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Trump’s Secret Service Detail Gets MAJOR Overhaul After Assassination Attempt

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4 months ago

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Observers at Tuesday’s proceedings of the Republican National Convention were quick to note an overhauled Secret Security detail surrounding former President Donald Trump. What made the phalanx unusual was what it did not include: female agents.

A cacophony of outrage rose up against Trump’s protection detail following his brush with death on Saturday after an assassination attempt. Video of the seconds and few minutes of immediate aftermath showed Secret Service agents bodying up against Trump as they navigated him down a set of stairs and into a black SUV; among the group were at least two female agents who drew criticism for being incapable of physically blocking Trump from a line of sight, or in another case appearing unable to holster her service weapon.

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Fist raised, President Trump marched onto the convention floor Tuesday morning with more than half a dozen male Secret Service agents in tow while they scanned the crowd for potential threats. RNC Chairman Michael Whatley has promised a secure convention and said enhanced protections have been added since Saturday’s shooting that nearly claimed the 45th president’s life. Photographs of the entourage by the Daily Mail show Trump making the rounds to meet with well-wishers, though he did not address the hundreds of attendees and delegates.

Security lapses at the president’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania have pushed Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle into the hot seat. On Monday the Biden appointee spoke with ABC News, accepting responsibility for the shooting and declaring “the buck stops with me” while appearing to blame local law enforcement for not securing the rally’s perimeter. Thomas Crooks, a recent high school graduate, was able to take eight shots from a rooftop more than 400 feet away.

“I’m being told that the shooter was actually identified as a potential person of suspicion. Units started responding to seek that individual out,” Cheatle told ABC News, according to Fox News. “Unfortunately, with the rapid succession of how things unfolded, by the time that individual was eventually located, they were on the rooftop and were able to fire off at the former president.”

Congressional Republicans are already ramping up efforts to hold formal hearings on how the Secret Service’s plans to secure the site allowed for the oversight. Cheatle told ABC News that a decision was made to not place an agent on the roof where Crooks found his vantage due to a sloping surface. “That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof. And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside,” she said.
Fox News on Tuesday reported that the FBI has quietly been interviewing local law enforcement about a reported encounter between the gunman and an officer who found him positioned on the rooftop only to cut and run after Crooks pointed his assault rifle at them.


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