• Questions continue to mount around the Secret Service two days after a second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. On Monday, the interim director of the service admitted that agents did not search the perimeter of Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course, where the alleged gunman waited for 12 hours before he was spotted. Former Secret Service agent Michael Matranga talks about the work the agency does to protect people like Trump.
• Later in the show, Florida Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who sits on the bipartisan panel investigating the first assassination attempt against Trump, talks about Congress’ plans to investigate the latest incident.
• And in headlines: Israel declined to comment on what appeared to be a coordinated explosion of pagers used by members of Hezbollah that killed nine and injured thousands, Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would guarantee national access to IVF, and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs faces federal charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking.

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TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Wednesday, September 18th. I’m Jane Coaston. 

Josie Duffy Rice: And I’m Josie Duffy Rice and this is What a Day. The show where we’re pouring one out for all of the screen addicted tweens who will be subject to tighter parental controls Instagram is introducing after years of regulatory pressure. 

Jane Coaston: Idea, you should have to use dial up until you’re 16. Everything will take forever to load and you have to come up with aim away messages that tell everyone how sad you are because of something that happened because your 12. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Look up LiveJournal. 

Jane Coaston: But don’t look at my LiveJournal. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Don’t look up our LiveJournals. 

Jane Coaston: No. [music break] On today’s show, Vice President Kamala Harris sits down with the National Association of Black Journalists. Plus, pagers worn by Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah explode almost simultaneously. 

Josie Duffy Rice: But first, on Tuesday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said that the House task force that has been investigating the July assassination attempt on Donald Trump should have their focus expanded to include the second assassination attempt that took place on Sunday. Here’s Johnson speaking at an event with former Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow. 

[clip of House Speaker Mike Johnson] We all know the problem. It’s a lack of leadership, right? And it goes all the way to the top. And so you’ll see us demanding that uh this week, we got to protect our 45th president, who I believe is going to be the 47th. He’s the most threatened person on the planet. 

Jane Coaston: Johnson and other Republicans have blamed the Biden administration for the recent Secret Service security lapses. Despite the fact that Donald Trump did have additional security resources provided to him following the Pennsylvania shooting. 

Josie Duffy Rice: But because Florida Governor Ron DeSantis loves making everything about himself, he announced that his state will be conducting a separate investigation into what happened on Sunday. 

[clip of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis] We’re in a great, great situation to be able to look at this with clear eyes, get answers, and then deliver those answers to the public. Um. I don’t think anyone can honestly claim that the federal government has been forthright and transparent about its past investigations. That’s just the reality. That’s just how these guys operate. Apart from any type of political bias, that’s how it’s been really for many, many years. 

Jane Coaston: I always love how people who just finished running for president to be in charge of the federal government are always like, you just can’t trust the federal government, which I wanted to run very badly. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Right. Also, by the way, he ran against the guy. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah. 

Josie Duffy Rice: He’s claiming he wants to protect. It feels very–

Jane Coaston: It’s weird. It’s weird. 

Josie Duffy Rice: It’s weird. It’s weird to start with we’re in a great, great situation. That’s not how you want to start the clip. 

Jane Coaston: I don’t think it’s so great, but we’ll see what the federal and state investigations end up revealing. But there is a bipartisan consensus that there do need to be some significant changes made within the Secret Service. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Yeah, definitely. And so to get a better understanding of the work that the agency does and how that plays into their role protecting Donald Trump, I spoke with Michael Matranga. He’s a former special agent in the Secret Service and CEO of security company M6 Global Defense. So you spent time on then candidate Barack Obama’s security detail in 2007. How did the protections for presidential candidates typically compare to ones given to sitting presidents? 

Michael Matranga: It’s a stark contrast, um to be quite honest with you. But it’s really hard to say that there’s a standard package for one versus the other, because what we do know is that oftentimes intelligence or threat landscape would dictate the level of protection or the assets that are awarded to those individuals. You know, obviously, the president of the United States, the vice president, are going to have the full protective package, the shift agents, the additional resources from the special operations division, the technical security division and other units within the Secret Service. Those things and those additional assets usually and I say usually because, like I said, intelligence and threat landscape can kind of dictate whether that be ramped up or ramp back down. But usually that’s not awarded to the candidate until the DNC or the RNC has designated who their actual horse is going to be in this race. So those additional elements are not primarily assigned prior to the conventions. However, in past elections, like with then-Senator Obama in 2007, 2008, those resources were awarded earlier, as well as with the former President Trump. In this election cycle, as we saw in Butler, Pennsylvania, based upon the Iranian threat, we saw that the Secret Service had made some adjustments and had awarded the detail a supplemental counter sniper team, counter assault teams, which I’m a former counter assault team operator myself under Barack Obama. Um. So there were some adjustments made. And so there’s this idea going around that the campaign itself had been denied for so long. And I don’t know with certainty, but I think there is some truth to that. But at the end of the day, what we did see is that there were additional assets, at least in Butler, and we know there were additional assets on Sunday when the second assassination attempt happened. 

