Trump’s return to Butler marked by heightened security and reflective supporters
(BUTLER, Pa.) — Former President Donald Trump is set to return to the site of his first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, for a rally marked by enhanced security measures around the fairground as supporters call Saturday’s rally a healing moment.
With security at the forefront of people’s minds, officials have taken extra precautions to keep Trump and his supporters safe in the wake of enhanced threats. Semi-trailers have formed a perimeter around the fairgrounds so nobody outside can see in, a contrast to the summer’s rally where spectators had a clear vantage point inside from outside the rally perimeter.
Additionally, the unmanned building that Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to scale and get a clear shot at Trump is now barely visible, with semi-trailers and a tall riser placed in between. Multiple counter snipers are making themselves very visible on the roof of every surrounding building.
Saturday’s rally is expected to feature extensive programming focused on remembering the events of July 13, as well as honoring the resiliency of the Butler community before the former president takes the stage to finish his speech from the summer.
The campaign is also dedicating several moments throughout the program to Corey Comperatore, the rallygoer who was killed while shielding his family. His firefighter uniform is in the stands of where he was sitting in July in memory of him.
Several first responders spoke ahead of Trump, including the doctor who was attending Trump’s rally and attempted to save Comperatore’s life along with Sally Sherry, an ER nurse who helped treat Trump.
“The man that we all see on TV with the strong personality, who sometimes doesn’t mince words, or who is seen as a wealthy, powerful businessman, was not the man that I stood beside that evening. What I saw was a man that in the aftermath of one of the most terrifying experiences of his life, showed resiliency,” Sherry said.
“He showed strength and courage. He showed that his family was at the forefront. He was a husband, a father and a grandfather. He was compassionate and grateful,” she continued.
Many of the rally attendees ABC News spoke with on Saturday said they were here in July, clearly remembering the moment shots rang out in the midst of Trump’s speech nearly three months ago.
They said the violence and tragedy that took place here on July 13 did not discourage them from coming back, instead the experience reinforced their support for Trump.
“There’s an electricity that’s here in this crowd,” said Barry Murray, 29, of Butler, Pennsylvania, who was at the July rally with his girlfriend. “I think a word that could describe it is, altogether, is just strength – strength and unity. I think one of the main goals of being the leader of a nation like America is to be able to unite people, not divide people.”
Brooke Goshen of Beaver, Pennsylvania – a mother of four – attended the July rally with two of her teenage kids and came back to Butler Farm Show with one of them.
“I knew that the security presence was gonna be upgraded a lot this time, so we decided to give it a shot and come back to this historic rally,” Goshen told ABC News about her decision to come back. She also said she was excited to see Elon Musk.
Dave Nacey of Apollo, Pennsylvania, wasn’t at the July Butler rally but decided to attend today’s rally because he felt the need to show more support today.
“I feel that the support needs to be there 100% from everybody,” Nacey said.
(CHICAGO) — Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has been in office since 2023, having previously served as the state’s attorney general.
Before Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in July, sources told ABC News that Shapiro was a front-runner for the role.
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Shapiro sat down with ABC News’ Linsey Davis on Tuesday to discuss Pennsylvania’s importance as a swing state, Republican nominee Donald Trump’s comments on her vice presidential selection and some of the comments critics have made about Harris.
ABC NEWS: The most pivotal state in all of this, deemed must-win for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, is Pennsylvania. And joining us now is a Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro. Thank you so much governor, for joining us.
SHAPIRO: Great to be with you. Thanks
ABC NEWS: We just talked about how important your Keystone State is. Donald Trump was there over the weekend, Kamala Harris was there over the weekend. What’s it going to take for Pennsylvania voters in November?
SHAPIRO: Well it’s the ultimate swing state. And the last two presidential races have been settled by a point or less in a state of 13 million people. One race was settled by 44,000 votes, the next by 80,000 votes. So it’s razor thin. Here’s what I’m seeing on the ground though. Incredible enthusiasm for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. A real movement in the polls, and effectively a tied race. Right? A point or two here or there.
But importantly, Kamala Harris is showing up in communities that are oftentimes ignored and left behind, sending a message to Pennsylvanians. She cares about them. She’s focused on the economy. She’s focused on their communities. And I think as this race progresses, you’re going to continue to see real momentum on her part.
ABC NEWS: Former President Trump out on the campaign trail himself today. He has said that he’s been watching the DNC, at least the first night so far. And he told his supporters he watched last night quote “Amazement as they tried to pretend that everything was great. The crime was great, the border was great. There wasn’t a problem at all. No inflation, no nothing.” What do you think about his assessment, about what he’s hearing.
