Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie speaks at a news conference Thursday, as county Mayor Beam Furr (from left), Broward Sheriff Scott Israel, Gov. Rick Scott and FBI agent Robert Lasky look on.

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Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie speaks at a news conference Thursday, as county Mayor Beam Furr (from left), Broward Sheriff Scott Israel, Gov. Rick Scott and FBI agent Robert Lasky look on.

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Updated at 7 p.m. ET

Court documents say the suspect in the shootings at a South Florida high school has confessed to investigators. Nikolas Cruz, 19, has been booked on 17 charges of premeditated murder at Broward County’s Main Jail in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

According to a court filing, “In a post-Miranda statement, Cruz stated that he was the gunman who entered the school campus armed with a AR-15 and began shooting students he saw in the hallways and on the school grounds. Cruz stated that he brought additional loaded magazines to the school campus and kept them hidden in a back pack until he got on campus to begin his assault.”

Cruz made his court appearance less than a day after the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, which killed at least 17 people and wounded 15 more.

Cruz allegedly fired on unarmed students and teachers at the high school in Parkland, Fla., which had expelled him for disciplinary reasons.

In a late-afternoon news conference, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel gave a timeline of Wednesday’s events. He said that the shooter arrived at the school at 2:19 p.m., and that within two minutes, he began firing into several classrooms. After conducting attacks on the first and second floors, the shooter dropped his rifle on the third floor and ran away by mixing in among the crowd of students fleeing the scene.

Israel said the gunman visited a nearby Walmart and McDonald’s before he was apprehended without incident.

Within an hour, Cruz was in custody, captured by law enforcement off campus.

The sheriff said the shooter arrived at the school by an Uber car, but he said the driver isn’t suspected of being complicit in the shooting.

Peter Forcelli, the special agent in charge for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said that the rifle used in the shooting was legally purchased about a year ago by the shooter.

SWAT teams were on the scene soon after the shooting began, evacuating students from the building. After Cruz was arrested away from the school’s premises, he was taken to a hospital for treatment before being released to police custody.

He faced a judge in court briefly Thursday, and bond was denied.

Suspect Nikolas Cruz, 19, is escorted by law enforcement at the Broward County jail in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Thursday.

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Suspect Nikolas Cruz, 19, is escorted by law enforcement at the Broward County jail in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Thursday.

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Parents and classmates are left to cope with the aftermath.

“No child, no teacher, should ever be in danger in an American school,” President Trump said in a televised speech to the country Thursday morning. “No parent should ever have to fear for their sons and daughters when they kiss them goodbye in the morning.”

“Law enforcement will do everything we can — the FBI, ourselves — to make sure that this person is convicted of all charges and that justice is served,” Israel said Thursday.

Authorities said Cruz began the attack outdoors toward the end of the school day, just as the school’s some 3,200 students were leaving their classrooms.

“This particular individual came onto campus at the time of dismissal,” Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters, “and that is a fairly open time for the campus.”

The shooter then worked his way indoors using using an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and what Israel described as “countless magazines,” smoke grenades and a gas mask. Then, the fire alarm sounded — which “seemed odd,” NPR’s Greg Allen reports, “because there had already been a fire alarm that day.”

Greg explains what happened next:

“Soon teachers and students got the word: It was a code red. There was an active shooter in the school. In some classrooms, teachers made sure their doors were locked, lights turned off and students hidden in closets or under the desks.

“But thinking it was a drill, one student interviewed on television says her teacher led them out of the classroom before recognizing the danger. As he got them back into the classroom, she said he was shot and killed.”

“It was pretty chaotic, to be honest,” Broward County Mayor Beam Furr told Morning Edition on Thursday. “There were policemen from every one of our cities — we have 31 cities in Broward County, and I believe every force from the county was there. And as I arrived [yesterday] the kids were coming out, and the parents were beside themselves hoping to see their kids.”

The wounded were taken to three hospitals in the area. Representatives of two of those hospitals, speaking at Thursday’s news conference, said five patients remained in their care at midday.