Josie Duffy Rice: So based on the information that we know now, what do you think about the way that the Secret Service handled the assassination attempt against Donald Trump on Sunday? 

Michael Matranga: You know, after the July 13th mishap, which, you know, in my opinion, that was just a mishap in advance work. Amongst other things, is communication. Which is obvious. I think that the Secret Service and the director has made an assertive and a positive effort to correct some of those mistakes. I think that on Sunday, based upon what I know, which is just general knowledge that everybody else knows, is that they did make additional adjustments. They did add additional resources. The forward operating element that is designed to go ahead a hole or two holes ahead. That protective method did work, which is why we saw that agent identify and address that individual with gunfire, because he or she, we don’t know yet identified that as a threat. And so overall, I think they did a pretty good job. 

Josie Duffy Rice: I heard you say earlier that there were maybe some communications issues or in the first attempt that was a kind of a question of advance work. When you look at where the Secret Service is right now and the past couple of months, do you think that there are changes that need to be made? And if so, which changes do you think you want to see? 

Michael Matranga: You know, I think there has been some changes made. We know that there’s been five personnel from the Secret Service that have been put on administrative leave pending the investigation. That’s pretty standard operating procedure. But, you know, one of the things that I would recommend is that, you know, in the past when I was on the presidential counter assault team, we relied really heavily on local tactical elements to sweep those wood lines on those adjacent greens or whatnot on the golf course. Uh. The Secret Service has a tremendous capability in the emergency response team, which is kind of a sister element to the counter assault team. They primarily patrol the perimeter of the White House and ensure that no one breaches the fence line and enters the White House. You know, I have always stated and others have always stated, is why are we not utilizing emergency response team elements to our advantage on these movements that are outside of the D.C. metropolitan area because they just simply don’t have enough, which has been a problem at the Secret Service for, you know, I would say really close to a decade and a half. So that would be one change and then the other would be, as you know, I think it’s time that we have a serious conversation with Congress and with the president that the Secret Service has dual mission. And some will argue that we need to keep the dual mission of investigations, financial investigations and protection. I disagree. I think that there are better suited agencies like the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, the United States Treasury that can investigate those financial crimes and allow the Secret Service to grow organically to be a sole protective agency. Um. The threat landscape not only in this country, but the world, has significantly changed. And I think it’s time that the Secret Service start pivoting to being a full time protective agency. 

Josie Duffy Rice: That was my conversation with Michael Matranga, former special agent in the Secret Service. Jane, did you know that if you counterfeit money, the Secret Service is who’s going to come for you, not the FBI. 

Jane Coaston: I did know that. Don’t counterfeit money. Also don’t mess with the United States Postal Service police, because they will also come for you. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Oh. They are so serious. 

Jane Coaston: They’re incredibly serious. 

Josie Duffy Rice: They’re very serious. Yes.

Jane Coaston: Don’t do crimes. Let’s talk more about how Congress is responding to the latest assassination attempt against Trump. Lawmakers in Washington are already looking for ways to give the Secret Service the additional funding it says it needs. But they’re also looking to hold more hearings about this latest attempt on Trump’s life. I spoke with Congressman Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat representing parts of Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton. He’s also a member of both the bipartisan committee investigating the first assassination attempt against Trump and the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. That’s the House’s main investigative committee. Representative Moskowitz, welcome to What a Day. Thank you so much for being here. 

Jared Moskowitz: Thanks for having me. 

Jane Coaston: So what are your biggest questions for the Secret Service after this second assassination attempt on Trump? That’s two assassination attempts. 

