Secret Service Faces Scrutiny After Trump Rally Shooting

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Facts

• After Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally Saturday, Pres. Joe Biden said he's 'directed an independent review of the national security' to probe how a shooter could manage to evade the US Secret Service and get onto a roof in close proximity to a presidential nominee.¹
• Biden also said he has asked the Secret Service to review all security measures ahead of the Republican National Convention, which begins in Milwaukee on Monday. He added that the investigation is underway to find a motive for the assassination attempt.²
• House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) has asked Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify at a July 22 hearing, while House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) has sought answers from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.³
• Carrying an AR-style rifle, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, reportedly fired multiple shots at the former president standing at the podium less than 150 meters (164 yards) away — one grazing Trump's ear — before a Secret Service agent neutralized him.²
• Greg Smith, an eyewitness, told the BBC that he saw the armed shooter around five minutes into Trump's speech and diligently informed the police. He said, 'The police did not know what was going on,' probably because they couldn't spot him due to the roof's slope.⁴
• However, Butler County Sheriff Michael T. Slupe told CNN that officers had discovered the shooter on the roof after receiving calls of suspicious activity. He added that one officer hoisted another up to peer over the ledge but let go to take cover after the shooter turned the rifle on him.⁵

Sources: ¹CNN (a), ²Associated Press, ³NBC, ⁴BBC News and ⁵CNN (b).

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by BBC News. The Secret Service has one job — to protect former and incumbent presidents — and it failed spectacularly Saturday. The agency must answer some damning questions, including how a 20-year-old shooter could get close to Trump and why warnings from the public don't appear to have been sufficiently acted upon.
• Right narrative, as provided by PJ Media. Some left-wing and left-wing-sympathetic pundits are actually subscribing to the notion that Trump brought this on himself. While Secret Service failings have to be accounted for, another facet of this failed assassination attempt was the language by Democrats who constantly described Trump as an authoritarian fascist whose election would irreversibly damage American democracy.
• Left narrative, as provided by Vox. The right's rhetoric in the aftermath of the shooting is extremely dangerous. It ignores the prevalence of guns in America, long-standing right-wing extremist violence, and the unclear motives of Crooks — who was a registered Republican. Biden has called for an investigation and for America to turn down the temperature — the Right must follow suit.

Predictions