Among the 17 victims were the school’s athletic director, Chris Hixon, and assistant football coach Aaron Feis. The Douglas football program tweeted that Feis, who was an alumnus of the school, “selflessly shielded students from the shooter when he was shot.”

“He died a hero,” the team said, “and he will forever be in our hearts and memories.”

Authorities say they have notified the victims’ families.

Furr is not only the mayor of the county, but he also worked as a teacher in the local school district. He said the rampage Wednesday called to mind some of the kids he had taught in the classroom.

“You keep your eyes on those kids who become disconnected — you know, they’re out on the fringes. And as a teacher, you try to bring them into the fold, so to speak, in one way or another,” he said. “It’s part of our mission to make sure that kids become part of the overall community — and when one gets away, it’s just sad.”

Accounts from some of the school’s teachers and parents have revealed a record of troubled behavior from Cruz, including at least one incident of bullying, a fixation on firearms, and actions that had so alarmed faculty that, a former math teacher of Cruz said, staff had been warned not to allow him back on campus. Furr also told Morning Edition that the suspect had been a client at mental health facilities and had been expelled from the high school for disciplinary reasons.

A screenshot provided by Ben Bennight, showing the message he said he sent to the FBI about the YouTube comment.

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Courtesy of Ben Bennight

Still, it remains unclear how many red flags authorities saw.

“In 2017, the FBI received information about a comment made on a YouTube channel,” Robert Lasky, FBI special agent in charge, noted at the news conference. “The comment simply said, ‘I’m going to be a professional school shooter.’ “

“Who would leave a comment like that?” said Ben Bennight, a bail bondsman in Mississippi, who told NPR that the comment was left on a YouTube video he had posted about the bail bond industry. He says he alerted the FBI, and agents later came to his office to ask him about it, though he had little information to offer because he “didn’t know anything about the individual.”

“I didn’t hear anything else about it until yesterday, when they called and asked to meet with me,” Bennight said.

“No other information was included with that comment which would indicate a time, location or the true identity of the person who made the comment,” Lasky said at the news conference. “The FBI conducted database reviews, checks, but was unable to further identify the person who actually made comment.”

Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott told reporters that the chief focus among officials is having “a real conversation” about both school safety and mental illness in the community.

“If somebody is mentally ill,” Scott said, “he should not have access to a gun.”

Runcie echoed Scott about supporting and treating the mentally ill and went a step further, saying, “Now is the time for this country to have a real conversation on sensible gun control laws.”

Trump, for his part, did not mention guns or many specifics in his televised speech — but he said authorities plan to tackle issues surrounding mental health. He said he plans to travel to Parkland to meet with families and speak with local officials about how to better secure schools.

He said the country “grieves with those who have lost loved ones in the shooting,” in a statement released earlier Thursday. He also proclaimed that the American flag be flown at half-staff at the White House and public buildings throughout the U.S.

“We will take such action as we’re able to take. We’ve got to reverse these trends we’re seeing in these shootings,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions told the Major County Sheriffs of America conference on Thursday.

“You and I know that we cannot arrest everybody that somebody thinks is dangerous,” he added. “But I think we can and we must do better. We owe it to every one of those kids crying outside their school yesterday and those who never made it out of their school.”

Students have planned a vigil Thursday for their fallen classmates and for the wounded still fighting for their lives.

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An adult film star who has been embroiled in allegations of an affair with President Donald Trump is free to tell her story, her manager has said.

Stormy Daniels is no longer bound by a non-disclosure contract after Mr Trump’s lawyer admitted he paid her, manager Gina Rodriguez says.

Mr Trump’s personal lawyer confirmed in a statement to media he privately paid Ms Daniels $130,000 (£95,000) in 2016.

Ms Rodriguez says that acknowledgement allows her client to speak freely.

