Investors in cryptocurrency are also investing in politics. Many are donating to Republicans this election year and some Republicans are giving to an Arizona Democrat. They are trying to meddle into Democratic primaries. How so? I'm Layla Falden with Stephen Skipe and this is Up First from NPR News. An FBI timeline details some of the warnings law enforcement missed before an attempted
assassination. The obirro is investigating the man who shot at Donald Trump and they plan to interview the presidential candidate himself. Also Simone Biles competes for the gold at the Paris Olympics today while American swimmers are struggling. You know, and really the parody internationally, it's really competitive right now. There's so many talented athletes across the world now. This podcast, however, remains number one. So stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.
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you still feel safe because when every second counts, count on ADT. Visit ADT.com today. This message comes from NPR sponsor the Capital One Venture Card. Earn unlimited two X miles on every purchase. Plus earn unlimited five X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One travel. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See Capital One.com for details. The investors in cryptocurrency are bidding to become a political force this year.
Former President Trump spoke last weekend at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville. He's seeking votes and donors among those who play in cryptocurrency markets. Trump promised to fire the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission for his efforts to regulate crypto. The story
we have this morning shows crypto's possible influence on a race for Congress. Arizona holds its primary today, which means voters choose nominees for an open seat for Congress and some Republican donors, including some with an interest in crypto, have been donating to a Democratic primary. And VIR's Congressional correspondent Claudia Cresciles joins us this morning to talk about it good morning. Good morning, Leyla.
So tell us about this Democratic primary. Since John Interest from high profile Republican donors, why? Well, that's one of the enduring mysteries here. This is a pretty blue seat in this purple state. It's a 65 percent majority Latino district. It's been held by Democratic Congressman Rubin Gallego, but he's leaving it for US Senate run polling shows this could be a close race between an X top state Democratic lawmaker and a former Phoenix City Council member.
They're both vying to make history here with their background. Former state lawmaker Raquel Tehran would be the first Latina to represent Arizona in Congress while former Phoenix vice mayor Yasemin Insari would be the first Democratic Iranian American in Congress. And with Republican donors favoring Insari, it's become a bitter race. So what are the candidates saying about how this primary contest has been playing on?
Well, I talked to both Tehran and Insari in recent days and Tehran argues that she's having to face off against Republican and crypto donors who are quote bankrolling former President Donald Trump. They are trying to silence our voices as Latino voters. They are trying to meddle into Democratic primaries, taking away the voices of many working families. So how is Insari responding to all this? Well, she disputes all of it. She says in one case, a major Trump donor is giving to her
campaign because they're a family friend and they have shared heritage. And as for the crypto donors, she says she's likely drawn that support because she's pushed ideas on how to innovate the digital asset industry. Frankly speaking, I think it's a desperate attack from a campaign that has not spent much time at all focusing on what they actually want to do for residents, but more on trying to tear down another Democrat.
For example, she said she has no connection to the Winklevoss twins who are major players in the crypto industry today and donated the maximum allowed to her campaign. So how unusual is it for Republican donors to be donating to a Democratic candidate in a Democratic primary? Well, it's pretty unusual though we did see this in the last election cycle in a Democratic primary in Oregon, falling crypto moguls Sam Bankman freed in 2022, propped up a virtual
political unknown against a Latina state lawmaker. It became one of the most expensive primaries in the country that year, but in the end, crypto's favorite candidate lost to the state lawmaker. Now, in Arizona's case, we know the industry has been through a series of major scandals in recent years, but yet crypto could make its biggest mark on this election cycle.
For example, the Republican crypto protect progress pack has given more than $1.3 million to support in Sari's campaign in just this one house Democratic primary race. So it'll be interesting to see how this plays out today in this key battleground state. And here's Claudia at Grisadis, thank you. Thank you. Former President Trump has agreed to be interviewed as a witness in the assassination attempt against him.
And I says it will talk with Trump as it investigates the shooting at a campaign rally just over two weeks ago in Pennsylvania. And PR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is covering this investigation. Ryan, good morning. Good morning. What's the FBI hoping to learn? Well, this is what's known as a victim interview. It's standard procedure. The FBI says it wants to get Trump's perspective on the shooting, what he observed that day experienced just like any other witness.
And the beer says they contacted him about doing this interview and that he's agreed to sit down with him. I just have to note Ryan, this is a man who was under federal indictment in entirely separate cases for the 2020 election and for classified documents. Do the agents agreed not to ask him about any of that stuff? These sorts of victim interviews will be limited to the events of July 13th and what he saw that day. Okay. So they're focused on the assassination attempt.
And this is part of the broader investigation. What has the FBI been learning in that investigation? Well, it says that it's interviewed more than 450 people at this point that includes folks who knew the shooter Thomas Crookes, his family, co-workers, former teachers, classmates. Remember, Crookes was just 20 years old. The FBI says Crookes was highly intelligent, but a bit of a loner, his social circle was limited basically to his immediate family.
He was interested in shooting versus a hobby that later morphed into formal firearms training. And at this point, the FBI says it still has not determined a motive, but it says it does believe from what it's found so far that Crookes appears to have planned carefully ahead of the Trump rally and take an action to try to hide his activities. What was he trying to hide? The FBI says Crookes used aliases to buy things online and not just any old things, but things related to guns and explosives.
