Just when you thought the Secret Service story couldn’t get any worse, it takes another turn. It turns out that not only did the man who attempted to assassinate former President Trump visit the rally site in Butler, Pa., to plan his attack days in advance, but sixty-two minutes—nearly an hour—elapsed between the time he was identified as a suspicious person and he began firing. And he was allowed to remain on the roof of the building for 20 minutes after being spotted by snipers.
When seconds count, the Secret Service took an hour to respond. As a result, a brave family man is dead, and Trump came within millimeters of being JFK’d.
On Wednesday, members of the House and Senate were briefed by phone on the shooting at the Trump rally on Saturday. On the call were Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle, Deputy Director Ron Rowe, FBI Director Chris Wray, and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate.
Andrew Desiderio, senior congressional reporter for Punchbowl News, posted on X that according to two senators he spoke with:
- The shooter visited the rally site a few days in advance to scope it out
- 62 mins elapsed between the time the shooter was photographed as being suspicious and when he fired the shots
- 20 mins elapsed between the time he was spotted by snipers & when he fired the shots—
“FBI Director Wray said there’s no known foreign nexus but no established motive as of now,” Desiderio added, “Shooter used encrypted comms and had little to no social media presence.”
Does any of this sound remotely believable to you?
“I’m told only four questions were allowed on the call, and that USSS Director Cheatle barely spoke,” Desiderio said.
Fox News’s Chad Pergram reported that Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) was “Completely unsatisfied” with the call. “It was a complete cover-your-a** briefing by the Secret Service. The director of the Secret Service needs to lose her job. This was appalling.”
“He was identified as a character of suspicion because [he had] a rangefinder as well as a backpack. And this was over an hour before the shooting actually occurred,” Barrasso said. “So, you would think over the course of that hour, you shouldn’t lose sight of the individual. Somebody ought to be following up on those sorts of things. No evidence of that happening at all.”
This is why no one trusts the government anymore.
