A bipartisan Senate report released Wednesday blasts the U.S. Secret Service for several significant failures that led to the near-fatal assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump in Butler County, Pennsylvania, over the summer.
The report indicates that security knew the shooter was on the roof minutes before Trump was shot.
Meanwhile, a bill that would increase the Secret Service protection for former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, now awaits President Joe Biden’s signature.
The new Senate report lays out a litany of failures from the Secret Service, including failure to delegate responsibilities to agents and officers, failure to keep the key buildings cleared, failure to work will with local law enforcement, who were helping with security, and more.
The report includes a list of failures, including that the Secret Service did not properly respond after the would-be assassin was identified as a suspicious person over an hour before Trump took the stage.
A stunning paragraph from the report lays out the gravity of some of the mistakes:
“Approximately two minutes before shots were fired, the USSS Security Room, located on the rally grounds, was told that there was an individual on the roof of the AGR building,” the report said. “Shortly before shots were fired, a USSS counter sniper observed local officers running towards the AGR building with guns drawn.”
Critics have blasted the agency from its poor planning of the event, its slow and clumsy response and its unwillingness to share details publicly after the incident. The former head of the Secret Service resigned after a disastrous Congressional hearing on the issue where lawmakers from both sides took her to task.
The report also said an inexperienced agent had trouble getting the drone working and spent hours calling a tech support hotline for help. The agents apparently also had problems with their radios, something that is common, according to the repot.
“From planning missteps, to the siloed and flawed communication to the lack of effective coordination between law enforcement, to the breakdowns in technology, the Secret Service’s failures that allowed an assassination attempt on former President Trump at his July 13 rally were shocking, unacceptable, and preventable – and they led to tragic consequences,” said Chairman Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich.
Lawmakers called for accountability and ongoing oversight.
“Our initial findings clearly show a series of multiple failures of the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) and an inexcusable dereliction of duty,” Ranking Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said in a statement. “Not only did USSS fail to ensure the AGR roof was adequately covered, they were also aware of a suspicious individual with a rangefinder for at least 27 minutes and did not delay proceedings or remove former President Trump from the stage, even after being informed that the suspicious individual was on the roof of the AGR building.”
Paul said that federal law enforcement agencies had “obstructed” the Congressional inquiry into this issue.
“What happened on July 13 was an accumulation of errors that produced a perfect storm of stunning failure,” added Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “It was a tragedy and completely preventable from the outset.”
The bill that would increase Trump’s protection comes after the former president survived his second assassination attempt this year and would give presidential-level Secret Service protection to all nominated presidential and vice presidential candidates. The U.S. Senate voted unanimously to pass the bill on Tuesday evening. It has already passed in the House.
As The Center Square previously reported, President Joe Biden recently told reporters that the Secret Service “needs more help.”
