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1 Acting Secret Service Director Tells Congress He's "Ashamed" After Assassination Attempt On Trump
It was a tense day on Capitol Hill yesterday as the new acting director of the Secret Service testified before the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees. Ronald Rowe Jr. was grilled by multiple senators about the agency’s actions during the July 13th attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, and several of Rowe’s answers didn’t go over well with the senators. Josh Hawley got into a heated exchange with Rowe about accountability, with Hawley asking why no one had been fired for the failures in security that day. When Rowe responded that he needed time for a full investigation so no one was unfairly persecuted, Hawley responded “Unfairly persecuted? People are dead!” Lindsay Graham, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said that if something similar happened in the military, “a lot of people would be fired. And if a lot of people are not fired, the system failed yet again.” It wasn’t just Rowe on the hot seat during yesterday’s testimony, with FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate being asked by Sen. John Kennedy if Trump had been hit in the ear by a bullet, to which Abbate said yes, and also said there was never any doubt about that. That comment differs from last week’s House testimony by FBI Director Christopher Wray that there was “some question” if it was a bullet or shrapnel.
2 No One Challenges Vice President Kamala Harris For Democratic Nomination
The Democratic National Committee made it official last night. In a statement, the DNC announced that Vice President Kamala Harris was the only candidate to qualify for the party’s presidential nominating ballot, making her the presumptive nominee. That status won’t last long, as the virtual roll call to make her the official nominee will start tomorrow and end on Monday. Sources confirmed yesterday that Harris and her still-unnamed running mate plan to campaign across the country together next week, with stops planned in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada. The only question left is who that running mate will be. A top adviser to big Democratic donors told “ABC News” yesterday that the overwhelming majority of those donors are pushing for Harris to pick either Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, or Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. As Harris boarded her plane to fly to a rally in Atlanta last night, she told reporters that she still hadn’t decided who her running mate will be.
3 US Launches Defensive Airstrike In Iraq
US officials confirmed last night that a defensive airstrike was carried out south of Baghdad, Iraq by the US military. Earlier yesterday, Iraqi officials reported blasts south of Baghdad. A US military official told “ABC News” that “US forces in Iraq conducted a defensive airstrike in the Musayib in Babil Province, targeting combatants attempting to launch one-way attack uncrewed aerial systems.” It was the first US airstrike in Iraq since February.