Elections 2024 live: ‘Combative’ Biden refuses to debate Trump again before DNC as Pelosi ‘plots to oust him’

New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has angrily called for the retirement of an anonymous Democratic lawmaker who said the party is resigned to a Trump victory in November.

“We’ve all resigned ourselves to a second Trump presidency,” an unnamed senior House Democrat told Axios on Sunday, a day after the president survived as attempted assassination.

“If you’re a ‘senior Democrat’ that feels this way, you should absolutely retire and make space for true leadership that refuses to resign themselves to fascism,” AOC responded on X.

“This kind of leadership is functionally useless to the American people,” she continued. “Retire.”

In a leaked video of Donald Trump’s call with Robert F Kennedy Jr, the former president describes the bullet that grazed his ear as being like “the world’s largest mosquito”.

RFK Jr has since apologized for the leak, posting on X: “When President Trump called me I was taping with an in-house videographer. I should have ordered the videographer to stop recording immediately. I am mortified that this was posted. I apologize to the president.”

Shahana Yasmin, Justin Rohrlich and Alisha Rahaman Sarkar have this on the gunman who opened fire on Trump at the weekend.

The father of the 20-year-old would-be Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks was previously identified by the former president’s campaign team as one of the voters in his area most likely to respond favorably to pro-gun messaging.

That’s according to confidential data obtained by the UK’s Channel 4 News, which said 53-year-old Matthew Crooks– who legally purchased the AR-15 rifle used by his son to fire at the Republican – was covertly profiled by the Trump team in 2016 as “a strong Republican, likely gun owner and ‘hunter.’”

The campaign’s private database analyzed 6.7m people in the Keystone State, a crucial battleground in the race for president, listing Crooks Sr, a registered Libertarian, as among the top 20 prospects of 19,000 residents in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bethel Park, Channel 4 reported.

He scored highly “across a range of gun-related [data] models,” according to the outlet, and was flagged by the Trump team as a voter “who could be susceptible to political messages about gun-rights.”

The president’s middle son, clearly still emotional over Saturday’s near-miss, has rather unhelpfully claimed that “they” – presumably meaning shadowy establishment forces – tried to kill his father, rather than a troubled loner with his own agenda.

His sister Ivanka meanwhile suggested their late mother Ivana must have had an otherworldly role in her ex-husband’s lucky escape, a belief Eric has also alluded to on social media.

Mike Bedigan has more on how the junior Trumps are coping with Saturday’s shock.

Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is facing calls to resign after she blamed Democrats for the attempted assassination on Trump by saying that Republicans are in a “battle” against the “party of pedophiles.”

Gustaf Kilander has the story.

“It was unacceptable, and it’s something that shouldn’t happen again,” Kimberly Cheatle said in an interview with ABC News on Monday.

“It was obviously a situation that as a Secret Service agent, no one ever wants to occur in their career. The buck stops with me… and I need to make sure that we are performing a review and that we are giving resources to our personnel as necessary.”

In the two days since Trump’s right ear was grazed by a gunman’s bullet at a Pennsylvania campaign rally, a complete picture of the 20-year-old suspect is yet to emerge publicly—and details of what led up to the stunning event remain unclear.

Justin Rohrlich has the latest.

Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest people, is planning to donate roughly $45m every single month to a PAC backing Trump’s presidential campaign, according to reports.

The Tesla and SpaceX boss, who also owns the social media platform X, had already reportedly donated a “sizeable amount” to a pro-Trump fundraising group, but the amount was unknown.

Now, The Wall Street Journal has reported the longtime electric vehicle advocate will be donating the staggering monthly sum to a new pro-Trump super PAC alongside coal billionaire Joe Craft, Palantir co-founder Jo Lonsdale and the Winklevoss twins.