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“Everything is off now, and Stormy is going to tell her story,” Ms Rodriguez told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

Her statement comes after Trump lawyer Michael Cohen told the New York Times he paid Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

“Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” Mr Cohen told the New York Times.

He said he told the Federal Election Commission the same after a watchdog group filed a complaint about the payment, claiming that it had served as an “in-kind” political contribution to Mr Trump’s campaign.

An X-rated cover-up?

Analysis by Anthony Zurcher, BBC Washington

Donald Trump’s lawyer and all-around fixer Michael Cohen has said he doesn’t plan “further comment” on his six-figure payment to Stormy Daniels. His statements, however, raise more questions than they answer.

While he said the money came from his “personal funds” and was not reimbursed directly or indirectly by the Trump Organization or the Trump campaign, that leaves open the possibility that he was compensated by other parties – including Mr Trump himself.

Why, in his generosity, would Mr Cohen give $130,000 to Ms Daniels? The Wall Street Journal has reported that it was in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement about a decade-old affair between Mr Trump and Ms Daniels. Circumstantial evidence – that Ms Daniels had been in contact with media outlets prior to the transfer and has since gone silent – lends credence to this line.

Even though the alleged affair is long since past, a story about possible hush money and an attempted cover-up just weeks before the presidential election is much more dangerous for a White House already on its heels. And if it turns out there’s more to the money trail than has been disclosed, an embarrassing situation could quickly morph into a criminal inquiry.

• A Stormy (Daniels) situation: A porn star scandal Trump can’t shake

“The payment to Ms Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone,” Mr Cohen said.

The lawyer has previously said Mr Trump “vehemently denies” it occurred.

The revelations on Wednesday follow US media reports that the porn actress known as Ms Daniels was paid to sign an agreement stopping her discussing an alleged affair.

She first said she had a relationship with Mr Trump in a 2011 interview.

In a 2011 interview with InTouch magazine, the actress said she began a sexual relationship with Mr Trump in 2006, shortly after Melania Trump gave birth to his son Barron.

The reports re-emerged in January when the Wall Street Journal reported that she was paid to sign a non-disclosure agreement in the run up to the 2016 election, which prevented her from discussing the alleged liaison.

Ms Clifford was believed to be in discussion with US media about an television appearance to discuss Mr Trump at the time, the report said.

Responding to questions from CNN about why the payment was made, Mr Cohen said: “Just because something isn’t true doesn’t mean that it can’t cause you harm or damage.”

“I will always protect Mr Trump,” Mr Cohen added.

On 30 January, Ms Daniels’ publicist released a statement in her name denying having an affair with Mr Trump.

But many – including Ms Daniels herself – were quick to note that the signature attached to that denial did not bear much resemblance to another copy of her autograph which had been attached to an earlier statement.

That denial had been released by Mr Cohen on 10 January.

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She has since made several public appearances on television and at strip clubs, but has remained tight-lipped when asked directly about Mr Trump in interviews.

Minutes after Mr Trump’s first formal State of the Union address to Congress, she gave an interview to late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel.

In it, she refused to directly answer whether she had signed a non-disclosure agreement, or if she had “ever made love to someone whose name rhymes with Lonald Lump”.

President Trump speaks in the Oval Office Wednesday during a working session regarding the opportunity zones provided by the new tax law.

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President Trump speaks in the Oval Office Wednesday during a working session regarding the opportunity zones provided by the new tax law.

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A week after allegations of domestic abuse against a now-former top aide ensnared the White House in scandal, President Trump condemned domestic violence Wednesday.

“I am totally opposed to domestic violence of any kind, and everybody here knows that,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a photo op for an event related to the recently enacted tax law. “I’m totally opposed to domestic violence of any kind. Everyone knows that. And it almost wouldn’t even have to be said. So, now you hear it, but you all know.”

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted earlier this week that Trump had been very clear in condemning domestic violence in the past, after the White House came under fire for its slow and muddled response to allegations of abuse from two ex-wives against former White House staff secretary Rob Porter.

