The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | July 18th, 2024: Shooter's Disturbing Social Media Post, Secret Service Blunders & Russian Navy Embarrassed In Crimea

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:    In our continued coverage of the attempt on the life of former President Trump, investigators have uncovered a disturbing social media post as they attempt to piece together a motive for the tragic shooting. We have also learned that Secret Service snipers had Crooks in their sights for some 20 minutes before the shooting took place. Ukraine launched a massive aerial drone offensive against Russian forces in occupied Crimea on Wednesday night, forcing Moscow to withdraw the last warship in their decimated Black Sea Fleet from the region. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin.  Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Think about that, seven years in a row, the top-rated gold IRA dealer. Go to Patriot Gold Group.com or call 1-888-621-3856 for a free investor guide. It's Thursday, 18 July. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. We'll start with another update on the assassination attempt on former President Trump. As investigators, digging into the shooter's background and profile, uncover a foreboding social media post put out by Thomas Crooks ahead of the Saturday rally in Pennsylvania. Also, Ukraine launched a massive, aerial drone offensive against Russian forces in occupied Crimea on Wednesday night, forcing Moscow to withdraw the last warship in their decimated Black Sea fleet from the region. But first, our afternoon spotlight. Beginning with our continued coverage of the attempt on the life of former President Trump, investigators have uncovered a disturbing social media post as they attempt to piece together a motive for the shooting. Now, while authorities are still struggling to determine

and what motivated 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, they found a message posted to the gaming platform Steam that they believe he authored. The brief post states, quote, July 13 will be my premier, watch as it unfolds, end quote, and that's according to our report from ABC News. As you know, the attempted assassination resulted in one round, grazing Trump's ear,

the death of one attendee and critical injuries to two others, investigators said that in addition to the social media post, they found searches for both Trump and President Biden on Crook's phone. Specifically, Crooks reportedly looked up the dates of Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, as well as the dates of the Democratic National Convention to be held in Chicago in August. Investigators continue to pour through Crook's devices, looking for any signs of a clear motive, but so far, no clear picture has emerged. Now, John Cohen, the former head of intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security, DHS, simply told ABC News, quote,

what is beginning to emerge is a portrait of a troubled young person who turned to violence, end quote. Well, yeah, I guess that much seems self-evident. As we've noted, the shooter largely does remain an enigma. He's got virtually no social media footprint, and though investigators have scoured his devices, they haven't found anything indicating Crook's political views. As we previously reported here on the PDB, most of Crook's classmates said if he had strongly held political beliefs, he didn't make them known in school. And as far as public records go, well, they show he was registered as a Republican, but also once donated to a progressive political action committee back on January 20, 2021, and that was the day that President Biden was sworn into office. While the question of motivation remains unclear,

What is becoming clear is that the U.S. Secret Service failed to properly secure the rally and communicate with local authorities, and for that, once again, I'm awarding myself the PDB statement of the obvious award. As we touched on this morning, we've learned that local police warned the Secret Service ahead of the rally that they would be unable to secure the building used by the would-be assassin, contradicting claims made by Secret Service director Kimberly Cheedel that local authorities had been tasked with securing the building's outer perimeter. Despite the warning, the Secret Service does not appear to have done anything to secure the building or rooftop used by the shooter. Now, in the latest revelation, we're learning that

investigators told lawmakers on Wednesday that U.S. Secret Service snipers had crooks in their sites for some 20 minutes before the shooting took place. Yeah, let me just read that to you again. We're learning that, according to investigators that talked with lawmakers, the U.S. Secret Service snipers had crooks the shooter in their sights for some 20 minutes before the shooting took place. Officials said a sniper initially spotted crooks on the roof at roughly 5.52 p.m. The shots would then start ringing out 20 minutes later at approximately 6.12 p.m.

