Will Cain Country - BONUS EPISODE: THESE QUESTIONS NEED TO BE ANSWERED ABOUT TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

Episode Date: July 14, 2024

Following the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump, Will takes a step back from the minute to minute coverage to deliver an impassioned monologue on the state of the nation and how this historic day will forever change the nation.  Tell Will what you thought about this podcast by emailing [e-mail] Subscribe to The Will Cain Show on YouTube here: Watch The Will Cain Show! Follow Will on Twitter: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The assassination attempt of Donald Trump, a special edition of the Will Kane Show. Hey, what's up? It's Will Kane of the Will Kane show, normally streaming live every Monday through Thursday at 12 o'clock Eastern time. And Fox News.com on the Fox News YouTube channel and the Fox News Facebook page. always on demand at Apple or Spotify by hitting subscribe or by heading over to YouTube and subscribing to the Will Cain show. July 13th, 2024, a historic day for the United States of America, an attempt on the life of a former president, an attempt on the leading candidate for president in 2024.

At this point, it's likely that you have been flooded with coverage of the assassination attempt of Donald Trump. I know that I myself have already participated in more than five hours of television talking about this subject and this subject alone, this historic moment for the USA. And sitting down with you on this Sunday, the day after the attempt on Donald Trump, I ask myself, what's there to add? Why do we need to talk? What do you want to hear from me and before we get into the details and we analyze the facts the climate the coverage and the failure i want to say that my goal in talking to you today is to attempt to accomplish a balancing

act that i find all too rare maybe even for myself and that is to balance how i feel feel how you feel emotionally what i want to know what i don't know what i'm still curious about and how i want to be informed about this event that will find its way into the history books and how we put this into context what kind of currents lay underneath the surface what is there to understand about how we arrived at a moment in American history that has not been seen in decades and that promises but for a millimeter

to change the course of history in America and the facts Saturday July 13th, 2024 Donald Trump gives a rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, swing state, an all-important swing state in the general election for president in 2024. Donald Trump is joined by Dave McCormick running for Senate in Pennsylvania. He's joined by

local officials like mayors nearby. He's joined by delegates soon to head to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the Republican National Convention. Just after 6 p.m., he's taken to the stage, and he is talking about illegal immigration in the course of that all important issue over the past four years of Joe Biden's presidency surrounded by supporters, thousands in attendance, in bleachers behind into the sides

and a sea of people in front of him. Donald Trump hears, as you did, this has played out on television, and many in attendance did, roughly six to eight shots. ring out. Trump reaches for his ear as though he was stung by a bee and then immediately dives for the floor,

the podium of the stage. Immediately he's dogpiled by secret service agents, putting their body on the line, putting their body in the way of a would-be assassin. This whole thing plays out in front of an open microphone, broadcast to the entirety of the rally, where you can hear secret service agents say, on me on me

shoot her down shoot her down we're clear we're clear they yank Donald Trump to his feet and you can hear Donald Trump say let me get my shoes let me get my shoes and then wait wait wait as he

pokes his head out above the Secret Service agents and raises his fist in defiance and yells out fight in a display of strength here listen to this and how it plays played out in those first moments on the assassination attempt of Donald Trump.

Take a look at what happened. Moving to spare, hold, hold, hold, when you're ready, on you. Ready, move, move, move, go. Huck, guys here. Stair, get ready, get ready. Are you ready? We ready? We're good.

Shooters down. Are we good to move? We're clear. We're clear. We're clear. Let me get my shoes, sir, I got you, sir, I got you, sir. Let me get my shoes, sir. Hold that in your head is bloody.

So we gotta move to the class. Let me get my shoes right, let me get my shoes. Watch out. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Right. Right after that moment, Donald Trump made his way to the stairs, raised his face, raised his face above the Secret Service agents.

