A new video shows the attempted assassin crawling along the roof of the building about 400 feet away from the podium where Trump would speak. An officer stands below. People are screaming for the officer to do something.
You can see an officer standing right next to the building as the shooter is crawling across the roof and the crowd urging him to do something for a full minute pic.twitter.com/o1CyVMAKyO
— Jack Poso (@JackPosobiec) July 15, 2024
Susan Crabtree is the RealClearPolitics White House and National Political Correspondent. She formerly worked at The Hill, Roll Call, and the Washington Examiner.
In a series of tweets, Ms. Crabtree reports on lapses in the Secret Service protection afforded Donald Trump on the night of the attempted assassination.
This report does not explain why the roof was not sealed off.
Susan Crabtree’s Report on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump
Here’s my reporting on why the Secret Service did not shoot until AFTER the shooter engaged and some context about the House Republicans’ investigation already underway (months before Trump’s assassination attempt) into whether the agency’s DEI policies are affecting its readiness.
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The blowback against the Secret Service started within the hour of the assassination attempt and continued even after Trump and others credited the agency with saving Trump’s life by quickly killing a shooter crawling across a nearby rooftop.
But a source within the Secret Service community tells RealClearPolitics that the agency rules of engagement in this situation are to wait until the president is fired upon to return fire.
“You want to take a shot then find out the guy was holding a telescope?” the source suggested.
“The Secret Service is by nature reactive…and you better be right when you do react or you’re f—–d.”
The Secret Service protocol requires that a counter-sniper aware of a potential shooter radio directly to the intelligence division team to respond and investigate. In this case, the investigation may have been cut short by the shooter firing his weapon, so the counter sniper then fired as quickly as possible in return.
The source praised the counter sniper who acquired the target and responded within three seconds, calling their performance “incredible.”
“The counter snipers are highly trained and extremely accurate,” he said.
Did They Use Drone?
Others with law enforcement and military backgrounds want to know whether the Secret Service utilized drones, i.e., small unmanned aircraft systems, to provide detailed situational awareness. If the agency did not use drones, why not, these experts ask.
The use of drones has been a controversial issue within the agency since at least 2016. Implementing drones would have provided detailed line-of-site analysis and aerial surveillance that would have easily identified the rooftop as a potential threat area.
“The USSS has access to all the best imagery and elevation data,” the military expert told RCP.
“I’m not saying they didn’t [use drones], but it’s an open question.”
The once-vaunted Secret Service lost some of its former respect after a string of fence-jumping incidents and other security lapses came to light during the Obama administration.
At the beginning of the Trump administration, a senior special agent in the Secret Service came under fire for suggesting in a Facebook post that she wouldn’t “take a bullet” for Trump. Kerry O’Grady, the former agent in question, was placed on administrative leave but was allowed to retire with full benefits, which outraged many in the Secret Service community.
The agency, more recently, has come under scrutiny for its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies after a female agency attached to Vice President Kamala Harris’s protective detail, and identified as Michelle Herczeg, had an apparent mental breakdown and physically attacked her senior officers at Joint Base Andrews before a trip.
An agency spokesman called the issue a “medical incident,” but other members of the Secret Service launched a petition over the agency’s diversity, equity and inclusion hiring and vetting policies during the Biden administration, as first reported by RCP.
In addition, after the attempted assassination of Trump Saturday night, conservatives blasted Rep. Bennie Thompson, the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, for earlier this year introducing a bill co-sponsored by several other Democrats that would have denied Service Service protection to Trump if he were convicted of a felony. The measure never gained traction in the GOP-controlled House. After the attempted assassination, which killed one innocent spectator and injured at least two others, Thompson tweeted that he is “glad that the former president is safe” and is “grateful for law enforcement’s fast response.”
THE WASN’T THE FORMER PRESIDENT’S USUAL TEAM
New info from a source in the Secret Service community — Trump’s usual protective Secret Service detail was worked so hard (working seven days a week with no days off) that many of the agents assigned Saturday were temporary replacements from different field offices. This is not the usual protocol for sitting presidents and vice presidents but “typical” for former presidents (although no former presidents have run again in modern history.)
“Trump has a permanent detail. However, it’s much smaller in the number of bodies,” the source said.
