The Secret Service clearly became a tool of the Deep State
The former Secret Service director, Kimberly Cheatle, acknowledged before Congress that the shooting of former President Donald Trump on July 13 was the agency’s most significant security failure since the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Cheatle stated, “On July 13th, we failed,” highlighting the gravity of the incident. The shooting raised questions about the nature of the failure: was it in the fact that Trump was shot at all or simply that he survived? The situation added to the perception of Trump as a polarizing figure who has been targeted politically since 2015, culminating in this violent attempt against him.
The incident has been framed in a broader narrative where several previous attempts to undermine Trump, such as investigations and impeachments, have failed, leading some to view the Secret Service’s lapses as a continuation of these efforts. The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, managed to conduct reconnaissance with a drone before firing shots at Trump’s rally, injuring two and killing one person.
Critics of the Secret Service’s response point to multiple security oversights, such as leaving a rooftop position vacant during the rally for snipers. Cheatle’s resignation followed the incident, alongside scrutiny of how the Trump campaign had requested additional security measures that were consistently denied by the Department of Homeland Security. In the aftermath, the Secret Service suggested that Trump should refrain from hosting outdoor rallies, reflecting ongoing tension about his campaign activities.
The since-resigned Secret Service director conceded before House lawmakers Monday that this month’s shooting of former President Donald Trump was the worst agency security failure since President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
“On July 13th, we failed,” Kimberly Cheatle said.
But was the assassination attempt a failure because Trump survived? Or was it a failure because he was shot in the first place? It’s easy to blow off a government attempt to kill the former and potential future president as an episode of conspiratorial paranoia, but not so much when one is reminded of the extent to which Trump has remained the Washington regime’s Public Enemy No. 1 since 2015.
Trump’s bloodied fist-pump wasn’t just an expression of patriotic defiance in the face of a near-assassin’s bullet. The former president’s display of physical courage was much larger than that. The dramatic images of Trump’s heroism in the moment reflected the triumph of an ex-commander-in-chief who’s conquered not one but two impeachments, serially fabricated financial scandals, and 91 state and federal charges in a weaponized legal system run by ideological opponents who smear him as Adolf Hitler. An entire decade of character assassinations culminated in a bullet blowing through the right ear of a leader who emerged from the latest assault as a lionized icon of American perseverance and determination just months from an election.
The FBI and the Department of Justice failed to take Trump down through the Russia hoax. Then the intelligence state failed to bring Trump down through impeachment with a hoax on aid to Ukraine. Then congressional Democrats failed to keep Trump down with another hoax surrounding the capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. As the DOJ’s lawfare campaign to imprison Trump with a series of charges brought by prosecutors of the incumbent regime began to derail this summer, the Secret Service naturally became the agency of last resort through which Trump’s opponents could finally execute their “insurance policy” against another Trump presidency.
Trump’s shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, might not have deliberately coordinated with deep state security to pull the trigger on the Republican presidential nominee. But the string of security lapses in the former president’s detail clearly left the door open for any number of the crazies who wish to carry out an assassination, including even a deranged 20-year-old, to succeed just once.
On Wednesday, the FBI confirmed Crooks had been able to fly a reconnaissance drone just roughly 200 yards from the rally fairgrounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, only hours before the event. The news had already been leaked to The Wall Street Journal, which reported a programmed flight path “suggests Crooks flew the drone more than once as he researched and scoped out the event site.”
Several law enforcement officials were apparently stationed inside the building from which Crooks was able to fire off eight gunshots in under six seconds, injuring two rallygoers and killing one. According to the disgraced ex-Secret Service director, however, the rooftop from which the gunman fired was left vacant because it was “sloped.” A former roofer explained in a column for The Federalist why Cheatle’s “‘Sloped’ Roof Excuse Is Total Nonsense.”
“Contrary to Director Cheatle’s statement,” wrote Dmitri Rutkowski, the “two- to four-pitch industrial roof is not too ‘sloped.’”
“It presents no special ‘safety factor’ for agents to walk,” Rutkowski explained. “It is low-pitch, and people can comfortably stand and maneuver upon it. The killer easily climbed and moved around on it, and the internet is replete with images of agents comfortably walking it.”
The courageous commitment of front-line agents to take a bullet for the former president was on clear display at this month’s rally, but the leadership within the upper echelons of the federal security agency obviously carries no such mandate. The Secret Service director who finally stepped down was also an appointee of First Lady Jill Biden’s, whose own detail was apparently beefed up while Trump’s team was stripped down. In fact, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denied the Trump campaign’s requests for additional security “time and again,” and yet Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas still hasn’t joined Cheatle in resigning.
On Tuesday, the Secret Service requested Trump forgo any more outdoor campaign rallies right after Republicans wrapped up one of the most successful conventions to propel the party into the fall election.
“The Secret Service did not return an email from The Federalist requesting comment,” Federalist Senior Election Correspondent Matt Kittle reported. “So it’s not clear whether the agency has made the same requests of Vice President Kamala Harris.”
An agency otherwise committed to Trump’s protection might not have placed a partisan handicap on federally protected persons. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., even tried to strip the Republican presidential candidate of Secret Service protection earlier this year, and Democrats are considering the Mississippi lawmaker for a seat on a bipartisan commission to investigate the failed assassination attempt.
Even if Trump’s assassination attempt wasn’t a government plot to kill an ex-president, it’s obvious to Americans that the Secret Service was yet another hostile agency prone to the corrupt impulses of far-left ideologues in the capital who grandstand on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. If the Secret Service had been weaponized to block Trump’s triumphant return to the Oval Office, the events might look very similar to those of the last two weeks.
Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at [email protected]. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.
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