President Trump was nearly assassinated Saturday night during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, by a 20-year-old Democrat donor named Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Trump clutched his neck right after being shot, with blood pouring from his ear. Video footage from the scene shows Trump ducking down as soon as the initial gunshots rang out.
Secret Service agents promptly shielded Trump and guided him away from further harm. Despite being injured, a defiant Trump raised his fist and yelled “Fight!” multiple times toward the crowd.
Susan Crabtree of Real Clear Politics has now uncovered more infuriating details about that fateful day. It appears that the Secret Service chose to reallocate crucial resources to protect Jill Biden’s campaign event in Pittsburgh, diverting them away from the 45th President’s rally. Both events took place on Saturday.
Two sources informed her that this decision was made in accordance with the agency’s protocol, which treats Trump as a former president. This was done despite Trump being the frontrunner for the next presidential election and having the largest political following in the country.
She also poses a critical question: who decided to divert these resources to Dr. Jill’s paltry event?
From Crabtree:
Secret Services resources were diverted to Jill Biden’s event and away from Trump’s because they followed agency protocol applying to Trump as a former president, according to two sources within the Secret Service community.
There were also many supplemental agents from different field officers (not Trump’s regular detail) providing security at the rally because Trump’s regular detail has been overworked (some working 7 days straight), and only two counter-snipers.
But Trump is not just a former president — he is the first in modern history to have run for president again — and he has been the focus of several prosecutions and controversies (understatement intentional).
Who made the decision to divert the resources to Jill Biden’s event?
Crabtree also noted that Trump’s security detail was so overworked that several agents assigned on Saturday were temporary replacements from various field offices. Again, Trump was treated as just some random “former president.”
Trump’s usual protective Secret Service detail was worked so hard (working 7 days a week with no days off) that many of agents assigned Saturday were temporary replacements from different field offices.
This is not the usual protocol for sitting presidents and vice presidents but “typical” for former presidents, (although no former presidents have run again in modern history.)
“Trump has a permanent detail, however it’s much smaller in the amount of bodies,” the source said. “His detail has been worked so hard with all the travel that they’re working 7 days a week with shift changes. so HQ sends in temp agents to supplement – not a good scenario. Mission Failure, IMHO.”
Share your thoughts by scrolling down to leave a comment.