and then raised his fist to the sky, and again yelled fight, fight, fight. In an image that will probably be the one secured into history books and should win the Pulitzer Prize, there's a picture of Trump, blood running down his face, surrounded by secret service agents, fist raised to the sky, and above him, an American flag. It's not only an image that should rest in the history books,

it's not only an image that should win the Pulitzer, it's quite possibly an image that wins him the presidency. It's that powerful. He's that strong. Secret service agents whisk him away to a vehicle where he is taken to a hospital and ultimately boards a plane and goes back home to Bedminster, New Jersey. Thomas Matthew Crook, 20 years old, has been identified as the shooter. staged on a building 130 yards from the rally stage a glass warehouse it was somehow outside the perimeter set up by secret service Thomas Matthew Crook with an AR style rifle got off we don't know how many shots before counter snipers in the secret service locate and fire and kill Thomas Matthew Cook

the coverage immediately after this incident mainstream media outlets began to cover now I am sympathetic to the fact that so little is known in the beginning moments of one of these incidences and I am also sympathetic to the fact that what we do know is often wrong you have to be very very careful in breaking news moments not to report something that is false falsehood those in those early moments can take root go viral and plant themselves in people's minds

but there's a difference between being prudent and being dismissive there is a difference when you spend four years calling Donald Trump a threat to democracy and dismissing an assassination attempt as Donald Trump falling on the stage this coming the following two weeks of discussion of Joe Biden's physical and mental incapacity, his frailty, his senility, his senility, leads us to look very skeptically at someone like CNN, who within minutes put out a headline, Secret Service rushes Trump offstage after he falls at a rally. No one watching that incident would characterize. What happened as Donald Trump rushed off stage after he falls at a rally.

CNN was joined by the Associated Press, whose headline read, breaking. Donald Trump has been escorted off the stage by Secret Service during a rally after loud noises ring out in the crowd. Again, I'm sympathetic to only reporting what you know. But you knew more than Donald Trump slipped and fell on the stage at a rally. And you knew more than loud noises ringing in. out meant that Donald Trump had to be escorted off the stage. CNN.com Trump's speech interrupted by secret service. BBC, Trump rushed off stage at rally as bangs heard.

Over and over, the people that had you believe Joe Biden's frailty was a product of cheapfakes We're telling you that the news of the day is, as according to the Washington Post, Trump is fine after being rushed away from a rally when loud noises were heard. Spokesperson says. In Newsweek, jumping ahead of everyone, managed to report that MAGA responds with outrage after Donald Trump injured at Pennsylvania rally. Newsweek, already focusing in on the outrage of MAGA after an attempted assassination of Donald Trump. It wasn't long afterwards that we did in fact learn that it was not loud noises, it was shots, it was not falling, it was taking cover.

It wasn't glass shards, it was a bullet that pierced Donald Trump's. and missed his head by a millimeter. A millimeter is the difference in two different timelines of history. A millimeter is the difference between whether or not we are having an obituary written today for Donald Trump. A millimeter is the difference between perhaps this country tearing itself apart because this country has been leading itself to this moment for the better part of a decade. And once those details became known, the reporting takes a different flavor. The New York Times Sunday, July 14th, Trump hurt but safe after a shooting, admitting it's a shooting, but somewhat dismissive and reporting that he is safe. The Daily News, Trump targeted at rally, Pennsylvania attack probed assassination attempt.

Secret Service kills gunmen. one spectator dead the new york post put it as they often do the most bluntly and truthfully bloodied but unbowed ex-president survives assassination bid trump shot it is fortunate it is perhaps by the grace of god that donald trump turned his head at the last moment and that millimeter meant that he wasn't struck in the head but he was struck in the head but he was struck in the ear. But he, while by the grace of God, found luck, others did not. A rally goer was shot and killed. Two others are critically injured. There's video and testimony out there that you can see of an emergency room doctor who saw what happened in the stands behind Donald Trump, elevated stands

behind him where someone was reportedly shot and killed. Listen to the all-new Brett Bear podcast featuring Common Ground, in-depth talks with lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle, along with all your Brett Bear favorites, like his All-Star panel and much more. Available now at Fox Newspodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Trade Gowdy host of the Trade Gowdy podcast. I hope you will join me every Tuesday and Thursday as we navigate life together

and hopefully find ourselves a little bit better on the other side. Listen and follow now at Fox News Podcast. Podcast.com. Fox News Audio presents Unsolved with James Patterson. Every crime tells the story, but some stories are left unfinished. Somebody knows. Real cases, real people. Listen and follow now at Fox True Crime.com.

