Trump - Butler, PA
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I’m surprised that the secret service is so incompetent. I admit I bought into the mystique about them being the sort that handles their business at a very high level. Turns out they’re just like every other large organization, ruled by mediocrity and incompetence.
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Reporting that it was a 20 year old kid from Bethel Park. Things might have changed, but Bethel Park was an upscale “swanky” community when I was a kid. Of course, in the town that I grew up in, Kohls and JC Penny’s were upscale, so…
I suspect the kid is going to be a caricature of the spoiled brat Antifa kids…
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@Horace said in Trump - Butler, PA:
I’m surprised that the secret service is so incompetent. I admit I bought into the mystique about them being the sort that handles their business at a very high level. Turns out they’re just like every other large organization, ruled by mediocrity and incompetence.
I think they still have some pretty competent guys, but any large organization has some problems...Dan Bongino was a Secret Service agent. He was on duty for 9/11. He's often said that when the records become public, people are going to be very surprised at the absolute level of confusion within the government.
I think I've also noted that Bongino has been told by his sources within the Secret Service that the Director has denied additional agents for the Trump campaign. Twice. The reason may be as simple as not enough agents and a high turnover rate due to the travel involved during a Presidential Election year (constant travel).
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@jon-nyc said in Trump - Butler, PA:
You’d think a combination of drone footage and AI would make such a thing impossible. You’d imagine anything that looks like a man holding a rifle would be instantaneously recognized and localized.
Still takes human eyeballs to decipher. We don’t have drones everywhere, yet. And AI told us that Jimmy Carter was George Bush’s VP.
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Secret Service does a prelim and threat assessment, but they are mostly concerned with the area within their secure perimeter. Magnetometers were in place and they weren't even letting grandmothers carry their shade umbrellas in the rally.
Outside the rally is the responsibility of local and state authorities. You may have some Secret service liaison personnel with them.
Just a SWAG, but there were apparently multiple camouflaged officers dispersed at different points. Maybe, just maybe, some of the hesitation in reaction was local law enforcement trying to confirm the shooter did not belong?
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The Secret Service will be chastised for this. But Mr. Trump is alive.
"Having worked with the Secret Service before, as I was watching this unfold, I could not believe how long this played out before they got him off of that stage into the car, and then it took that vehicle that long to depart that area. It was a lifetime from a protection standpoint," former FBI Special Agent Jonathan Gilliam said during a special Sunday broadcast of "Fox & Friends First."
"A lot of people on the news… didn't want to be critical of the Secret Service but, as I watch this again… I'm astounded at the way things played out because it appeared as though it was being that the defense of Trump and the movements off were being made up as they went along, and that is not the way this elite service should be prepared for this and carrying out these tactics and this type of situation."
"If there had been a second shooter, there would have been plenty of opportunity to take him out again, so this breaks every rule of the Secret Service protocol and just general executive protection in general."
https://www.foxnews.com/media/split-second-turn-trump-life-expert-god-watching
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@Jolly said in Trump - Butler, PA:
Secret Service does a prelim and threat assessment, but they are mostly concerned with the area within their secure perimeter. Magnetometers were in place and they weren't even letting grandmothers carry their shade umbrellas in the rally.
Outside the rally is the responsibility of local and state authorities. You may have some Secret service liaison personnel with them.
Just a SWAG, but there were apparently multiple camouflaged officers dispersed at different points. Maybe, just maybe, some of the hesitation in reaction was local law enforcement trying to confirm the shooter did not belong?
They might want to revisit the guidelines about ignoring everything outside their perimeter, if a gunman could easily take a shot from outside that perimeter.
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@Copper said in Trump - Butler, PA:
The Secret Service will be chastised for this. But Mr. Trump is alive.
"Having worked with the Secret Service before, as I was watching this unfold, I could not believe how long this played out before they got him off of that stage into the car, and then it took that vehicle that long to depart that area. It was a lifetime from a protection standpoint," former FBI Special Agent Jonathan Gilliam said during a special Sunday broadcast of "Fox & Friends First."
"A lot of people on the news… didn't want to be critical of the Secret Service but, as I watch this again… I'm astounded at the way things played out because it appeared as though it was being that the defense of Trump and the movements off were being made up as they went along, and that is not the way this elite service should be prepared for this and carrying out these tactics and this type of situation."
"If there had been a second shooter, there would have been plenty of opportunity to take him out again, so this breaks every rule of the Secret Service protocol and just general executive protection in general."
https://www.foxnews.com/media/split-second-turn-trump-life-expert-god-watching
I think he's wrong. When Trump went down, he was behind a bullet-proof panel. The first agents shielded him with their bodies. Those agents did not let Trump get up from behind the barrier, until they clearly heard "Shooter down!"
Where they were probably wrong, was when Trump first asked for his shoes (I don't know if they waited for that) but then he could be heard telling them to "Wait!" That's when you got the fist pumps and Trump yelling "Fight! Fight!", and they hesitated for just a second or two before loading him into the SUV.
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Unfortunately, I think that if someone is desparate enough and does not fear consequences, it is impossible to eliminate all threats to a public figure like the president. It is sad that it has to be worried about.
(I am sure that many here on this forum board have read the book/seen the movie "Day of the Jackal". The only reason President DeGaulle is not shot is that he turns his head at the last moment. I kind of thought of that when this happened.)
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If former secret service agents and law enforcement officials want to be critical of the actions or steps, well they know better than me, but the guys that tried to protect and made a mistake are not on my blame list at all.