A bipartisan House panel has revealed in a hearing that the first assassination attempt on former US president Donald Trump happened because of failures on part of Secret Service and not local police. During the first hearing on Thursday (Sep 26), the Republican co-chair of the committee, Rep. Mike Kelly from Pennsylvania, threw light on a series of failures by the Secret Service that paved way for the shooter to open fire on Trump from a nearby building.
“In the days leading up to the rally, it was not a single mistake that allowed Crooks to outmaneuver one of our country’s most elite group of security professionals. There were security failures on multiple fronts,” said Kelly.
The House panel has seven Republicans and six Democrats on board, which has spent last two months analysing the security failures which allowed the July 13 attack to happen.
During the hearing, local police officers talked about the complex system of communication on the day of attack, where separate radio and communication groups were set up.
A testimony revealed that just before the moments Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on Trump, information about a man on the roof was sent out to two different communication channels through two communication posts. However, that information never reached the Secret Service agents on Trump’s detail.
It was also highlighted how FirstNet cell system, established in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, was not fully operational for the emergency responders at the time of the attack. While the normal cell phone connection was spotty, which didn’t allow local officers to share Crooks’s details via phone, FirstNet cell system was also not accessible for some officers.
“We created a solution, and yet it’s 2024, and we’re still not implementing that solution at the highest levels of our security agencies” to keep Trump safe, Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida said.
The Secret Service had initially blaming local law enforcement for the catastrophe in Butler. However, in later stages of the investigation, the agency repeatedly said it was fully to blame for the failures that day.
The hearing comes a day after a bipartisan committee in the Senate released a damning report highlighting key failures by the Secret Service that day.
(With inputs from agencies)