Jared Moskowitz: It’s clear to me that two fails in 60 days, something is clearly wrong. Now, I have questions for the Secret Service about funding. They’re talking a lot about funding and needing more agents. And I think Congress will give that to them if this is really a manpower issue. But I have questions about the fact that they have said that Donald Trump was currently receiving the highest level of security. Well, if that’s the case, I think we need to create new higher levels of security because what we’re doing is clearly not working. So I think we have a process and protocol issue. You know, we’re still in the beginnings of the Butler investigation. So is the FBI. So is the Secret Service, Homeland Security. But I think they need to share a lot more information with the American people in this vacuum that’s being created because they’re doing business as usual where they don’t communicate with anyone until the investigation is concluded. There’s so much misinformation that’s being spread out there. So I want the Secret Service and the FBI to start sharing more information about what we know about Butler, but also what we know about here. I mean, one of the questions I have about the latest assassination attempt is Donald Trump was not supposed to be at that golf course that day. It was an unplanned outing that he had, was not on the schedule. Yet this guy was there waiting in the bushes for 11 hours. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, that sounds to me ridiculous. But during a press briefing on Monday, the interim Secret Service director described the agency’s actions Sunday as effective. The suspect was intercepted and was never able to fire any shots. But I don’t know if I find that effective. Do you agree with that assessment? 

Jared Moskowitz: Well, I think the particular agent that saw the rifle, that agent was not only effective, That’s pretty amazing that one agent saw, you know, a rifle through the brush and a fence. So that agent did its job. But it should never have come to that. Had that agent not seen this gentleman hiding in the bushes with his rifle, he potentially could have had a clear shot at the president. 

Jane Coaston: The chair of the committee has also requested a briefing from the Secret Service about what happened on Sunday. Has that been scheduled yet? 

Jared Moskowitz: We’re supposed to have a hearing in September on the Butler assassination attempt. We don’t have a specific date yet. We’re waiting on that. But we have been told that we will have one in September. And my guess is, is that there are going to be members like myself as well who are going to ask double questions, questions about Butler and questions about the second assassination attempt. But in the resolution that created our task force, it doesn’t necessarily even give us jurisdiction over a second assassination attempt because we never contemplated we would have a second assassination attempt. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah. 

Jared Moskowitz: When we created this task force. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah. So you mentioned how Donald Trump, you know, the level of security that it should be much higher. Should he be essentially treated like a sitting president at this point. 

Jared Moskowitz: Yeah. 

Jane Coaston: In terms of how much security protection he receives? 

Jared Moskowitz: Yeah, that’s a great question. And I think at this juncture, if we’re going to step up the level, then we need to step it up as if he were still a principal. Again, what we’re doing now is inadequate. The last thing we need in this country right now or leading up to the election is to have any of the candidates have something happen to them. And so I think it’s imperative for all Americans to make sure we can get to November without further incidents. 

Jane Coaston: President Joe Biden said Monday the Secret Service, quote, “needs more help.” Do you agree? And if so, what kind of additional help does the Secret Service need? Because it doesn’t really seem like a manpower issue to me. It seems like a being good at their job issue to me. 

Jared Moskowitz: Well, I mean, look, I agree that there are definitely some processes and protocols that failed at Butler that additional resources would not have fixed. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t have a manpower issue. I’m interested in listening to the interim Secret Service director explain how many more people they need, how many millions of dollars that’s going to cost. But that can’t be the only fix. We can’t just throw money at this problem and think it’s going to go away. We need to hear program and protocol, systematic changes that the Secret Service is going to make to make sure that we’re keeping all of our candidates, our principals, current vice president, current president and other former presidents safe at this moment. 

Jane Coaston: So where do you think the holes are? I know you’re going to be asking more questions, but what at this point do you think are the protocols that might need to change? 

Jared Moskowitz: One, I think they need a larger perimeter. But let’s just start with that right off the bat. The perimeter was too small in Butler and it was clearly too small at the golf course. So they need a larger perimeter, right, to make sure that you can’t get this close. Today’s weapons are obviously so advanced that you can pick off a target from hundreds of yards away. And that makes the Secret Service’s job more difficult. Right. I mean, it has nothing to do about the Second Amendment. The more weapons get advanced, the more you have scopes, right. The more you can hit a target from a further distance. That’s going to make the Secret Service job harder. And so that’s why I think right off the bat that you have to have these perimeters expanded. 

Jane Coaston: You mentioned this a little bit earlier, but as a member of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, what more can Congress do to hold the Secret Service accountable for its failings here? Because, come on, like two assassination attempts in two months on a former president and a current presidential candidate is objectively a black mark on the agency. 

