Bungling of Trump Security Is Looking WORSE by the Second

Your expectations are too high if you thought that getting more details would reveal less blundering by former President Trump's security detail leading to his shooting on Saturday.

U.S. Senators, in a phone briefing by FBI Director Chris Wray and Secret Service chief Kimberly Cheatle, found that Trump's would-be killer, who murdered a man and critically wounded two others, had been under watch by security personnel for more than an hour before he took the lethal shots from a roof outside the hard security perimeter.

A reporter for Punchbowl News also reported that senators told him the assassin had been spotted and in the scopes of snipers for up to 20 minutes before he fired, and they still allowed the former leader of the free world to take the stage.

In all, 62 minutes after he was pinpointed as suspicious and 20 minutes after he was picked up by sniper teams, he fired the shots that nearly took out Trump.

Senators were also told that 20-year-old Thomas Crooks cased the site a few days in advance of the rally.

When he arrived at the rally, Crooks went through a magnetometer, where they discovered he carried a rangefinder and was let in.

NEWS — Senate briefing on Trump rally shooting just concluded. Top lines, per 2 senators on the call:

—The shooter visited the rally site a few days in advance to scope it out
—62 mins elapsed between the time the shooter was photographed as being suspicious and when he fired…
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) July 17, 2024

The Secret Service chief, who is under a barrage of criticism for her poor handling of this attack, "barely spoke" in the call. More galling, reporter Andrew Desiderio said that U.S. senators were "allowed" to ask only four questions of his highness St. Chris of the FBI.

Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan used his question to ask if there were any foreign bad guys involved, which the FBI director said there weren't.

Sen. Dan Sullivan was the one who asked the question about a foreign nexus, citing recent reporting about an Iranian assassination plot against Trump.I’m told only four questions were allowed on the call, and that USSS Director Cheatle barely spoke.

But hold on, because things get worse. CNN reports today that three hours before the shooting, Crooks went through the security line and was found to have had a rangefinder on him. And they let him in.

By 3 p.m. on Saturday, roughly three hours before the shooting, Crooks was at the security screening area for the rally. He first aroused suspicion when he passed through the magnetometers carrying a rangefinder, which looks similar to a small pair of binoculars and is used by hunters and target shooters to measure distances when setting up a long-range shot, according to a senior law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.
The rangefinder would not have prevented Crooks from getting through the security screening point, but it did attract the attention of security personnel who kept an eye on him until he left the secure area.

As everyone now knows, Trump moved a fraction of an inch as the shooter pulled the trigger of his AR15 rifle. That move saved his life. Trump was grazed instead of being killed.

🚨🇺🇸NEW FOOTAGE SHOWS TRUMP DODGED PERFECTLY AIMED SHOT

Close-up footage reveals Thomas Crooks' shot was perfectly centered on Trump's head.

Trump’s 'head tilt' to look at a screen graphic and leaning into the microphone saved his life.

The footage was captured just seconds… pic.twitter.com/PDtNxBaAXy
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) July 17, 2024

The killer, who was taken out by a Secret Service sniper after he shot the president, requested Saturday off from work saying he would be back on Sunday.

Crooks' parents called police before the shootings to report his suspicious behavior and report that their son and their AR15 rifle were missing.

Neighbors say Crooks's parents were big Trump supporters and had Trump signs in their front yard, but in the days leading up to the rally, they removed them.

Police say Crooks wasn't on social media but did use encrypted messaging, as many people do. A cell phone, which the FBI has been exploiting, and a transmitter were found next to his body. What was the transmitter for? Perhaps the Senators could have used one of their four questions to get that answer. It's possible that he may have wanted to use it as a detonator.

The New York Times reports Crooks had two homemade explosive devices in his car that were radio-controlled. It's possible that he was going to set off the bombs as a distraction.

Notably, the devices in Mr. Crooks’s car used a type of radio-control system for initiating fireworks displays, in which a single hand-held transmitter can broadcast a signal to multiple small receivers. These in turns send current to an electric match — a wire with a pyrotechnic compound on one end — that produces a small flame to ignite the firework.
The two devices in Mr. Crooks’s car were composed of ammunition cans — one metal, and one made of plastic — that each had a cardboard tube inside, filled with the gray powder recovered by police bomb technicians. Each cardboard tube had the head of an electric match inserted, and they were connected to a radio receiver unit.

So, let's go to the tote board of shame:

Suspicious character.
Photos taken of the suspicious character on-scene.
Possessed a rangefinder and was let in.
Was in sights of snipers for 20 minutes before shooting.
No one was monitoring the roof from which he took the shots.
Dan Bongino reports that local police were supposed to keep watch of that building. All of it.
Mom and Dad called to report son's suspicious activities.
And after all this, they let Trump go out on stage.
DHS Inspector General now investigating, which could take months or years.

It looks like a lot of people need to lose their jobs. This is a cluster from beginning to end.