Trump discussed with RFK Jr. potential role in second Trump administration: Sources
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke multiple times in the span of a few days this month, multiple people familiar with the conversations told ABC News, including an in-person meeting in Milwaukee during the Republican National Convention where the two presidential candidates discussed ways Kennedy could be involved in a second Trump administration.
At least one idea floated, according to two people with knowledge of the talks, was for Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic who speaks often about the perils of chronic disease, to oversee the Health and Human Services Department under a possible Trump administration.
According to one source, the in-person meeting, which took place the Monday of the convention, never reached a point where Trump and Kennedy had a deal in place for Kennedy to exit the race and endorse the former president in exchange for a role in the administration. Rather, it was an “informal,” “free flowing” conversation, the source said.
The two men initially spoke by phone on the evening Trump survived an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally, one source told ABC News, adding that they agreed on that phone call to meet in Milwaukee the next week.
The Washington Post first reported the existence of the conversations.
Two people familiar with Kennedy’s thinking told ABC News that the agreement to meet with Trump stemmed from Kennedy’s desire for national unity.
According to one of the sources, Kennedy has tried to connect with Democratic leaders regularly for roughly a year to try to discuss ways to “bring the party back to its roots,” but has not succeeded in having those conversations.
Kennedy, who initially ran for the Democratic nomination last year, pivoted to an independent run in October.
“President Trump met with RFK and they had a conversation about the issues just as he does regularly with important figures in business and politics because they all recognize he will be the next President of the United States,” Trump spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez told ABC News in a statement.
A spokeswoman for Kennedy did not respond to a request for comment.
Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy’s running mate, told ABC News in a statement that she was aware of Kennedy’s dialogue with Trump this month, and was supportive.
“I was aware of it and support American Unity and health. We are willing to speak with anyone on unwinding the corporate capture of our agencies,” she said.
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, continue to travel to battleground states as Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance campaigns on behalf of himself and former President Donald Trump.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Harris cautions donors to ‘not take anything for granted’
Vice President Kamala Harris attended a fundraiser in San Francisco Sunday where she maintained her campaign “will win this election,” but cautioned donors to “not take anything for granted.”
“I know there’s a lot of enthusiasm out there,” Harris said, adding, “And you know, I’ve never been one to really believe in the polls — whether they’re up or they’re down.”
“What we know is the stakes are so high and we can take nothing for granted in this critical moment,” she continued. “So we will fuel our campaign as we have, with enthusiasm and optimism, but also with a deep commitment to the hard work it’s going to take, and to campaign.”
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi introduced Harris at the event, touting the accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration and the background of vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, several times calling the Harris-Walz ticket “the freedom ticket.”
“[Harris] makes us all so proud. She brings us so much joy. She gives us so much hope,” Pelosi said, calling the vice president “politically very astute.”
(WASHINGTON) — The United States Secret Service director told Congress on Monday that the attempted assassination against former President Donald Trump was the “most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades” and took full responsibility for the lapses in security that day.
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13, we failed,” Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle testified before the House Oversight Committee. “As the director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse. We are fully cooperating with ongoing investigations. We must learn what happened.”
In her first hearing before Congress, Cheatle also told the committee that she will move “heaven and Earth” to ensure that what occurred will never happen again.
“Our mission is not political. It is literally a matter of life and death, as the tragic events on July 13 remind us of that,” she said. “I have full confidence in the men and women of the Secret Service. They are worthy of our support in executing our protective mission.”
This is yet another consequential week for the Secret Service, which is tasked with providing security to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to Washington, D.C. — something the director has been focused on while also overseeing the security for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week.
Cheatle is facing a grilling before the House Oversight Committee over how her agency handled security around the attempted assassination of Trump.
She has faced calls from multiple Republicans and at least one Democrat to resign after the former president was targeted at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Rep. John Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told Cheatle in his opening statement that he is among those who believe she should resign.
Cheatle has said she will not resign.
