“What we did yesterday proves the system can work,” the county sheriff said.

The Secret Service on Monday defended its protective plan for former President Donald Trump as “textbook” and “exemplary” after foiling a possible assassination attempt over the weekend.

“The Secret Service’s protective methodologies work, and they are sound and we saw that yesterday,” Acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said in a press conference at the county sheriff’s office in West Palm Beach. The director said the agent on the scene fired “immediately” toward the suspect as soon as he saw the barrel of the weapon — a move he said was emblematic of the Secret Service’s “hypervigilance.” The suspect didn’t have line of sight of Trump, he added, and wasn’t able to get any shots off at the agents who were sweeping the course.

Rowe nevertheless acknowledged that the agency needed to move from a “reactive model” to a “readiness model” and said the agency was talking to members of Congress about getting additional resources. He noted that many large events since the first assassination attempt against Trump had gone off without security threats, including the Republican National Convention, the Democratic National Convention, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu’s visit to Washington, D.C., and the presidential debate in Philadelphia.

The second apparent assassination attempt against Donald Trump in as many months is raising new alarms about whether the Secret Service can adequately protect the former president or whether more needs to be done to bolster the security of the Republican presidential candidate even though he’s not in office.

While Secret Service agents on Sunday prevented the potential shooter from firing at Trump while golfing at his West Palm Beach course – unlike the would-be assassin in Butler, Pennsylvania – questions are again swirling about how another gunman was able to get within several hundred yards of the former president, especially given the outing was not a publicly announced event.

The second apparent assassination attempt against Donald Trump in as many months is raising new alarms about whether the Secret Service can adequately protect the former president or whether more needs to be done to bolster the security of the Republican presidential candidate even though he’s not in office.

While Secret Service agents on Sunday prevented the potential shooter from firing at Trump while golfing at his West Palm Beach course – unlike the would-be assassin in Butler, Pennsylvania – questions are again swirling about how another gunman was able to get within several hundred yards of the former president, especially given the outing was not a publicly announced event.

“He’s a former president running for reelection again. We have to be able to keep him safe,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat and member of the congressional task force now investigating both assassination attempts, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Sunday. “This is getting embarrassing for the agency, and people in Congress are bewildered why we’re in this situation now for a second time.”

Political violence is an intolerable threat to our nation. It isn’t the only one.

Again an attempt on Donald Trump’s life is foiled, thank God and the Secret Service. And again the question arises: Isn’t the other side’s rhetoric getting a little too extreme?

JD Vance sure thinks so. “Look, we can disagree with one another. We can debate one another,” Trump’s running mate fretted at a Georgia Faith & Freedom Coalition event yesterday. “But we cannot tell the American people that one candidate is a fascist and if he is elected it’s going to be the end of American democracy.”

Trump, however, said the Secret Service did an “absolutely outstanding” job.

“I think it’s a failure, 100%,” said security expert Carrie Bachner, referring to the latest incident. Bachner is the CEO of the Bachner Group and a former adviser to the Department of Homeland Security’s undersecretary for intelligence and analysis.

In last Friday’s Mailbag post, I put out a call: I wanted to hear from people who either were planning to vote for Donald Trump or could articulate the views of someone voting for the former president.

Why? Because he got 74 million votes in 2020. And was elected president four years earlier. And he has basically a coin-flip chance of being president again in 7 weeks time.

Too many people — especially liberals — dismiss ALL Trump voters as dumb.

Gun politics is defined in the United States by two primary opposing ideologies concerning the private ownership of firearms. Those who advocate for gun control support increasingly restrictive regulation of gun ownership; those who advocate for gun rights oppose increased restriction, or support the liberalization of gun ownership.

These groups typically disagree on the interpretation of the text, history and tradition of the laws and judicial opinions concerning gun ownership in the United States and the meaning of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. American gun politics involves these groups’ further disagreement concerning the role of firearms in public safety, the studied effects of ownership of firearms on public health and safety, and the role of guns in national and state crime

There are 34 senate races on the ballot in 2024. Currently 23 seats are held by Democrats and 11 by Republicans.

This post has summaries of the most competitive senate races according to most polls as shown in the map.

Go here or select the menu in the header to view all the senate races in a slide show format.

Despite urgent warnings, Congress is on track to leave the fight against deepfakes and deception to states and agencies.

Congress appears unlikely to pass any of the laws it has been promising to safeguard this year’s election from the threat of artificial intelligence.

With experts warning about threats to democracy from AI deepfakes that mislead voters, lawmakers said they had to act — and they introduced multiple bills this year that could have banned deepfakes in elections and mandated clear labels on AI-generated content. Despite the appetite for laws and some bipartisan support, those efforts are foundering.

But interviews with lawmakers and Hill staff and a reading of fall’s brief remaining legislative schedule suggest that time has already run out for what was supposed to be a top priority — protecting elections from a powerful tool of deception.

Lying in Wait for 12 Hours, Associated Press
Ryan Wesley Routh camped outside Trump’s Florida golf course for nearly 12 hours with food and a rifle before being thwarted by the Secret Service, leading to his arrest on federal firearms charges.

Amazon: Back to the Office 5X Per Week, Axios
Amazon will enforce a five-day office return in 2025, sparking backlash as CEO Andy Jassy dismisses hybrid work preferences despite employees’ petition against in-person mandates.

What We Know About Would-Be Assassin, NBC News
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, a former Trump supporter with a long criminal history, grew disillusioned with Trump and later claimed involvement in Ukraine military recruitment.

Why Does Gov’t. Pay Heating, Not Cooling?, Politico
Despite extreme heat becoming the deadliest U.S. weather event, federal policies prioritize heating over cooling, leaving millions without aid to survive rising temperatures.