On the heels of the second assassination attempt against former President Donald J. Trump at his golf club on Sunday, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) released a “Whistleblower Report” on Monday to document the “failures of the United States Secret Service” in Butler, Pennsylvania.
If there was ever an “oops” moment in the world of presidential protection, this one takes the cake – and maybe the whole bakery. On July 13, 2024, former President Donald Trump found himself in the crosshairs at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, as a would-be assassin’s bullet whizzed dangerously close and clipped his ear.
What we got from the Secret Service, according to the whistleblowers in the report, was a tragic comedy of errors, served with a side of gross negligence and a garnish of good old-fashioned government incompetence.
Dan Bongino blasts Secret Service.
As former Secret Service Agent Dan Bongino so succinctly put it on his radio show on Monday after the SECOND assassination attempt against Trump, “layered incompetence is intent (by default).” And judging by the debacle that unfolded in Butler, it looks like the Secret Service is guilty of willful stupidity and incompetence and should be, as the Democrats like to say, “reimagined” (Not to mention defunded). The whole agency needs to start over from scratch so that agents are hired correctly, trained correctly, assigned correctly, and promoted correctly to do their jobs correctly.
Bongino added during his show that presidential protection should extend to 1,000 yards, far beyond the dangerously close 300 or 500 yards that the last two assassins were able to get to. Bongino also said that this is information that the agents learn the first week of their training.
Snipers in the sun? Nah, too hot.
In the Whistleblower’s report, we learned that the Secret Service’s plan to protect the former president involved some innovative, cutting-edge strategies: like ditching the rooftop because it was too hot. That’s right, instead of maintaining a bird’s-eye view from American Glass Research Building 6, where the would-be shooter took aim, law enforcement went inside where it was cooler. Miscommunication between the local law enforcement and the Secret Service also highlights the fact that neither really had any idea what the other was doing or where.
And don’t even ask about the drone technology offered by local law enforcement that could have, you know, spotted a drone surveilling the rally site before the shooting. The Secret Service politely declined.
Welcome to the Trump rally security circus. Who was running the show?
The more we learn about that fateful day in Butler, the more it seems like the Secret Service was running a three-ring circus rather than a presidential protection detail. The lead site agent responsible for security? Known for incompetence. Counter Surveillance Division? Not present. Security manpower requests? Never submitted because they’d be denied anyway (after all, Trump is only a “former” president) And the icing on this moldy cake? The DHS agents brought in to cover the shortages were pulled off child exploitation cases and received just two hours of shoddy webinar “training.” Bravo, Secret Service.
Dan Bongino’s declaration that the Secret Service has fallen into a pattern of “layered incompetence” couldn’t be more on the nose. It’s almost like someone set out to write a manual titled “How Not to Protect a Former President,” and the Butler incident was the live demonstration.
Golf course shenanigans happened BEFORE the one on Sunday.
Yes, there was a problem at another golf course event before the second attempted assassination on the president this Sunday. This one was at a golf tournament in August of last year. According to the whistleblower, agents raised red flags over local law enforcement’s lack of training during this 2023 Trump event. They also pointed out that individuals were admitted to the event without vetting. Their reward for speaking up? Retaliation, of course.
Hawley gets no response to questions asked.
In the whistleblower report, Hawley lists direct questions that he’s asked of the Secret Service and the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS). What has he received in response? Crickets. Nothing. Nada.
The Secret Service has turned stonewalling into an art form, dodging questions and dragging its feet in responding to Senator Josh Hawley’s calls for accountability.
Meanwhile, we await the interim report on Butler from the Secret Service which even Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) says that Americans will be “shocked” and “appalled” by. He also throws DHS under the bus for their lack of transparency. In an interview with Fox News, Blumenthal said, “I think the American people are going to be shocked, astonished and appalled by what we will report to them about the failures by the Secret Service in this assassination attempt on the former president. But I think they also ought to be appalled and astonished by the failure of the Department of Homeland Security to be more forthcoming, to be as candid and frank, as it should be to them in terms of providing information.”
Bongino’s bottom line: intentional or just plain stupid?
Bongino had other questions on his radio show yesterday including: is there a mole in the Secret Service (how did Sunday’s would-be assassin know Trump would be playing golf)? And is the complete abject failure to protect Trump (and it IS a failure even though Trump survived both times) political?? These are fair questions to ask under the current circumstances.
Even Martin County Sheriff William Snyder s wondering about some kind of conspiracy. In a press conference on Monday, he was asked if the would-be assassin, Routh, had a connection to Martin County. His answer: “To my knowledge, the answer is no, I have no knowledge. I think what we’re finding out is he’s not from this area, which of course raises the bigger question, is, how does a guy from not here get all the way to Trump International, realize that the president, former president of the United States, is golfing and is able to get a rifle in that vicinity? I think that’s the question the FBI, the
Secret Service are laser-focused on today – is this guy part of a conspiracy? Is he a lone gunman? If he’s a lone gunman, President Trump is that much safer because we have him. But if he’s part of a conspiracy, then this whole thing really takes on a very ominous tone.”
Biden’s take: “The Service needs more help” – no kidding, Joe.
President Biden, who clearly missed his calling to be Captain Obvious, chimed in recently with his thoughts on the assassination attempts saying that the Service “needs more help.” Hm…. maybe start by hiring agents who won’t abandon their posts because it’s sunny outside. Or maybe stop promoting incompetent women. Just a thought. Biden’s response, as helpful as a screen door on a submarine, does little to address the root of the problem: the deep-seated systemic failures that nearly cost Trump his life – twice.
The American people deserve a whole lot better than the clown show the Biden-Harris Secret Service is putting on. After the fiascos on July 13th and September 15th, it’s painfully obvious this bungling outfit has some serious explaining to do.
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