We have entered the Twilight Zone. 

Under no circumstances would I have imagined that the Secret Service, of all organizations, could fail this badly. 

And by fail, I don't mean that somebody got through a security perimeter. Even the best organizations can't prevent every conceivable scenario. Stuff happens. 

No, I mean something much, much worse: the Secret Service failed to do even a minimally competent job. The Washington Post reports that the agency had been informed that local law enforcement did not have sufficient resources to secure the building from which the shooter took his murderous shots. Yet, nothing was done to ensure that the most obvious vantage point from which to assassinate Trump was secured. 

Secret Service was told police could not watch building used by Trump rally shooter https://t.co/9wmxjPCELo

— James Miller (@Millermena) July 17, 2024

We aren't talking about a sniper's nest 950 yards from the site. I am told that for a competent marksman, this was a "chip shot." 

Local police alerted the Secret Service before former president Donald Trump’s rally Saturday that they lacked the resources to station a patrol car outside a key building where a gunman later positioned himself and shot at Trump, according to local and federal law enforcement.

Richard Goldinger, the district attorney in Butler County, Pa., where the Trump rally took place, said the Secret Service “was informed that the local police department did not have manpower to assist with securing that building.”

Goldinger’s account was confirmed by a Secret Service official briefed on the incident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid about a sensitive, ongoing investigation.

The Secret Service official confirmed that positioning an officer outside the building was considered one of the ways to protect against the risk that the agency prepares for at all public events — that a shooter on high ground has a clear line of sight on the president or other senior officials being protected. The building, owned by Agr International, was just outside the security perimeter for Saturday’s rally.

Unbelievable. They knew the site was unsecured and left it that way--even with all the warnings that a suspicious figure with a rangefinder was walking around the building. 

The Secret Service even identified Thomas Matthew Crooks as a person of interest and had photographed him. 

Unbelievable. 

The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, also said a remote trigger device was found on the roof with Crooks after he was shot. The FBI has previously said that “rudimentary” suspicious devices were found in Crooks’s vehicle, near the shooting site, and at the home where he lived with his parents. Authorities are still trying to determine why Crooks launched the attack. So far, they believe he acted alone.

The proposal to station a patrol car and officer outside the Agr International building complex had been part of the Secret Service’s advance planning for securing this prominent structure, which had a expansive roof with an unobstructed view of the rally stage less than 150 yards away, where Trump would later stand, the Secret Service official told The Washington Post.

We need to know who was in charge of securing the site. Perhaps not a name, but the qualifications, experience, and prior history of the agent in charge. 

There are basically four competing narratives or theories about what led to the assassination attempt against Donald Trump:

1) Through a combination of incompetence and innocent mistakes and garden-variety bureaucratic ineptitude, a gunman was able to penetrate security and take…

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) July 17, 2024

How can the American people have any faith in an agency that has been dissembling, providing excuses, professing complete faith in its leadership, and is now refusing to testify before Congress next week?

Secret Service is briefing senators on a conference call—regarding the assassination attempt against President Trump.

So far they’re flooding us with details that aren’t all that helpful.

I have yet to hear them substantively address the failures that led to this tragedy.

— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 17, 2024

I certainly have no faith in them. This was incompetence on a level I could never imagine in such a mission-critical task. They didn't blow an investigation. They almost lost a once and future president. 

On Wednesday afternoon, officials from the Secret Service, the Department of Justice and the FBI will provide an update to the Senate on the incident, according to the office of Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). A briefing for members of the House will follow.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) issued a subpoena Wednesday to U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, demanding her testimony at a hearing next week, according to a copy of the subpoena provided to The Post. U.S. Secret Service officials initially indicated that Cheatle was committed to appearing before the Oversight Committee. But in a letter accompanying the subpoena, Comer claimed that DHS officials “appear to have intervened,” calling Cheatle’s attendance into question.

“The lack of transparency and failure to cooperate with the committee on this pressing matter by both DHS and the Secret Service further calls into question your ability to lead the Secret Service and necessitates the attached subpoena compelling your appearance before the Oversight Committee,” the letter said.

Unbelievable. I am blown away. 

This is Alejandro Mayorkas' Department of Homeland Security. This is Joe Biden's administration. And this is Director Cheatle's Secret Service. 

And … just like that, Secret Service wrapped up the briefing after taking only a few questions

So much smoke and mirrors

So little accountability

— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 17, 2024

This goes beyond incompetence and enters the territory, it seems, of depraved indifference. I still don't believe it was an inside job--that seems way too far out with what we know--but there weren't sufficient efforts to ensure that even a minimal level of checks and balances were put in place to prevent a massive systems failure.  

Everybody at the top involved in this failure needs to be suspended, at the least.