Tipsheet

We're Learning More About Trump's PA Rally Security...and the Revelations Are Damning

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  September 04, 2024 12:30 PM

In the weeks and now months following the July 13 assassination attempt against former and potentially future President Donald Trump, damning information about the failures involved, especially when it comes to the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), continues to come out. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has been in touch with whistleblowers, and came on Tuesday's episode of Fox News' "Jesse Watters Primetime" to share more information, including a lack of training for the agents assigned to Trump.

As Hawley shared with host Jesse Watters, what he had heard that night "is that most of the agents who were there at the rally in Butler were not Secret Service agents, they were in fact Homeland Security agents, and, get this, most of those Homeland Security agents, the only training they received was an online webinar, a two-hour online webinar!" Even more outrageous is that Hawley was also told the webinar had sound issues.

"So think about that! The... former president of the United States Donald Trump is sent out on stage, most of the people aren't trained, they're not qualified, they only got a webinar training, and even that didn't work," Hawley summed up, calling such a revelation "absolutely outrageous."

As the senator shared what he had heard with Watters, footage was played on the screen showing Trump speaking on stage as the suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks, could be seen on the roof of a nearby building. Crooks ultimately shot Trump, killed a rally attendee, and wounded others. 

Such revelations were a trending topic over X on Tuesday night, and among those chiming in about Hawley posting the clip included Elon Musk. 

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In covering Tuesday night's segment for our sister site of Twitchy, Grateful Calvin summed up the chilling revelations from that night and thus far quite well [Emphasis original]: 

It is equally impossible to believe that there has been nearly no accountability for this epic security failure. Yes, former Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle resigned, but she wasn't fired by Joe Biden or Alejandro Mayorkas. The only other accountability there has been is that five agents were placed on leave. Not fired. Placed on leave. With pay. 

What is not at all impossible to believe is that the media has completely memory-holed the assassination attempt. They simply do not talk about it. Why not? Because discussion of that historic event could help Trump in the election. The media, in their TDS-induced stupor, simply cannot have that. 

...

Holy sh*t. Let's go through the list of what we learned here: 

  • A local police countersniper -- from the ground, not from an elevated position -- neutralized the shooter, NOT the Secret Service (though they did fire the shots that killed him);
  • Acting USSS Director Rowe lied about this in his recent Congressional testimony;
  • Many of the agents assigned to the protective detail on July 13 were not from the Secret Service, but from Homeland Security, which has no experience in protecting a President;
  • Those DHS agents were pulled off of their other jobs, like child endangerment investigations, for this posting;
  • The DHS agents had NO training other than a single webinar;
  • And finally, the webinar didn't even work for some parts of its two-hour duration.

Also on Tuesday, Hawley sent a letter to Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe about such revelations. He began by pointing out that when Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents partner with the USSS, "they should be properly trained," also expressing concerns that assigned agents "are woefully unprepared for the job."

Hawley also went further in depth about such problematic webinars, and how it doesn't look like they've taken further protective measures since the July 13 attempt:

...The whistleblower alleged that these videos were not substantive and their playback was frequently riddled with technical mishaps, leaving the HSI agents ill-prepared for the protective mission to which they were newly assigned. To quote the whistleblower directly: “Imagine 1,000 people logging onto Microsoft Teams at the same time after being informed at the last minute that everyone needed to login individually. Once it got rolling, the Secret Service instructor couldn’t figure out how to get the audio working on the prerecorded videos (which I’m told are the same videos as last year). All told, they restarted the videos approximately six times …. The content was not helpful.” Worse, the whistleblower alleges the Secret Service has not changed, updated, or otherwise improved its webinar “trainings” since the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. In the words of the whistleblower, “Nothing new, nothing improved since the assassination attempt on former President Trump.”

Hawley's letter references other concerns from other whistleblowers, as well as details from RealClearPolitics' Susan Crabtree that agents "only receive one power-point presentation for training for these events." 

"In other words, all of these allegations together suggest that a significant number of personnel tasked with providing security for former President Trump at the July 13 rally were egregiously under-prepared by the Secret Service to carry out this mission. Moreover, these latest whistleblower allegations contend HSI agents were pulled off child exploitation cases in order to serve on protective details for which they were unprepared," Hawley wrote with original emphasis. 

The senator is thus seeking answers to the following questions:

1. How many HSI agents were present at the Butler rally on July 13?  

2. Of the HSI agents present at the rally, how many were trained for work on protective details using webinar training, whether in whole or in part? 

3. Please provide a copy of the recording, curriculum, and other materials used for any online training provided to HSI special agents assigned to protective details. 

4. Has the training been revamped in any way since July 13?  

5. Have HSI agents been reassigned from child exploitation cases to assist on protective details? If so, how many? 

Hawley is seeking such answers "immediately."