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MORNING REPORT

PRESENTED BY

Tuesday, September 17

by Alexis Simendinger & Kristina Karisch

Will two assassination attempts alter the election?

It is impossible to gauge this morning whether an assassination attempt in July and an apparent thwarted attempt Sunday directed at former President Trump will change the presidential race.

Yet, it put the Secret Service back in the headlines and sparked a bipartisan push in Washington to rethink the election-season strains on Secret Service manpower in today's complex threat environment.

The Hill's Niall Stanage: The Memo: Attempt on Trump's life reverberates in White House race.
The New York Times: "The shock from the shooting in Butler [Pa.] wore off relatively quickly as attention turned to other developments. The shock from this one may not last any longer."

President Biden and his predecessor spoke "cordially" by phone Monday, according to the former president and the White House. Biden repeated his relief that the former president was safe, according to his team. "In America, there is no place for political violence," Biden told reporters Monday.

In America, we resolve our differences peacefully at the ballot box, not at the end of a gun," he said during an event in Philadelphia while sidestepping obvious U.S. exceptions.

Trump, in a statement issued by his campaign, said, "We had a very nice call. It was about Secret Service protection."

Biden commended the protective agency established in 1865 but suggested "it needs more help." As the sitting president, he has authority to confer with the Department of Homeland Security (which also consults with Congress) about maintaining continuity of government (for instance, safeguarding Vice President Harris), as well as security for former presidents, such as Trump, who receive lifetime Secret Service protection.

Trump, as a presidential candidate nearing an election — and one clearly targeted for harm — receives enhanced federal protection, which has been fortified several times.

Trump's protective detail has been larger than some of his peers' because of his high visibility. His security was bolstered days before the July assassination attempt in Pennsylvania because of a threat on Trump's life from Iran, U.S. officials said.

Suspect Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was arrested after idling for nearly 12 hours with a rifle and gear in woods near a South Florida golf course where Trump was playing. There was no Secret Service sweep of the grounds before the former president arrived on the course. A Secret Service agent who spotted a muzzle in some shrubbery shot at the suspect, who fled; no one was injured. Routh did not discharge his weapon and never had a clear line of sight to the former president, who was about 300 to 500 yards away. The suspect made a getaway on foot and in an SUV before he was taken into custody, according to law enforcement authorities.

RENEWED FOCUS ON ANGRY RHETORIC? Trump and many others have revived debate about the nation's angry political speech and desensitization to speech that has become more commonplace, is amplified online and is in some cases marketed as extremism or entertainment.

Early Monday, the Republican presidential nominee who is world famous for rhetorically targeting foes with suggestions of dire punishments, blamed Biden and Harris.

"Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out," Trump told Fox News Digital. "They use highly inflammatory language," he asserted. "I can use it too — far better than they can — but I don't."

Routh, who was charged with gun crimes, as recently as 2020 expressed support for Trump online but moved to support Biden and Harris — as well as Ukraine during its war with Russia.

Trump, who has been fundraising with references to assassination attempts, used Truth Social on Monday to say Biden and Harris have "taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust. Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!"

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) visited Trump Sunday at Mar-a-Lago and advocated in Washington for increased protection for the former president. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) suggested Democrats will support additional funding for the Secret Service as part of a pending stopgap spending measure, which must be cleared and signed into law before Sept. 30 to avert a shutdown. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), a Trump ally who is seeking reelection, said he introduced legislation that would increase Secret Service security for the former president.

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY

Russia's army will grow by 180,000 troops to 1.5 million active service members in a move that would make it the second largest fighting force in the world after China's.
Boeing, seeking to cut costs amid a strike, began a hiring freeze and is contemplating temporary worker furloughs.
Amazon will require workers to return to the office five days a week starting next year.

Leading the Day

Congress

SHUTDOWN WATCH: Senate Republicans say if the Speaker can't get a short-term government funding bill passed by Wednesday or Thursday, they may take matters into their own hands, working with Democrats to pass a "clean" stopgap measure and jam the House. The Hill's Alexander Bolton reports patience is running thin with Johnson and members of the House Freedom Caucus after internal divisions forced the Speaker to pull a six-month stopgap bill from the floor last week.

"I don't like a shutdown, period," said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). "Whether close to an election or not, it wastes money. It costs taxpayers more money. They don't save, they lose. If we're protecting taxpayer resources, which is supposedly part of our job, we have to find a way to not have a shutdown."

There's growing pressure on the House from GOP senators to abandon Johnson's plans and only extend funding until December to avoid hurting military programs and to clear the decks ahead of a potential second Trump administration. The Hill's Mychael Schnell and Emily Brooks report Johnson is now confronting few options to prevent a government shutdown, and all of them with risks.

Either he pushes forward with his six-month stopgap bill — which includes funding for a Trump-backed bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote and is a nonstarter for Democrats — or he switches gears to work across the aisle on the clean funding bill. The latter is sure to draw ire from Trump and congressional conservatives.

EITHER WAY, Johnson is left with an unenviable hand, and how he plays it could have wide-ranging implications for November's elections and the future of his own political career.

"I suspect — I can't get inside his head — but he understands that to save his job he's got to put the majority at risk," said Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.). "To save the majority, he's got to put his job at risk."

The Hill: Democratic lawmakers are calling out soaring executive compensation at three for-profit nursing home providers as the industry fights new minimum staffing requirements that apply to virtually every facility in the U.S.

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Where and When

The House meets at noon. The Senate will be in session at 10 a.m.

The president will participate in a briefing at 11:15 a.m. about the wildfire season. Biden will receive the President's Daily Brief at 12:45 p.m. He will meet with World Bank President Ajay Banga at 2:15 p.m. in the Oval Office.

