possible because of listeners like you. Executive producers are Rob Bluey and Katrina Trinko. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Tyler O'Neill, and Elizabeth Mitchell.

Starting point is 00:10:04 Sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, John Pop, and Joseph Von Spakovsky. To learn more or support our work, please visit DailySignal.com.

The Daily Signal - Trump Assassination Attempt ‘Preventable', New Polling Shows Trump Has Small Lead, 41M Evangelical Christians May Not Vote | Oct. 21

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