| | | | |  | | By Eugene Daniels, Rachael Bade and Ryan Lizza | Presented by the Coalition to Preserve American Jobs | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
|  | SPECIAL REPORT | | Good evening, Playbookers. We’re bringing you another special report 24 hours after the attempted assassination of former President DONALD TRUMP and about an hour before sitting President JOE BIDEN delivers a rare Oval Office address on the deadly shooting.
|  President Joe Biden addresses the nation earlier today. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images | At 8 p.m., Biden will go on camera from behind the Resolute desk — a solemn setting he has chosen to use only twice before: last June, to mark the passage of legislation averting a federal default, and in October, to discuss the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. White House officials are keeping mum on details of the speech, but you can expect Biden to deliver a heartfelt call for national unity and a condemnation of political violence, with all the gravitas the moment demands. “He’s horrified by the attack,” a Biden aide told Playbook. “[O]pposing political violence is at the core of who he is and what he wants for the country. It’s not what he wants America to be experiencing. He’s using the platform he has to say that this is not who we are and that we all need to come together against any kind of violence, whatever our views.” Remember that Biden frequently cites the white nationalist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 for his decision to run against Trump, and while similar themes will likely animate his remarks tonight, he is not expected to take political digs at his wounded rival. “This is time to be president, not candidate. The campaign will resume at the right moment,” one senior Biden campaign official told our colleagues Myah Ward and Lauren Egan. “But he has to speak to all Americans now, especially those who won’t vote for him.”
| | | | A message from the Coalition to Preserve American Jobs: IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel is telling 150,000-300,000 small businesses with low risk Employee Retention Credit claims to wait longer for relief they desperately need. That’s wrong.
Former IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig told POLITICO, “The already identified low risk ERC claims, submitted by struggling businesses, should be approved immediately.” American businesses can’t afford to wait longer for overdue aid. Urge the IRS to process low risk ERC claims immediately. Visit ERCSavesJobs.com/take-action. | | | We’ll also note that Biden appears to be making a concerted effort to stay in the public eye as the aftermath of the Pennsylvania shooting. He got in front of cameras earlier today at the White House to offer a brief update on the investigations taking place, call for an independent review of any security lapses and offer a plea for calm. “In this kind of moment, reinforcement is important,” the Biden aide added. Biden will have yet another opportunity to deliver that message tomorrow, in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt that will take place on the first day of the Republican National Convention — where Trump is expected to make his first public appearance since the shooting.
| | | | A message from the Coalition to Preserve American Jobs:   | | | ON WISCONSIN … Trump has just landed in Milwaukee after posting on Truth Social earlier today that the show would go on: “Based on yesterday’s terrible events, I was going to delay my trip to Wisconsin, and The Republican National Convention, by two days, but have just decided that I cannot allow a ‘shooter,’ or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else.” Trump himself has been working the phones incessantly, Jason Beeferman and Natalie Allison report from Milwaukee, calling foreign leaders, GOP allies and friendly media personalities to project strength and resolve. “He’s bounced back, and he’ll be here,” former Speaker NEWT GINGRICH told POLITICO.
|  Donald Trump has been working the phones since surviving an assassination attempt. | Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo | Our colleague Lisa Kashinsky previews the big week ahead, which is now taking place under radically different circumstances: “The former president is poised to announce his running mate — a high-stakes moment for his campaign and the subject of much speculation in recent weeks and months that is now being overshadowed, at least temporarily, by the threat to his life.” For now, the former president and his campaign have stuck largely (and uncharacteristically) to calls for unity and calm. But it’s a presidential nominating convention, after all, and we’re not expecting that solemn tone to continue all week. The Biden campaign, for its part, has been on pause after the shooting but is expecting to reengage politically as the week rolls on, we’re told. “Following the president’s interview Monday evening, both the DNC and the campaign will continue drawing the contrast between our positive vision for the future and Trump and Republicans’ backwards-looking agenda over the course of the week,” a Biden campaign aide told Playbook this afternoon.
| | | | Understand 2024’s big impacts with Pro’s extensive Campaign Races Dashboard, exclusive insights, and key coverage of federal- and state-level debates. Focus on policy. Learn more. | | | | | ON THE SHOOTING … Authorities earlier today identified the man killed at the rally: COREY COMPERATORE, 50, a former volunteer fire chief who was struck by gunshots while with his family at the event in Butler, Pennsylvania. Gov. JOSH SHAPIRO told the press that Comperatore “died a hero” and “dove on his family to protect them” at the rally. More from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Laura Esposito Reporters are also scrambling to learn more about the alleged shooter, 20-year-old THOMAS MATTHEW CROOKS of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, a Pittsburgh suburb. So far, the breadcrumbs leading to a motive are few. Federal law enforcement officials told reporters this afternoon that they believe Crooks acted alone and that they have not yet identified any particular ideology he subscribed to. “The F.B.I. has not found a manifesto, and the suspect had never been under F.B.I. investigation,” the NYT reports. “Mr. Crooks did not have an unusual online history for a 20-year-old man. He liked to play chess, video games and was learning how to code, according to a review of his online activities. Two former classmates who attended Bethel Park High School with the gunman said they had not noticed any obvious warning signs.” We’re also learning new details about the circumstances surrounding the shooting, including some stunning reporting from the AP: “A local law enforcement officer climbed to the roof and found Crooks, who pointed the rifle at the officer. The officer then retreated down the ladder, and the gunman quickly fired toward Trump, the officials said. That’s when U.S. Secret Service gunmen shot him, the officials said.”
| | | | A message from the Coalition to Preserve American Jobs: IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel is telling 150,000-300,000 small businesses with low risk Employee Retention Credit claims that they will have to wait even longer for relief they desperately need. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Former IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig told POLITICO, “The already identified low risk ERC claims, submitted by struggling businesses, should be approved immediately.” Instead of following the law, Commissioner Werfel has unilaterally acted to make our nation’s small businesses unnecessarily suffer for months on end. American businesses can’t afford to wait longer for overdue aid. Urge the IRS to process low risk ERC claims immediately. Visit ERCSavesJobs.com/take-action. | | | ON THE INVESTIGATIONS … We’re expecting intense focus on the Secret Service in the coming days, weeks and months, as questions persist about how Crooks was able to clamber onto a roof just 150 yards from where Trump stood and fire multiple shots from a rifle that, according to ABC, had been purchased legally by his father. Some early questions identified by WaPo’s Carol Leonnig, Isaac Stanley-Becker and Josh Dawsey center on the Secret Service’s reliance on local law enforcement agencies to secure the Pennsylvania event: “Secret Service spokesman ANTHONY GUGLIELMI confirmed Sunday that the agency relied on local police at the Trump rally to fill out significant parts of its typical array of specialized protective units — including its heavily-armed counter assault team that provided cover as Trump’s detail evacuated him and the counter sniper teams that ultimately spotted and killed the shooter.” Expect lots of focus on these questions from Capitol Hill, where lawmakers of both parties are working to get answers from Secret Service Director KIMBERLY CHEATLE and other officials. “The inevitable formal inquiries into the shooting,” Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney write, “will raise fundamental questions about how the U.S. can protect dignitaries at a time of bitter polarization and widespread access to firearms.”
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