Why the Secret Service advised Trump to ditch the Qatari-donated Air Force One

Now to CBS News White House reporter Olivia Rinaldi in our DC bureau. Olivia, good morning. What a week that we've witnessed now. We've been discussing security concerns during this week with President Trump. So what new information are we learning this morning about his flight out of Turkey? Yeah, Errol, if you'll remember, President Trump ended up taking the old Air Force One home from his trip to Turkey. He had flown there on that new Qatari jet, that $400 million taxpayer dollar jet, I should say. He had flown there on it, but then was asked by Secret Service or advised by Secret Service to actually fly home on the older version of Air Force One, that iconic Kennedy Blue, that robin's egg blue plane that we have known, come to know over the last 40 years that presidents have flown on. The reason why they did were some of the security concerns surrounding the president. You just heard Ramey lay out some of those concerns, but also the fact that the president was departing from Turkey, which is a neighbor of Iran, while these strikes were intending to continue. So the Secret Service had advised for the president's safety that it might be best to fly home on the older version of the plane. And part of the reason why is because that old plane is equipped with a secure communication system so that the president could be in touch with military officials, people on the ground as the strikes are continuing in Iran, especially as the U.S. is continuing to strike inside and around the Strait of Hormuz. There's also sophisticated military defenses on board that older version of Air Force One. There are flares that they can use. There's laser technology that the plane has that could scramble some incoming missiles towards the plane. We just don't know if the new Air Force One is equipped with that at that point, because we do know that it was a supercharged timeline to get that new plane delivered to this administration in order to replace the older versions of Air Force One, which they are pretty old. They're about 40 years old, which is old tin to be flying in the air. But essentially, when you're talking about the security of the president, we just don't know what this new jet is equipped with. So because of that, the Secret Service did say to President Trump or advised him that it might be best to fly home on that older version. And Olivia, I want to ask you about something our viewers will likely see on their feeds as they wake up today. President Trump firing the remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission. Sounds important. But what is this group and what's the reaction been? Yeah, it's a low key bipartisan committee. It was created back in 2002 as part of this election integrity effort. And their mission, according to their website, is to help foster independent bipartisan commission whose mission is to help election officials improve the administration of elections. But it is a pretty small, not well-known commission. And we did hear from the White House that, yes, in fact, they did ask to remove some officials on the board. The White House did clarify that one official who was on the board actually resigned. She was a Republican on that board. From a White House statement, they said to us, the president, who is the head of the executive branch, reserves the right to remove individuals that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America's elections and ensuring that every legal vote is counted. The slaughter decision, which is that recent Supreme Court decision, gives the president the precedence to do so. They go on to say the administration from the start has been working across all agencies and local partners to safeguard elections from fraud and abuse and investing in strong infrastructure to sustain that mission. One important clarification that I do want to add was something that we heard from David Becker, who is a contributor here at CBS—excuse me—in talking about this commission. He did tell us yesterday that this commission is small. It has very little impact. You know, a lot of these commissioners have been in that position for a long time. It has—it's a commission that has very little authority, he says, and has done very little lately. So the impact that Americans may see from this decision in the White House is—might not be profound, but it does speak to the broader effort of the president trying to shape the upcoming elections, especially as we are heading into the midterm season. Yeah, precisely. Important context there for our viewers to know. Olivia, thank you so much.