Cheatle asked about why no agent was placed on roof the gunman fired from
The Secret Service director was asked Monday about her statements in an interview with ABC News about why no agents were placed on the roof of a building outside the security perimeter of the rally, where the suspected shooter fired from, because of the roof’s sloping nature.
“I should have been more clear in my answer when I spoke about where we placed personnel in that interview. What I can tell you is that there was a plan in place to provide overwatch, and we are still looking into responsibilities and who was going to provide overwatch, but the Secret Service in general, not speaking specifically to this incident, when we are providing overwatch, whether that be through counter-snipers or other technology, prefer to have sterile rooftops,” Cheatle said.
Cheatle also admitted that the FBI has told her the shooter flew a drone over the rally site, but she did not go into more details.
Why was Trump allowed on stage while there was a threat?
Cheatle said that if the detail had information that there was a threat to the former president, they wouldn’t have brought Trump on stage, but she said the information wasn’t passed along to them.
“If the detail had been passed information that there was a threat, the detail would never have brought the former president out onto the stage,” she said. “That is what we do. That is who we are. We are charged with protecting all of our protectees. Distinguish between someone who is suspicious and someone who’s threatening. A number of times, protective events where suspicious people are identified, those individuals have to be investigated and determine what is it that identifies that person as suspicious.”
She said the Secret Service did not know the suspect had a weapon before former President Trump took the stage.
‘Clearly a breakdown’
Cheatle said she has read the intelligence regarding the threat from Iran against former President Trump. The Iranians have long pledged retribution against Trump and members of his administration for the killing Iranian military officer Qasem Soleimani in January 2020.
Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, who is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said that when FBI Director Christopher Wray briefed congressional members, he was “incensed” that this threat information was not taken into account when planning for the rally.
“There was clearly a breakdown or a failure that day,” Cheatle said.
Cheatle also said that no personnel or assets were denied to Trump at the Butler rally.
But Cheatle was also grilled about whether her agency denied Trump’s security detail resources it requested in the two years before Saturday, as first reported by The Washington Post, something her agency initially denied but then admitted over the weekend.
In a statement to ABC News, Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said, “In some instances where specific Secret Service specialized units or resources were not provided, the agency made modifications to ensure the security of the protectee. This may include utilizing state or local partners to provide specialized functions or otherwise identifying alternatives to reduce public exposure of a protected.”
“For the event in Butler, there were no requests that were denied,” she said.
Cheatle praised the agents guarding Trump for putting their lives on the line to protect him with their bodies even as shots were still being fired in their direction. She said that in less than three seconds, agents from Trump’s detail threw themselves onto the former president and helped to secure him.
“I would grade the agents and officers who selflessly threw themselves in front of the president and neutralized the threat an A. I think that we need to examine the events that led up to and prior to that day,” she said.
One shot took out gunman
Cheatle said there was one shot that took out the suspect from the Secret Service counter-sniper, whom she has spoken to since the assassination attempt.
Cheatle said she is “committed” to finding answers and has taken accountability and “will continue” to take accountability.
“I think that I’m the best person to lead the Secret Service at this time,” Cheatloe said, touting her increase in hiring and staffing since her tenure as head of the agency began in 2022.
She also said that if someone needs to be held accountable, she will do that.
“I’ve been a Secret Service agent for nearly 30 years. I have led with integrity, and I follow our core values of duty, justice, honor, loyalty and courage, and I am doing that in this case, and I assure this committee that I will provide answers when we have a full and complete report, in addition to cooperating with all of the other investigations that are ongoing,” Cheatle said.
House Speaker Johnson in attendance
The hearing room on Monday was packed, with standing room only, as opening statements were given by Chairman James Comer, R-Ky.; ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Cheatle. House Speaker Mike Johnson was also in attendance.
In a rare bipartisan statement, Raskin had joined Comer in demanding that Cheatle testify after the Department of Homeland Security asked that her appearance be delayed, resulting in Comer issuing a subpoena.
