The Secret Service made a series of mistakes that allowed a gunman to fire shots at a Donald Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. The shots killed a rally attendee and grazed Trump’s ear. A bipartisan Senate report found the errors were “foreseeable” and “preventable.” The report said there were problems with planning, communication, and clearly defining responsibilities among Secret Service personnel.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, said the report shows a “stunning failure” by the Secret Service. “A man died, a former president was almost killed, and it was completely preventable from the outset,” he said. The report described technological issues the Secret Service had at the rally.
A system meant to stop drones did not work, and agents had to borrow an Ethernet cable from Trump’s campaign staff to get it running. By then, the shooter was no longer using a drone. Requests for important resources were denied or not made by Secret Service agents.
They did not ask for a surveillance team for the rally, which had about 15,000 people. In contrast, First Lady Jill Biden had a surveillance team at her event an hour away with only 410 attendees.
Secret Service’s planning and communication issues
The Secret Service and local officials only had two official meetings before the rally. The report said it was unclear who was in charge of securing the building the shooter fired from. Secret Service agents thought local officials would handle it, but local officials said they told the Secret Service they did not have enough people.
The Secret Service knew about a credible threat from Iran to kill Trump at the rally. This led them to send a counter-sniper team, which “potentially saved lives.” However, information about the threat was not shared with senior officials or other agents at the rally. An inexperienced Secret Service agent with minimal drone training had to call a toll-free tech support number for help during the rally.
The agent’s request for more drone assets had been denied before the event. The Senate report made recommendations for the Secret Service to improve. These include better coordination, clearer leadership, a single person to approve security plans, and more intelligence resources.
The Secret Service said it is reviewing the report and making changes to prevent future security failures. “The U.S. Secret Service is steadfastly committed to protecting those entrusted to our care,” said Anthony Guglielmi, the agency’s chief of communications.
- NBCNews.”Bipartisan report on Trump shooting identifies Secret Service tech issues and ‘preventable’ mistakes”.
- CNN.”New report details stunning Secret Service leadership failures around first Trump assassination attempt”.
- FoxNews.”Trump assassination attempt: Inexperienced Secret Service agent flying drone called toll-free number for help”.