Special Forces officers assigned to protect Donald Trump on the day of the July 13 assassination attempt in Butler County, Pennsylvania, say they had no contact with Secret Service agents before the shooting went on. Watchman.
“We were supposed to have a joint meeting with the Secret Service when they arrived, but that didn’t happen,” said Jason Woods, a senior sniper with the Beaver County Sheriff’s Special Operations Force.
Woods said that initial planning and communication error was likely the beginning of the mistakes that led to the killing of 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, a spectator, and the wounding of two others, and according to the FBI, the tip of one of Trump's ears.
“I think that was the point where I knew things were going to go wrong, because it never did,” Woods said. “There was no contact.”
They made mistake after mistake.
According to the Washington Post, Trump's top advisers were in a large white tent behind the stage where the former president was giving a speech at the time of the shooting. They thought the shots were fireworks, and later couldn't understand why they hadn't been alerted to the suspicious person before Trump took the stage.
Nobody mentioned it. Nobody said there was a problem. They could have said, “Wait fifteen minutes, or twenty minutes, or five minutes, or something like that.” Nobody said anything. I think that was a mistake.
Trump recently told Fox News.
According to Woods, the first contact between the special police and the Secret Service “was not until after the shooting.” Woods added that by then it was too late.
Local snipers saw Thomas Matthew Crooks 20-25 minutes before the shooting. According to the Pennsylvania State Police chief's testimony, the photo was sent to a command center where state police and Secret Service agents worked together.
The apparent failure of communication between various law enforcement agencies is currently the subject of three separate investigations. After Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on July 23, the FBI confirmed that Trump had been shot.
FBI Director Christopher Wray also said the gunman, who appeared to have no ideological motivation for attacking Trump, was looking at the distance Lee Harvey Oswald had from John F. Kennedy online when he shot and killed him in November 1963.
Trump defended the Secret Service.
As agencies debate who was responsible for the shooting, Trump — despite the Secret Service's advice to avoid outdoor gatherings — plans to return to Butler for a “big, beautiful reunion.”
Trump also rejected criticism, which has become a talking point in Republican circles, that Secret Service staffing and the quality of protection they provide have been negatively impacted by diversity programs.
At a rally in Minnesota on Saturday, he defended the “brave” Secret Service agent who “protected” him during the assassination attempt.
He did everything he could to protect me, even getting criticized with fake news that he wasn't tall enough. He was so brave that he did everything to protect me, he wanted to get shot.
Donald Trump said.
The Secret Service did not directly comment on Woods’ comments. But agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the Secret Service is “committed to better understanding what happened before, during and after the assassination attempt on former President Trump so that it never happens again.”
