It’s been the question on everyone’s mind since Donald Trump narrowly escaped death in an assassination attempt Saturday night: How, exactly, was a 20-year-old rifleman able to perch himself on a rooftop just 150 yards away from the former president during a rally?
It turns out, the Secret Service’s over reliance on Pennsylvania cops may be partially to blame, with a report from The Washington Post revealing Sunday the agency punted the responsibility of surveying and securing some nearby structures to local officers.
Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesperson for the Secret Service, conceded that the agency relied on local law enforcement to fill in “significant parts of its typical array of specialized protective units,” the Post reported.
Guglielmi said Trump’s security detail called on at least six members of Butler County’s tactical units for these jobs. That included the counter sniper teams that spotted and killed the shooter, Thomas Crooks, just moments after he fired a semiautomatic in Trump’s direction.
Citing sources, the Associated Press reported that it was also a local officer who spotted Crooks on the roof before he opened fire, but that cop was unable to engage him because he was clinging to a ledge and trying to pull himself up. The report said the officer couldn’t draw his weapon and ultimately let go of the ledge after Crooks pointed his rifle at him.
It’s not abnormal for the Secret Service to rely on local cops for additional security at events, but, with the agency now under a magnifying glass, many lawmakers—from both parties—are questioning whether the Secret Service should have had more of its own agents on the ground.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) was among the lawmakers demanding answers from the Secret Service and calling for heads to roll inside the agency. The Secret Service was placed under official review on Sunday, and its director, Kimberly Cheatle, may soon find herself testifying on Capitol Hill to account for one of the worst disasters in her agency’s 159-year history.
To put in perspective just how egregious it was that Crooks made it within 150 yards, or about 450 feet, from Trump—that’s roughly the distance U.S. Army recruits must hit a human-sized silhouette from in order to qualify for the M16 assault rifle in basic training. That suggests that even the newest of U.S. infantrymen likely could have landed the shot—especially considering the rifle used by Crooks is a semiautomatic civilian version of the the military M16.
Kevin Rojek, the FBI Special Agent in Charge, said at the scene of the shooting that it was “surprising” the gunman was able to ever get a shot off at Trump—especially from so close.
The Secret Service has not said how many agents it had at the Trump rally, but its staffing struggles have been well documented in recent years.
Jason Chaffetz, who was chair of the House Oversight Committee in 2015 when it penned an investigative report on Secret Service security failures, has long called for the Secret Service to hire more agents. On Sunday, he said the Trump rally a “catastrophic failure” in security.
He told the Post that his 2015 report called for significant changes to the Secret Service—specifically, beefing up its personnel count—that were never implemented. That inaction may have nearly cost Trump his life.
“We did all these investigations and did an extensive report so this would never happen again,” he told the Post. “It’s as if they paid no attention to the bipartisan recommendations.”
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