I have really bent over backward to give the Secret Service more than reasonable slack to explain how they could fail so catastrophically in their duty to protect once and future president Donald Trump. 

I really have, and am still pretty certain that nobody in the government was involved in the specific attempt on the life of Trump in Pennsylvania. It doesn't bear thinking of, so I am not going to unless there is extraordinary evidence to prove it. It seems beyond belief that Secret Service agents around Trump, who have been with him a long time, would participate in something so evil. And Trump is confident that his agents didn't.

But I am well past the point where I have to conclude that the Secret Service was set up to fail in protecting Donald Trump and that it was a goal of the Biden Administration to have him put in danger and possibly killed. 

It actually pains me to say that because, while I think that the Establishment has been getting increasingly scummy and have malicious plans for Americans, I thought there were limits beyond which they would not go. This is the United States of America, and we should still be able to assume that our leaders are not outright evil, or at least that they would recoil from anything this evil. 

I no longer believe that, and serious Members of Congress--not the fringy ones you might expect to go there--are voicing the same concern. 

"I believe that Secret Service leadership made a political decision to deny these requests."

Things get HEATED when Sen. Ted Cruz presses the acting Secret Service director on the Trump team’s requests for additional security. pic.twitter.com/rkFcNfXFU1

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 30, 2024

Yesterday I wrote about my belief that Alejandro Mayorkas--the Secretary of Homeland Security and ultimate boss of the Secret Service--consciously chose to weaken security around Donald Trump. It seems to me to be the only explanation for the extraordinary number of failures that led to the shooting that took the life of a great American, seriously wounded others and got Donald Trump shot in the head. 

Senator Mike Lee is going off, and rightfully so.

The Secret Service are refusing to give us answers, and are more concerned with covering their own asses, than getting to the bottom of the assassination attempt.

They are complicit.

SHUT IT DOWN!pic.twitter.com/A0MXEbc2hV

— Clandestine (@WarClandestine) July 30, 2024

There are lots of reasons to believe that this is true. Any one or two failures can easily be explained by oversights or incompetence, which are normal even in elite organizations. Stuff happens, and if it happens at the wrong time and in the wrong place, tragedies can occur. That is just a fact of life, however uncomfortable it is. 

An abandoned post.

An identified threat.

A President shot.

An American murdered.

An unacceptable lack of information from the Secret Service.

Watch: pic.twitter.com/KkvnRmxnRQ

— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) July 30, 2024

But this case is different. There weren't one or two failures; a long series of inexplicable failures strain credibility. The shooter was identified hours before, photographed, and spotted with a gun. Nobody was on the roof or watching it, and police were made aware of his being on the roof with a gun minutes before the shooting. And the command center was informed of this fact. There's lots more. 

JOE ROGAN: “Do you think they're gonna try to take him [Trump] out again?”

MICHAEL MALICE: “Yes.”

JOE ROGAN: “Yeah, I do too. I think if they did that, this is not the only time they're gonna do that.”

What's chilling is that it's not just Rogan and Malice saying this but also… pic.twitter.com/TxeaU3PoSy

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) July 31, 2024

A video of local law enforcement swarming the building with guns drawn minutes before the shooting shows that they, at least, knew there was a serious danger to the president. 

He was on the stage speaking at the time. 

We are 17 days out from the assassination attempt on Trump. I don't want conversations and processes- I want answers and accountability. Hiding behind a vague, slow-moving investigation is not going to cut it. We need full reform at the Secret Service and FBI now. pic.twitter.com/vBwmq4FnCh

— Dr. Roger Marshall (@RogerMarshallMD) July 30, 2024

Then there is the fact that both the Secret Service and the FBI have been basically locked down, stonewalling any attempts to get information, releasing falsehoods such as doubt about whether Trump was shot--allowing publications to spread this calumny--and avoiding any accountability. The FBI Director lied before Congress about there being doubt that President Trump was shot. Yesterday his Deputy testified under oath that there was never any doubt that he was struck by a bullet. 

Not a single person involved with the failure has been fired or suspended. Not one. It would be "unfair persecution" to even suspend anyone at this point. 

Come on. 

The Secret Service director says it’s “unfair persecution” to relieve of duty leadership responsible for the Trump rally security debacle? Are you serious? It’s called accountability. Of which so far there has been ZERO pic.twitter.com/ZYMN3i3CZI

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) July 30, 2024

Now, Alejandro Mayorkas has replaced Director Cheatle with the man whose job was to oversee the protective details, which failed. 

Let that sink in. The man who should be one of the investigated is RUNNING the investigation. 