SHAPIRO: Well, great that Donald Trump is spending his time on the couch watching the DNC. Because if he’s watching, clearly he’s going to see an incredibly energetic, diverse group of not just speakers, but an incredible crowd here as well, talking about the issues that matter most to Pennsylvanians and all Americans.
Look, let’s not forget what life was like under Donald Trump. To put succinctly, it was more chaos, less jobs, and a whole lot less freedom when Donald Trump was in charge. And I’ll tell you what, we do not want to go back to that chaos. We do not want to go back to losing our freedoms. Think about on Donald Trump’s watch. Millions of women across this country lost the fundamental freedom to be able to make decisions over their own bodies, and he’s promising to restrict more of our freedoms going forward.
ABC NEWS: It is now day 30 of Kamala Harris’s race. Her website still does not have a policy page just yet. She hasn’t sat down for a sit down interview or done a press conference. There are those who say that as a result, she doesn’t want to, that she’s hiding from voter, that she doesn’t want to actually, confront her, her record. What do you say to that criticism?
SHAPIRO: Well, if it’s day 30, I take your word for it. It feels, by the way, sometimes, like it’s been 300 days and other times like it’s been three days. But, what I’ve seen is Kamala Harris out in the community, I think pretty much every day, making sure that she’s meeting voters where they are.
When she was in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, which for those who don’t follow Pennsylvania politics, is pretty rural county in southwestern Pennsylvania. She was there talking about economic issues, how she would lower costs for families. She was doing the same thing in North Carolina, I believe, if I’m not mistaken, the day or a couple of days before. So she’s out talking about these issues, making sure she’s meeting voters where they are and laying out her vision. I’m sure she’ll continue to do that over the next 30 days.
ABC NEWS: Of course, you made it to the final round of the VP selection, once again over the weekend when Donald Trump was in Pennsylvania. He said “They turned him down because he’s Jewish.” Your reaction to that?
SHAPIRO: Look, Donald Trump has absolutely no credibility to speak on that issue. He is someone who has injected consistently division into our politics, pitting one against another, separating people out and engaging in anti-Semitic tropes and other forms of hatred and bigotry during his time in office. Remember, this is the person who, when a mob was marching in Charlottesville carrying tiki torches, yelling “Jews will not replace us,” this is the same guy who said there are fine people on both sides. There were not fine people on both sides. I will not be lectured by Donald Trump, someone who is morally bankrupt.
What we need right now are leaders who speak and act with moral clarity. That’s what I try to do every day. That’s what Kamala Harris tries to do every day. And let me state very clearly, for the record, there is no role of anti-Semitism in the dialog I had with the vice president. Now there is anti-Semitism in our country. There is other forms of hatred and bigotry in our country. And what we need right now is leaders not to stoke divisions, but leaders to stand up and speak and act with moral clarity. I do that every day. Kamala Harris does that every day. And Donald Trump has yet to do that as the leader of this country or as a would-be leader of this country.
ABC NEWS: Back in 2019, when Kamala Harris was first running for president, she supported a ban on fracking. Now she doesn’t. That’s one policy issue that Republicans point to to say you can’t trust her. That obviously is an important issue in your state of Pennsylvania. How do you explain her shift there?
SHAPIRO: Well, I think she can explain why she’s taking that position. What I will say is that she’s listening to the good people of Pennsylvania. I’m an all of the above energy governor, I think that’s where a lot of people are in Pennsylvania. And that’s clearly where the vice president is. We understand in Pennsylvania that being all of the above on energy means job creation. It also means addressing climate change. You can walk and chew gum at the same time. You can do both. We are proving that in Pennsylvania. And Kamala Harris understands that.
ABC NEWS: You’ve obviously known Kamala Harris for more than 20 years. We’ve heard a lot about her as the politician, the prosecutor. You know her personally. Can you give us some kind of anecdote, something that you might be able to share that we don’t know about her?
SHAPIRO: You know, she’s fun. She’s interesting, and she genuinely cares about people. I think, sometimes you see folks on TV — obviously I mean this as no disrespect — and it’s hard to get to know them. It’s hard to kind of understand what really makes them tick. I think with Kamala Harris, people make her tick. Standing up and helping them, solving their problems, making their lives a little bit better. That’s what makes her tick.
