Walz tries to do cleanup on falsehoods in Fox News interview
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(WASHINGTON) — Gov. Tim Walz, in his first Sunday show appearance and only fourth national media interview that’s aired since he was selected to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, addressed the mounting pile of false statements that have surfaced since he joined the Democratic ticket in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
Fox’s Shannon Bream, asked the governor why he thought the American people should trust him amid the falsehoods — about being in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square massacre, about his military service, about he and his wife using in vitro fertilization when they’d really used intrauterine insemination — when he could be in the line of succession for commander in chief should Harris win in November.
The factual inaccuracies Walz has racked up came to a head during Tuesday’s vice presidential debate with GOP nominee JD Vance. Walz called himself a “knucklehead” for making those mistakes and then made another gaffe during the broadcast.
When talking about gun control, he said he’s become “friends with school shooters” instead of saying he was friends with the victims of school shootings — something he tried to straighten out later in a gaggle with media: “I sat as a member of Congress, with the Sandy Hook parents and it was a profound movement. David Hogg is a good friend of mine,” Walz said.
Walz said on Sunday that he thought the country “heard him” in his cleanup efforts during the debate, and that he’s not afraid to “own up” when he makes a mistake — insinuating that those falsehoods are better than “disparaging” people the way former President Donald Trump does or denying the results of the 2020 election, like Vance.
“Well, I think they heard me. They heard me the other night speaking passionately about gun violence and misspeaking,” Walz said, saying then that he didn’t think people “care” whether he used IUI or IVF when Trump could pose a threat to both fertility treatments if he returns to the White House.
“Look, I speak passionately. I had an entire career decades before I was in public office… I have never disparaged someone else in this. But I know that’s not what Donald Trump does. They disparage everyone, the personal attacks. I will own up when I misspeak. I will own up when I make a mistake,” Walz said in the Fox interview on Sunday.
“Let’s be very clear — on that debate stage the other night, I asked one very simple question, and Senator Vance would not acknowledge that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. I think they’re probably far more concerned with that than my wife and I used IUI to have our child, and that Donald Trump would restrict that,” he went on.
Walz’s response to his sloppiness with facts has been fine-tuned in the days since the debate. When he spoke to reporters the day after the broadcast, he sought to clean up the issue over when exactly he was in China in 1989, a topic that surfaced last week with reports that he had appeared to falsely claim he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square massacre in June of that year.
“Yeah, look, I have my dates wrong,” he acknowledged on Sunday. During the debate, he wan’t as direct: “All’s that I said on this was I got there that summer and misspoke on this, so I will just that’s what I said… So I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protest,” he said.
On Saturday, while speaking at a Cleveland fundraiser, Walz also directly addressed the recent reports that he’d inaccurately told certain stories, spinning the trait in a way that criticized the Trump-Vance ticket over Project 2025.
“Working with high school kids, I speak really quickly, and then I say, I stick my foot in my mouth — I have to go back and correct it again,” Walz said.
“So I said one time — they don’t have a plan. That’s untrue. I misspoke on that. They most certainly do have a plan. It’s called Project 2025,” he continued.
Walz’s “Fox News Sunday” interview comes as the Harris-Walz campaign said the governor would be ramping up his relatively quiet national media strategy in a post-debate blitz. He’s also recorded an interview for a CBS’s “60 Minutes” election special on Harris. He’ll be doing the late night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Monday.
(WASHINGTON) — The Secret Service failed to make clear decisions and did not communicate properly with local law enforcement or provide necessary resources that caused “foreseeable, preventable” security failings on July 13, when a would-be assassin opened fire on former President Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to a new Senate committee report.
The highly anticipated interim report was released by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee by both Republicans and Democrats and reflects the work of the committee since it opened its probe following the Butler attack.
This report focuses on the Butler shooting and does not extend to investigatory efforts launched after a separate second assassination attempt on the former president at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, earlier this month.
Since the Butler attack, acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe has acknowledged that the event was a “failure” by the agency, but the committee, which interviewed multiple Secret Service personnel, found that individuals “declined to acknowledge individual areas of responsibility for planning or security as having contributed to the failure to prevent the shooting that day, even when as an agency, the USSS has acknowledged ultimate responsibility for the failure to prevent the former president of the United States from being shot.”
