well you got to understand the golf
course is surrounded by Shrubbery so
some when somebody gets into the
Shrubbery they're pretty much out of
sight all right and at this level that
he is at right now he's not the city
president if he was we would have had to
hire a golf course around it but because
he's not the security is limited to the
areas that the Secret Service deems
possible the sheriff in Palm Beach
County Florida yesterday describing the
security situation at Donald Trump's
golf court after an apparent
assassination attempt on the former
president this morning there are still a
lot of questions about the suspect has
passed and whether the Secret Service is
doing enough to protect Donald Trump
we're going to go through all of that
for now the former president has not
made any changes to his campaign
schedule meanwhile his running mate made
the rounds on the Sunday shows defending
his and Trump's false claims about
migrants in Springfield Ohio will play
for you those new comments including JD
van seeming to admit the stories are
made up also I had new polling shows the
former president's lead is shrinking
significantly in a state he's easily won
in 2016 and 2020 it comes as more
Republicans are pledging their support
for vice president kamla Harris this
fall we'll read for you from uh what a
group of former staffers to President
Ronald Reagan are saying good morning
and welcome to Morning Joe it is Monday
September 16th uh a man is in custody
this morning after shots were fired in
what the FBI is calling an apparent
attempted assassination of Donald Trump
at his golf course in West Palm Beach
Florida yesterday shots were fired by
all reports from the Secret Service
toward the man the former president
posted on social media last night that
he was rushed to safety during the
incident stating quote it was certainly
an interesting day he also thanked
Secret Service and law enforcement
writing in all capital letters quote the
job was done absolutely outstanding
officials say Trump was playing a round
of golf near his marago home and around
2 p.m. when Secret Service agents
spotted a rifle with a scope in the
bushes outside the course and and and
they spotted it what what happens is
that uh the golf course for those who
who know the area the golf course is on
two very AC of streets there's a huge
perimeter and so what the Secret Service
do not only now but when Donald Trump
was President they would Advance the
holes and they would go a couple of
holes ahead of the president to make
sure uh that the coast was clear and you
as you will hear here even
though some of the press conference
wasn't as clear as it should have been
left left some questions open what
happened was the Secret Service went a
couple of holes ahead of the president
uh former president and they they saw a
a rifle sticking out uh they fired shots
and then the man uh ran away uh and and
he got caught uh soon after but the
Secret Service though did as horrible of
a job as they did in Butler as Lindsey
Graham said they're overworked they're
exhausted they don't have a life of
their own they need more resources and
yes they do need more resources
in this case though as Donald Trump said
they did an outstanding job something I
haven't said of the Secret Service
certainly after Butler in a very long
time I'll take a
lessen fortunately we were able to
locate a witness that came to us and
said hey I saw the guy running out of
the bushes he jumped into a black Nissan
and I took a picture of the vehicle and
the tank which was
great in the bushes where this guy was
is a AK-47 style rifle with a scope two
backpacks which were hung on the fence
that had a ceramic tile in them and a
GoPro which he was going to take
pictures
of so the tip from that witness helped
lead to an arrest the man was taken into
custody and was identified as
58-year-old Ryan Wesley Ruth according
to three senior law enforcement
officials his identity was not relased
released during yesterday's news
conference Trump left the golf course in
his motorcade a couple of hours later
and headed back to his Maraga Resort
that's according to a source familiar
with the matter a source tells NBC News
it will not affect Trump's campaign
scheduled this week which includes the
pl stops in Michigan North Carolina New
York and Washington DC vice president
kamla Harris released a statement that
she was quote deeply disturbed by the
possible assassination attempt of former
president Trump today adding that she is
thankful that Trump is safe yesterday's
incident occurred two months after an
attempt on the former president's life
in July at a campaign rally in
Pennsylvania so let's bring in NBC News
national law enforcement and
intelligence correspondent Tom winter
also with us the host of way too early
White House be Chief at Politico
Jonathan lamir and president of the
National Action Network and host of
msnbc's Politics Nation Reverend Al
Sharpton so Tom thanks so much for being
with us a couple of questions just to