However, following Porter’s resignation and the timeline of events that led up to it — including questions about when exactly the White House knew of the allegations of domestic violence and that such accusations had slowed down approval of his security clearance — Trump had earlier offered comments that appeared to sympathize with Porter.

Last Friday, Trump praised the work Porter had done as part of his staff, said he hoped he still had a successful career ahead of him, and pointed out to reporters that, “He says he’s innocent, and I think you have to remember that.”

Then on Saturday, Trump tweeted that “lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation.”

Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused – life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 10, 2018

A second aide, White House speechwriter David Sorensen, also resigned Friday amid allegations of domestic violence. Both Porter and Sorensen have denied the allegations against them.

The president’s initial comments about Porter fall in line with Trump’s past reflexes to defend many powerful men accused of sexual misconduct, such as former Alabama GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore. Trump himself has been accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct, which he has denied.

There have also been mounting questions about when the White House knew about the allegations against Porter and why it didn’t act sooner to remove him. The daily press briefing on Wednesday, where Sanders was sure to face more questions about Porter and the timeline of events, was canceled after being postponed several times.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is investigating the policies and processes surrounding the granting of interim security clearances by the executive branch and, more specifically, seeking information from the White House about the granting of an interim clearance to Porter.

“I’m troubled by almost every aspect of this,” Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who chairs the committee, told CNN on Wednesday. “How in the hell was he still employed?”

FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress on Tuesday that the FBI had wrapped up its background investigation into Porter last July, but Porter did not resign until the Daily Mail, a British tabloid, published reports about the allegations of his ex-wives, including a story that included an image of Porter’s first ex-wife with a black eye. (Porter told senior staff at the White House that the black eye had been accidental, according to a recent report by ABC News.)

CLOSE

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel says there are multiple casualties in a shooting at a high school in South Florida. (Feb. 14)
AP

A former student went on a shooting rampage at a Florida high school on Wednesday, leaving 17 dead while panicked students barricaded themselves inside classrooms and frantic parents raced to the scene. 

The gunman, who was expelled, was identified as 19-year-old Nikolaus Cruz. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said Cruz was armed with “countless” magazines and an AR-15 rifle.

Cruz was taken into custody miles from the school nearly two hours after the shooting started. 

Flanked by officers, the suspect was escorted into a police station wearing a hospital gown. 

“This is catastrophic,” Israel said. “There are really no words.” 

The shooting happened about 2 p.m. at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., which is about 30 miles northwest of Fort Lauderdale, according to the Coral Springs Police Department. 

Students said chaos ensued when a fire alarm sounded in the school near dismissal time— then the gunfire started. Israel said Cruz started shooting outside then made his way through the school’s hallways. 

Television footage showed the terrifying moments outside the school. Students ran single file from the building with their hands in the air — throwing backpacks into a large pile and huddling under trees across the street. 

As students scrambled to safety, law enforcers with weapons drawn approached the building.

More: Florida high school shooting: Here’s what we know

More: 20 years in, shootings have changed schools in unexpected ways

More: ‘My school is being shot up and I am locked inside!’: Chaos at Florida school shooting

The gunman was expelled from the school for “disciplinary reasons” but Israel didn’t elaborate.

Cameras captured authorities taking Cruz into custody and to a local hospital. Police described the gunman as someone who possibly attended the school and was a member of the JROTC program. Authorities said he was wearing a hoodie and has red hair. 

Some students and teachers who fled the school told reporters they knew the former student and that he had guns. 

As friends hiding from the shooter sent photos and videos over Snapchat to 19-year-old Jillian Davis, she started to recognize the suspect as a former classmate who had a history of making dark, gun-related jokes. 

Cruz, a classmate who participated in Davis’s ninth grade JROTC group, was usually a quiet kid who kept to himself, but “there was a lot of anger management issues there,” Davis said.

“Finding put it was him makes a lot of sense now,” she said.

Cruz would joke about shooting people or shooting up establishments, she added. At the time, she thought it was normal, violent teenage jokes. Cruz would also talk a lot about having guns and using them in different situations, she said.

