When it Comes to Trump, the Secret Service May Not Just be 'Incompetent'
Among the many troubling questions surrounding the massive security failure that took place prior to the July 13 assassination attempt on Donald Trump's life, one of the most glaring ones was why Trump was even allowed to take the stage. We now know that various security personnel from the Secret Service, DHS, local police, and others were aware of the presence of Thomas Crooks and had identified him as a security concern. Did Trump just shrug it off in an effort to get on with the show? During an interview yesterday, Trump revealed that wasn't the case at all. Trump told Jesse Watters of Fox News that nobody even mentioned it to him. No concerns were raised and he was simply escorted out onto the stage as he had been scheduled to do. The rest, as they say, is history. (NY Post)
Donald Trump revealed Saturday that he was not warned about the gunman who shot him at a Pennsylvania rally last weekend despite agents eyeing the suspect for hours before the attack.
“Nobody mentioned it,” Trump told Jesse Watters in an upcoming episode of the Fox News anchor’s primetime show.
“Nobody said it was a problem.”
“[They] could’ve said, ‘Let’s wait for 15, 20 minutes, 5 minutes.’ Nobody said…I think that was a mistake,” he added.
Trump is being beyond generous by characterizing this as "a mistake." It was a mistake that came within centimeters of costing him his life. Of course, his reticence about being more critical is probably understandable. He still needs the Secret Service and he will need them for the rest of his life, regardless of whether he wins the election in November or not. (Even more so if he does.) I will once again point out that we're probably not talking about the rank-and-file Secret Service agents who make up Trump's personal security detail, or at least I hope not.
The massive security collapse of July 13 most likely took place at the management level. The team assigned to personally protect Trump appeared to do their best to put their lives on the line and cover him, even if some of them didn't appear to be fully up to the task. That was literally the case with at least two of the women who were clearly too short to keep his head covered while leading him off of the stage. But the biggest failures came from those responsible for the advanced site planning, the establishment of the perimeter, and the screening of people entering the area, many of whom were not even Secret Service agents.
Another bit of news that broke this weekend should lead us to wonder if this was all just a matter of systemic incompetence or if there might have been something darker unfolding. It turns out that Trump's team had been raising concerns and requesting additional Secret Service coverage for the past two years. They were denied at every turn.
Secret Service officials rejected Donald Trump’s request for additional security in the two years before last weekend’s assassination attempt, a damning report revealed Saturday.
The ex-president, 78, asked for more agents and magnetometers at large public events he attended, as well as snipers for outdoor venues, four insiders told The Washington Post.
Each request was shot down by senior officials who claimed the agency lacked the resources Trump was asking for, the outlet reported.
This morning, CNN was interviewing a former Secret Service agent and supervisor who said that he was "stunned" that the request would be denied. They knew that intelligence sources had informed them that Iran was looking for a way to "take out" Trump before he could return to office. He attracts massive crowds at all of his rallies and he is a very controversial figure nationally. In other words, he constantly exists in what the agent described as "a threat environment."
If the reason for trimming Trump's security team and refusing to boost it was simply a "lack of resources," that might be understandable in the short term. It's a government agency, after all. Everyone competes for funding. But this is the group of people responsible for preventing the assassination of public figures. And we're not talking about a massive budget compared to all of the rest of the money that our government sends up in flames each year. It should be a no-brainer to determine that the Secret Service needs to be fully funded. That's probably more true when it comes to Trump than with any other official.
I somehow doubt that Joe Biden's detail isn't fully staffed with the best personnel who have all had full Secret Service training. Yes, he's the current President, not a former one, but he's also probably at less risk than Trump. What sort of maniac is going to try to take out Biden? All they would be doing is putting Kamala Harris in office, and that's not going to improve anything. He's been in office for nearly four years and I don't recall hearing any reports of someone making a serious effort to eliminate him.
If there has been some sort of concerted effort to reduce or weaken Donald Trump's protective services, it would have had to have come from the top down. If Kimberly Cheatle refuses to resign, she clearly needs to be fired as soon as Trump takes office (assuming he does, of course). The head of the Pittsburgh Secret Service office needs to go as well. Those are just a few more names to add to the list of swamp creatures that will need to be purged before Trump can really get to work on his agenda. Reliable, qualified people need to be interviewed and selected prior to January who will be ready to step in on day one and replace them.
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