Staff Reports
The saga surrounding the July 13 assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, has taken a turn that would be comical if it weren’t so serious. Local law enforcement and the Secret Service are now engaged in a blame game worthy of a poorly scripted soap opera. Bodycam footage has surfaced, revealing the internal chaos and utter incompetence that allowed a would-be assassin to get a bead on the former president from a rooftop position. This oversight almost cost Trump his life.
It appears that the plan was so poorly executed that one might wonder if the Secret Service was following the “we’ll wing it” playbook. According to sources, local police had outlined an ideal security strategy that included snipers stationed on the roof of the American Glass Research building. However, the Secret Service, probably deciding that a nice tan was more important than protecting a former president, decided the rooftop was “too hot.” They had other things to worry about, apparently. Those things certainly did not include actually securing the location from which the shot would eventually be fired.
We Know Who Was Supposed to Protect the Rooftop at the Trump Rally https://t.co/51Pcl1jeFG
— The Voter's Guide: to politics 🇺🇸 (@TheVotersGuide) August 9, 2024
As the dust settled after the shooting, which injured several people and killed spectator Corey Comperatore, the frustration of local police was palpable. They were heard lamenting how they had been the ones to raise the alarm about the unprotected roof days in advance. All it took was a simple “Hey, that roof is wide open,”—but it seems the Secret Service was too busy enjoying their coffee breaks. One officer expressed his disbelief at the lack of preparedness, completely justified in his outrage. After all, they had identified the potential threat long before the shots rang out, but who’s counting?
The situation gets even better—or worse, depending on whether one has a sense of humor about governmental agencies designed to protect national figures. In a shocking twist, the same agency that costs taxpayers $3.6 billion annually boasted a lackluster response time. Secret Service snipers reportedly had Crooks in their sights for two full minutes before he started shooting, which raises the question: were they waiting for a round of applause before acting? And just to add another feather in the cap of ineptitude, they claimed they had no idea Crooks was armed until the bullets began to rain down.
To add insult to injury, outgoing Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle faced rightful ridicule for attributing the lack of action to the sloped roof making it “unsafe” for agents. Such a flimsy, excuse-laden defense crumbled quickly under the scrutiny of those actually paying attention. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to imagine that while armed and dangerous individuals were climbing rooftops, the agents were engrossed in heated debates over which way to hold an umbrella to shield from sun or rain.
Yet, astonishingly, no one has faced repercussions for this grand failure of duty. Reports suggest that rookie agents were in charge of coordinating the security, leading many to wonder if the Secret Service is now holding auditions for its defensive operations from a college campus. Whistleblowers are surfacing, and the well of questionable practices seems bottomless. Perhaps the next time the nation is looking for elite protection, they should prioritize experience and perhaps a tad more common sense.
