At this stage there are more questions than answers. The more we learn about the assassination attempt at a rally for President Donald Trump on July 13 the more suspicions come to mind. What have we learned thus far, with a degree of certainty?
The director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, says she takes full responsibility. She admits there were security lapses. She reports that the shooter fired from the roof of a metal building only 130 yards from President Trump.
Experts point out that shooting from such a position would almost guarantee a kill: short distance to target, elevated position, clear field of vision. Many are calling President Trump’s survival a “miracle.”
“Cory Mills, a Florida congressman and former Army sniper, is demanding a full congressional investigation, separate from DHS and the FBI. He calls this a “massive security breach.” He added that the threat assessment done by the Secret Service was inadequate allowing the shooter to access the roof and position himself to take several shots, killing one man, and wounding three, including Trump.
Incredibly, the shooter was seen by several people at the rally. They said the shooter with his rifle was spotted about 25 minutes before the first shot. Further, they told reporters they tried to alert law enforcement but officers appeared uninterested.
Furthermore reports indicate part of Trump’s protection detail was transferred to cover a Jill Biden event. How much did this lesson security for the President? Speaking Tuesday at the RNC convention, Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said the former chairman of the J6 Select Committee has actively attempted to cancel President Trump’s Secret Service protection.
And note this detail from Cheatle: the shooter was known to the feds before the event. They had classified him as a person of suspicion.
Moreover Cheatle says her team decided not to post officers on the roof because the slope was too steep, posing a safety hazard! Instead of roof top surveillance, she said it was decided to secure the building from the inside. Indeed, officers where inside the building as the shooter fired from above.
Thus the shooter was able to walk to the building, use a ladder to access the roof, and proceed. One report stated an officer confronted the shooter on the roof, but left when the shooter threatened him.
Given all the negligence, security failures and outright incompetence surrounding those few minutes of shooting last Saturday, Congressman Mills is calling for an investigation by the House, separate from FBI, DHS and SS, casting doubt on their motives and procedures, going so far as to suspect the attempt to kill the President was executed by players beyond the shooter.
Greene says the assassination attempt “reeks of something a lot more sinister and bigger.”
Raising suspicions higher, Cheatle is complaining the FBI will not let her interview her own SS personnel.
For all the talk of lowering the rhetorical tone and returning to dignified political interaction there is scant hope of such an outcome should it be found this was not the work of a lone lunatic gunman, but a coordinated effort to kill a former President, the Republican nominee who will likely win another term this fall.
