Republican lawmakers are launching investigations into the serious security blunders that preceded the assassination attempt against former U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday, July 13th. These investigations will focus on how the shooter was able to carry out his actions despite being detected early on, and how the Security Service failed to provide adequate protection for Trump.
Here’s what you need to know about the assassination attempt and its aftermath.
What happened at the election rally?
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump was injured in an attempt on his life at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night. Eight minutes into his speech, a total of eight shots were fired, one of them piercing the upper part of Trump’s right ear. Trump grabbed his ear and dropped to the ground before being whisked away by Secret Service agents. The shooter killed one spectator and injured two more before being shot and killed by Secret Service personnel.
Who were the victims of the shooting?
Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old volunteer firefighter who shielded his family to protect them as gunshots rang out, was killed. He leaves a wife and two daughters. “Corey was a firefighter. Corey went to church every Sunday. Corey loved his community and most especially Corey loves his family,” said Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, adding that the victim was “an avid supporter” of Donald Trump. Apart from Trump, two people were wounded, and are in a stable condition: 57-year-old David Dutch and 74-year-old James Copenhaver.
Who was the shooter?
Twenty-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was a nursing home aide whose background check reveals little information about his motives. He lived in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, about an hour’s drive from Butler, where the assassination attempt took place. He graduated from high school two years ago. His former teachers and classmates describe him as a clever but quiet student who showed no interest in politics. He was much more interested in building computers and playing games. “Nothing crazy ever came up in any conversation,” one former classmate said. A former school counsellor said Crooks had always been “quiet as a churchmouse,” “respectful” and kept to himself, although he did have a few friends.
However, another former high school student said Crooks was “bullied almost every day” at school, and sat alone at lunch time, where he “was just an outcast.” Other students mocked him for the clothes he wore, which included hunting outfits.
He was employed as a dietary aide at a nursing home. The Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center said Crooks “performed his job without concern and his background check was clean.” The FBI said that his social media profile does not contain threatening language or ideological positions that could serve as an explanation to his actions. They found no history of mental health issues, and Crooks had no criminal record.
He was registered as a Republican voter—which means little; the state of Pennsylvania has closed primaries, meaning you have to register as a Republican to vote for (or against) Republican candidates in the primary election. This often means cross-party registrations—Democrats registering as Republicans to affect the Republican ballot in the general election, or vice versa. Crooks donated $15 to a Democratic political action committee on January 20th, 2021, the day current President Joe Biden was sworn into office.
What did eyewitnesses report?
According to eyewitness accounts, Thomas Matthew Crooks was noticed by spectators before the start of the rally, acting strangely outside the outdoor event, pacing up and down near the metal detectors. All attendees are required to go through a metal detector to enter the venue.
Crooks never entered the rally’s security perimeter, and there are conflicting reports of how he ended up on top of the roof of a manufacturing plant just 130 metres from the stage where Trump was speaking. One witness saw him climbing a ladder to the roof. Other reports say he was spotted jumping “roof to roof” before settling on the factory roof top. Eyewitnesses then saw him crawling on the roof, carrying a rifle.
Officials were allegedly alerted multiple times, but failed to locate Crooks. After another alert, a local police officer climbed to the roof and encountered the suspect, who saw the officer and pointed his gun at him. The officer retreated, and Crooks immediately fired shots from his AR-15-style semi automatic rifle, aiming at Trump. That’s when Secret Service gunmen shot him.
The FBI said it believes Crooks, who was a member of a local shooting club, acted alone. The gun he used had been legally bought, probably purchased by his father. Bomb-making materials were found in his car after the assassination attempt.
How did the shooter evade security?
As The New York Post writes, despite the Secret Service’s quick response taking out the shooter, the agency—which is tasked with protecting former and current presidents’ lives—is facing harsh scrutiny for allowing a gunman to establish an open position so close to Trump’s rally.
“How the f**k did he get a gun that close? This is bad. Just terrible,” a former Secret Service agent told The Washington Post.