Jared Moskowitz: I think right now, if you’re an American and you’re looking at the Secret Service. You don’t have a lot of confidence in what’s currently going on there. And that and I’m willing to give the current interim director some time. He’s cleaning up somebody else’s mess. Uh. But I think the Secret Service is going to have to give us the changes that have been made, and they’re going to have to give the committee, you know, verifiable changes that they have made within their systems, within their protocols to show us, uh you know, what’s been changed. I also think perhaps the task force should tag along uh with the Secret Service after they make those changes so that we can see those changes in real time as they’re performing their duties, you know, guarding our candidates and our president. 

Jane Coaston: So, Representative, will Congress be able to provide any additional funding for the Secret Service in the spending bill lawmakers need to pass this month to avoid a shutdown, or is it likely to come after the election? 

Jared Moskowitz: Well, my guess is if we do a C.R., they’ll probably attach some funding to help solve some of the issues at the Secret Service. I think there are discussions going on in the Senate right now. The Senate seems to be taking the lead. The appropriators over there uh dealing with how much money the Secret Service is going to get. But obviously, you’ve been following, you know what’s going on in the house. It’s business as usual. It’s Groundhog Day. 

Jane Coaston: Yep. 

Jared Moskowitz: We’re back to the speaker doesn’t have enough votes to get a C.R. with his own members. It’s same show, different days. We got to see how this episode plays out. Probably will go down to the wire next week, but hopefully we get a CR if we don’t close the government and we get the Secret Service some additional funding that will help fill the gaps right now up until the November election. 

Jane Coaston: Representative Moskowitz, thank you so much for joining me today. 

Jared Moskowitz: Thank you. Appreciate it.

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Florida Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz. That’s the latest for now. We’ll get to some headlines in a moment. But if you like our show, make sure to subscribe. Watch us on YouTube and share with your friends. We’ll be back after some ads. [music break]

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: Let’s wrap up with some headlines. 

[clip of Vice President Kamala Harris] Is the price of groceries still too high? Yes. Do we have more work to do? Yes. And I will tell you, I do believe that I offer a new generation of leadership for our country. 

Jane Coaston: On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with three members of the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia. Six weeks after Donald Trump’s disastrous panel discussion at the organization’s national convention, you might recall the whole she turned Black thing. Harris discussed her economic plans and made it clear that, like most people, she did not believe Black men were required to vote for her because of her race. 

[clip of Vice President Kamala Harris] I think it’s very important to not um operate from the assumption that Black men are in anybody’s pocket. Black men are like any other voting group, you gotta earn their vote. 

Jane Coaston: She also condemned the racist rhetoric of the Trump Vance campaign towards Haitian immigrants and emphasized she believed that most Americans were equally repulsed and tired of the bullshit. 

[clip of Vice President Kamala Harris] And I think most people in our country, regardless of their race, are starting to see through this nonsense. And and to say, you know what, let’s turn the page on this. This is exhausting and it’s harmful and it’s hateful. 

Jane Coaston: On Tuesday, Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would guarantee access to IVF at the national level. The same measure was blocked by Republicans in June. Here’s Republican Senator John Thune at a press briefing Tuesday morning. 

[clip of Senator John Thune] And let me just again remind everybody that Republicans support IVF full stop. No question about that. This is not an attempt to make law. This is not an attempt to get an outcome or to legislate. This is simply an attempt by Democrats to try and create a political issue where there isn’t one. 

Jane Coaston: The right to IVF bill is sponsored by Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, who has recently criticized Republicans for claiming they support IVF protections. Because there’s a whole lot of evidence they actually don’t. The vote comes as Democrats seek to highlight the Republican stance on reproductive rights in the lead up to November’s election. Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Katie Britt have introduced a narrower IVF bill of their own, though Democrats say it has loopholes. Music mogul Sean Combs has been indicted on charges including sex trafficking and racketeering. On Tuesday, he was in a New York City federal court where he pled not guilty to the charges. A judge denied his request to have him released on $50 million bail. The indictment alleges that in order to maintain a system of criminal operations, Combs and his associates engaged in additional crimes, including forced labor, kidnapping, arson and bribery. Here’s U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, speaking at a press conference about one of the most shocking parts of the indictment. Combs allegedly filmed his sexual assaults, which: 

[clip of Damian Williams] Sometimes lasted days at a time, involved multiple commercial sex workers and often involved a variety of narcotics such as ketamine, ecstasy and GHB, which Combs distributed to the victim to keep them obedient and compliant. 