just to make sure everybody that's
tuning in this morning has it clear uh
the Secret Service going a couple of
holes ahead of the president as they do
they keep a protective bubble around him
uh and the the Secret Service this point
actually kept that protective bubble
around saw a gun uh sticking out of the
bushes the guy was on the other side of
the perimeter he was not on the golf
course is that correct he was outside
the fence right and before he fired any
shots I guess he may have been getting
set up that's when the Secret Service
fired shots at him right that's exactly
right Joe so it's still a little unclear
whether or not he was able to get off a
shot or not we don't have any indication
of that uh at this point but there were
some initial reports of that either way
it was would have been directed towards
the Secret Service and not against the
former president Republican nominee to
your point yes it did does seem like the
plan here worked he is not Donald Trump
is not the president of the United
States if he was the president of the
United States that street would have
been blocked off there would have been
additional agents uh ahead of uh of of
where the president was if again if
Trump was in fact the president at the
time or if it was Joe Biden golfing on
that uh on that Golf Course for instance
in that street where this individual
peers to have set up to your point
exactly Joe there are a number of busy
streets that flank this course and that
person or at least that street would
have been blocked off and that person
would have had a really hard time
getting to that location the suspect's
been identified as Ryan Wesley Ralph he
was born in February of 1966 not clear
what the potential motive may have been
here you're looking at a photo of him I
believe this was taken in Ukraine where
he traveled to in 2022 this individual
uh espoused a number of strong
pro-ukrainian views and try to implore
Americans to travel there to help the
ukrainians after they were attacked and
invaded unprovoked by Russia so that's
something that uh that is out there
there as far as a political belief his
criminal history is extensive and that's
perhaps an understatement over a 100
charges lodged against him over the
years and so this morning while there's
no initial indication or any sort of
evidence uh that this individual may
have had an accomplice or somebody with
him at the golf course yesterday I think
there is a big question in law
enforcement circles as to how he was
able to purchase this weapon because it
would at least appear or some
indications that it would have been
prohibited by federal law and by state
law uh for buying this weapon and if in
fact somebody bought it for him uh
because he knew that he couldn't buy one
or somebody sold it to him illegally
well that's a potential additional
charge for uh somebody else we do expect
him to be charged federally I know
somebody who regularly appears on this
program State's Attorney Dave arenburg
yesterday said uh that in fact the feds
are going to take this over and they are
going to move forward with charges I
just checked uh as we were starting the
program the federal court docket in
Florida nothing has been unsealed or
filed yet that at least we can say
publicly but it'll be the US attorney's
office out of Miami that that will
likely bring this case yeah with a guy
with a wrap sheet this long uh it would
be very distressing if he were able able
to buy an AR15 style weapon uh and so
perhaps he did get some help there or
maybe he did what so many other people
do by buy their guns illegally um so uh
Jonathan lir uh a long wrap sheet from
this guy he actually in 2016 he
supported Donald Trump uh but then uh it
was disillusioned with Donald Trump well
before the Ukrainian War the Russian
Ukraine war the Russian invasion um and
saw some some possible support for other
Republican candidates in 2024 what do
you know yeah you're right there was on
his social media County it suggested
that he had backed Trump in 2016 and
then soured on him there was also some
tweets suggesting some support for Nikki
Haley
ramaswami uh you know and the like uh
his politics though fairly unclear at
this point um and certainly we should
give credit to the Secret Service as you
did uh Joe that that this is you know as
much as Butler County went wrong that
incident in Pennsylvania two months ago
it seems like yesterday they did
everything exactly right and these are
the sort of incidents that do happen
from time to time perhaps not as close
to the principle like this one was where
a man actually had a gun and Was
preparing to strike but there are
instance all the time where Secret
Service disrupts these uh sort of
incident where they'll they arrest
someone who posed some sort of threat to
the sitting president and Jonathan part
part of the confusion leading into the
press conference yesterday was it there
was just some bad misinformation that
came out very early people came out with
with with statements very early it
