Trump Attack: Court hearing holds Secret Service accountable for the first assassination attempt
The local police officers claimed that the communication system was more complex on the day of the attack.
The Trump attacks on former US President Donald Trump have been one of the most talked-about points in the US presidential election. On Thursday, while hearing the first assassination attempt, a bipartisan House panel revealed that the attack occurred due to the shortcomings of the Secret Service and not the local police.
As the first hearing of the case proceeded, Rep. Mike Kelly from Pennsylvania, the Republican co-chair of the committee, highlighted that a series of failures by the Secret Service were responsible for the open fire on the former President. Kelly remarked, “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.”
Since July 13, Pennsylvania, the House panel comprising seven Republicans and six Democrats has worked for a couple of months to analyse the security failures that led to the attack.
Local Police’s revelations
Meanwhile, the local police officers claimed during the hearing that the communication system was more complex on the day of the attack; they elaborated that separate radio and communication groups were set up, hinting that the coordination between different teams may have been compromised due to the confusion.
According to testimony, intel about a man on the roof was communicated through a couple of channels just before the accused, Thomas Matthew Crooks, opened fire on Trump. However, the intel never reached the Secret Service agents, mostly because of the complex communication network the police talked about.
Malfunction in the FirstNet cell system
Several reports also claimed that the FirstNet cell system, established following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, was also malfunctioning at the time of the attack. Reportedly, it was not fully operational for the emergency responders. The cell phone network was unreliable too, because of which the Crooks’ presence on the roof was not communicated.
“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 stated.
Initially, the Secret Service blamed the local law enforcement for the catastrophe in Butler. But eventually, they accepted their shortcomings. The hearing was preceded by a critical report by a bipartisan committee underlining the key failures of the Secret Service on the day of the attack.
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