When one pulls on a loose strand of cloth, one never knows where it will lead or how much of the entire fabric will unravel. So it seems to be going with the official narrative of the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump. It is coming undone, and at this point no one is willing to let go of the thread.
From the beginning there have only been two possible explanations for the catastrophic protective security failure that was the Butler, Pennsylvania rally: either gross incompetence, or worse, malicious intent. Trying to find the line between the two reminds me of the old joke, “Tell me the difference between stupidity and fraud, and I’ll have my brother-in-law arrested.”
We are now ten days past this horrible event which nearly murdered a former (and likely future) President of the United States of America, and did take the life of a patriotic American, husband and father, wounding at least two others. Since then, the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) has held no press conference, issued no statement, terminated no agents, and its director, Kimberly Cheatle, a life-long bureaucrat, did not tendered her resignation until this very day. Indeed, she had to be compelled under subpoena to appear yesterday before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Accountability. In light of the epic failure, the committee’s co-Chair, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), called the USSS “the face of incompetence.”
The USSS failed to secure the perimeter, allowing the presumptive shooter to get within 150 yards of the President, well within lethal range of any recreational rifle. They had Crooks under off-and-on surveillance for about an hour. They knew Crooks was on the roof for several minutes, and had a sniper team trained on him, yet inexplicably—and perhaps worst of all— allowed former President Trump to go on stage anyhow. Then, if Crooks was being surveilled as has been reported, why did the sniper teams wait for shooter to fire first? Who gave that standdown order?
Yesterday’s congressional hearing was little more than stonewalling, denial, and obfuscation. Dir. Cheatle didn’t answer basic factual questions. Nor did she repudiate her “slightly sloped surface” excuse for why there was no USSS sniper team on the rooftop. She stated there “was a sufficient number of agents assigned.”
What we did learn from panel members is that the Secret Service has a $3.1 billion budget and over 8,000 employees. Despite a 55% increase in its budget, the USSS has reduced protective agents by 350 heads since 2014. In 2022, USSS ranked dead last among places to work in law enforcement in federal government.
We also learned yesterday that a USSS spokesperson lied about denying Trump team’s requests for more protection. Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas repeated the same lies. This was a perjurious falsehood that even the Washington Post and New York Times called out.
In the background, citizen journalists are producing video and audio content from the event indicating that, of the nine shots fired at Bulter Farms that Saturday evening, at least three weapons may have been fired. Yet Dir. Cheatle confirmed yesterday that USSS snipers fired only one shot. It defies credibility—and the laws of physics—that Crooks got off so many shots so rapidly.
This glaring inconsistency is perhaps one of the reasons why U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) stated publicly over the weekend that a conspiracy can’t be ruled out. He said that lawmakers and investigative committees have significant questions about whether there was more than one shooter. Sen. Johnson also said that while local law enforcement is cooperating, USSS and ATF leadership and agents are stonewalling. This is all deeply troubling.
Director Cheatle should have tendered her resignation over a week ago, but has chosen to cling to power. She said just yesterday that she’s still the best person for the job.
Most of the lawmakers at yesterday’s bipartisan hearing disagreed. Earlier on Tuesday, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) initiated proceedings in the House to impeach the director of the Secret Service. The movement has congressional support, especially from the committee members that left the hearing completely exasperated after more than five hours of stonewalling and what may have been perjury.
With mounting pressure, Director Cheatle has finally announced her resignation. Yet questions remain unanswered. Yesterday, rather than answering them herself, Cheatle pointed those questions to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Indeed, the FBI has been tasked with leading the investigation into what happened. This has provided the nation will little comfort. Americans remember that this is the same FBI that lied to the FISA court 17 times to get surveillance on Trump’s 2016 campaign. The same FBI that supported the entire Russia Collusion Hoax. The same FBI that suppressed—on the eve of the 2020 election— the information regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop, which was in their possession, while FBI and other officials went on record saying it was Russian disinformation. This is the same FBI that had agents provocateur in the crowd at the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, and that staged a photo op of supposedly classified documents during their raid on Mar-a-Lago. The same FBI that has performed countless no-knock predawn raids on Trump allies and conservative voices over the past several years. And of course, some Americans still remember the JFK and MLK assassinations.
With Cheatle’s resignation, the Secret Service—and Cheatle herself— must now come clean about what happened in Butler. And someone needs to investigate the FBI’s investigation.