On Wednesday, the Senate Homeland Security Committee released a report which showed the United States Secret Service being denied more than 9 times for increased security on former President Trump’s detail just days before the first assassination attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania.
These additional resources could have prevented the attempt on his life but the assets were denied “at times without explanation” stated the senate report. Trump miraculously survived the attempt on his life but a supporter was killed and injured numerous other Americans.
“The USSS C-UAS operator told the Committee he requested additional C-UAS equipment and personnel in the days before the rally,” the report states. “However, these 9 requests were denied, at times without explanation.”
The Senate report also showed Trump’s security team asking for “Counter Assault Team Liaisons” for coordination purposes at rallies which was also denied without reasoning.
The report also found that the only reason counter snipers got assigned to the Butler rally was due to “credible intelligence” they received prior to the event. The counter snipers were luckily assigned to the rally, but had no line of sight to the shooter. Ultimately the report found that large-scale communications failures, faulty technology, lack of planning on sight and bad communication between local and federal law enforcement were to blame for the shooter getting inside the perimeter and firing shots.
“What happened on July 13 was an accumulation of errors that produced a perfect storm of stunning failure,” Chairman Richard Blumenthal bluntly said talking to the press. “It was a tragedy and completely preventable from the outset. There was both a failure to provide resources – like a working radio, drone detection system, or counter surveillance team – and lack of an effective chain of command. Looking forward, we need structural reform in the agency itself.”
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe said in response to the senate report, “This was a failure on the part of the United States Secret Service. It’s important that we hold ourselves to account for the failures of July 13th and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again.”