FBI says that they've now carried out more than a thousand interviews regarding this attempted assassination of the former president of the United States they say they still do not have a definitive motive for why Thomas Crooks tried to kill Donald Trump uh but they say that Kooks had mounted a sustained detailed effort to attack a major gathering before deciding to Target the former president uh and importantly Kooks had searched uh both for Donald Trump events but also Joe Biden events who's obviously currently the president of the United States and at the time was uh Donald Trump's opponent in this presidential election now the FBI is calling this particular targeting a target of opportunity referring to the event in Butler Pennsylvania where Thomas Crooks attempted to kill Donald Trump and then struck him in the ear with a bullet Kooks himself uh was killed uh by counter snipers they've also released a series of photos including one that shows explosive devices in the boot of Thomas Crooks car uh the FBI has also released details that in their investigations they have evidence that Crooks uh did internet searches for explosives and also released this photo showing uh the backpack and semi-automatic weapons uh that Crooks was carrying out carrying with him uh on the day in question now what is obviously fascinating is that at this this point they say that there is no clear political motive at the time obviously the Assumption was that perhaps someone who disliked uh Donald Trump for his politics uh was trying to kill the former president but at this point there's no evidence to suggest that they say he was searching um he seemed to hold a range of political views but there's no clear line between that and his targeting of Donald Trump uh and importantly they say there is no evidence that he was working with anybody else nor that he was working at the behest of a foreign government okay and meanwhile Donald Trump himself has appeared on Dr Phil popular TV show over there Carrington uh he was riffing on the attempted assassination what did he have to say yeah so this interview took place before this new information was released by the FBI to journalists uh but in the interview Donald Trump was asked about the attempted assassination he once again suggested that it was the will of God um that he wasn't killed in this particular incident but then he also did blame both Joe Biden and his now opponent Kel Harris the carrent vice president who's vying to be the president of the United States in part for that attempt to that attempt on his life but that turned to be like one of their lines you know that Trump is a threat I'm not a threat to democracy at all they are a threat to democracy but they would say that that was standard line just keep saying it and you know that can get assassins or potential assassins going but maybe that bullet is because of their rhetoric you know it's really nasty rhetoric now that question about loaded rhetoric passionate rhetoric being used um was obviously a major story a major issue in the aftermath of that attempt at assassination um and something that both campaigns uh talked through both suggesting that the other side had used inflammatory rhetoric it doesn't necessarily Accord what Donald Trump is suggesting that the rhetoric led to this attempted assassination given that there is no evidence um that this uh that Thomas Crooks was listening to that rhetoric or was targeting Donald Trump because he didn't like his policies or thought him to be a threat to democracy uh but you can be assured I think that Carmela Harris will be asked about the attempted assassination and what the FBI has said today when she participates in her first uh feature interview uh which she'll be doing with CNN tomorrow first interview since she became the nominee of the Democratic Party