A would-be assassin fired up to eight times at former President Donald Trump from an obvious perch with clear sight lines, leaving a troubled nation asking: How could the Secret Service let this happen?
Pressure is already mounting on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to answer for the attack on the GOP candidate for president, and experts are also criticizing the movements of his federal agents in the field as they struggled to get Trump to safety.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has announced that his panel will call Cheatle for a hearing July 22.
Other critics have claimed Trump, 78, was denied the protection he needed at the rally, which took place on the grounds of the Butler Farm Show outside Pittsburgh on Saturday evening.
“There have been repeated requests to increase the security footprint around not just the residences of Donald Trump but the body itself. And they have been rebuffed,” said Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and pro-Trump commentator, to Fox News.
Social-media users have also highlighted a video of Secret Service agents who appeared to struggle to holster their weapons as Trump was being bundled into an SUV and whisked to the hospital.
Further, law-enforcement sources told The Post that the Secret Service decision to move Trump off by the side of the stage instead of the rear would have left him vulnerable to a potential second shooter.
“The evacuation did not go right,” Bongino said.
When Trump does events in New York, the NYPD ensures that he has nearly the same level of protection that President Biden does — including securing sight lines around any major events where a sniper could fire from.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, crawled on the roof of a building within easy rifle range of Trump — about 130 yards, a bit longer than a football field — and opened fire before being killed seconds later by Secret Service snipers, authorities said.
“The American people deserve to know the truth,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) declared shortly after the tragic shooting, referring to apparent security lapses leading up to the assassination attempt.
Claims that Trump wanted more security
A Republican lawmaker — Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) — publicly claimed that “very reliable sources” told him there had been requests from Trump’s camp for more robust security for him.
Waltz alleged that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas denied those requests.
Secret Service rep Anthony Guglielmi dismissed those allegations without naming Waltz directly.
“Theres an untrue assertion that a member of the former President’s team requested additional security resources & that those were rebuffed. This is absolutely false,” Guglielmi posted on X.
“In fact, we added protective resources & technology & capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo,” the Secret Service spokesman said.
Did ‘DEI’ play a role?
Some critics have claimed that a push toward “diversity, equity, and inclusion” at the Secret Service has weakened the protective agency.
The Secret Service has a DEI program that is intended to help it recruit more women agents and protect workers from discrimination based on factors such as race, gender, religion and political views.
Detractors suggest that DEI has led to a lowering of standards during the hiring process for Secret Service agents.
“I can’t imagine that a DEI hire from @pepsi would be a bad choice as the head of the Secret Service. #sarcasm,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) posted on X hours after the shooting — referring to Cheatle’s previous role as head of global security in North America for PepsiCo.
The DEI issue was something that critics also brought up after a Secret Service officer assigned to protect Vice President Kamala Harris came to blows with her colleagues in April. The officer has since been removed from her duties.
Not long after that debacle, the House Oversight panel demanded the Secret Service explain its DEI practices.
Last month, the Secret Service had a briefing with Comer on its DEI practices.
“The USSS provided the Committee on Friday a thorough briefing for staff, and we appreciate their time and ongoing cooperation as we continue to conduct oversight to ensure the Secret Service is fulfilling its mission,” an Oversight rep said at the time.
“Questions remain regarding recruiting, vetting, training, and morale at the agency and the Committee looks forward to receiving additional information from the agency soon.”
Scores of netizens, particularly on the right, echoed questions about DEI and about the training of Secret Service agents more broadly after the assassination attempt on Trump on Saturday.
Some pointed to a previous interview Cheatle gave to CBS News in which she stressed the Secret Service’s efforts to bolster diversity.
“I’m very conscious as I sit in this chair of making sure that we need to attract diverse candidates and ensure that we are developing and giving opportunities to everyone in our workforce and particularly women,” she said.
Video of Secret Service agents bundling Trump into an SUV particularly drew scrutiny after it appeared to show personnel flustered and one officer seemingly struggling to holster a sidearm.
Kimberly Cheatle takes heat
Many critics have begun pointing the finger at Cheatle, who leads the protective service.
President Biden, 81, tapped Cheatle in 2022 to helm the Secret Service and become its 27th director. She had served in the agency for about 27 years before moving to the private sector with PepsiCo and then back to the Secret Service as its director.
She is the first female director of the Secret Service.
Last week, Cheatle explained that the agency does factor political polarization into “the threat environment.
“I think it plays into it,” she told ABC News. “I think that the environment that we’re dealing with today is certainly different than it was four years ago. I’m sure we’ll see an evolution in the next four years, as well, but it is definitely something that we take into consideration.
“There’s nothing specific and nothing credible out there right now,” she added.
Cheatle’s remarks came as the Secret Service was bracing for the Republican National Convention which will take place in Milwaukee, Wisc., this week from Monday through Thursday.
Already, some critics are calling on her to step down.
FBI investigates
Law enforcement, particularly the FBI, has begun investigating the matter, which will likely shed some light on the security failures that transpired.
Saturday marks the first time since the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan that a gunman drew blood from a sitting or former US president.