So I’ve enjoyed — Lori [Shapiro] and I have enjoyed — getting to know her and Doug [Emhoff] over many years. They’re wonderful people. They’re caring people. They’re warm people. They just care about folks and they want to do right by them. I know she’s got this slogan in her campaign that comes from her days as a prosecutor “Kamala Harris for the people” She really is like that behind the scenes. She cares about people.
ABC NEWS: Gov. Josh Shapiro, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate you coming on the show.
(WASHINGTON) — Charlamagne tha God says President Joe Biden’s exit from the 2024 race and Vice President Kamala Harris’ replacement at the top of the ticket has Americans more “energized in the Democratic Party” than they’ve been “in a long time.”
“Oh, there’s definitely a lot of main character energy on the Democratic ticket,” Charlamagne told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “We know who Kamala Harris is. Like she has super main character energy.”
Karl first sat down with radio personality Charlamagne, also known as Lenard McKelvey, in February. At the time, Charlamagne was critical of Biden’s candidacy, calling him “uninspiring” and urging him to exit the race.
Charlamagne, a co-host of iHeart Radio’s “The Breakfast Club,” told Karl on Sunday that there’s less voter apathy now, but “if I’m the Democrats, I’m not spiking the football yet.”
“The job is not done,” he said. “You know, you still have to bring this thing home in November.”
In the three weeks since Biden’s exit from the 2024 race, the Harris campaign has mobilized at lightning speed. But Harris is facing criticism for not yet having held a formal press conference or sitting for any interviews with local or national media yet.
“She does need to do more interviews,” Charlamagne said on “This Week.”
“It’s striking that we really haven’t seen her answer questions yet,” Karl said.
“I mean, it’s the bottom of the ninth inning, right?” Charlamagne replied. “Like, I feel like she should be any and everywhere, you know, having these conversations.”
Charlamagne told Karl that Harris should take a page from former President Donald Trump’s playbook because he’s “everywhere.”
“He’s [Trump] always calling into conservative talk radio, which is one of my biggest issues with the Democratic Party,” Charlamagne said. “They don’t use the media that supports them the way the right uses the media that supports them.”
At the end of July, Trump dominated headlines for his interview at the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention in Chicago, where he falsely questioned Harris’ race.
“What did you make of the way she responded to his comments about her ‘just turning Black?'” Karl asked Charlamagne.
“I don’t even think that she should have responded,” Charlamagne said. “I don’t think she should have dignified that with a response.”
Harris, who announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate last week, has also faced criticism centered on her race from some Republicans claiming she was a “DEI hire.”
Charlamagne said that if anyone on the Harris-Walz ticket is a “DEI hire,” it’s not Harris, who is both the first Black woman and Asian American to be a major party’s nominee. She is only the second woman to be at the top of the ticket.
“We knew she needed a DEI hire,” Charlamagne said. “She needed a white male to make America comfortable. It is what it is. No need for us to, you know, act crazy about it. We know what it is.”
(WASHINGTON) — Federal prosecutors are expected to file criminal charges in connection with the alleged hack of emails from members of former President Donald Trump’s campaign, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
The charges in connection with the hack, which the U.S. government has attributed to Iran, could be filed as soon as next week, the sources said.
The Iranians allegedly gained access to data and files taken from the email accounts of Trump advisers, which included internal documents used to vet Trump’s perspective running mate, the sources said.
The Trump campaign, as victims, would be notified of any criminal charges that happen, as is standard Department of Justice practice.
The Washington Post first reported charges were expected.
The Trump campaign did not immediately comment.
Last month, the Trump campaign cited a report published by Microsoft in claiming they were hacked. Though it did not specifically name Trump’s campaign, Microsoft’s statement said, “In June 2024, Mint Sandstorm — a group run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence unit — sent a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor. The phishing email contained a fake forward with a hyperlink that directs traffic through an actor-controlled domain before redirecting to the listed domain.”
The IRGC is a branch of the Iranian armed forces.
Federal officials have been dealing with increased hacking activity around the 2024 election. A week after Microsoft’s statement, Google said a hacking group associated with Iran targeted the personal email accounts of “roughly a dozen” people associated with the Trump and Joe Biden campaigns, including current and former U.S. government officials.
“In May and June, APT42 targets included the personal email accounts of roughly a dozen individuals affiliated with President Biden and with former President Trump, including current and former officials in the U.S. government and individuals associated with the respective campaigns. We blocked numerous APT42 attempts to log in to the personal email accounts of targeted individuals,” the report said.
The group, APT42, is also associated with the IRGC, according to Google.
Meta has also issued warnings about hacking and disinformation during the campaign, releasing a report last month that identified Russia and Iran has the top two threats.