“His detail has been worked so hard with all the travel that they’re working 7 days a week with shift changes. so HQ sends in temp agents to supplement – not a good scenario. Mission Failure, IMHO.”
Two sources within the Secret Service community told me the only permanent agent from Trump’s detail during the rally was SAIC (Special Agent In Charge) Curran. All others were temps.
Pittsburgh USSS Field Office had a Jill Biden visit and designated a lot of resources to her, the source said.
Also – the advance work only occurred one day beforehand bc of a lack of resources. Where were the resources? The Pittsburgh USSS Field Office had a Jill Biden visit and designated a lot of resources to her.
“That is f—-ing unbelievable to me,” the source remarked.
Another Secret Service source says approval for the Counter Sniper Team was only granted the day before the rally – and that is not enough time for a two-man team to do their survey.
”That’s nowhere near enough time – a site like that should have had at least three Secret Service counter-sniper teams at the very least.”
THE DAN BONGINO STATEMENT
Dan Bongino reported that failed Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle MUST be asked in front of Congress and under oath, “Have you denied any security requests from supervisors on the Donald Trump protective detail?” If she answers “No,” she’s absolutely NOT telling the truth. Resignations should start today over yesterday’s atrocity of a security plan.
Susan Crabtree on Bongino:
Dan Bongino is a former special agent in the Secret Service and is very close to Trump world. The Secret Service spokesman is disputing this assertion, but my reporting on the agency over a decade has shown me that there’s often more to the story than even agency spokesmen know or are allowed to know right away. A GOP Oversight Committee probe is already underway re: the agency’s readiness and DEI policies.
Cheatle and other top officials no doubt will be grilled on this topic and also the agency’s reactive rules of engagement in this situation that requires counter snipers to fire only AFTER a shooter fires first.
Rep. James Comer had a briefing with the Secret Service on June 24th about its DEI hiring controversy, a story which you read about first in @RCPolitics.
At the time, I was criticized for quoting Dan Bongino that “someone is going to die” because the DEI situation is so bad at the Secret Service.
Here’s the Oversight Committee spokesperson statement about its June 24th briefing from Secret Service senior staff:
“The USSS provided the Committee on Friday a thorough briefing for staff, and we appreciate their time and ongoing cooperation as we continue to conduct oversight to ensure the Secret Service is fulfilling its mission. Questions remain regarding recruiting, vetting, training, and morale at the agency, and the Committee looks forward to receiving additional information from the agency soon.”
The “glaring Secret Service mistake” was a problem assessing the line of sight + there should be an internal Secret Service paper trail on how many counter-snipers, other officers, and agents were allotted to this event in Pennsylvania.
One source in the Secret Service community tells me.
Before the event, a Secret Service advance team walks the protectee’s (in this case, Trump’s) route (ingress/egress), and the site then stands on the stage and looks out 360 degrees to determine vulnerabilities, keeping in mind effective lethal handgun and rifle ranges and making sure those areas are posted and covered.
In this case, they missed the rooftop 130 to 150 yards away. Even for a mediocre shooter, that’s not a difficult shot. Many competitive shooters compete out to 1,000 yards.
“How many counter-sniper teams were there? On the presidential protective detail [agents] use as many as we needed if we could justify it. Former presidents and other details are lucky if they get one, and luckier if they get more than one.”
When Secret Service agents do advance work for a rally or other event they submit a manpower request through the lead advance agent. The lead advance agent submits the number of post standers, magnetometers, counter snipers, etc, that would be needed for a particular visit. A Secret Service official back in D.C. in manpower/protective operations then comes back and says, “You’re only getting this.” “We would always be sure our requests were in writing so we would have a paper trail just in case of the present scenario we have in Butler,” the source tells me.
The Female Agent on the Stage
This source adds that there was a female agent on the stage who did a GREAT job in covering Trump and making herself bigger by spreading her arms.
However, she appeared to be about 5’5″ — exposing Trump from the chest up because he towered over her. In some agents’ opinion, all agents (male, female, gender neutral, trans, etc) assigned to the POTUS or VPOTUS detail should be equal in height to the protectee. That may be difficult to always achieve, but when you’re supposed to be a human shield, the shield should cover the protected from head to toe.
READ THE REPORT
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