The vice president will be in Philadelphia for a panel discussion at 2:30 p.m. with journalists who are members of the National Association of Black Journalists, to be broadcast and streamed. She will return to Washington.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to Egypt.

The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 1:30 p.m.

Zoom In

POLITICS & CAMPAIGNS

UNION ENDORSEMENT? Harris had a tense hour-long meeting Monday with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, telling leaders at the conclusion of the discussion, "I'm confident I'm going to win this," and adding, "I want your endorsement, but if I don't get it, I will treat you exactly as if I had gotten your endorsement," The New York Times reported.

The Teamsters, with its 1.3 million members, could endorse a candidate in the presidential race as soon as Wednesday. Its endorsement process has been closely watched since its president, Sean O'Brien, became the first Teamster leader in its 121-year history to speak at the Republican National Convention.

O'Brien called Harris a "very polished person" and said they discussed issues important to the Teamsters, including the Protecting the Right to Organize Act and a veto on any national right to work. The Teamsters held roundtable discussions with Trump in January and Biden in March. When asked how Harris's roundtable compared to Biden's, O'Brien said, "There wasn't a whole lot of difference."

"Joe Biden's been great for unions," O'Brien said. "Joe Biden's, you know, obviously done a lot of work and we want to make sure that that work is carried on by whoever."

2024 ROUNDUP

Trump-Vance schedule: Trump is booked for an evening rally in Flint, Mich. Running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) today plans campaign events in Sparta, Mich., and Eau Claire, Wis.
Harris-Walz schedule: A taped Harris interview with Nueva Network radio host Stephanie "Chiquibaby" Himonidis will air today after 10 a.m. ET nationally. The vice president will join a panel discussion at 2:30 p.m. in Philadelphia carried by public broadcasting's WHYY and featuring members of the National Association of Black Journalists from various news outlets. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) will host campaign events in Georgia (Macon at 10 a.m. and Atlanta in the afternoon). He'll headline a rally in Asheville, N.C., in the evening.
The vice president has a narrow lead over Trump within the margin of error in Pennsylvania and two of the state's key bellwether counties, according to a trio of USA TODAY/Suffolk University polls taken after last week's debate.
Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D) holds a lead over former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in the state's senate race, according to a new The Hill/DC News Now/Emerson College poll. Alsobrooks leads Hogan 49 percent ro 42 percent among likely Maryland voters.
Trump on Monday announced from Mar-a-Lago the debut of a new cryptocurrency platform called World Liberty Financial to be controlled by sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
Mark Meadows, Trump's former White House chief of staff, failed to convince a judge that his criminal case related to the 2020 election in Arizona should be moved to federal court.
Republican challenger David McCormick, competing against Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), finds his hedge fund CEO days are a double-edged sword in the campaign.
With Harris — the second Black woman ever elected to the Senate — at the top of the ticket and Senate seats open, Democrats could for the first time send two Black women to the chamber.
Academic and activist Cornel West, an independent presidential candidate, won't be on the ballot in Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court decided Monday in upholding a lower court's ruling.
🎵Gee flat: Eighty-one percent of respondents said Taylor Swift's endorsement of Harris for president would not affect their candidate preference, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released Monday.

Elsewhere

INTERNATIONAL

CEASE-FIRE TALKS: The State Department on Monday announced ongoing efforts to broker a cease-fire in Gaza, working with regional partners Egypt and Qatar. Officials are developing a revised proposal aimed at ending the conflict between Israel and Hamas, but no specific timeline has been provided (Haaretz).

Israel's defense minister, Yoav Gallant, told a senior Biden adviser Monday that "military action" was "the only way" to end months of cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese militia. Senior administration official Amos Hochstein traveled to Israel to meet with Gallant and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an attempt to prevent Israel's long-simmering conflict with the Iranian-backed militia from escalating into a broader war. But Gallant's comments dampened the hopes of a diplomatic solution (The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal).

Reuters: Reports that Netanyahu was considering firing Gallant shook the political landscape Monday.
The Washington Post: Gripped by despair, Israel's hostage families try to keep hope alive.

Ukraine said Monday it had asked the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to join humanitarian efforts in Russia's Kursk region following a cross-border incursion by Ukrainian forces. President Volodymyr Zelensky says Kyiv has taken control of about 100 settlements, while Russia's Defense Ministry said Monday it had regained control of two more villages (Reuters).

The Wall Street Journal: The number of Ukrainians and Russians killed or wounded in the grinding 2 1/2-year war has reached roughly one million, a staggering toll that two countries struggling with shrinking prewar populations will pay far into the future.
NPR: Inside Scranton, Pa., the U.S. city churning out Ukrainian weapons.

Opinion

It's the guns. It's always the guns, by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), guest essayist, The New York Times.
Protect Trump, whatever the cost, by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), guest essayist, The Washington Post.

The Closer

And finally … 🎂 Former President Jimmy Carter, who will be 100 on Oct. 1, will be feted today during a musical gala in his honor in Atlanta.

Artists Chuck Leavell, D-Nice, Drive-By Truckers, Eric Church, GROUPLOVE, Maren Morris and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chamber Chorus are booked to perform during the ticketed event at the Fox Theatre. Former Atlanta Braves star Dale Murphy, Atlanta rap artist Killer Mike and actor Sean Penn are expected to participate, according to the Carter Center, which calls the evening "a celebration in song."

Carter during his career enjoyed music and campaigned with the Allman Brothers, hosted jazz great Dizzy Gillespie at the White House and sang hymns with Willie Nelson. A lifelong Baptist and Naval Academy graduate, he long ago asked the Navy Glee Club to perform the Navy hymn, "Eternal Father Strong to Save," during his state funeral. The 39th president has received hospice care in Plains, Ga., since February 2023.