“How was a sniper with a full rifle kit allowed to bear crawl onto the closest roof to a presidential nominee,” asked conservative activist Jack Posobiec on social media.
Former U.S. Army sniper and Congressman Cory Mills said “this is a massive security breach.” He told Fox News:
We have a shooter on the roof. Secret Service should have rushed the stage and immediately taken the president off and then respond to the counter sniper. The shot should not have gone off. That is a failure in itself.
The Secret Service blamed local police for failing to secure the rooftop, insisting it was outside of the perimeter the federal agency was tasked with protecting. The Secret Service relied heavily on local police to help support its security efforts at the rally.
Pennsylvania State Police representative George Bivens, however, countered the argument, saying “we work with them to provide whatever is requested by the Secret Service, but they’re the lead in that security.” Neighbours living near the factory told The New York Post they were never visited by any law enforcement agencies in the days before or during the rally.
However, the rooftop was a known vulnerability before the event, according to NBC News.
“Though outside the formal security perimeter, the roof had a direct line of sight at Trump, yet wasn’t directly covered nor seemingly even monitored,” writes The New York Post.
Did the Secret Service respond quickly enough?
Female agents of the Secret Service were criticised for being too slow and too short to cover Donald Trump during the chaotic shooting, writes The Washington Times. One of the female agents was seen struggling to holster her pistol.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who had no prior law enforcement or military experience when she was appointed to the position two years ago, said at the time that the service needed to “attract diverse candidates and give opportunities to everybody in the workforce, particularly women.” She said she aims to have 30% women in the agency by 2030.
What investigations are being carried out?
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has jurisdiction over attacks on a president or presidential candidate and is the lead law enforcement agency on this case. In a press release on Sunday, the FBI said they were investigating the shooting as “an assassination attempt and potential domestic terrorism.”
President Joe Biden said he ordered “an independent review of the national security at yesterday’s rally to assess exactly what happened” and a separate review with regards to security measures at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee which starts on Monday, July 15th, and where Trump will be formally nominated as the party’s presidential candidate. “I’ve been consistent in my direction of the Secret Service to provide him with every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure his continued safety,” Biden said.
Mike Johnson, speaker of the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, said the chamber will call officials from the Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI for hearings. “The American people deserve to know the truth,” Johnson said. The House oversight committee called Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify on July 22nd.
The Senate has also opened an investigation into the assassination attempt and the security failures that led to it. Republican Senator Josh Hawley called Saturday’s event “a staggering security failure,” pointing out that “the shooter was able to gain an elevated position on a rooftop with a clear line of sight of the President, well within accurate range, with a firearm.”
What has Donald Trump said since the attack?
“I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead,” Trump told The New York Post. He said he would be dead if he had not turned his head slightly to the right just before the shooting started. He called the events a “very surreal experience,” adding he still wanted to continue speaking to supporters, but the agents told him it wasn’t safe and they had to get him to a hospital. He praised the Secret Service personnel for their heroic actions and for shooting the sniper.
In a separate interview for the Washington Examiner, Trump said he has completely rewritten his Thursday speech for the Republican convention in light of the assassination attempt. He has switched, he said, from planning to excite his voter base to one that demonstrates his belief that the attack had changed the election campaign entirely. “It is a chance to bring the country together. I was given that chance,” he said.
When was the last similar assassination attempt?
The attack against Donald Trump was the first shooting of a U.S. president or major party presidential candidate since the 1981 attempted assassination of Republican President Ronald Reagan. The president was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. in Washington, D.C., as he was returning to his limousine after a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton.
As AP points out, the assassination attempt on Donald Trump resembles the situation in 1912 when Theodore Roosevelt was shot in Milwaukee, a month before the election, while campaigning to regain the White House as a third-party candidate. The bullet lodged in Roosevelt’s chest, but did not reach his lung. He was saved by a metal eyeglasses case and the fat text of his speech in his pocket.