started with shots fired uh in the
vicinity of Donald Trump suggesting at
Donald Trump others there was stories
for a couple hours that secret service
saw the direction in which the shots
were fired from and then we find out out
later though it was jumbled at the press
conference we find out later uh that uh
it appears the only shots fired were
from the Secret Service toward the man
uh to to get him to do exactly what he
did right and no shots fired at Trump
who at that point was still several
holes away uh but was then was rushed to
safety um by the Secret Service so Tom
what more um do we know about this
individual uh you know and and is there
investing we're you know he's the
expected rayment today uh
we should learn I would think more than
but source is telling you anything about
motivation as to why he would have would
have done this and just also speak to us
a little bit more about just the danger
that these sort of Lone Wolf kind of ass
would be assassins pose sure so as far
as this individual we're not told he's
made any sort of statement apparently he
was very calm at the time of arrest he's
got experience being arrested but he was
apparently very calm at the time that he
was arrested so there were no statements
that were made there according to the
folks that we've spoken with uh Dave
arberg again said that on this network's
here last night so there's no indication
he's made any statements towards motive
as Joe pointed out as you pointed out
we've been talking about here this
morning about the political beliefs and
the things he's he's put on Twitter in
the past now X things that he's put on
his Facebook account both which have
been taken down at this stage uh there's
all sorts of different ideologies or
things that he wished happen politically
but does that necessarily me mean a
motive as it pertains to yesterday and
yesterday afternoon not necessarily so
obviously investigators are going to
have to be able to put that together you
know you talk about the the Lone Wolf
the person who isn't on anybody's radar
it just taking a step back in the
overall picture of security we are less
than a mile away here where we're
sitting this morning from the United
Nations and a week from today a week
from this morning over 100 for uh
foreign dignitaries leaders world
leaders world leaders that are tied up
with their countries in war talking
about you know Ukraine and Russia what's
going on in the Middle East with Israel
and Hezbollah and Iran so you put it all
together this is an enormous security
challenge for the Secret Service that is
always a huge security challenge for the
Secret Service now you've got this
backdrop and they can't wait for
Congress to start appropriating money
you know this week or next week they
can't wait for uh somebody to come up
with a new plan I think there are going
to be some very serious discussions and
I'm told they started last night how
does the rest of this presidential
campaign work uh with these candidates
crisscrossing the country country uh we
are told that the threats to Donald
Trump I mean quite obviously here from
what we've seen over the past two months
are very high but he's opponent vice
president kamla Harris the threats to
her are very high as well you've got
family members you've got running mates
for both of those candidates you still
have a president in the White House who
has the nuclear codes and all the things
that come with being the
commanderin-chief who uh deserves and is
required by law to have the protection
that Joe Biden has and so putting it all
together what is going to happen here
going forward and how much of a lean
will the Secret Service have to put on
local law enforcement how much of a lean
will the Department of Homeland Security
have to put on its other agencies to say
these guys need some help they just need
bodies out there it's very different
than normal law enforcement work so it's
not something where you can just say
okay one day I'm investigating a crime I
can switch over to protecting somebody
no it's very different it's a special
skill set and special training but they
definitely need additional help it
appears based on the people that I'm
talking to and I think you know you
start talking about family members you
talk talk about family members that are
very much out in the open uh that have
protection I think that that's uh uh
something that's going to take a hard
look and what does that mean for our
country uh but these individuals that
are out there that have sought now twice
in the last two months uh to uh attempt
to assassinate or actually get close to
with respect to Butler Pennsylvania
within a inch or two of perhaps an
assassination uh I think raises serious
concerns for us as a country moving
forward if people think they solve their
political issues and their problems by
showing up outside of a golf course with
a with a semi-automatic rifle if that's
what's going to continue going forward
then I think that changes things uh in a
very negative way