On a call with reporters, Senate Homeland Security Chairman Gary Peters pointed to several failures by the Secret Service.
“Every single one of those failures was preventable and the consequences of those failures were dire,” Peters said. “This was the first assassination attempt of a former president and the presidential candidate in more than four decades.”
Peters was joined on the call by committee ranking member Rand Paul, R-Ky., Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., ranking member on the investigations subcommittee.
“Whoever was in charge of security on the day of Butler, whoever’s in charge of security during the recent assassination attempt, those people can’t be in charge. They there’s so many human errors,” Paul said. “No amount of money that you give to Secret Service is going to alleviate the human errors if you leave the same humans in charge who made these terrible, dramatic mistakes with regard to security.”
On Friday, the Secret Service released a four-page Mission Assurance Report, which affirms many of the findings in the committee’s report, but the committee report offers additional details from interviews with USSS and local officials. ‘
In a statement to ABC News, the Secret Service’s Chief of Communications said “many of the insights” gleaned from the Senate report “align with the findings from our mission assurance review and are essential to ensuring that what happened on July 13 never happens again.”
“We have reviewed the interim report on the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump,” Chief of Communications for the U.S. Secret Service Anthony Guglielmi said. “The weight of our mission is not lost on us and in this hyperdynamic threat environment, the U.S. Secret Service cannot fail.”
He said in addition to the mission assurance report their efforts include cooperating with Congress, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security Independent Review, DHS Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office.
“We take the work of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee seriously and have begun to implement many of their proposed enhancements,” Guglielmi said.
As part of the investigation, the committee interviewed Secret Service agents, as well as the Secret Service counter-snipers that were at the rally.
A closer look at the roof of the building where shots were fired from
The Senate report pays special attention to the American Glass Research building from where Thomas Matthew Crooks fired, and unveils new details about the timeline of events on that day.
In the lead-up to the event, local law enforcement raised concerns about the building. The report finds that the line of sight from the AGR building plagued rally planning and that it was identified as a concern, but that no steps were taken to mitigate the threat. Trees obstructed the view of the sniper team that was positioned atop one of the nearby roofs.
The Secret Service initially began planning for the rally in early July with state and local law enforcement. The planning meetings lacked answers or a general plan, according to the report.
A Butler County Emergency Services Unit commander told the committee the July 11 site walkthrough was “incredibly disorganized” with “no coordination,” and said he felt like “there was really no plan.”
When the USSS counter-sniper team leader did a walkthrough of the area, he told the committee he “wasn’t independently looking at the threat areas,” but rather making sure the roofs were safe for law enforcement to stand on.
The leader assumed that if there were an issue with one of the lines of sight with a sniper position, that counter-sniper would have told the head of the unit.
Agents from the Secret Service were notified of a suspicious person with a rangefinder 27 minutes before shots were fired, but that information was not relayed to senior Secret Service leaders on the ground.
Three minutes before shots were fired, local law enforcement communicated over the radio that someone was on the roof of the AGR building. The information was passed to the Secret Service two minutes before Crooks fired. A local officer said there was someone armed on the roof 22 seconds before shots were fired, but that information wasn’t passed on to the Secret Service.
Secret Service counter-snipers did see local law enforcement running towards the AGR building with their guns drawn, but “the thought did not cross” the counter-sniper’s mind to alert the former president’s protective detail, because they were trying to figure out what was going on.
“[W]hen we looked, just plain eyes, no optics or anything, you could see police running towards the building with their hands on their pistols. I think one actually had a pistol facing towards the ground, out of a holster,” the counter-sniper told the committee. “That’s a pretty big deal for us, so immediately we turned and faced our guns towards the threat area. We didn’t know what was happening, but it seemed pretty serious, especially with the locals’ response.”
The counter-sniper told the Committee “police running, guns out, and there were a couple of people just running away from the AGR building, that looks like citizens, I guess you would say, just normal people.”
