We Have Another Brutal Secret Service Stumble

You will be heavily scrutinized when you fail to protect the former president of the United States and a major 2024 candidate. The Secret Service is under the microscope after its abject failure in securing the rally site in Butler, Pennsylvania, which almost led to Trump’s assassination by Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Crooks could scale the rooftop of the American Glass Research building unmolested to set up his attack. Local SWAT teams saw him and had pictures and a description, though it never reached the Secret Service, which did not have access to the radio system. Scores of bystanders also saw Crooks perched on the rooftop as he prepared to open fire. Now, we have this photo of Crooks openly carrying an AR-15-style rifle in the open.

I have just obtained a photo that was taken by individual at rally in PA of Crooks with the gun used to shoot at President Trump walking around building prior to assassination attempt. This photo was submitted to LEO in PA. To my knowledge this photo has not been released until… pic.twitter.com/55osUSrVeE
— Anna Paulina Luna (@realannapaulina) August 15, 2024

It's been weeks of endless bad news for the agency, which decided to self-immolate itself when its former director, Kimberly Cheatle, a close friend of Jill Biden, said that the sloped roof prohibited agents from being stationed on the building due to safety concerns. It was a line that was laughed out of the room and precipitated her resignation. Now, we’re learning that dysfunction and toxicity have been miring Trump’s Secret Service detail, with agents reportedly being caught sleeping on the job at Mar-a-Lago. Now, one reportedly left her post at a North Carolina rally to nurse her baby. Susan Crabtree of RealClearPolitics elaborated further:

🚨🚨EXCLUSIVE and BREAKING: During a Donald Trump visit to North Carolina yesterday, a woman Secret Service special agent abandoned her post to breastfeed with no permission/warning to the event site agent, according to three sources in the Secret Service community.

Shortly… pic.twitter.com/lkfhhLcA0B
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) August 15, 2024

During a Donald Trump visit to North Carolina yesterday, a woman Secret Service special agent abandoned her post to breastfeed with no permission/warning to the event site agent, according to three sources in the Secret Service community.
Shortly before Trump's motorcade arrival -- I'm told five minutes beforehand -- the site agent was getting ready for the arrival. (The site agent is the person in charge of the entire event's security.)
The site agent went to do one final sweep of the walking route and found the agent breast-feeding her child in a room that is supposed to be set aside for important Secret Service official work, i.e. a potential emergency related to the president.
A working agent on duty cannot bring a child to a protective assignment. The woman was out of the Atlanta Field Office.
The woman agent was in the room with two other family members.
The agent and her family members bypassed the Uniformed Division checkpoint and were escorted by an unpinned event staff into the room to breastfeed, the sources said. Unpinned means they have not been cleared by the Secret Service to be there.
When contacted about the incident, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the incident did not have an impact on the event. and it's under review.
"All employees of the U.S. Secret Service are held to the highest standards," he said. "While there was no impact to the North Carolina event, the specifics of this incident are being examined. Given this is a personnel matter, we are not in a position to comment further."

What a mess.