By Neenah Payne
Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday, July 13. Many questions are being raised about the failure of the Secret Service to provide adequate protection at the rally. The Secret Service failed to secure the roof 150 yards from where Trump was speaking. The video below shows that the police and Secret Service failed to respond when alerted minutes before the shooting that a man with a rifle was on the roof. A Republican-led US House panel has invited Kimberly A. Cheatle, Director of the Secret Service, to testify on July 22 regarding the incident. There are calls for her to resign.
Witness describes desperately trying to warn police that gunman was on roof at Trump rally 7/14/24
A witness says he and his friends tried warning police for several minutes that a gunman was on a roof during the Trump rally, but that Secret Service didn't take action until between five and eight shots were fired. "We see him, he's crawling. I'm thinking to myself, Why is Trump still speaking? Why have they not pulled him off the stage? I'm standing there pointing at him for 2 or 3 minutes. Secret Service is looking at us from the top of the barn. I'm pointing at that roof just standing there like this. And next thing you know, five shots rang out," Greg Smith claimed.
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Secret Service Director To Testify in Congress on July 22
The video below shows a Secret Service agent clearing people from the podium moments before the shooting. It would be interesting for Congress to ask that agent what he was doing and why.
Proof Of U.S. Secret Service's 'Dubious' Role? Watch What Happened Moments Before Trump Was Attacked 7/15/24
More embarrassment for the U.S. Secret Service as probe deepens into Donald Trump kill bid. A new video of Secret Service agents at the Trump rally venue shows secret service agents clearing the rows behind Trump's stage. Moments after, the shooter opened fire. Many called the video proof of the Secret Service's 'involvement.' The Trump assassination attempt was an insider job claimed by social media users.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle Summoned by US House Panel on July 22.
A Republican-led US House panel has invited Kimberly A. Cheatle, Director of the Secret Service, to testify on July 22 regarding the recent shooting incident at a rally for former President Donald Trump. Rumors and a newly released video angle have sparked speculation about the assassination attempt being an inside job, particularly scrutinizing a Secret Service agent's actions moments before the incident.
Cheatle, who has been with the Secret Service since 1995 and became its Director in September 2022, is requested to appear voluntarily before the Committee. The Secret Service, under the Department of Homeland Security, is responsible for protecting American politicians, their families, and visiting heads of state. Prior to her current role, Cheatle served as Senior Director of Global Security at PepsiCo. The invitation highlights congressional scrutiny over the agency's security protocols.
Secret Service Blames Police
Attendees reported seeing 20-year-old Thomas Crooks acting suspiciously near rally metal detectors, according to CNN, with local law enforcement being notified and broadcasting warnings over their radios to the Secret Service to be on the lookout for him. He was also reportedly seen with a rifle outside a security checkpoint to gain entrance into the rally, and later spotted jumping “roof to roof” before settling on the AGR factory. Police apparently failed to locate him while those alerts were out, before finally responding to reports of an armed man on top of the AGR roof.
Around 6:10 p.m., a local police officer climbed a ladder onto the roof and came face to face with Crooks, who was pointing his rifle at him, law enforcement sources told the Associated Press. The officer backed down the ladder, and in those moments, Crooks took aim and fired about eight bullets at the rally. He struck Trump in the ear, fatally struck bystander Corey Comperatore in the audience, and gravely wounded two others in the crowd. Within moments, Secret Service snipers stationed on a barn rooftop behind the stage fatally shot Crooks.
Chief Kimberly Cheatle Facing Calls To Resign
Calls are mounting for the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
Critics claim Cheatle dropped the ball on security measures at Saturday’s Trump rally — saying she has been too focused on woke “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” policies, such as making sure the department is 30 percent women by 2030, to take care of the agency’s more crucial business. They note she even allowed a YouTube influencer to train with agents last year.
Cheatle, 53, served 28 years in the Secret Service and was part of its protective detail guarding then-Vice President Dick Cheney before she left to become head of global security at PepsiCo. She returned to the agency when President Biden appointed her to its top post in 2022. At the time, Biden, 81, expressed confidence that Cheatle was “the best choice to lead the agency at a critical moment for the Secret Service. “She has my complete trust, and I look forward to working with her,” the president said.
But two former high-ranking FBI officials told The Post after Saturday’s shooting that from what they can tell, the Secret Service under Cheatle completely blew it Friday. “It was a total security breakdown from start to finish,” said former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker. “From the total security plan for the rally to the reaction once the shots rang out. “Imagine if the shooter hadn’t been this kid but a well-trained cell? Our enemies are looking at us thinking we can take Trump or anyone out now without a problem,” the expert said.
Swecker was specifically critical of some of the protection detail around former President Trump after he was shot. “What I was seeing was DEI,” Swecker said of the agents, who included three women. “And I am not anti-woman.
I have three daughters and three granddaughters, and they’d make great Secret Service agents. “But the women I saw up there with the president — they looked like they were running in circles. One didn’t know how to holster, the other one didn’t seem to know what to do, and another one seemed not to be able to find her holster.
DEI is one thing. Competence and effectiveness is another, and I saw DEI out there. “If you counted down — and I did — it was over 2 minutes to get him off the podium,” Swecker said. “The Secret Service’s job is to, No. 1, prevent this from happening, and No. 2, get him out of the danger zone in seconds. Two minutes is a lifetime. If there had been a secondary shooter, they would have finished him off.”
Swecker also criticized the agents letting Trump get his shoes and do his now-iconic fist pump before they got him off the stage. “If you remember the Reagan shooting, those agents tossed him unceremoniously in the limo and got him the hell out of there,” Swecker said. “They wouldn’t have let him get his shoes or rise up for a fist pump. And the one reason you can see Trump rise up like that is that the Secret Service agent in front of him was so short. Traditionally the Secret Service had big guys out there who were tall and could block the president and also take a hit.”
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pa., squeezed off at least five to seven shots — one of which grazed Trump in the ear — at the outdoor rally in Butler just outside Pittsburgh, according to law-enforcement sources. Sources said Crooks crawled on the roof of a manufacturing plant more than 130 yards away from the stage at Butler Farm Show grounds.
Another former top FBI official told The Post that the Secret Service he once knew is no more. “It’s been in decline for years, and a lot of it is this diversity bulls–t,” the source said. “I’m a huge fan of the Secret Service, but what you saw out there … was abysmal. How they weren’t better organized I will never know,” he said. “They were fooling around once the shooting started. … I teach this stuff these days. You grab ’em and go. You don’t fool around.”
Neenah Payne writes for Activist Post
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