He said, “something was wrong” and the “police were the main identifier that something bad was happening.”
“At that time, we didn’t know what we were working with,” a USSS counter-sniper told the committee.
Though counter-sniper efforts ultimately failed to prevent Crooks from firing, the Senate report finds that Trump’s Butler rally was the first time that a USSS counter-sniper team was assigned to a protectee who was not the president, vice president, or formally nominated party nominee. Snipers were only at the rally in response to “credible intelligence” of a threat. Though the committee did not identify what that threat was, sources have told ABC News that Iran has targeted the former president since the killing of General Soliemani.
When the Secret Service sniper took his shot at Crooks, he did so “mere seconds” after identifying him, his partner told the committee.
Officers told the committee they didn’t get resources they needed
Rowe has repeatedly asserted publicly that no assets were denied for the Butler rally. But some of the committee’s findings suggest otherwise.
The operator of the USSS counter drone measures, known as C-UAS, told the committee he requested additional C-UAS equipment and personnel in the11 days before the rally. However, these requests were denied, at times without explanation, according to the report.
The USSS lead advance agent told the committee Trump’s Secret Service detail requested counter assault team liaisons to help coordinate tactical assets in advance of the July 13 rally, but USSS denied this request, the report found.
When the CUAS system went down, the agent who was responsible for it called the manufacturer hotline to start troubleshooting the problem, delaying the deployment of the system for hours.
Previous testimony from the acting director stated that Crooks flew a drone over the rally site during the few hours the CUAS system was down.
Secret Service communications and those of local law enforcement were “siloed” in real time, according to the committee’s report.
Those issues included inoperable radios — in one instance, the head of the Pittsburgh Field Office gave his radio to the lead advance agent on the ground because his radio wasn’t working. These types of problems were commonplace, according to the report.
At one point, some of the agent’s communications were getting crossed with those of the detail of first lady Jill Biden, who was nearby.
Blumenthal called the Secret Service’s lack of accountability an “Abbott and Costello” routine, making reference to the infamous “Who’s on First” skit.
“It was really truth being stranger than fiction,” Blumenthal said of the finger-pointing as to who was responsible and who was in charge of the Butler event.
Committee leaders stress that the report is an interim set of findings meant to be expanded upon by further lines of questioning.
Blumenthal also called for new leadership at the Secret Service.
Peters told reporters last week that there have been instances in which agencies were not as responsive to committee requests as he would’ve liked.
Though the committee staff examined “over 2,800 pages” of documents provided by USSS and transcribed 12 interviews with USSS personnel, the report does reflect instances in which agencies did not meet committee requests.
“The majority of documents provided by the USSS and DHS are heavily redacted. This has unnecessarily hindered the Committee’s ability to carry out its constitutional authority to investigate and acquire information necessary to identify needed reforms,” the report says.
Guglielmi said the Secret Service has “been and continue to work cooperatively, transparently, and in good faith with Congress.”
“The U.S. Secret Service has implemented changes to our protective operations including elevating the protective posture for our protectees and bolstering our protective details as appropriate in order to ensure the highest levels of safety and security for those we protect,” Guglielmi said.
(JOHNSTOWN, Penn.) — Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters she was “feeling very good about Pennsylvania” while campaigning on Friday in the key battleground state, even as both supporters and detractors came out for the occasion.
In an unannounced stop to Classic Elements, a cafe and bookstore in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Harris told reporters, “I am feeling very good about Pennsylvania, because there are a lot of people in Pennsylvania who deserve to be seen and heard.”
“I will be continuing to travel around the state to make sure that I’m listening as much as we are talking,” Harris said. “And ultimately, I feel very strongly that — got to earn every vote, and that means spending time with folks in the communities where they live. And so that’s why I’m here.”
She added, “We’re going to be spending a lot more time in Pennsylvania.”
Harris and former President Donald Trump remain locked in a tight race in Pennsylvania, with 538’s presidential polling average for Pennsylvania showing less than a percentage point between the candidates as of Friday afternoon.
Both campaigns will look to win the state, which Biden won by about a 1% margin in 2020 — four years after Trump won by slightly less 1%.
