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Thunderbolt 12 tracks showers, storms Tuesday evening

Poughkeepsie leaders consider taking land back from county as youth center project stalls

Man with ties to Monroe goes missing while vacationing in Turks and Caicos

Rockland organizations that feed those in need speak out about federal budget bill

News 12 weather blog

hudsonvalley

News 12 Staff

LAWLERPHONERFIX

This morning. Uh We just mentioned the bipartisan legislation. You want to put forward anything else you'd like to say on that? Look, obviously, we want to ensure the safety and well being of all of these candidates running for president. Our democracy is vital and our election should be determined by votes at a ballot box, not by violence or bullets at a rally. Uh And so ensuring their safety enhancing security for all of the candidates inclusive of RFKJR, whose family has obviously been victim to an assassin's bullet twice is important and I think all precautions should be taken. This is something where we should have broad bipartisan consensus in Congress and in the executive branch. As we talk about how the events that unfolded on Saturday changed the political landscape from here on out. Obviously, this is one way, what else do you anticipate? Look, our country is at a turning point, you know that we are in a precarious place. This should not have happened. Uh Obviously, a lot of uh questions arise including how a uh assassin would have gotten on that rooftop with a clear line of sight at the former president. And we need to get to the bottom of that, uh, through these investigations. But, um, you know, I think what is critical in this moment, four months to go to this election is number one, everybody recognized that violence cannot occur. Absolutely. And I think we can all certainly agree with that, sir. I'm sorry to cut you. We are up against a hard break here. We appreciate the insight this morning as we continue to follow this imperative story to our nation.

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715WCmol2_2024-07-15-07-17-46

This morning. We are learning more details about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. He was injured by a shooter in Pennsylvania but is ok. That shooter has been identified now as 20 year old Thomas Matthew crooks, he was killed by secret service agents but not before killing one other person in attendance at this rally and entering two others. Joining us right now for reaction to this weekend's events is us. Congressman Mark Molinaro. You've had a little time to sit with this. Now, I I've been following you along on Twitter over the week on X over the week. Uh going from disbelief and now focus in on it seems mark on this investigation that you feel needs to take place. Where do you want that to go? Yeah, I think that's, you know, where most Americans are, we watched in shock and horror, the near assassination of President Trump. We're certainly saddened and extend our love and prayers to the family of the one individual whose life was taken and of course a to others that are injured, but we're at a point now where there are serious questions. This was a security failure the question is what among many, what, what went wrong, what was known and what, what, what reaction steps were taken to intervene. You know, it's Congress's responsibility to provide the appropriate oversight and, uh, we're, you know, we're going to initiate appropriate investigations. There, there are serious questions as to the failure of providing security and, and so I'll tell you that the House Oversight Committee, the House Homeland Security Committee are both initiating investigations. Uh There will be a conversation today with the head of the secret service. Uh, and the goal here is to identify what went wrong and then also what steps are being taken now to ensure that President Trump and President Biden have the appropriate security as the campaign and the election moves forward. And on that note, I mean, we are going from now this historical event that took place Saturday into immediately. It seems the RNC uh your thoughts on what will take place over the coming days there. Well, I mean, first, I will tell you that security has been stepped up, members and attendees have been advised of those steps and the precautions being taken. But I think you heard actually from President Trump himself late yesterday. I mean, first you have to acknowledge his resilience. There's little question this near death incident, um you know, is just shocking and here he is going, going off to Milwaukee for the National Convention. I think that what, what we'll hear is more of a unifying tone. I think that you're going to see uh a, a convention that, that is a little bit more somber and recognizes that in this country, we decide elections with votes, not violence at the ballot box, not with guns. And I think you're going to hear that from both speakers and throughout. But it, but again, you know, we, we, we witnessed a near assassination of the former president presidential candidate that is not how we engage in political discourse in this country. I think we all need to be careful with our language and actions. Uh And ultimately, I'm confident that both the constitution and democracy is strong enough and we ought to exercise that beliefs at the ballot box mark. Does this do anything to change or do you stand firm on who you believe is deserving of secret service protection as the election cycle does continue? Um I, you broke up a little bit there but II, I, we need to be certain that um President Trump is receiving adequate secret service protection. There's a measure by Congressman Lawler and Richie Torres to ensure that secret service protection is extended appropriately to Robert Kennedy as well. Here, here's where we are. We are in a tense moment in American history. We recognize that there's this great polarization and I'm sorry, but the language used to portray President Trump as some threat to national existence has to stop. This is not the kind of way in which we engage in elections. Um Again, the constitution, this democracy, this country is strong enough to weather an election. And I think that we, we ought to be choosing our language very carefully. But because of all of that, there's a obviously need to ensure that there's appropriate protection of all the candidates. And again, we're going to be engaged in an investigation that demands answers to what happened, but also to ensure in the immediacy right now that there are steps being taken to appropriately provide that protection and the American people will be wanting to know about that investigation as well. Of course, us, Congressman, Mark Bolino. Thank you for the time today. You're welcome, be. Well.

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LATIMERPHONERFIX

And joining us now for reaction to this weekend's tragic events, Westchester County Executive George latimer, your takeaway from what we saw on Saturday and what you anticipate we will see in the coming days and week. Well, so I think that there is a lesson to be learned from any of this horrific behavior is that we have to lower our voices and lower the um uh the intensity of what opposition to each other represents. President Trump uh was thankfully was not seriously injured in this, but there was loss of life and, and those who were critical, these are human lives that were put into play by an individual. You don't know what his motivation was. Was he doing this because of a political motivation? Was he trying to become famous? We'll find out these things in due time, but we can't have that kind of violence surrounding our political process. It, it is. And I think we, those of us who are in the process have an obligation to modify our rhetoric to talk about the things that we believe in, but not necessarily to vilify the people that we run against realistically though. How do we do that, the political tone across the country over years has grown so intense to the boiling point, words do matter. But when one side says one thing, the other has a tendency to go back. So how, how do we find this civility once again? Well, I think it's up to both the politicians and I may say up to the media. So both you and I to have a role to play here um to try to make sure that, that we enforce upon our people, our own party, that uh this type of behavior, this type of rhetoric is not welcomed. And by the same token that the media doesn't spotlight because you and I both know that a lot of attention is given to the people who say the most radical violent things. And I think we have to be able to uh to so self enforcement, we don't want structured enforcement. We want there to be self enforcement and that self enforcement comes from both the political world and the media world giving many people pause and uh a bit of a re evaluation. Of course, I think today as we continue to move forward because we are nowhere near done. Uh with this political cycle, obviously, elections still months away. And uh we have a lot more to talk about a bigger conversation needing to take place. Westchester County Executive, George Latimer. Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

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Local leaders joined News 12 this morning to discuss security and reaction to this weekend’s events. 

INTERVIEWS: Local Hudson Valley leaders discuss assassination attempt of former President Trump

Local leaders joined News 12 this morning to discuss security and reaction to this weekend’s events.

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