CV NEWS FEED // A Senate report scrutinized the Biden-Harris administration’s U.S. Secret Service (USSS) for a host of “key failures” it deemed “foreseeable” and “preventable” before and during the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released the nearly 100-page bipartisan report on Wednesday.
“USSS failures in planning, communications, security, and allocation of resources for the July 13, 2024 Butler rally were foreseeable, preventable, and directly related to the events resulting in the assassination attempt that day,” stated the report’s introduction.
“The Committee also finds that siloed communications and coordination problems between federal, state, and local law enforcement officials remain unaddressed and were a contributing factor to the failures at the July 13 Butler rally,” it added.
The report went on to summarize five areas in which the Committee determined the USSS failed on the day a 20-year-old would-be assassin fired at Trump from a roof about 150 yards away.
>> JULY: TRUMP INJURED IN FAILED ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT <<
The shooter’s bullet struck Trump in the ear, drawing blood and coming within an inch of his brain.
The Senate listed the USSS’ five “key failures” as follows:
1. USSS failed to clearly define responsibilities for planning and security at the July 13 rally.
2. USSS failed to ensure the AGR Building was effectively covered.3. USSS failed to effectively coordinate with state and local law enforcement.
4. USSS failed to provide resources for the July 13 rally that could have enhanced security.
5. USSS failed to communicate information about the suspicious person to key personnel, and failed to take action to ensure the safety of former President Trump.
The USSS is an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is currently headed by Biden-Harris DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Biden-Harris appointee Kimberly Cheatle served as the USSS Director during the assassination attempt. She resigned her office ten days later after the onset of heavy scrutiny and criticism from lawmakers across the political spectrum.
>> CHEATLE CALLS JULY 13 ‘MOST SIGNIFICANT FAILURE’ OF USSS ‘IN DECADES’ <<
In addition, The New York Post noted that the Senate report
determined that the Secret Service’s lead advance agent for the Trump rally wrote in a security planning document that there was “no adverse intelligence” concerning the 45th president’s visit to Butler — despite being notified of an unspecified threat.
Furthermore, the lead agent told Senate investigators that she notified the special agent in charge (SAIC) of the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh field office about the “credible intelligence” before the rally — but he claims that never happened.
The Post noted that, per the agent, “Had the Pittsburgh SAIC known about the potential threat to Trump, the rally at the Butler Farm Show Grounds may have been moved indoors.”
The Washington Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York responded to the release of the Senate report on X (formerly Twitter): “The first Trump assassination attempt was a massive failure by the Secret Service.”
“Yet no individual Secret Service official will acknowledge actually failing,” York emphasized.
Political commentator Katie Pavlich wrote on X: “The details of the initial Senate report on Secret Service failures to protect Trump are astonishing.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-TN, indicated in an X post that the report “revealed a Secret Service employee was on a toll-free support line during the rally to figure out how to operate a drone.”
“The Secret Service is acting like the Keystone Cops,” she stated, making a reference to a series of silent comedy films from the early 20th century.
Just over two months after Trump was nearly assassinated in Butler, there was a second attempt on his life on September 15 at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
A grand jury on Tuesday charged Ryan Routh, 58, who had brought an AK-47 onto the golf course in the vicinity of Trump, with attempting to assassinate the former president.
In a self-published book Routh had penned in 2023, he appeared to tell the nation of Iran that its citizens “are free to assassinate Trump.”
>> TRUMP TO HOLD RALLY IN SAME SPOT WHERE HE WAS ALMOST GUNNED DOWN <<
Early Wednesday morning, Trump wrote on X: “Big threats on my life by Iran.”
“The entire U.S. Military is watching and waiting,” he continued:
Moves were already made by Iran that didn’t work out, but they will try again. Not a good situation for anyone. I am surrounded by more men, guns, and weapons than I have ever seen before. Thank you to Congress for unanimously approving far more money to Secret Service – Zero “NO” Votes, strictly bipartisan. Nice to see Republicans and Democrats get together on something. An attack on a former President is a Death Wish for the attacker!