Before she spoke with the media, Harris chatted with the store’s owner while Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman and his spouse Giselle Fetterman looked on.
Harris spoke about a small business owner neighbor she had growing up who was a “second mother” to her. Harris also praised the staff for their work.
When Harris went into the main seating area of the cafe, a patron called out, “Kamala, we love you!” to which Harris responded, “I appreciate you, thank you” to applause and comments of “Madame Vice President.”
Speaking to the patrons, Harris said, “We’re doing it together. But I wanted to come to Johnstown … I wanted to come and visit this small business — you know, a lot of the work I care about is about building community, right? There are many ways to do that … one of them is our small businesses.”
But Harris encountered both supporters and detractors outside of the bookstore.
Near the bookstore, people behind temporary fencing held signs that were both supportive of Harris and supportive of Trump.
One person could be heard chanting “USA!” while another chanted “We’re not going back” — which can often be heard at her campaign events.
And one person could be seen holding up a sign that said, “Even my dog hates Trump.”
Earlier, when she landed in Johnstown, there was a large crowd gathered at the airport hanger; Harris was greeted by the Fettermans and Johnstown Mayor Frank Janakovic.
As the motorcade drove to the bookstore, some healthcare workers lined a street holding up middle fingers and a sign that said, “Harris sux.”
The visit came ahead of a Friday evening rally Harris is set to hold in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and amid a battleground-state swing by Harris, running mate Gov. Tim Walz, and others launched after the ABC News presidential debate on Tuesday.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. military coordinated closely with the Israeli Defense Forces to help defend against Tuesday’s Iranian missile attack, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at a White House briefing shortly after the strike appeared to have ended.
“U.S. naval destroyers joined Israeli Air Defense units in firing interceptors to shoot down inbound missiles,” he said.
At the Pentagon, Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters that two U.S. Navy destroyers fired “approximately a dozen” missile interceptors at the incoming ballistic missile barrage aimed at Israel.
Ryder said the two destroyers that launched missile interceptors were the USS Bulkeley and USS Cole that were in the eastern Mediterranean on the ongoing missile defense mission.
“We do not know of any damage to aircraft or strategic military assets in Israel. In short, based on what we know at this point, this attack appears to have been defeated and ineffective,” Sullivan said.
At the same time, he called it a “significant escalation” by Iran.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris monitored the Iranian attack against Israel from the White House Situation Room and received regular updates from their national security team, Sullivan said.
The president had directed the U.S. military to aid Israel’s defense against Iranian attacks and to help shoot down missiles targeting Israel.
Earlier, before the strike began, Biden had posted on X that the U.S. was ready to help Israel defend against the Iranian missile attack.
He said as well that the U.S. was ready to protect American personnel in the region.
Asked at the briefing whether Biden would recommend Israel have a limited response as he did after Iran’s attack in Israel in April, Sullivan declined to say.
“I will not, from this podium, share the president’s recommendations. He will have the opportunity to share them directly. We’re going to have, as I said, ongoing consultations with the Israelis this afternoon and this evening. It is too early for me to tell you anything publicly in terms of our assessment or in terms of what our expectations are of the Israelis or the advice that we will give them,” he said.
Before the strike began, the Pentagon said Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant to discuss the threat of an imminent Iranian attack against Israel.
A spokesman said they spoke about severe consequences “in the event Iran chooses to launch a direct military attack against Israel.”
One of the first reactions from a congressional lawmaker came from from South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham who called Iran’s missile attack on Israel a “breaking point” and called for a response.
“I would urge the Biden Administration to coordinate an overwhelming response with Israel, starting with Iran’s ability to refine oil,” Graham said in a statement.
He called for oil refineries to be “hit and hit hard.”
President Biden had been scheduled to hold a call with rabbis ahead of the Jewish High Holidays but the White House said that call has now postponed.
House Speaker Mike Johnson was briefed on the Iranian strikes on Israel, according to his spokesperson.
“Pray for Israel,” Johnston said in a statement posted on X.
ABC News’ Luis Martinez and Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
