New details emerge on Trump shooting incident

POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington.
Sep 16, 2024 View in browser
 
Playbook PM

By Garrett Ross

THE CATCH-UP

HISTORIC INTERVIEW — President JOE BIDEN sat down with The Washington Blade, marking the first time that a sitting president has given an exclusive interview to an LGBTQ+ news outlet.

A bite from the interview: “On LGBTQ issues more broadly, Biden said, ‘I think there are a lot of really good Republicans that I’ve served with, especially in the Senate, who don’t have a prejudiced bone in their body about this but are intimidated. Because if you take a position, especially in the MAGA Republican Party now, you’re going to be — they’re going to go after you,’ he added. ‘Trump is a different breed of cat. I mean, I don’t want to make this political, but everything he’s done has been anti, anti-LGBTQ, I mean, across the board.’” Read the full story, by Christopher Kane

A Department of Homeland Security officer, left, prepares to block traffic for a prisoner transport van at the Paul G. Rogers Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, where a man suspected in an apparent assassination attempt targeting former President Donald Trump, was charged with federal gun crimes, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

DOJ filed charges in federal court in Florida this morning relating to the shooting incident at Donald Trump's golf club. | AP

TRUMP SHOOTING LATEST — The Justice Department filed charges against RYAN ROUTH, the 58-year-old North Carolina man whom authorities apprehended in connection with the Secret Service shooting incident Sunday in Palm Beach, Florida, a few hundred yards from where former President DONALD TRUMP was playing golf.

Routh appeared in federal court in West Palm Beach this morning for a brief hearing, where he was charged in a criminal complaint with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, a detail that was scooped by WSJ’s Sadie Gurman.

A new detail: The filing revealed that Routh may have been camped out waiting for Trump to appear for more than 11 hours, Josh Gerstein reports. “Cell phone location data obtained by the FBI indicates that Routh ‘was located in the vicinity of the area of the tree line’ at the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach from just before 2:00 a.m. Sunday until about 1:30 p.m., FBI Special Agent MARK THOMAS wrote.”

“While the FBI said Sunday that they were investigating the event as an apparent assassination attempt, the initial criminal counts against Routh were limited to the gun charges and did not include a specific charge of attempted assassination or any violent offense.” Read the full filing

Back in D.C., the reactions to the incident are still spilling out, with growing calls for the Secret Service to step up its protection of the former president.

  • From the White House: “One thing I want to make clear is: The Service needs more help. And I think Congress should respond to their need,” Biden told reporters at the White House this morning, per Jonathan Lemire. Biden did add that the agency would have to “decide whether they need more personnel or not.”
  • From Capitol Hill: Speaker MIKE JOHNSON said during an appearance on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” that he will demand Trump “have every asset available” as part of his security detail. Johnson added that he’s open to making more resources available if needed — though he said he doesn’t believe the issue is one of funding. “President Trump needs the most coverage of anyone. He’s the most attacked. He’s the most threatened,” Johnson said, chalking it up to an issue of “man-power allocation.”

HARRIS FUELS UP FUNDRAISING — In a major funding move, VP KAMALA HARRIS’ campaign “sent a signal to deep-pocketed donors Monday by blessing the work of 13 independent groups that could help elect the vice president over the final 50 days through advertising, registration or other voter mobilization efforts,” WaPo’s Michael Scherer reports.

“The list includes operations that the Biden campaign previously embraced, including the principal advertising super PAC, Future Forward, along with American Bridge 21st Century, which is advertising in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, and Priorities USA, which has been doing digital spots to support the Democratic ticket. The list also included six groups that focus on persuading and turning out specific constituencies that Harris has identified as crucial for November, including several that have partnered with Future Forward on advertising campaigns.”

Good Monday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at gross@politico.com.

6 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

New York Mayor Eric Adams is pictured in sunglasses.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is staring down a swirl of investigations across his administration. | Julia Nikhinson/AP

1. THE MOUNTING MORASS: A wave of corruption scandals is crashing down on NYC Mayor ERIC ADAMS’ administration as federal probes focus their attention on his inner circle.

The big picture: “Adams is now entering an already fraught 2025 re-election bid under the cloud of at least four separate federal investigations — a political and legal onslaught that New York Democrats broadly expect to ramp up in the coming weeks and months,” CNN’s Gregory Krieg, Mark Morales and Gloria Pazmino write.

The latest shoe to drop: “Two high-ranking New York Fire Department chiefs were arrested early Monday on federal bribery and corruption charges that accuse them of taking nearly $100,000 apiece in a scheme to expedite safety inspections,” NYT’s William Rashbaum and Michael Rothfeld report. “There is no indication that the case is related to any of the four separate federal corruption investigations swirling around Mayor Eric Adams, his campaign and some of his most senior aides. The inquiry focused on the mayor is being conducted by the same agencies that investigated the chiefs.”

