The security screw-ups that got Trump shot make less and less sense


The more that emerges about the Butler, Pa., assassination attempt on Donald Trump, the less sense it seems to make.

And the confusion is almost as bad as the massive foul-ups that allowed shooter Thomas Crooks to get off eight rounds, nearly killing the ex-prez.

In an interim report last week, a Senate committee probing the disaster listed multiple Secret Service failures that allowed the shooter to nearly assassinate Trump, kill another man and badly injure two more:

  • USSS planning was beyond pathetic, failing to define individual responsibilities and leaving the roof of the AGR building — which gave Crooks a clear shot from less than 200 yards — unsecured, despite concerns.
  • The agency failed to coordinate with state and local law enforcement or “adequately consider” their operational plans.
  • It provided insufficient resources — denying requests, for instance, for additional drones.
  • Communication, notably between key personnel about a “suspicious person,” seemed nonexistent.

In additional House testimony Thursday, a former Secret Service agent called the security arrangements “atypical.”

The larger mystery is how such poor planning and so many botches could have happened.

Indeed, the incompetence — from beginning to end — is staggering, even for the bungle-prone Harris-Biden folks.

  • How is it possible that Secret Service personnel knew of a suspicious person with a rangefinder near the AGR building while key individuals (its lead agent and site agent) remained in the dark, as they claim?
  • How could a counter sniper see local cops running toward the AGR building with their guns drawn and not alert anyone to keep Trump off the stage?
  • Why did a USSS official who was aware of “credible intelligence” of a threat nonetheless write in a planning document that there was “no adverse intelligence” concerning Trump’s visit?

The list of why’s is endless, yet answers have been elusive — and contradictory.

The Secret Service, for instance, opted not to place an agent on the AGR roof, we were first told, because it was too “sloped.” Then because it was “too hot.”

That soon morphed into someone deciding it wasn’t necessary.


US Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe, Jr. and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate testifying at a Senate hearing, showing a photo of a shooter's position
At a hearing on the Butler, Pa., assassination attempt, Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe, Jr. (l.) and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate display a photo of the shooter’s position. AFP via Getty Images

What gives?

Meanwhile, information has dribbled out slowly since the shooting, adding to the public’s confusion with every new fact.

Last week, Americans discovered that counter snipers wouldn’t have been assigned to the event at all, except for the word of that “credible evidence.” That contradicts claims that added personnel weren’t provided because Trump doesn’t hold high office and wasn’t yet the official GOP nominee.

OK: No one wants to take the rap for such monumental failures, so all finger-pointing, evasions, contradictions and collective blame-shifting comes as no surprise.

Fine. Congress should get to the bottom of this story, then every bungler should be fired.

Yes, USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle has already been forced out, after her own bit of stonewalling.

But the guy in the White House who hired Cheatle shares culpability, too.

The Secret Service is just one more thing Team Harris-Biden has screwed up — disastrously.

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