Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal is warning the American public to brace themselves for some jaw-dropping revelations about the Secret Service’s incompetence during the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on President Trump. At a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump narrowly escaped a deadly attack by an armed man who somehow managed to infiltrate the event, scale rooftops, and fire off multiple shots.
Thomas Crooks, the would-be assassin, was spotted by rally-goers, including local patriot Greg Smith, long before the attack. Smith and others could see Crooks scoping out the rally, and even witnessed him jumping between rooftops with a weapon. Yet, despite all this, the Secret Service sniper team watched Crooks for a solid half hour without taking action. Sounds like a colossal security failure? That’s exactly how former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle described it—one of the biggest blunders in Secret Service history.
Other reports paint an even darker picture. In texts obtained by The New York Times, counter-snipers were exchanging casual messages about Crooks well before he launched his attack. One sniper, about to finish his shift, casually mentioned seeing a suspicious person near the exit—Crooks—while heading out. His colleagues responded with a thumbs-up emoji. Because that’s exactly how you want your elite security team to handle a potential assassination threat, right?
To make matters worse, it’s now come to light that the Secret Service had repeatedly denied requests for additional security leading up to the rally, even as agents assigned to Trump’s detail voiced their concerns. Senator Josh Hawley has shared whistleblower accounts revealing that agents received only a laughable “two-hour online webinar” to prepare for the rally—hardly the kind of high-stakes training you’d expect for an event featuring a former president.
Blumenthal promises that a soon-to-be-released report will “shock, astonish, and appall” the nation. The senator, tight-lipped on the details, said the report would expose major lapses in communication and security failures that almost led to a historic tragedy. He didn’t mince words when criticizing the Department of Homeland Security, calling out its lack of transparency and refusal to share critical information.
A disaster like this calls for accountability, and if Blumenthal’s predictions are right, the American public won’t soon forget how the Secret Service dropped the ball. Time to clean house, folks.