Politics
JUST IN: Secret Service Delays Trump’s Speech After ANOTHER Major Security Lapse
Two suspicious attendees at President Trump’s appearance at a Bitcoin conference on Saturday led the Secret Service to shield the former president from the crowd while they investigated the second security lapse around him in as many weeks.
Fox News reported on the delay preceding Trump’s remarks at the 2024 Bitcoin national conference in Nashville, Tennessee where cryptocurrency holders and titans of industry were waiting anxiously to hear from the presidential candidate many feel will do the most good for their nascent tender. The annual event has grown each year and drew an estimated 35,000 from around the world, but it was two individuals who slipped through strict entry protocols, briefly sending the Secret Service into a tailspin. A spokesman for the agency confirmed to Fox News that two “credentialed and screened” attendees were removed from the venue. The interruption forced agents to hold President Trump backstage at the Music City Center where thousands of evening attendees waited to hear his keynote address.
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“It was determined that there was no protective interest with these individuals and there was never a threat to the former president,” the spokesperson said.
According to sources present, both individuals made their way around metal detectors that every attendee was required to pass through. At one point they were stopped and asked for their credentials, one source said, but bypassed a second screening, forcing Trump to stay backstage while Secret Service agents worked with event staff to locate the two individuals in a crowd of thousands. Law enforcement questioned both of them after they were removed from the venue and were determined not to be a threat to the former president.
Another disquieting occurrence around President Trump comes two weeks after a gunman struck his ear with a high-caliber rifle round, nearly killing him before Secret Service snipers shot and killed the young man. Twenty-year-old Thomas Crooks, a recent high school graduate who became infatuated with guns and political leaders, was able to avoid Secret Service scrutiny in the days leading up to a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and even during the event itself. An ongoing FBI investigation has found that Crooks flew a drone above the site shortly before President Trump went on stage, and during the speech, he was seen by snipers crawling along the ground with a rangefinder as he searched for a vantage point to the stage. FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers on Friday that he can’t get into all the specifics of why Crooks was able to slip through intense security measures.
“We have tried to be transparent with Congress and with the American people as we are going along in the investigation, frankly unusually so given the sheer nature of it. We have provided a lot of information… in response to your questions and your colleagues,” Wray told the House Oversight Committee, explaining how “facts change” over the course of investigations. “Part of our goal is not just to respect the ongoing investigation process but also to make sure that we don’t prematurely provide information that then two days later turns out to be different from what we told people.”
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