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After the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump in July - we have to say "first" because there have been two now - many wondered how the gunman perched on a roof with a weapon aimed at the president could have got there and how could he have stayed so long.
Where was the Secret Service?
According to a bipartisan investigation, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee found multiple failures at almost every level before the attempt on Trump's life took place, concluding that they were “foreseeable, preventable, and directly related to the events resulting in the assassination attempt that day."
The Associated Press reports, "Investigators found that there was no clear chain of command among the Secret Service and other security agencies and no plan for coverage of the building where the shooter climbed up to fire the shots. Officials were operating on multiple, separate radio channels, leading to missed communications, and an inexperienced drone operator was stuck on a help line after his equipment wasn’t working correctly."
How has the Secret Service become so incompetent?
The report showed that the Secret Service was only notified about the shooter, Thomas Crooks, two minutes before he fired on the former president, who was struck in the ear by his bullet.
Trump came out of the event relatively unscathed, but one rally-goer lost his life and two others were injured.
The report revealed miscommunication after miscommunication, baffling in the agency's inability that day to do its most basic job.
Also, why didn't they get Trump off the stage?
AP notes, "The panel also interviewed a Secret Service counter-sniper who reported seeing officers with their guns drawn running toward the building where the shooter was perched, but the person said they did not think to notify anyone to get Trump off the stage."
Noting both the Senate findings and the investigation in the House, AP observed, "Each investigation has found new details that reflect a massive breakdown in the former president’s security, and lawmakers say there is much more they want to find out as they try to prevent it from happening again."
Sen. Rand Paul, the top Republican on the panel, said, “This was the result of multiple human failures of the Secret Service."
This seems unprecedented for the agency. What's really going on here?
The Secret Service is tasked with protecting our most high profile public officials, with presidents topping that list.
Somehow, when that president is Donald Trump, they seem to do the worst job possible.
Every time it happens.
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