🚨🚨🚨 EXCLUSIVE: A Secret Service counter sniper sent an email Monday night to the entire Uniformed Division (not agents) saying he will not stop speaking out until "5 high-level supervisors (1 down) are either fired or removed from their current positions." The counter sniper… pic.twitter.com/0dg99EESQk

— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) July 30, 2024

Everybody knows there is a coverup because, well, they are covering everything up. They are as tight lipped with information as any CIA officer, and that violates every principle of crisis communications. Every one of them. 

FYI, Acting Secret Service Director Ronald L. Rowe, Jr. worked for:

1. Obama White House

2. Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT)

Don't let him pretend he is a career, non-partisan law-enforcement official.

He's a former partisan Democrat staffer. https://t.co/7959nOqUNy pic.twitter.com/sFxq1TZnmm

— 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) July 30, 2024

These are the very people who have done everything in the world to put a target on Trump's back, insisting he is Hitler, that he is a threat to Democracy, that he is a dictator-in-waiting, and amping up the political heat to the highest level it has been at since the 1860s. They have been using lawfare, jailing Trump's supporters, calling them domestic terrorists, and even engaging in assassination porn. Some still are, and the President of the United States smiled when talking about the Speaker of the House being "dead on arrival"--twice when he was asked to clarify.

Violent rhetoric is out there, and it is the left engaging in it. 

Director Rowe blamed the event on a failure of imagination. He and the Secret Service, he wants us to believe, never imagined that his protectees were in danger. He literally said that, and we are supposed to believe that? Of the Secret Service?

No. Somebody imagined this alright. 

Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe claims that what went wrong on July 13 was a “failure of imagination.”

“A failure to imagine that we actually do live in a very dangerous world where people do actually want to do harm to our protectees.”pic.twitter.com/rqdJ6Mf94f

— Julia 🇺🇸 (@Jules31415) July 30, 2024

Sean Davis at the Federalist has been beating the drum on this for a long time, and I have been reluctant to follow because it seems so implausible to me that the corruption at the top would go this far. But he has a point:

If the Secret Service wanted Trump to get shot in the head and wanted to make sure an assassin had the opportunity to do that, what would it have done differently?

Nothing, as far as I can tell. They would’ve done exactly what they did. https://t.co/nFvvZl9TDV

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) July 30, 2024

What WOULD they have done differently, other than just not show up at all? They LEFT THE OBVIOUS PLACE FOR A SHOOTER TO PERCH HIMSELF UNGUARDED, were warned that an armed gunman was on the roof, and did nothing until there was blood on the ground. 

Nothing. The local police did more. 

𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐂𝐊 𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎: Did we seriously witness the Secret Service allow an attempt on a former president and nobody has been held accountable?

A new video shows local authorities in full response action to a shooter at the Trump rally, but the Secret Service did nothing and… pic.twitter.com/rKakFaEMuT

— legislation (@legislationpage) July 29, 2024

The "investigators" haven't been talking to the local police who were there, if you can believe that. The snipers from Pennsylvania were supposed to meet with the snipers from the Service before the event, but were stood up. 

What is going on?

MUST WATCH: Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) Demands Immediate Accountability for Secret Service Failure After Shocking Assassination Attempt on Donald Trump.

He said, "Eighteen days ago, a would-be assassin managed to climb onto a roof 400ft from the stage where the former… pic.twitter.com/iX2QYe7dEU

— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) July 30, 2024

Former Seal Team member and current Congressman Ryan Zinke asks the obvious question: was this incompetence willful and knowing? The latter, now, seems more plausible. 

I find that incredibly difficult to say. But aside from your natural unwillingness to contemplate something like this happening in America, why wouldn't you conclude this? If it happened in Russia, Venezuela, or any banana republic you would have concluded thiis long ago. 

America wasn't a banana republic. Is it becoming one? After the years of hoaxes and lawfare, the only thing keeping us from saying it is the reserve of credibility is empty. 

I hope this wasn't an assassination plot: Rep. Ryan Zinke pic.twitter.com/ij94emKSnk

— Mornings with Maria (@MorningsMaria) July 29, 2024

Director Rowe must go. He is exactly the wrong person to be in charge of this investigation since he should be one of the people investigated. Don't be fooled by his empty mea culpas. Admitting that there was a failure is the easiest thing to do because it is incontrovertible. He is engaged in a coverup of something, and we need answers from somebody not involved. 

Senator Marsha Blackburn (Rep-TN) grills Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe on why the Secret Service deleted the whistleblower’s email. Do you think the Secret Service was involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President Trump? pic.twitter.com/LT6yiLXact

— • ᗰISᑕᕼIᗴᖴ ™ • (@4Mischief) July 30, 2024

Was there a government plot to assassinate the former president? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and unless you can prove that Majorkas or somebody similarly high up actually was involved in this event, I am not convinced. 

But he and those around him clearly were involved in stripping the security around Trump. They denied resources, incited violence, and waited for somebody to take an opportunity. 

And on July 13th, that happened.