Math teacher Jim Gard told the Herald he taught the suspect last year, who he said was troubled. 

“We were told last year that he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him,” Gard told the newspaper. “There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.” 

Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said it was a dark day in the county’s history. 

“It’s a horrific situation. It’s just a horrible day for us,” he said. “…This is a day we prayed would never happen in our county.” 

He said every high school in the county has a police presence, adding there are typically two officers at every school. 

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Florida school shooting is the 6th to injure students this year

The White House released a statement as the tragedy was unfolding.

“The president has been made aware of the school shooting in Florida,” deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters said. “We are monitoring the situation. Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected.”

The incident comes just weeks after a rampage at a rural Kentucky high school. A 15-year-old faces two counts of murder and 12 counts of first-degree assault after police said he killed two and wounded more than a dozen others in a shooting spree at Marshall County High School in Benton.

There have been at least six school shootings in 2018.

More: 20 years in, shootings have changed schools in unexpected ways

FBI Director Christopher Wray (from left), CIA Director Mike Pompeo, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, NSA Director Adm. Michael Rogers and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director Robert Cardillo testify before the Senate intelligence committee on Tuesday.

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FBI Director Christopher Wray (from left), CIA Director Mike Pompeo, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, NSA Director Adm. Michael Rogers and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director Robert Cardillo testify before the Senate intelligence committee on Tuesday.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Updated at 3:52 p.m. ET

Russian influence operations in the United States will continue through this year’s midterm elections and beyond, the nation’s top spies warned Congress on Tuesday.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the Senate intelligence committee that Moscow viewed its attack on the 2016 election as decidedly worthwhile given the chaos it has sown compared with its relatively low cost.

“There should be no doubt that Russia perceived that its past efforts as successful and views the 2018 U.S. midterm elections as a potential target for Russian midterm operations,” Coats said.

The top intelligence officials in America were on Capitol Hill Tuesday because the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence convened its annual hearing on “worldwide threats.”

The hearing takes place every year, but this year’s installment convened amid an ongoing Department of Justice and FBI counterintelligence investigation into whether President Trump’s campaign might have conspired with the Russians who attacked the 2016 election.

It also followed reports about the losses of U.S. agents overseas, the theft of the NSA’s secret spying software and other major setbacks in the intelligence business.

More broadly, the world itself is also getting more dangerous, as senators heard.

“The risk of inter-state conflict is higher than any time since the Cold War,” Coats told senators in his opening statement.

Along with Coats, also answering questions from lawmakers were CIA Director Mike Pompeo, FBI Director Christopher Wray and National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers, as well as the heads of the Defense Intelligence Agency and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley and Robert Cardillo, respectively.

The intelligence bosses were asked to restate their support for the 2017 report that concluded Russia had waged a campaign of what spies call “active measures” against the 2016 election. All of them did.

President Trump goes back and forth about whether he accepts there was such an attack or whether it was a “hoax” waged by sore-loser Democrats.

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said he was frustrated at trying to warn his constituents about the threat from foreign interference when voters were able to point to Trump’s comments and question whether it was actually happening.

But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, as well as the intelligence officials, spoke to the importance of at least speaking clearly about the Russian threat, even as the issue of whether the president’s campaign colluded with the Russians remains an open question under investigation by DOJ special counsel Robert Mueller.

“We need to inform the American public that this is real, that this is going to be happening, and the resilience needed for us to stand up and say we’re not going to allow some Russian to tell us how to vote, how we ought to run our country,” Coats said, in response to questions from Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. “I think there needs to be a national cry for that.”

Members of the Senate committee differed on how well they thought the United States is preparing for continued influence operations against the democratic process.

Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said he was frustrated by what he called a lack of action and a lack of coordination inside the intelligence agencies.

“We’ve had more than a year to get our act together and address the threat posed by Russia and implement a strategy to deter further attacks,” Warner said. “But I believe we still don’t have a comprehensive plan.”

Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, on the other hand, said extensive discussions in Congress and in the press since 2016 meant that Americans now know better what to expect.

“I think the American people are ready for this,” Risch said. “I think they’re going to look askance a lot more at the information attempting to be passed out through social media.”

Facebook and Twitter and other online platforms have become key conduits for disinformation that originates in Russia and attempts to amplify political division between Americans.

Credit: AP

“It’s been ridiculous”

Pompeo used part of the hearing to try to correct the record. He faulted stories in the New York Times and The Intercept last week that said American intelligence officials paid $100,000 to a “shadowy Russian” in an effort to get back stolen National Security Agency cyberweapons.

Not only did American spies want to recover stolen secrets but they also were offered material described as compromising about Trump, according to the stories.

That didn’t happen, the CIA director said.

“Reporting on this matter has been atrocious, it’s been ridiculous, it’s been totally inaccurate,” Pompeo said, adding that the CIA did not “provide any resources, no money” for what he called “phony information.”

There was no information as to whether another intelligence agency or government department might have paid to try to recover the NSA material.

The Senate committee also discussed the nuclear missile threat from North Korea and the “instability,” as Coats described it, of that country’s leader, Kim Jong Un.

North Korea staged a massive military parade last week, showcasing its tanks and missiles, ahead of the Winter Olympics’ opening ceremony in South Korea. It also has sent a contingent of athletes and cheerleaders to the Olympics, but DIA’s Ashley said nothing has changed about the North’s dangerous aims toward its neighbors or the United States.

“Decision time is becoming ever closer in terms of how we respond to this,” Coats said. “We have to face the fact that this is a potentially existential problem for the United States.”

Intellectual property theft by China, terrorist groups like ISIS and al-Qaida, and drugs crossing the Southern border from Mexico also came up, but the hearing kept coming back to the broad peril involved with cyberattacks.

“Cyber is clearly the most challenging threat vector this country faces,” said Senate intelligence committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C. “It’s also the most concerning, given how many aspects of our daily lives in the United States can be disrupted by a well-planned, well-executed cyberattack.”

King complained that the United States doesn’t have a formal strategy to deter cyberattackers. Instead, “all we do is patch our software and try to defend ourselves,” he said.

“We are trying to fight a global battle with our hands tied behind our back,” he added.

The Porter matter

Two FBI-related storylines also continued to pop up: One involved the timeline of former White House staff secretary Rob Porter’s resignation. The other involved accusations by Trump and other Republicans that the intelligence community is biased against them.

Wray was asked on Tuesday by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., for a more complete order of events in terms of when the White House knew about domestic violence allegations against Porter as part of his background check process — allegations Porter has denied.

The White House has been ambiguous about when senior officials knew about the allegations of abuse by two of Porter’s ex-wives, which could have affected his ability to get a full security clearance.

Wray said the FBI followed protocol and turned in an initial report in late July 2017. Wray declined to say what was in the report, but he said that his agency received requests for a follow-up and responded to that by November and closed the file in January 2018.

That differed from some accounts of events given by the White House.

And, as has been the case at many hearings on Capitol Hill in the past few months, Wray also was given the chance to respond to criticism from Trump that the FBI is “in tatters.” More recently, the FBI has come under more criticism after the release of a Republican memo that alleged bias against Trump.

Wray repeated that he has “grave concerns” about omissions in the memo by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., chairman of the House intelligence committee, which both the FBI and the Justice Department have denounced.

“There’s no shortage of opinions about our agency. … My experience has been that every office I go to, every division I go to, has patriots. People who could do anything else with their careers but they’ve chosen to work for the FBI because they believe in serving others,” Wray said. “I encourage our folks not to get too hung up on what I consider to be the noise on TV and social media.”

A high-ranking Chicago police officer was shot to death at the Thompson Center Tuesday afternoon while assisting a tactical team who were chasing a suspect, police said.

