Continuing Questions About Secret Service Protection For Trump

Or lack thereof, of course. First off, no rush to judgment, but people whose judgment I respect all seem to agree that there were major problems with the protection provided to President Trump. Those problems led to Trump being wounded slightly, but to the death of a bystander and critical wounding of two others.

I have no way of knowing how many readers simply read this substack in email form and how many view the comments. This morning there was an excellent discussion of various controversial aspects of this topic—USSS protection of Trump—in the comments to:

“The presidential contest ended last night,” said a veteran Democratic consultant.

Here’s an edited version of that thread:

Brother Ass

This was no “failure,” it was a setup. Jimmy Dore is showing some damning clips, including multiple civilians who spotted the shooter several minutes before shots were fired.

St St’s Newsletter

Sniper says he was told to stand down by head of SS

https://x.com/CultureWar2020/status/1812525591104766418

Ray-SoCa

SS procedure is do not fire first.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1812456384363184547.html

What is interesting a police officer scaled the roof, saw the man with the gun, went down and then the shooter took the shots. After the crowd for a couple of minutes warned of the shooter (warning caught on video).

SS is blaming local police for the debacle, since it was supposedly their zone to control.

And Dr. Jill had another Pa event that pulled resources.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/report-secret-service-resources-were-diverted-jill-bidens/

And the Ss head and Homeland Security Secretary have been refusing requests to beef up security.

Plus, ss director (female and a Biden loyalist) has been focused on 30% female ss. The video of female agents after the assassination is sad.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/ponytail-brigade-utter-humiliation-gaggle-female-secret-service/

Brother Ass

Something about this supposed admission does not smell right. Seems like disinfo to me.

ML

Former Navy Seal Erik Prince on SS’s big fail to protect DJT. Note his emphasis on getting back to merit and character in hiring:

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/massive-secret-service-failure-led-nearly-successful-assassination-donald-trump

Brother Ass

Don’t get me wrong. I do think this was at least allowed to happen. I was just questioning the post in which the agent in the picture supposedly admits he was told to stand down. A) it looks like it comes from an Anon message board. B) its all a little too on the nose to be real. The guy may have been told to stand down, but he would not admit as much in the way being reported.

I did a fairly long response to these comments in which I tried to address most of the issues that were raised. I don’t draw many conclusions, but do focus on the failure to remove Trump from the stage as soon as a likely threat was identified—and that appears to have occurred with lots of time to effect protective and preventive action. Here’s that comment:

Thanks to commenters for the excellent discussion of the assassination attempt and the LE response. The Jimmy Dore clip, Susan Crabtree thread, TGP, St's link re the sniper. A few observations:

First, the closeup of the sniper confirms what I suspected yesterday--the sniper was local police, not SS. You can see that clearly on his back.

Second, the video shows the snipers scanning roofs in the area--they're not looking down. They have excellent optics/binocs.

Third, the fact that for at least 42 seconds they're actually sighting through their scopes, shouldering their rifles, hands in position to take a shot, tells me that they have a target which they acquired using their optics--now they've identified a threat.

Fourth, the fact that they don't shoot until the perp starts firing confirms the Crabtree contention that SS doesn't fire first--although that may have something to do with the distance, etc. I have a problem with this because snipers DO take out hostage holders. Someone unlawfully pointing a gun at someone else would seem to my mind to be an imminent threat. There are complications here--inability to order him to put it down, etc. I don't fault the police officers here. They were following orders, because ...

Fifth, What's going on? I suspected this yesterday. They would have been in contact with command--which I presume is SS—asking for permission to shoot. That’s an indication that there are situations in which preventive shots can be taken.

Sixth, It's credible that they were told not to shoot. Here's what may be the bigger problem ...

Seventh, even if they don't want to shoot first, the POTUS is in the line of a deadly threat AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THAT POSITION ASAP. Not shooting first doesn't mean take no protective action. So what happened there??? All indications are that the officers reported that threat as they should have. Someone else left Trump exposed.

Eighth, going back to the police officers supplementing SS personnel, who were mostly (or maybe all) not part of Trump's regular detail, this goes to the contention that there were not enough SS to adequately cover the venue. This may be a more common situation than we realize, but Trump is a very high profile protectee. So, the big question is: Is TGP correct that his coverage was reduced due to being reassigned to Doc Jill's event?

Going forward, I think the combination of two factors here will draw a lot of attention—unless that’s preempted by the questionable decision to leave Trump exposed. The two factors are: Mayorkas’ refusal to provide Trump with adequate SS protection, and the possibility that even that inadequate protection was diluted to some extent by reassignments of Trump’s detail to Doc Jill’s. I think that will draw scrutiny. It should.

There may be political fallout here, too. Of the nine Congressmen who were trying to deprive Trump of SS protection if he was jailed, eight were members of the Black Congressional Caucus. The ninth was Steve Cohen, a real wacko from Memphis. This attempt to place Trump in harm’s way—while the most extreme of the attacks on Trump—fits right in with the years long obvious dog whistling to the lunatic fringe, incitement to attacks on Trump as an existential threat to the American constitutional order. Those incitements came right from the top—yes, bottom dwellers do reach the heights of power in the US.

Here’s the point that should be readily grasped. Those nine don’t need the votes of White Americans to be elected and reelected, year in, year out. They’re in gerrymandered districts—established and maintained in the wisdom of past SCOTUS decisions. Notably, only Cohen (whose district is 60% Black) among non-Black members signed on. This move will, in the wake of the attempted assassination, will be seen as a revelation of the true radicalness of the Dem brand—a revelation that non-Black and non-Steve Cohen Dem Congressmen will not welcome. In other words, it could lead to considerable friction within the Dem Congressional Caucus. This is particularly so since the racial gerrymander system has led to many of those nine members having considerable seniority in Congress. Many Dem voters nevertheless don’t want to see Trump assassinated, and Dems can’t afford to lose those voters—especially with Trump making inroads into the Dem base: Hispanics, Blacks, Asians.