The DHS inspector general has opened three separate investigations into what went wrong, the FBI is currently leading a criminal investigation, and Johnson has pledged congressional resources for a separate investigation.
As the head of the agency, Cheatle said it was her responsibility to investigate what went wrong and ensure that it does not happen again.
“The buck stops with me,” she told ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas in an exclusive interview on July 15. “I am the director of the Secret Service, and I need to make sure that we are performing a review and that we are giving resources to our personnel as necessary.”
Cheatle was in Milwaukee last week overseeing security for the Republican National Convention and met with the former president on Tuesday, according to a source familiar with the situation.
“Secret Service is not political,” she told ABC News. “Security is not political. People’s safety is not political. And that’s what we’re focused on as an agency.”
Republicans also signaled they would question Cheatle about past statements that promoting diversity in the agency was a top priority.
The DHS pushed back against criticism of women in Trump’s security detail.
“In the days following the attempted assassination of former President Trump, some people have made public statements questioning the presence of women in law enforcement, including in the United States Secret Service,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and other senior leaders wrote in a statement. “These assertions are baseless and insulting.”
(WASHINGTON) — Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz is getting a more positive public reception than his Republican counterpart: More Americans see Walz favorably than unfavorably, contrary to JD Vance, and more approve of Walz’s selection for the nation’s No. 2 job, according to new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll.
Thirty-nine percent in the poll have a favorable impression of Walz as a person, while 30% see him unfavorably. That compares with an underwater favorable-unfavorable rating for Vance, 32%-42%.
There is room to move. Sizable shares in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates with fieldwork by Ipsos, have no opinion of either candidate — 31% for Walz, the governor of Minnesota, and 26% for Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio.
By another measure, 52% approve of Vice President Kamala Harris’ choice of Walz, compared with 45% who approve of former President Donald Trump’s selection of Vance. Forty-four percent disapprove of the Walz pick, compared with 50% disapproval for Trump’s choice.
Other vice-presidential candidates have been better received. While available data are spotty, approval reached 67% (among registered voters) for the selection of Jack Kemp (who ran with Bob Dole) in 1996 and was an initial 60% for John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin in 2008, although she later widely was seen as a liability for his campaign. For Harris, in 2020, 54% approved.
Groups
In their native Midwest, more approve of the selection of Walz than of Vance by a substantial 15 percentage points, 55% vs. 40%, and more see Walz favorably, 39% vs. 29%. That’s even though Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents and Republicans and GOP leaners are evenly matched in the region, with 46% in each group.
Despite a dispute over Walz’s characterization of his military service, his favorability rating is similar from veterans (41%) and non-veterans (39%) alike. Vance’s favorability rating is 48% among veterans, and 56% of veterans approve of his selection, as do 50% for Walz (not a significant difference given the sample size). Veterans are 12 points more likely than non-veterans to be Republicans or Republican-leaning independents.
Approval of the vice presidential picks breaks along expected partisan and ideological lines. Eighty-two percent of Republicans and 77% of conservatives approve of the Vance pick. For Walz, it’s a rosier 92% approval among Democrats and 87% among liberals.
Approval of Vance for vice president drops to 42% among independents, potential swing voters in presidential elections, compared with 49% for Walz.
On favorability, Vance’s rating peaks among those who voted for Trump in 2020 (75%), Republicans (68%) and conservatives (65%). It’s also higher among white evangelical Protestants (59%), military veterans (48%, as noted) and rural residents (45%), all groups Trump won by double-digit margins in 2020, than among their counterparts.
Walz, for his part, is seen most favorably by 2020 Biden voters (82%), Democrats (77%) and liberals (78%). He’s also seen favorably by 53% of college graduates and 50% of Black people.
Methodology
This ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll was conducted online via the probability-based Ipsos KnowledgePanel® Aug. 9-13, 2024, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 2,336 adults. Partisan divisions are 29%-29%-29%, Democrats-Republicans-independents. Results have a margin of sampling error of 2 percentage points, including the design effect, for the full sample. Sampling error is not the only source of differences in polls.