"The Secret Service is really the one to answer that question," said a Pennsylvania police official to curious reporters after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. "[We] really have to defer to Secret Service for those questions," an official told another reporter about the Pennsylvania attack. "Well, Secret Service always has the lead on securing something like this..." came another reference to the early evening shooting at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. And on and on it went at a presser on Saturday night after Trump was shot. The bunch that might give us some answers skipped it to possibly stay out of legal trouble with investigators.
We only learned after the press conference that "one shooter [is] tentatively identified." Were there more shooters? It was too early to tell, we were told. Early Sunday morning, the FBI identified the assassin killed by a Secret Service sniper. His name is Thomas Matthew Crooks. He was 20. The New York Post reported he was a registered Republican. "Sources said Crooks was planted on a roof of a manufacturing plant more than 130 yards away from the stage at Butler Farm Show grounds," the Post reported.
Unfortunately, the guy in charge of the Secret Service, the open-borders guy, Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas, was unavailable to grab his Secret Service chief, Kimberly Cheatle, and pile into his government car, jet, or helo to get to Butler, a four-hour car ride away, to address the country about how an assassin was able to get off multiple shots at former President Donald Trump.
FBI Director Chris Wray, who's in charge of the investigation into how the Secret Service allowed a gunman on a roof to take shots at Trump, didn't attend the presser.
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We have it on good authority, a congressional hearing, that Wray, who offered to wear a wire to entrap his former boss, President Trump, knew exactly how to get on a free government plane to get to his vacation destination and blow off the rest of the hearing. Are we now to believe that he couldn't make it to a presser to explain why the former and possible future leader of the free world was shot and nearly assassinated?
We got a tweet about the "ongoing incident," however.
Updated FBI statement on the ongoing incident that took place today in Butler, Pennsylvania. https://t.co/MfwVeYs3kF pic.twitter.com/6fWqcTbA1S
— FBI (@FBI) July 14, 2024
FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Pittsburgh office, Kevin Rojek, who led the news conference, was able to confirm that this shooting was an "assassination attempt," which was apparent to anyone who either attended or saw the video of the event. But at least that was something.
Then we got this news conference, during which very little information was shared. I know how these things go. It's early, but couldn't they characterize the guy operating the rifle on a rooftop and spotted before the shooting by onlookers? Was Crooks "on their radar"? Had he made threats before? Was he on the 10 Most Wanted list?
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Besides Trump, two other men were wounded, and a third was killed. That's four victims. Isn't that a mass shooting by FBI standards? Add the now headless assassin, and that makes five.
Authorities couldn't tell us what kind of a gun he used, though, "we knew a good idea of what the weapon was, but again, that's all part of the ongoing investigation. And I'm not trying to be cagey about that," said an investigator who was being cagey about that.
We got more interesting information about the other alleged threats on Saturday than the confirmed "incident." Reporters asked Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col George Bivens about the other threats being investigated at the scene of the assassination attempt, though there were no threats on Trump received in advance, he said.
I will tell you that I am aware of those, and I am aware that law enforcement had responded to a number of reports of suspicious activity. The specific response to this will be part of the after action, but yes, law enforcement was responding to check on several suspicious occurrences in that investigation. So again, we're not prepared at this time to provide process of doing the confirmation, unless we'll release the name officially to the press. But at this time, we can't get any further information on the potential.
According to another Pennsylvania official, there were also "complicators" in the case who couldn't get more specific except to say they were in the way of the investigation.
"We are not taking for granted that this was a lone wolf attack," Bivens told reporters.
The FBI Special Agent in Charge was asked if the shooting represented a "failure" on the part of law enforcement charged with protecting Trump. He said he couldn't make an assessment on that yet. I thought these guys were good at chasing down "evidence."
Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent who served on the presidential detail, said the assassination attempt was a catastrophic failure by the Secret Service. He also called on the hyper-political Cheatle to be immediately terminated.
Trump flew to New Jersey on Saturday night. His Bedminster estate may be a bit better secured than the hospital in Butler, Pa., right about now.
Watch the presser for yourself.
Watching FBI Briefing on Trump Rally Shooting @CSPAN https://t.co/V3X1t6rPv9
— Victoria Taft, The Adult in the Room, FITF Squad (@VictoriaTaft) July 14, 2024
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