So starting in early 2023, Crookes made 25 gun-related purchases online. And then in the first half of this year, he bought precursor chemicals, basically the ingredients for making homemade bombs. And he did so on six occasions, ultimately used them in two explosive devices that were found in his vehicle. He, of course, did detonate those. So that is new. Investigators say that this is what points to careful planning, concealment on Crookes part.
But we also learn more about what the FBI is seeing on his cell phones, computer, his online search history. And that includes that he looked up information related to power plants, to mass shootings, homemade bombs. And he also looked up information on the attempted assassination earlier this year of Slovakia's prime minister. I'm amazed that after all that planning, he ultimately just improvised his way into a position where he could fire from a rooftop at the former president.
Has the FBI answered any questions about how that could have happened? Well, we got the most detailed timeline yet from the FBI on what Crookes was doing the day of shooting, particularly in the immediate run-up to it. The FBI says that at 5.56 pm, so 15 minutes before Crookes fired on Trump from the rooftop, that Crookes was seeing walking on the ground with a backpack. So he wasn't on the roof at that point.
Investigators say they think he climbed piping on the side of the building to get up onto the roof. And then at 608, he's seen walking across the roof to get to his final firing position. Three minutes later, a policeman, and we've heard about this, was lifted up to the roof, seized Crookes, Crookes points the gun at the cop, who immediately drops back down to the ground.
And the FBI now says it was just 25 to 30 seconds after that that Crookes fired eight rounds before being killed by a counter-sniper. Now, as for the security failings that day, the FBI is not focused on that. There are other investigations. The Secret Service Director and a Senior FBI official are testifying about that before Congress today. And, here's Ryan Lucas. Thanks for the update. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, let's go to Paris where Simone Biles competes for gold today.
And where there's trouble for the U.S. and the water. Americans have always been dominant at the summer Olympics. Think about Michael Phelps in swimming, but so far in these summer games, the swimmers are struggling. You know, and really the parody internationally, it's really competitive right now. There's so many talented athletes across the world now. The veteran American swimmer, Ryan Murphy, settled for bronze last night in the 100 meter backstroke.
With me now, as NPR's Brian Mann in Paris, hi, Brian. Hey, good morning, Laila. Beautiful summer day here in Paris. Big crowds. It's going to be really hot there today. So, but there are a few gold medals for American swimmers. What's happening? Yeah, you heard Ryan Murphy. They're talking about parody. The rest of the world, especially Australia, is getting better and better.
The U.S. has seen some of the big stars retire like Michael Phelps and others are nearing the end of their careers like Katie Ladecki. And Laila, one of their big trend that we're seeing here is that international swimmers are living and training in the U.S. Some of the big new stars in the swimming world, the future of the sport. Folks like 17-year-old Canadian summer Macintosh, who won gold last night, Leon Masha, the Frenchman, who won his first gold.
These athletes have come up through the U.S. swimming system, but their gold medals are going to their home countries. So, one more bit of trouble in the water, Brian. The men's triathlon delayed today because of poor water quality in the Sun River. Is this fixable? Yeah, the French took a big risk trying to clean up the Sun enough that world-class athletes could swim and compete there. Organizers say it was in good shape, but then all that rain hit Paris and it flushed a gunk into the river.
So it's testing on safe right now. They're going to try again tomorrow. Now Simone Viles competes today in the gymnastics team finals. There have been questions about Viles left leg possibly being injured. What do we know? In preliminary competition, Viles had heavily taped calf and ankle. She was clearly limping. Her coaches downplayed this leg, describing it as a muscle issue in her calf. She is scheduled to compete in all these events and she's looked strong, confident, really poised.
The U.S. is going to face some real competition from Brazil and Italy, but if Viles shows up healthy, if she performs as brilliantly as we've seen so far, the U.S. women are heavy favorites. The sports doping scandal involving Chinese athletes has continued to escalate in Paris. Today, U.S. lawmakers are getting involved back in Washington. What's happening there? Boy, this just keeps getting messier.
11 Chinese swimmers competing at these Olympics tested positive back in 2021 for band performance enhancing drugs. The world anti-doping agency known as WADA is supposed to keep drugs out of international sport. But when WADA learned about those positive tests, they kept it secret. It's led to a lot of calls for reform of the anti-doping system, but it sparked this intense diplomatic fight.
Here in Paris, the International Olympic Committee is siding with WADA and the IOC actually demanded that American officials back off the IOC threatening to revoke Salt Lake City's award to host the Winter Games in 2034. Now U.S. lawmakers not backing down at a press conference today. This bipartisan group of senators and House members expected to announce legislation pushing for big changes to WADA and athletes are also angry over this Leyla. They want reforms to this system.
And Pierre's Brian Mann is with our team in Paris covering the Olympics. Thank you, Brian. Alright, thanks Leyla. And that's a first for Tuesday, July 30th. I'm Leyla Falding. And I'm Steve Enske. Your next listen is consider this from NPR News. Many Venezuelans who left their country hoped that this week would mark the start of something new. Instead, Nicolas Maduro claimed victory in the presidential election once again and they're wondering what the future holds. Listen to consider this.
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