The Secret Service is facing intense security over the apparent security lapses at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, staged an assassination attempt. Crooks took a position on a rooftop overlooking the stage where the former president addressed supporters. One bullet grazed Trump’s right ear, the former president escaping a fatal headshot within millimeters.
How was this roof, roughly less than 200 yards from the stage, not covered? That’s the predominant question regarding this event. For now, the Republican National Convention is set to begin tomorrow, and the Secret Service announced they have no plans to increase security following the assassination attempt (via NY Post):
The Secret Service will make no changes to security at the Republican National Convention in the aftermath of an assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, the agency said Sunday.
“We are confident in the plans that we have and are moving forward with those plans,” Audrey Gibson-Cicchino, the Secret Service’s RNC convention coordinator, told reporters.
[…]
“That security plan will remain in place,” Gibson-Cicchino said, referencing the current security footprint, which will allow armed protesters to enter a so-called “soft perimeter” near the convention site.
Closer to Fiserv Forum, where Trump and other GOP pols will address delegates, a “hard” perimeter has been set up by the Secret Service, restricting those parts of downtown Mikwaukee to only credentialed convention attendees.
RNC officials and the Secret Service have spent 18 months making security preparations for the thousands of delegates, politicians, press and protesters that have already descended on the Midwestern city for the conference, which starts on Monday.
Fears of potential violence, especially within the soft perimeter, have grown since the attempt on Trump’s life.
You’d think an agency besieged with questions regarding incompetence would do something following an event that’s triggered a national crisis. Reports of Trump’s security detail being denied further resources were dismissed by the Secret Service, though no one seems to be buying the story. There’s a reason why federal agents relied so heavily on local law enforcement yesterday.
News: There's a petition circulating inside the US Secret Service that flags concerns about "a number of recent Secret Service incidents indicative of inadequate training," a double standard in disciplinary actions, and a vulnerability "to potential insider threats" that could…
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) May 9, 2024
BREAKING: A source familiar with Trump’s security detail tells @FDRLST that the former and future president’s detail has been asking for beefed up protection and resources for weeks, but has been rebuffed time and again by Biden’s DHS.
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) July 14, 2024
DHS, which oversees Secret Service…
They had to heavily rely on local police because, as I reported yesterday, repeated requests for more resources for Trump’s security detail were denied over and over and over again by the Biden regime. https://t.co/cSNY3jyxzP
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) July 14, 2024