Shot in the head as described by an eyewitness as, though in the Supruder film, he was almost immediately dead according to that witness, although doctors attempted and tried to help. This is a moment that I believe we have been heading for for the better part of a decade. Let's talk about the climate. I want to be responsible with what we know and what we don't know about Thomas Matthew Cook. There are reports from the New York Post that Thomas Matthew Cook was a registered Republican. There are also reports that he had never participated in the election.

because he was only registered to vote just three years ago at the age of 18 and had only voted in local elections. There are also reports that at the age of 17, Cook contributed to Act Blue, progressive political action committee around the inauguration of Joe Biden, small $15 donation. Whether or not he's a registered Republican or he made a $15 donation to Joe Biden into progressive causes, doesn't tell us much so far about the motivations of Thomas Matthew Cook. But I do know that he's 20. And over the past decade, the United States has been absolutely saturated in accusations that Donald Trump is a literal Nazi, that Donald Trump is a wannabe dictator, at least a dictator for a day, that Donald Trump is a would-be authoritarian, that we have to save our democracy,

that Donald Trump will take us all into Nazi Germany. Nothing I'm saying is a mischaracterization of the hyperbole that people have been repeating for the better part of a decade. In short, for the better part of half of Thomas Matthew Cook's life, he would have grown up in that saturation. He would have grown up engulfed in that kind of rhetoric. And that rhetoric came from CNN. in. That rhetoric came from MSNBC. That rhetoric came from Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper. And that

rhetoric came from Joy Reed and Rachel Maddow. That rhetoric came from Democrats. It came from Congresswoman Maxine Waters. It came from President Joe Biden, who within the past week said we've got to stop talking about the debate, the CNN presidential debate, that represented a metaphorical and almost literal fall for Joe Biden. And in Joe Biden's words, quote, put the bull eye back on Donald Trump. Now, I am not someone who likes to take metaphorical language, analogies, political rhetoric, and layered onto what is often turns out to be the motivations of a crazy person, the political motivations of some insane individual, whether or not that that's the man who shot Gaffey Gifford or the guy that shot Steve Scalise, whether or not

that is a shooter at a school, a trans shooter in a school, or whether or not it's Dylan Roof in a black Baptist church. I don't think it's appropriate to often point to your political opponents as the motivators of individual crazies. And I cannot and will not do that today with Thomas Matthew Cook, not yet, not with what we know and what we don't know. but I do know that that kind of rhetoric telling people for a decade that the United States is facing an existential threat and that existential threat is Donald Trump can and in all estimates would inevitably motivate as we said here on the Will Kane show just a month ago not necessarily a civil war but one crazy person to take you up on your challenge if you continuously tell someone your life is at threat they will some point respond to what they perceive to be the necessary

self-defense and this country has been told that they are at survival stage that we are at existential threat and that something must be done anything must be done to stop Donald Trump here's some of the more egregious examples from September of 2023 David corn in Mother Jones. Donald Trump, stochastic terrorist. He demonizes his foes, and that makes them possible targets of violence. Donald Trump targeting his opponents with violence

because he is a stochastic terrorist, says David Jones, David Korn in Mother Jones. Or how about Kathy? Griffin, the self-described comedian who once held a bloody head of Donald Trump up for a photo shoot. Or how about Johnny Depp who once asked, has there ever been an actor as a presidential assassin? At some point, you saturate the public with this rhetoric. Some crazy person takes you up on your time. challenge. I do not know if that's what happened with Thomas Matthew Cook, but I do know

the reaction from almost everyone and probably including yourself who's listening today is that this moment felt somewhat inevitable. That will do anything to stop Donald Trump has metastasized from losing to him in an election, creating propaganda that he is a puppet of Putin, saying his election was Russian influence, creating propaganda about lie after lie after lie of what Donald Trump has said or what Donald Trump has done, go after him criminally with the Department of Justice, go after him from the Manhattan County Attorney's Office, convict him with extremely prejudiced juries in friendly, within friendly voting bases to, secure a conviction, tarring him as a convicted felon, promising to jail him, dismissing

his supporters, dismissing his supporters as deplorable, as awful people, to finally at some point, inevitably putting his life in danger to, Stop Donald Trump. The Secret Service. There were many failures, it appears, in the lead-up to this assassination attempt of Donald Trump. Here's what we know. We know that the Secret Service says Thomas Matthew Cook posted up on this warehouse, 130 yards outside of the rally, was outside the secured perimeter of the Secret Service.

