If you can believe it, it has been a year since a maniac tried to take Donald Trump’s life at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
With Republicans in charge in the House, we are getting more and more information regarding the breakdowns in security coverage that day.
So, we wanted to revisit it to discuss some of the biggest security fails that we have seen both on that day as well as in the most recent reports on the incident.
Prior to that fateful appearance, the Trump campaign stated that it had made several requests for additional security, but they were all denied.
One addition his team wanted was drone coverage, but all the drones had been assigned to the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention, which were both set to take place around the same time.
Secret Service leadership also failed to provide a Counter Assault Team liaison, a key communications post that would coordinate between local assets, including SWAT, and Secret Service agents. This, to me, was one of the biggest issues when we look at the assassination in hindsight.
In all, there were reportedly 10 requests that were denied, which included the above as well as a request for additional sharpshooters to be stationed at the event.
Ten days before the rally, Secret Service officials were made aware of a possible threat on Trump’s life set for the day of the rally, but many of the agents working the detail were not even made aware of that fact
In a report issued by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), it was noted, “[T]he Secret Service had no process to share classified threat information with partners when the information was not considered an imminent threat to life.”
According to Grassley, there were multiple opportunities to share the information, but the agency missed them all.
We should also note that Crooks, the shooter, had used drones to surveil the site, was seen taking wind and distance readings, and had even been questioned by officers on the scene, but he was never detained. Witnesses at the event saw him climbing the roof from which he attacked while holding his weapon, yet he was still able to station himself and fire off eight shots before he was taken out.
Aside from all the other issues, there was a clear lack of training for most of these agents. For example, the agent running the drones ran into multiple technological challenges, but he “lacked the training, knowledge, and support to quickly fix the issue.” This was cited as the reason why Crooks was able to use his drone, undetected, before the event.
For me, there was no bigger training issue than the cover and move maneuver after the shots were fired. One agent ducked behind the podium instead of covering Trump, while another went for the president's shoe, leaving his entire torso unprotected while she retrieved it.
The maneuver continued to suffer flaws while agents took Trump to a waiting car, as some agents on the detail were not tall enough to cover the president, and nobody pushed his head down during the move, leaving him completely exposed during the transfer. I have spoken to my contacts, and they told me repeatedly that this move is practiced daily, and any agent who goes through required training on a regular basis would never have allowed him to be exposed in that way.
This brings into question exactly what sort of persononel the Secret Service had assigned to Trump. It was not the A team, not even the B or C team. With both conventions and a U.N. event taking place at the same time, I get that resources were stretched, but why would you not have a top team on to protect a former president and leading Republican candidate in the race? There are still some serious questions that need to be answered, but I am not sure we will ever get them, considering the lack of backbone we see in Congress today.
