It’s time to talk about the Secret Service problem we saw yesterday *UPDATED*

American Thinker ^ | 14 Jul, 2024 | Andrea Widburg

[MtnClimber]

Preliminarily, let me say what I wrote yesterday: Trump’s near miss seems to have an element of Divine Providence to it, reminiscent of how George Washington invariably emerged from the heat of battle unscathed. Just sayin’. Now, to the topic at hand, which is the Secret Service’s performance before, during, and after the assassination attempt. It wasn’t good.

Ironically, just yesterday, I finished reading Lee Child’s Without Fail, which was published in 2008. In it, Jack Reacher works with the female head of the Vice President’s Secret Service detail to help foil an assassination attempt. Unlike most Reacher novels, this one had no fistfights. Instead, it focuses tightly on what the Secret Service does to protect politicians.

I don’t know what kind of research Child did, but the point he makes repeatedly—and it’s an obvious and intuitive one—is that the Secret Service must control the high ground. Every rooftop or high floor within range of a politician is a potential platform for an assassin.

In Butler, Pennsylvania, however, not only did the Secret Service seemingly make no effort to control a rooftop within relatively easy shooting distance of a former president and current presidential candidate, but Secret Service agents also seemed disinterested in repeated warnings that a man with a gun had crawled on top of a building that gave him a clear shot at President Trump. This video shows the first eyewitness we heard from, but reports are that several other people saw the same thing and had the same response from Trump’s security detail—that is, no response:

X - BREAKING: Eyewitness tells BBC that he informed police, Secret Service about a suspicious man on a roof with a rifle.

[DannyTN]

• Also the shooter was known to be an active antifa who had helped organize violent protests in several states. And he lived in PA. They should have had him under surveillance.

[metmom]

Almost???????

[metmom]

Not all of us.

Never forget.

[MtnClimber]

Did I need to put a (sarc) tag on that?

[Alberta's Child]

Leaving aside the conspiracy theories about government officials staging an assassination, I would suggest four contributing factors to the security fiasco yesterday:

1. The coordination between different agencies (mainly the U.S. Secret Service, Pennsylvania State Police, and perhaps local law enforcement) is horrendous at best.

2. The local/state law enforcement officers in many of these rural areas of Pennsylvania are "Keystone Kops" types who would never be hired in a serious police department.

3. Some of these Trump rallies have seemingly been scheduled on short notice, making for difficult advance security preparations. I only heard about this rally last week, and only because an announcement was posted here on FR.

4. Having been to about a half-dozen Trump rallies since 2016, I can say with absolute certainty that the security measures in place when he was the sitting President were much tighter than what I have seen when he was a presidential candidate out of office.

[Major Matt Mason]

Not just a SS problem - onlookers were trying to get the police to do something about the shooter before the shooting, and they did nothing. Complete failure of law enforcement, in general.

[Big Red Badger]

Download now May quit working...
.
Trump Was Hit and dodged it
By the Grace of God.

[glorgau]

The Secret Service along with the FBI have finished their internal reviews and conclude that absolutely no one - except some right wing nut that was fired years ago - was at fault. However training materials will be updated and recalictrant conservatives will be given remedial instruction.

[mware]

Thank God the BBC reporter talked to the guy. It went international and they can’t deny this mans testimony.

[brownsfan]

"Never forget."

That's what we said after 9/11.

[MtnClimber]

Totally agree. He should not trust the marxist/DEI secret service at all. They are deep state now. He needs his own private security and SS needs to know Trump Security have a “shoot first” policy.

[Macoozie]

“The counter snipers need to testify in front of Congress with the question being “was there any don’t shoot first order”?”

You assume they will last the weekend.
The cleanup is happening as we speak.

The Deep State will try again.

[Major Matt Mason]

The Pittsburgh area (where Bethel Park is located) used to be a hotbed of Marxism, so not that surprising that this area would produce a radical Leftist loon.

[fortes fortuna juvat]

Democrats have been using racism and sexism for decades in their effort to take down our Constitutional Republic, and DEI is their latest initiative to get that accomplished.

[Torahman]

These people not only speak the Lie, they Love the Lie. They spread false accusations on the canvas of public opinion with all the genius of a Willem de Kooning. They are the progeny of the original Hashshashim; they have the same spirit. It is the spirit that destroyed Jerusalem: Baseless Hatred. By course, it is irrational, visceral, seething, and cannot be assuaged by logic. It now infects the young of America. But it did not come out of nowhere. It was planted, and carefully nurtured by these latter days media Bolshevicks. Following the footsteps of Lenin, their work always leads to assassination. And they’re never there when it happens, and theyre so “shocked” when their words bear fruit. They are not done.

[Grampa Dave]

Sputnik
@SputnikInt

‘Trump’s life was saved by a miracle, not by his security’ — Russian Spetsnaz veteran

It appears that the people responsible for Trump’s safety dropped the ball judging by the circumstances of the recent assassination attempt, Alexey Filatov, retired lieutenant colonel of the Russian Federal Security Service and veteran counterterrorism specialist, told Sputnik.

While Trump’s security at the rally was provided by three groups – his bodyguards, local police and the Secret Service – it appears that there was no proper communication between them, Filatov, who previously interacted US security services personnel, notes.

Meanwhile, the perpetrator managed to somehow get on a rooftop only about 150 yards (137 meters) away from Trump, a distance where it is “fairly easy” to hit a target the size of a human head using “not even a sniper rifle but a usual automatic rifle with good sights,” Filatov remarks.

“It would be safe to say that the security performed extremely poorly,” he says, noting that for some reason, law enforcement and security personnel did not bother to secure all nearby rooftops in the vicinity.

“You could say that this terrorist act or, shall we say, assassination attempt, it was successful. Donald Trump’s life was saved by a miracle rather than by his security,” Filatov adds.

https://x.com/SputnikInt/status/1812455924843389306

[Big Red Badger]

Yesterday’s assassination was a True act of the Grace of God.
.
We are being prepped for the
Final chapters FRiends!

[Ann Archy]

The FAT CHICK couldn’t even get her service revolver in her holster til the third try!! And that LITTLE chick with the BUN was worthless also!

[MtnClimber]

The FAT CHICK couldn’t even get her service revolver in her holster til the third try!! And that LITTLE chick with the BUN was worthless also!

DEI hires. Bi-Dung and Zer0 must be proud.

[crosdaddy]

pistol, not revolver