(RepublicanNews.org) – The Secret Service has come under fire since the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on July 13. Some have questioned how it was that the 20-year-old would-be assassin, who instead managed to kill one bystander and wound others, managed to get himself into the position he did before launching his attack.
Trump was under the protection of a Secret Service detail for his Butler, Pennsylvania rally. Photographs taken seconds after Thomas Crooks began firing show several black-suited agents attempting to bundle Trump off the stage. They were temporarily thwarted by Trump’s refusal to move immediately. Instead, he took a brief moment to raise his fist above his head and shout “Fight!” at the audience before he was escorted off the stage.
Attendees of the rally reported seeing Crooks behaving oddly around the event’s metal detectors prior to Trump’s speech. Others reported seeing him clambering across rooftops, eventually settling on the roof of an American Glass Research building adjacent to the rally.
He was able to get into position and fire several shots from his father’s rifle before being felled by a federal sniper.
Secret Service agent Anthony Guglielmi later told reporters that the roof upon which Crooks was positioned was the responsibility of local police officers, not the Secret Service. On the day of the rally, Butler police officers are said to have been made aware of Crooks’s presence on the roof. An officer helped his partner reach the rooftop where he was able to confirm Crooks’ presence. Crooks, however, spotted the officer and pointed his rifle at him. The officer was unable to draw his own weapon and so dropped to the ground in order to avoid being shot. Crooks then began his attack.
Some have expressed concern that the local police force had been tasked with protecting such a high-profile figure as Donald Trump in the first place. Former Utah GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz co-authored a report during his time in Congress in which he examined the use of the Secret Service. After the attack on Trump, Chaffetz cited his report and claimed that Secret Service agents were often “spread too thin”, leading them to rely on local law enforcement, despite a lack of appropriate training and resources.
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