Jane Coaston: Eew. Combs’ legal team said they will appeal the bail decision today. Hundreds of pagers belonging to members of the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah exploded almost simultaneously on Tuesday in Lebanon as part of an attack that Hezbollah, the Lebanese government, and the U.S. government are blaming on Israel. The Iran backed group has said they’ll retaliate against Israel, saying, quote, “We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that has also targeted civilians.” And Hamas has released a statement calling the attack an escalation that will lead to Israel’s, quote, “failure and defeat.” The attack killed at least nine people, including an eight year old girl and wounded at least 2800, including Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon. Hezbollah has recently stopped using cell phones and switched to pagers in an attempt to avoid being tracked by Israeli intelligence. And that’s the news. So there’s something that’s been on my mind. Maybe you, like me, are a little too online. Not like using the internet online, but someone who tries to reference memes in real life online. But honestly, I’ve been on Twitter, now known as X, since 2008, and I’ve been on forums since the early 2000s, and I’ll still never be as online as J.D. Vance. See, it’s not just that JD Vance has been online for most of his adult life. We are now at a time in which the same people who are posting party albums labeled Nights We’ll Never Remember on Facebook in 2007 are running for office. But JD Vance spent a lot of his time online with, for lack of a better term, anti-democracy, misogynistic dorks. Dorks who post a lot about the regime and the establishment, which somehow includes you, me, and everyone else they find distasteful. But not Donald Trump. A person who say what you will about him was once and could soon be again the President of the United States. Dorks who tweet stuff like repeal the 19th Amendment and are convinced that any woman anywhere doing anything is a sign of degeneracy. And as of this episode, J.D. Vance, an actual vice presidential candidate, is still posting. Fighting with X users and writers online this week about his very own statements regarding Haitian immigrants, which seems like a very odd thing for an actual vice presidential candidate to be doing because it’s not just that he spends a lot of time yelling at people on the Internet while hanging out with weirdos who think we need a dictator to stop the true perils of LGBT people existing or something. It’s that while he’s doing all of that and by extension, getting Trump to yell about all of that or about how much he hates Taylor Swift, they’re ignoring the giant neon sign in the middle of the room. Most people do not like this stuff, and they keep telling us over and over and over and over again, 77% of Americans do not use X, and most people who do don’t use it very often. One writer called it Internet induced myopia, and everybody hates it. Everyday Americans did not like it when people on the left sounded way too online, and they absolutely do not like it when people on the right from former Arizona Senate and House candidate Blake Masters to Ron DeSantis’s campaign managers to, yes, J.D. Vance sound like they spend more time posting about the long house, do not ask, then going outside and touching some grass. Have you ever tried to explain some weird Internet shit to someone who isn’t super online? You know that look you get. That’s J.D. Vance every single day of this campaign, and it is wild to watch. [music break] Josie, I heard you have news. 

Josie Duffy Rice: I do have news. I have big news. Today is my last day as a host on What a Day. I have loved co-hosting the show for the last three years. I’m so grateful to the What a Day team, especially our amazing producers, for their just incredible work every day. And Jane, I’ve had such a good time with you these past few weeks, other than you being a Michigan fan. It’s been a joy. 

Jane Coaston: It’s been an absolute pleasure. 

Josie Duffy Rice: You can still catch me around the Crooked Universe and I’ll still be contributing to WAD time to time. So if you have any good ideas for Josie versus science or stories about police doing police-y things, send them over. But in the meantime, please check out a new project I released last week called The 30 Year Project. It’s a mini mini series on the ’94 crime bill, which was signed 30 years ago this month. So I spend four episodes talking about what the bill did and didn’t do, how it contributed to mass incarceration and didn’t contribute to mass incarceration. And uh I spend all the time debunking the myths about its successes and failures. So this was truly a labor of love. We’re very grateful for any support. So give it a follow anywhere that you get your podcasts. Thanks again to the WAD Squad and see you around. 

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe. Leave a review. Get offline so you don’t end up like J.D. Vance and tell your friends to listen. 

Josie Duffy Rice: And if you’re into reading and not just a list of all the supposedly pro-IVF Republicans who voted against the Right to IVF bill, like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter, so check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Josie Duffy Rice. 

Jane Coaston: I’m Jane Coaston. 

[spoken together] And thanks for listening. 

Jane Coaston: What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded by Jerik Centeno and mixed by Bill Lancz. Our associate producer is Raven Yamamoto. Our producer is Michell Eloy. We had production help today from Ethan Oberman, Tyler Hill, JoHanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters and Julia Claire. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison and our executive producer is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Collin Gilliard and Kashaka.