Photo: AFP
September 25, 2024: Messed-up security arrangement as well as activities focusing on the Secret Service before and during the first assassination attempt against Donald Trump life in July have been confirmed in a bipartisan Senate committee report this week.
It sounds like a huge report considering three main things. First, this is the election year. Second, the Secret Service agents are always tied to those in powers, although protecting all political leaders including former presidents is a key part of their job description. Third, it was a large, outdoor event that usually received extra security attention.
Quoting the report, CNN said Secret Service agents failed to take charge of security-related decision-making at the Pennsylvania rally, which was also a responsibility of local officials, leading to key lapses in preparation and communication many of which were “foreseeable”and “preventable”.
According to CNN, some of the problems highlighted in the report include the Secret Service failing to set up visual barriers around the rally that may have blocked shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks’ view of Trump, the lack of a plan on how to secure the building the shooter took aim from and the general chaotic communication around the shooter’s movement leading up to the assassination attempt.
The report, citing interviews with top Secret Service officials and local law enforcement who oversaw the security for the rally, said many of the problems identified by the committee “remain unaddressed” by the Secret Service.
Important resource requests were either denied or not even made, CNN quoted the report as saying.
Failure to send an advanced surveillance team, breakdown in communication and utter inability to establish a clear chain of command made security preparation and reaction unnecessarily more difficult, the report suggested.
Perhaps most telling, according to the report, was the sniper team that ultimately shot and killed the suspected gunman failed to pick up local radio alerts about a potential shooter and watched local police approach him with their pistols drawn without initially raising any alarms.
Instead of hearing local radio chatter of warnings that a man was on the roof of nearby buildings, the Secret Service sniper team that ultimately shot and killed Crooks was only made aware that local officers were looking at something at their “three o’clock” two minutes before the gunshot.
Congressional Republicans are calling for a reform of the Secret Service, which already saw a big change at the top. “House cleaning” is among the words used.
Daily updates of local and global events by Tulsathit Taptim