that day there were agents around donald trump that day there were counter counter snipers on rooftops facing in opposite directions from donald trump's podium they should take down anyone from a shooting position like thomas matthew cook there are accusations that the advance work was done poorly whatever was done to set up and ahead of time you would think it would include searching, securing, and adding some security element to the closest rooftop in proximity to a sight line and firing line of Donald Trump's stage. Beyond this warehouse, there are other roofs, 500 yards away, 1,000 yards away. But this is the closest and most obvious one. And there remain questions, how is it that someone could climb up on that

roof, either internally or scaling the building outside, without being noticed, without being seen by any law enforcement or secret service officer there are trump rally goers and trump attendees who report having seen the shooter and telling secret service pointing out minutes ahead of time there is video out there where you can hear people saying he has a gun he has a rifle and yet he made his way to a shooting position and squeezed off somewhere between one and eight rounds. I don't know how many of those rounds came from the shooter and how many of them came from the counter-sniper's that killed Thomas Matthew Cook. That also leads us to what happened, why was he not spotted once he was on the roof? How was he not seen? Should there be? I don't know

the answer to this. Drone surveillance that day. Should there have been better spotters? Should there been more spotters? Should there been more coverage? Was Secret Service deprived to Donald Trump to the extent that was requested. There are conflicting reports on that. There are people like former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino in the know who say he knows for a fact. He reports he knows for a fact that there was request for increased secret service protection that was denied. The Secret Service itself, through a spokesperson, said that's categorically false. And in fact, Donald Trump's security detail was increased recently with the increased tempo of the election.

That's something that will have to. to be sorted out, hopefully through a congressional oversight committee. Congressman James Comer has already said he will bring one of those committees together to look into the Secret Service. What happened that day? Was it handled correctly? It was iconic. It was incredible.

It was incredible to see Donald Trump raise his fist, to yell, fight, fight, fight, with blood running down his face, to not cower in fear, to show that strength. Was it wise? Should the Secret Service have allowed that? Should they allow him to be the boss? Should they've got him down? Should they've got him in the car? He was exposed numerous times after the initial shots.

Was that handled correctly? His exit, his extract from the situation? There are people pointing out the current Secret Service director has prioritized DEI type of initiatives like making the Secret Service 30% female. Now, this is not to indict any particular female member of the Secret Service, although there should be questions like when he was in a scrum and surrounded by officers.

One of them is notably a female, and she's much shorter than Donald Trump, not providing him with the full coverage that the other taller male members were able to provide. Height, strength, these seem to be important factors, and one of the most important jobs you would think in law enforcement. There's another video of a female Secret Service officer who attempts to holster her handgun several times, four times, which is something you should be able to do from muscle memory by most people have served in law enforcement and can't and fails in this moment of increased tension.

Now, whether or not these couple of individuals illustrate specifically any problems at higher levels of the Secret Service, a goal to make the force 30% female would suggest a deeper problem within the Secret Service. Why? Because that's not prioritizing the name of the game, the number one job which is protecting the life of the president you want the best for the job regardless of gender and if you're saying 30% need to be female or black or trans or Latino

or white you're putting some other factor above the absolute only factor that matters which is best for the job of protecting the life of the president what failed on the ground in advance and at policy levels of the Secret Service to allow for there to be an assassination attempt on the President, the former President of the United States, President Donald Trump. There is a failure of rhetoric.

There is a failure deeply of media. There is a failure of politicians. There is a failure perhaps in the detail, in the Secret Service protection of the President. And there is a failure right now in America. can we agree can we agree to disagree can we coexist can we pull ourselves out of mass psychosis can we stop hearing believing and saying the most hyperbolic and ridiculous accusations about our political opponents can we stop making everything existential because at some point people

will react as though their life is on the line as though this is about survival survival. There's going to be much more to break down in this assassination attempt of Donald Trump. These are some of my initial thoughts on this Sunday, the day after. We will be live Monday through Thursday this week. We'll talk about this. We'll also be talking about the events at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We'll be talking still about the cover-up of Joe Biden's cognitive decline. It's going to be a huge week on the Will Kane show. So I hope you'll join us 12 o'clock Eastern time at Fox News.com on the Fox News Facebook channel, the Fox News YouTube channel on Apple and on Spotify.

All right, that's going to do it for me today. I'll see you again next time on the Will Kane show. Listen to ad free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts and Amazon Prime members. You can listen to this show, ad free on the Amazon Music app. from the Fox News Podcasts Network. Hey there, it's me, Kennedy. Make sure to check out my podcast.

Kennedy saves the world. It is five days a week, every week. Download and listen at foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.