We haven't heard any explanation for what occurred during those critical 20 minutes, although video shows a sniper team adjusting their position roughly three minutes before the shooting begins. Adding to the questions, officials told lawmakers that Crooks was identified as a person of interest a full hour before the shooting. Calls have grown, of course, for Secret Service Director Cheedle to resign, but so far she's vowed to stay on because, well, she's been around long enough to know that in Washington, D.C., you rarely have to take responsibility for anything. Lawmakers have apparently grown frustrated, have they, over the lack of information coming out of the Biden administration. The Department of Homeland Security reportedly postponed several scheduled briefings earlier

this week, and many lawmakers said Wednesday's briefing was completely lackluster. Now, how in L do you have a lackluster briefing about an assassination attempt on a former president and current presidential nominee? I mean, look, I've been in a lot of boring and lackluster briefings, but that's because the subject matter was boring and lackluster. I mean, this was a briefing on an assassination attempt. If you can't put together a high-speed, informative, and attention-grabbing briefing on that, well, you should probably get out of the briefing business. Several angry Republican lawmakers subsequently confronted Cheatel Wednesday evening at the Republican National

Convention. Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, along with several others can be seen on video, demanding answers, and accusing her of stonewalling. They said she refused to provide basic answers to their questions at the briefing earlier on Wednesday, saying Cheatel claimed it, quote, was not the time nor place. Blackburn added, quote, she can run, but she cannot hide, because the American people want to know how an assassination attempt was carried out on former President Donald Trump, end quote. Look, I run an intelligence and security company that includes a very successful crisis communications service line, if I do say so myself. So while I'm not an expert, I do have some insight into the art of crisis communications. The way that Cheatel, the Secret Service,

DHS, and ultimately the White House are handling this goat rope, well, it's the opposite of effective crisis communications. They're compounding the crisis. They're making a very bad situation worse. By not, apparently, understanding that immediately after the attempt, they needed to be extremely forthcoming, clear, and transparent as possible. Coming up after the break, Ukraine launched a massive aerial drone offensive against Russian forces and occupied Crimea on Wednesday night, dealing a major blow to Moscow's Navy. I'll be right back. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. Dozens of Ukrainian drones swarmed Crimea overnight, escalating Kyiv's aerial campaign against Moscow's forces in the occupied peninsula. The barrage exposed Russia's major naval vulnerabilities, forcing the withdrawal of Russia's

last warship from their decimated Black Sea fleet from Crimean waters. The Moscow-installed head of Sevastopol, confirmed that the city came under attack by drones from both air and sea. Residents reported loud explosions as footage shared on telegram, showed Russian defenses firing toward the sea at night accompanied by explosions. Ukraine has been conducting frequent and successful attacks against Crimea. That's a region annexed by Russia back in 2014. This region has since been a flashpoint in the ongoing war between the two nations. Now, these strikes often focus on air defense batteries and Russia's Black Sea fleet via anti-ship missiles and aerial and sea drones. Earlier this year, year, Ukrainian forces claimed to have decimated a third of the fleet, leading to the UK's

Ministry of Defense, declaring it functionally inactive in March of this year. The latest drone attack intensified Ukraine's targeting of Russian energy and military sites supporting the war effort. As mentioned, a spokesman for the Ukrainian naval forces announced on Facebook, which is where you make all your major military announcements, that amid the barrage of drone attacks, Russia withdrew its last remaining warship from its Black Sea fleet in Crimea, rendering the naval hub ineffective. The humiliating withdrawal marks a significant shift in the war, potentially weakening Russia's perceived military red lines. Peter Dickinson, the editor of the Atlantic Council's Ukraine Alert and Business Ukraine Magazine, suggests that it challenges the notion of Russia's steadfast boundaries.

Dickinson commented, quote, the Russian Navy's readiness to retreat from its supposedly sacred home ports in Crimea has mocked Moscow's so-called red lines and exposed the emptiness of Putin's nuclear threats, end quote. Now, this perception could have broader implications for Western military support to Ukraine. Concerns about provoking a Russian nuclear escalation have heavily influenced the types and amounts of military aid that's been provided to Ukraine up to now. The withdrawal of Russian naval forces from Crimea, however, suggests that Putin might back down when faced with determined resistance. The retreat raises serious questions about the effectiveness of Russia's military strategy and its ability, of course, to maintain control over key territories as Ukraine continues to strike back. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for

Thursday, 18 July. If you have any questions or comments, suggestions, humorous anecdotes, limericks, or whatever, please reach out to us at PDB at thefirsttv.com. As you know, we gather up the best questions that are sent to our PDB staff and crack team of interns every month, and we put together what we call the Ask Me Anything podcast sessions. And to listen to the show ad-free, of course, you can become a premium member of the president's daily brief simply by visiting PDB premium.com. It is as easy as that. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, well, you know the drill.

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