It was the unthinkable—an assassination attempt on Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. Shots rang out, chaos erupted, and a nation watched in shock. The former president, though grazed by a bullet, survived.

But one innocent rallygoer was killed, and two others were seriously injured. Despite the gravity of the attack, months have passed, and Americans remain in the dark, with few answers about how something so catastrophic could happen on U.S. soil, at a public event, under the watchful eyes of the Secret Service.

How did it come to this? How did a gunman get so close? Where was the protection? The attempt on Trump’s life was a direct assault on democracy, an attack on a man who continues to dominate the political landscape. Yet, the silence is deafening. No transparency, no accountability.

The questions mount, but the explanations are few. How is it that an armed man managed to take shots at a former president during a rally in broad daylight in front of thousands of supporters? Americans deserve answers—yet all we have is a fog of bureaucratic failure.

From Daily Wire:
The Secret Service was warned of a “credible” threat in the days leading up to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, but failed to act accordingly, according to a damning bipartisan Senate report released Wednesday.

And now, it’s even worse. A damning bipartisan Senate report released Wednesday has pulled back the curtain on the shocking negligence of the Secret Service. It turns out the assassination attempt was not only foreseeable but preventable.

The Secret Service had been warned about a credible threat to Trump in the days leading up to the rally—four days before, to be exact. But instead of mobilizing resources and reinforcing security, they shrugged it off. The rally went on as planned. The danger was ignored.

According to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the Secret Service failed in almost every way possible. Communications broke down, resources were misallocated, and a culture of complacency took hold.

The report details how the Secret Service Lead Advance Agent received credible intelligence of a threat on July 9, but astonishingly, she claimed there was “no adverse intelligence” in her security briefing ahead of the rally. A warning, clear as day, and it was brushed aside.

In response to the threat, a Secret Service sniper team was deployed to the rally—an unprecedented move for a non-incumbent candidate. Yet, most key personnel were never even informed of the threat.

Only two Secret Service agents had any inkling that something might happen. Two! Out of dozens of agents responsible for the safety of a former U.S. president. The lack of coordination was mind-boggling.

Even worse, local law enforcement had repeatedly warned the Secret Service about the dangers posed by the American Glass Research (AGR) building nearby. But no one acted. And because of that negligence, Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to climb onto the roof, undetected, and fire eight shots at Trump.

He hit the former president in the ear, killing a rally attendee and injuring others. As if that wasn’t enough, Crooks brought not one but two explosive devices to the rally’s vicinity and flew a drone within 200 yards of Trump’s position.

Where was the Secret Service? Where was the backup? Where was the basic situational awareness?

Crooks wasn’t exactly hiding in the shadows, either. Local police identified him on the roof of the AGR building two full minutes before he opened fire. Two minutes is a lifetime in a security situation. Yet Trump remained on stage. The Secret Service did not move him.

Instead, they sat on their hands while Crooks prepared to strike. And when a local officer finally shouted over the radio that Crooks was armed, that vital piece of information never even made it to the protective detail.

And it gets worse. Just before the shots were fired, a Secret Service counter-sniper—who was in the perfect position to spot Crooks—witnessed local police running toward the AGR building with their guns drawn. He watched it happen but did not alert Trump’s protective team to pull the former president from the stage.

Why? According to his testimony, “it did not cross my mind.” Let that sink in. The man tasked with defending Trump from threats didn’t even think to warn anyone when he saw police running toward an armed suspect.

This report, spanning 2,800 pages of shocking failures, makes one thing clear: the July 13 assassination attempt was not an unfortunate accident. It was the result of systematic, preventable failures at every level of the Secret Service.

“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,” said Committee Chairman Gary Peters. “Every single one of those failures was preventable, and the consequences of those failures were dire.”

So why haven’t Americans received the answers they deserve? Why does it feel like everyone’s trying to sweep this under the rug? A former president was nearly killed in an attack that could have been stopped, and all we’ve gotten is radio silence from those responsible for protecting him. It’s not just incompetence—it’s an outrage.

Key Takeaways:

• Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a July 13, 2024, rally, leaving one rallygoer dead and two injured, with few answers provided since.
• A Senate report revealed that the Secret Service ignored a credible threat days before the attack, failing to act on critical warnings.
• The attacker had clear opportunities to strike, while Secret Service communication and security planning collapsed, leading to preventable chaos.

Source: Daily Wire