It’s been nearly two months since the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, tried to kill the former president with a rifle on July 13, perched atop an unprotected rooftop less than 200 yards from the rally stage. We don’t know why this roof, a glaring security issue, was left unguarded. The initial response from the Secret Service was that the sloped roof presented physical dangers to the agents, who got laughed out of the room. It was one of the final official statements made about the event by then-director Kimberley Cheatle, who got lambasted by Congress during her testimony and later resigned.
Now, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) is bracing the nation for the report about the security failures that occurred that day, adding, “I think the American people are going to be shocked, astonished & appalled by what we will report to them about the failures by the Secret Service in this assassination attempt on the former president [Trump].”
The Connecticut liberal didn’t stop there.
“I think they also ought to be appalled & astonished by the failure of the Department of Homeland Security to be more forthcoming, to be as candid and frank as it should be to them in terms of providing information, he added. These agencies have been cagey and essentially adopted a bunker mentality. The Secret Service initially denied that requests for additional resources to Trump were denied. They later had to admit this was the case, with acting Director Ronald Rowe at the forefront of these matters.
This incident is likely one of the few times that there’s been strong bipartisan support for trashing the United States Secret Service for its appalling failure to protect the former president. The initial reports that the personnel tasked with protecting Trump that day were unqualified were true: most were DHS agents who took a short webinar on threat assessment. It’s been reported that audio issues were present for one of those presentations.
It echoes back to last May when there were rumblings about the Secret Service having inadequate training, evidenced by the lapses we’ve seen in the press: a drunk man wandered into the home of National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan this year, waltzing right past his detail.
Local SWAT teams saw Crooks and offered a description of him, though it never made it to the Secret Service, which did not have access to the radio system. Why there were two sets of communications is baffling. Crooks was also able to obtain intelligence by flying a drone over the rally site. He was spotted on the day of the attack with a rangefinder. The agency opted not to deploy its aerial drone during the rally.
The Secret Service’s total incompetence and stonewall mentality have led to a host of conspiracy theories, some of which aren’t far-fetched. Until these agencies come around to full transparency, release all the information requested, and fire those responsible, these attitudes won’t change. No agent has been disciplined over the failure at the Butler rally. What did happen was the Secret Service pushed an assistant director who was well-liked among the rank-and-file out the door in what looks like some half-assed attempt to find a scapegoat:
A high-ranking leader within the United States Secret Service (USSS) has been encouraged to retire nearly two months after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, a source involved at the highest levels of the internal investigation told Fox News.
The official, Assistant Director Michael Plati of the agency’s Office of Protective Operations, led the section in control of planning for protection of Trump, President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Sen. JD Vance and others, and is ending his tenure there this Friday, his 27th anniversary at the agency.
The Secret Service responded in a statement Tuesday that Plati “was not asked to resign or retire by anyone. This was a personal decision that he has made and we thank him for his 27 years of dedicated service to the federal government.” Still, others involved in the investigation have not disputed the underlying narrative that he was encouraged to resign following the July 13 security failure in Butler that has sent shock waves through all levels of the agency.
What a mess.
***
UPDATE: The lead advance agent reportedly failed training exams.
