Staff Reports
The House Judiciary Committee got a shocker of a revelation this week: whistleblowers spilled the beans about the Secret Service facing “limited resources” while guarding former President Donald Trump during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The incident almost saw Trump targeted in what can only be described as a near-assassination attempt, and the details are damning.
Ohio Republican Jim Jordan, Chair of the Judiciary Committee, took the bull by the horns and sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, outlining the whistleblower allegations. Apparently, the Secret Service’s excuse for being stretched too thin was that it was covering both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Washington, D.C., and an event for First Lady Jill Biden in Pittsburgh. Talk about skewed priorities.
Whistleblowers tell Congress ‘limited resources’ led to fewer staff at assassination-attempt rallyhttps://t.co/MhgJgP6uge pic.twitter.com/t66j4pnfyX
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) July 19, 2024
The whistleblowers spilled that USSS Special Agent in Charge Tim Burke admitted during briefings on July 8 that they were shorthanded. These briefings included the Western Pennsylvania Fusion Center and other stakeholders, showing the clear mismanagement at different levels. While the official letter didn’t directly blame the report for understaffing Trump’s rally, the accompanying press release didn’t mince words linking the two.
The Secret Service, in its usual fashion, scrambled to cover its tracks. The agency has publicly denied the understaffing claims, deeming them “absolutely false,” even as their chief of communications tried to assure everyone that Trump’s security detail had been beefed up. It’s like putting lipstick on a pig and hoping no one notices.
Jordan’s letter raised some pressing questions about how the FBI and local law enforcement handled the security at Trump’s rally. How was it that the shooter found an unsecured roof to climb, and why were there so many lapses in identifying threats and securing the area? The Judiciary Committee is not going to let this slide easily, with Wray expected to answer some tough questions during the annual FBI oversight hearing.
The fiasco around Trump’s rally is just another glaring example of the bureaucratic incompetence that plagues our security agencies. When rallies for a former President can be so hazardous due to “limited resources,” it’s clear the folks in charge need to get their priorities straight—or get out of the way.