Commander Paul Bauer of the Near North District was shot several times a little before 2 p.m., according to police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. He said a suspect was taken into custody and a gun recovered.

“It’s a difficult day for us, but we’ll get through it,” Johnson told reporters outside Northwestern Hospital, where Bauer had been taken.

Bauer, 53, joined the department in 1986 and worked all across the city over his career – from the South Side to the specialized mounted patrol unit to his current position as commander of the busy and high-profile Near North District.

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Politics

Thanks to the improving economy, something very unusual is going on in American politics.

American voters are separating the personal from the political in perhaps the most significant way ever.

President Donald Trump’s overall approval rating in most polls is creeping up lately, yet it remains at historically weak levels for a president at this stage in his first term. But at the same time, voters are starting to become more positive about the economy and more willing to give Trump the credit for it.

Several polls are noting this trend, but it’s most clear in the latest Quinnipiac College poll released on Feb. 7. That poll still has Trump at a weak 40 percent approval rating. But 70 percent of respondents said the overall economy is “excellent” or “good.” That’s up from 66 percent in January and just 53 percent in April of last year.

Most importantly for the political discussion, voters in the Quinnipiac poll said Trump was more responsible for the economy than former President Barack Obama. That was by a 48 percent to 41 percent margin. That’s a 16 percentage point swing from January when the poll’s respondents said President Obama was more responsible by a 49 to 40 percent difference.

These numbers were enough to get poll expert Nate Silver to sit up and take notice:

Silver tweet

This is indeed major news. While it may seem like it a lot of the time, presidential campaigns are not literally popularity contests. The candidate most voters find personally more likable does not always win elections, according to many scholarly studies on the subject.

Those same studies show that voters usually choose the candidate who looks and sounds the most competent to them on major issues. So, personality and personal delivery are still crucial, but likability is still not as important as at least a perceived position on the issues.

These economic polls show that the American people seem to be coming to terms with the fact that they may not like Trump personally, but they do like his track record on the most crucial issue: the economy. This is literally the “competency over likability” winning formula.

The question now is whether that will tip the balance the upcoming 2018 midterm elections. No, Trump is not a candidate in those elections. But most midterm elections usually act as a referendum on the president and the job he’s doing so far.

More importantly, the Democrats have long made it clear that they were going to do whatever they could to make Trump and his personal unpopularity their biggest issue in the midterms.

That seemed like a pretty good bet for months, as polls showed the Democrats with unusually large leads in generic congressional election polls. Now that trend has started to reverse at about the same time that Trump’s numbers began to get a boost.

But that’s not the correlation to focus on the most. It’s crucial to remember this is still not about personal popularity. The most dramatic positive move in the polls recently is not for Trump personally, but for his signature tax reform law.

Tax reform was suffering with just 26 percent approval in the Monmouth poll in December. Just one month later, approval shot up to 44 percent and pulled even with those who disapproved of it. A New York Times poll taken a little earlier last month saw the same trend beginning to emerge. This could start to accelerate even more as more Americans start to see larger paychecks this month.

That’s what makes this a double whammy for the Democrats. They can’t counterattack these economic developments and perceptions simply by continuing their attacks on Trump. It’s not Trump the voters are increasingly supporting or even focusing on, it’s his policies.

The downside to all of this for the GOP is that the economy can still slow down between now and November. The stock market’s now-intense volatility can burn a lot of investors, too. If that happens, Trump and the Republicans will have nowhere to hide as they take more and more ownership for that economy. But economic slowdowns are always a danger threatening every incumbent president and party in control of Congress. That’s nothing new.

What is new is that the voters are showing more than ever that they don’t need to like a president or a political party to support their perceived success. That means the Democrats may be concentrating their fire on the wrong target. Trump has endured maximum character assassination for years. But if his policies are soaring in popularity, it’s going to be very hard to use him as a proxy to defeat his party in the midterms.

Commentary by Jake Novak, CNBC.com senior columnist. Follow him on Twitter @jakejakeny.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.