Staff Reports
The saga of the second attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump unfolds like a thriller novel, except this time, the plot twists are less about action and more about catastrophic failures in security. The would-be assassin, Ryan Wesley Routh, managed to sneakily nestle himself along the fence near Trump’s golf course with a loaded rifle, remaining undetected for a shocking twelve hours. It raises the haunting question: What’s going on with the Biden administration’s vaunted security measures?
Law enforcement officials have supposedly ramped up security measures, claiming that President Biden directed an “increased asset” deployment. This included everything from counter-sniper teams to aerial surveillance—one would think they were preparing for a Hollywood blockbuster rather than an event where a former president was known to be on the premises. With all these resources at their disposal, how could they miss a man with a rifle hiding in plain sight? It’s as if the Secret Service had taken a vacation at the same time Trump went golfing.
BREAKING: Whistleblowers tell Senator Josh Hawley that “it’s not even clear Secret Service swept the perimeter before Trump took to the course.”
That’s a massive and inexcusable failure.
But that’s just the beginning of the problems that unfolded. Whistleblowers also revealed… pic.twitter.com/XyDJDWVY1a
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) September 19, 2024
It was sheer serendipity that a Secret Service agent managed to thwart Routh’s plans by firing at him. Good luck certainly struck in a moment that easily could have ended in tragedy, but questions abound about the security lapses surrounding Trump. Whistleblowers have begun to shed light on how the security protocols that should have been followed were, well, tossed out like last week’s leftovers.
Senator Josh Hawley illuminated some of these shocking details during his appearance on Fox News. He noted that the Secret Service is no stranger to Trump’s golf course, having protected it frequently in the past and knowing its vulnerabilities. Yet, instead of stationing agents at known trouble spots, it seems the protective protocols were inexplicably ignored. Can you imagine anyone walking into a high-security area for a birthday party without checking for threats? It defies logic, and it puts Trump—and by extension, the security of the nation—at risk.
Hawley rightly pointed out that it’s standard practice for the Secret Service to sweep the area and station agents at identified vulnerabilities. Yet, in this instance, the agents apparently decided that a leisurely golf day was no cause for heightened vigilance. Twelve hours of a gunman lying in wait is a massive breach of standard operating procedures. Such lapses shouldn’t be taken lightly, especially not in the wake of a previous assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, which raised the stakes and put security forces on notice. As the investigation unfolds, the American public deserves answers—and perhaps a little less complacency from those in charge of protecting its leaders.
