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The preliminary Senate committee report on the first failed assassination attempt on Republican nominee Donald J. Trump is out and as expected, it details a myriad of shocking Secret Service failures.

On July 13, Trump narrowly missed having his head blown off on live television at a rally in Butler, PA when those whose job it was to protect him dropped the ball, inexplicably allowing a sniper to position himself on a rooftop around 150 yards from the stage with a clear line of sight on the former president.

According to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs report, the Secret Service agent who was responsible for flying a surveillance drone at the Butler Farm Show grounds was so unfamiliar with the equipment that he had to call a toll-free number for assistance with the unmanned aerial device.

The summary findings which were released on Wednesday revealed that the agent only had one hour of “informal training” with the drone, according to Fox News.

“Multiple foreseeable and preventable planning and operational failures by USSS contributed to [Thomas] Crooks’ ability to carry out the assassination attempt of former President Trump on July 13,” reads the report. “These included unclear roles and responsibilities, insufficient coordination with state and local law enforcement, the lack of effective communications, and inoperable C-UAS systems, among many others.”

Agents from Trump’s Secret Service detail and the Pittsburgh field office testified that neither was aware that 27 minutes before the failed attempt the “Secret Service’s security room and counter-sniper team was informed that a suspicious person had been spotted near the AGR building with a range finder; the shooter eventually took position on the roof of that building,” Fox News reported.

“Shortly before shots were fired, a USSS counter sniper saw local law enforcement running toward the AGR building with their guns drawn, but he did not alert former President Trump’s protective detail to remove him from the stage,” according to the 94-page report.”The USSS counter sniper told the Committee that while seeing officers with their guns drawn ‘elevated’ the threat level, the thought to notify someone to get Trump off the stage ‘did not cross [his] mind.’”

There are expressed concerns by local law enforcement days before the rally about the building where Crooks was allowed to set up for his shot that grazed Trump but the rooftop remained inexplicably unsecured.

Additional resources including drone equipment were requested by advance agents on the former president’s detail but they weren’t provided. The bipartisan committee found, “These requests were denied, at times without explanation.”

The 94-page interim report cited numerous failures that led to what would have been the first successful assassination of a major party candidate since Bobby Kennedy was killed in 1968 before he could secure the Democratic Party nomination.

“Every single one of these actions is directly related to a failure in the U.S. Secret Service’s planning, communications, intelligence sharing, and law enforcement coordination efforts,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), the committee’s chairman told reporters on Tuesday. “Every single one of those failures was preventable, and the consequences of those failures were dire.”

The Secret Service was able to foil a second assassination attempt on Trump earlier this month when an eagle-eyed agent spotted the barrel of a gun belonging to would-be assassin Ryan Routh protruding from a fence where he was preparing to shoot the Republican nominee on a fairway at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, FL.

Chris Donaldson
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