Former US Secret Service agents spent the early aftermath of what authorities say was an attempt to assassinate Donald Trump at a political rally on Saturday speaking out about what might have prevented their previous employer from failing to halt the shooter before he opened fire.
Evy Poumpouras, who served in the Secret Service’s presidential protective division during Barack Obama’s time in the White House, told NBC’s Today show that rallies like the one this weekend – in a relatively exposed rural tract of Butler county, Pennsylvania – “are the most anxious you’re ever going to be as an agent because you’re trying to secure all of it”.
In her remarks Sunday, the author and journalist suggested local- and state-level law enforcement officers who collaborate with the Secret Service for such events were likely the first line of defense in the area surrounding the Trump rally venue – a position reportedly confirmed by agency spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi.
At Saturday’s rally, a man with a rifle was able to climb atop the roof of a bottle manufacturing plant and fire several shots at the former president at a distance of only about 165 yards.
Multiple people who were outside the venue but near that building – listening to Trump campaign for another presidency – reported trying to point out the gunman to police officers stationed there. But Poumpouras said a key question to answer moving forward is to determine whether those people were directly speaking to officers or if they were unsuccessfully trying to get their attention.
“When you’re doing these rallies, you’re looking at thousands of people,” said Poumpouras, who surmised the shooter waited to get into position until after Trump began speaking and commanded the bulk of rally goers’ attention. “How much law enforcement do you have? Do you have one law enforcement official to – what – 1,000 [attendees]? And are they able to get that person’s attention?”
The Associated Press said it was told by two law enforcement officials that a local police officer tried to confront Crooks on the roof before the shooting. But the officer retreated after Crooks pointed a rifle at him, and within moments the attacker fired toward Trump.
One ex-commander of the Long Beach, California, police department’s special tactics team told NBC it was “a fundamental security failure” to allow someone on a rooftop so near the rally Saturday.
Poumpouras also said government officials are in store for difficult conversations about whether they provide enough resources to adequately secure such gatherings. She said it wasn’t uncommon for her to solicit a certain number of agents to protect a certain occasion only to be told there wasn’t enough money or manpower to fulfill that request.
“This all costs something,” she said.
Once the shooting erupted, former Secret Service agent Jeff James said agents largely responded appropriately with respect to shielding Trump, who had a bullet wound to the tip of his right ear. Counter-snipers fired back at the gunman, mortally wounding him after he apparently killed one spectator and badly injured two others.
Agents quickly draped themselves over Trump after he fell on the stage, prepared to put themselves between the former president and any other gunshots aimed at him.
In an interview with Pennsylvania news station WTAE, James faulted agents for how long it took them to whisk Trump away and into an armored vehicle. Trump put his shoes back after they had been knocked off his feet, took a few moments to defiantly raise his fist and then repeatedly mouthed the word “fight” to his supporters before agents managed to get him out of view.
“There may have been four more gunmen who were going to start opening fire,” James – who estimated that Trump came within three inches of being shot squarely in the face – told WTAE. “We always treat that attack as if that is just the precursor, and the real attack is still to come.”
Ultimately, Saturday warranted “an intensive review” of Trump’s security along with “a massive realignment”, ex-Secret Service agent Joseph LaSorsa – who protected former presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush – told Reuters.
To that end, Joe Biden said Sunday he had ordered the Secret Service to ensure that Trump has adequate security, including at the Republican national convention beginning Monday in Milwaukee. The president also said he had ordered an independent review of security at the Trump rally.
Kimberly Cheatle, the Secret Service director, has been invited to testify before Congress on 22 July.
Trump’s assassination attempt was arguably the low point of a tumultuous last decade for the Secret Service. As documented by the Washington Post, the agency had previously drawn scrutiny after high-ranking members allegedly drove drunk through the White House grounds, struck a barricade and sped past a package dropped by a woman who had claimed to be “holding a … bomb”.
The package contained a book, but that hardly quelled outrage, with other scandals ensnaring the Secret Service, which also investigates certain financial crimes.
There were agents who purportedly hired prostitutes in Colombia and allowed a fence-jumper at the White House to get well into the building. Agents also took four days to realize a sniper fired shots at the White House, and they somehow allowed a man carrying a gun to share an elevator with Obama.
Saturday was the first time a president or leading party Oval Office candidate had been shot since the 1981 attack on Ronald Reagan outside a hotel in Washington DC.
The most recent of four assassinated US presidents was John F Kennedy in 1963. The assassination of his fellow Democrat and brother Robert F Kennedy in 1968 while he pursued their party’s White House nomination resulted in presidential candidates being afforded the protection of the Secret Service.
Pleas from Kennedy’s son, Robert F Kennedy Jr, to be provided Secret Service protection himself as he runs an independent presidential campaign ahead of November’s election received an infusion of support after the attack at Trump’s rally Saturday, as Politico reported.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