Related read: “Pressure Grows on Mayor Adams as Key Officials Leave Amid Investigations,” by NYT’s Emma Fitzsimmons

2. ABORTION FALLOUT: ProPublica’s Kavitha Surana reports on the story of a 28-year-old woman in Georgia who died because she could not receive an abortion in a timely manner due to state law — one of two such cases that the harrowing report found.

“In her final hours, AMBER NICOLE THURMAN suffered from a grave infection that her suburban Atlanta hospital was well-equipped to treat. She’d taken abortion pills and encountered a rare complication; she had not expelled all of the fetal tissue from her body. She showed up at Piedmont Henry Hospital in need of a routine procedure to clear it from her uterus, called a dilation and curettage, or D&C.

“But just that summer, her state had made performing the procedure a felony, with few exceptions. Any doctor who violated the new Georgia law could be prosecuted and face up to a decade in prison. Thurman waited in pain in a hospital bed, worried about what would happen to her 6-year-old son, as doctors monitored her infection spreading, her blood pressure sinking and her organs beginning to fail. It took 20 hours for doctors to finally operate. By then, it was too late.”

3. WHAT THEY DO IN THE SHADOWS: AP’s Ryan Foley and Brian Slodysko take a peek under the hood of the Patriots Run Project, a shadowy group that over the past year has “recruited Trump supporters to run as independent candidates in key swing districts where they could siphon votes from Republicans in races that will help determine which party controls the House next year.” The recruits, who all described themselves as “retired, disabled — or both,” include two in Iowa, and one each in Nebraska, Montana, Virginia and Minnesota.

“The group’s operation provides few clues about its management, financing or motivation. But interviews, text messages, emails, business filings and other documents reviewed by the AP show that a significant sum has been spent — and some of it traces back to Democratic consulting firms.”

4. WHAT THE FRACK: While a lot of policy focus surrounding Pennsylvania centers on fracking, the campaigns are missing out on an issue that has taken over as the primary concern for energy businesses and farmers in the Keystone State: low natural gas prices. “The state’s hilly southwest, where gas extends beneath homes and river valleys, is so awash in the fuel that prices have cratered, drilling has slowed and thousands of jobs have disappeared,” NYT’s Rebecca Elliott reports.

“While Pennsylvania and energy policy are contested battlegrounds between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump, the bleak reality of the gas business in the state has been obscured by sparring over horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking”

5. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: AMOS HOCHSTEIN, one of Biden’s chief advisers is traveling to Israel today, where he is expected to meet with Israeli PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU and Defense Minister YOAV GALLANT “amid deepening concern that months of cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese militia, could escalate into a larger regional war,” NYT’s Liam Stack reports from Tel Aviv.

“Statements by Israeli officials in recent days suggest that the window for negotiating a political settlement to the spiraling conflict in the north might be closing. Mr. Gallant said on Monday that he had informed U.S. Defense Secretary LLOYD J. AUSTIN III in an overnight phone call that time was ‘running out’ for a diplomatic solution.”

6. THE STAINED-GLASS CEILING: In Kenyon, Minnesota, AP’s Giovanna Dell'Orto takes a look at Midwestern Lutheranism, which has been a point of interest since Minnesota Gov. TIM WALZ joined the Harris ticket. If their ticket wins in November, Walz would be the first Lutheran elected vice president.

Minnesotans describe Lutherans there as a “welcoming, open-minded community,” including by those who belong to the faith. “But the ways Midwest Lutherans live that faith in the public sphere — on social and political hot-button issues from immigrant integration to LGBTQ+ rights — can be as different as a marshmallow-topped hotdish from a prickly pear cactus salad.”

PLAYBOOKERS

Connie Chung has a dishy book out tomorrow.

Bradley Tusk is making the case for mobile voting in a new book.

Vivek Ramaswamy is heading to Fox Nation.

TRANSITIONS — Robert Hur and Leah Grossi are joining King & Spalding’s special matters and government investigations practice as partners. Hur previously was the special counsel investigating Biden’s retention of classified documents. Grossi previously was senior counsel in DOJ’s Office of Legislative Affairs. … Will Mascaro is now policy adviser for the Senate Steering Committee. He previously was a legislative assistant for Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).

Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.

Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us at 202-556-3307. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike DeBonis, deputy editor Zack Stanton and Playbook Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.

 

Follow us on Twitter

Rachael Bade @rachaelmbade

Eugene Daniels @EugeneDaniels2

Ryan Lizza @RyanLizza

Eli Okun @eliokun

Garrett Ross @garrett_ross

 

Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family

Playbook  |  Playbook PM  |  California Playbook  |  Florida Playbook  |  Illinois Playbook  |  Massachusetts Playbook  |  New Jersey Playbook  |  New York Playbook  |  Ottawa Playbook  |  Brussels Playbook  |  London Playbook

View all our politics and policy newsletters

Follow us

Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Instagram Listen on Apple Podcast
 

To change your alert settings, please log in at https://login.politico.com/?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com/settings

This email was sent to salenamartine360.news1@blogger.com by: POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA

Unsubscribe | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service

Post a Comment

Previous Post Next Post