Officials are still digging into former President Donald Trump’s would-be assassin after he fired several shots, leaving the 45th president injured and bleeding on stage during his rally earlier this month.
20-year-old Thomas Matthew Cooks reportedly flew a drone over the area two hours before Trump would take the stage during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Cooks' significant use of a drone is that, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), “No person may operate an aircraft over or in the vicinity of any area to be visited or traveled by the President, the Vice President, or other public figures.”
However, the gunman successfully used his drone the same day and in the same area of Trump’s rally.
During an interview with Tucker Carlson, political operative Jack Posobiec questioned how Cooks was able to fly a drone at the same time the Secret Service should have been casing the area for possible threats.
Carlson pointed out that in Washington, D.C., people are not even allowed to operate drones around law enforcement.
“It freaks them out,” he said.
“Don Jr. told me, and I think he said in one of his recent interviews, that when his father was at his house for... Like an event, like a family event and a party that he wanted to put up one of his drones, and the software wouldn't allow the drone to even take off because a Secret Service detailee was in the vicinity,” Posobiec said. “My cousin was getting married in Southern Pennsylvania, which is pretty close to where Wilmington is, and she wanted to have a drone up at her wedding, and because Biden happened to be in Wilmington at that point, she was within that 30-mile radius. You know, the photographers come around and say, hey, we can't do any drones here.”
According to GovTech, residents near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence are not able to operate their drone devices when the former president is in town.
“I was prevented from even starting the rotors on the drone,” Florida resident Chris Leyden told the outlet, realizing that the FAA issued flight restrictions extending out to 30 nautical miles from the central point near Mar-a-Lago.
Another resident told the outlet he had noticed several new restrictions issued around Trump’s Mar-a-Lago visits.
So the question is, if residents aren’t allowed to fly drones 30 miles from Mar-a-Lago, why was the gunman permitted to operate his drone just meters from where Trump would be standing?