The US Secret Service postponed a meeting on Monday where it was due to field questions from Congress about why agents failed to prevent a gunman from almost killing Donald Trump, as the agency increases protection for the former president. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle had been due to brief the House Homeland Security Committee on Monday. President Joe Biden has ordered an independent review, and Republican lawmakers vowed swift investigations. Read our liveblog to see how all the day's events unfolded.
Summary:
- The US Secret Service said on Monday it would participate fully in probes announced by President Joe Biden and members of Congress after its agents failed to prevent a gunman from shooting and wounding former president Donald Trump over the weekend.
- Former US president Donald Trump arrived in Wisconsin on Monday to attend the Republican National Convention, where he is set to be confirmed as the party's presidential candidate. Some 50,000 Republicans are descending on the shores of Lake Michigan for the four-day celebration of all things Trump, culminating in his acceptance speech on Thursday.
- Trump told the New York Post he was "supposed to be dead" after surviving an assassination attempt on Saturday during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, which he described as a "very surreal experience".
- The early details about the investigation into the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, a nursing home aide, were sketchy. Crooks was a registered Republican who would have been eligible to cast his first presidential vote in the November 5 election.
- US President Joe Biden called for calm in a primetime address to the nation on Sunday, saying that "violence is never the answer".
Yesterday's key developments:
- Republican candidate Donald Trump was the target of an attempted assassination on Saturday during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
- Trump's right ear was apparently grazed by a bullet, but he was doing "fine" after the shooting, his campaign team said. The suspected gunman and a bystander were killed at the rally and two others were wounded.
- The FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, a registered Republican, as the "subject involved" in the attempted assassination of Trump in a statement released early Sunday.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)
