Washington:

The United States Service has owned its failure to protect former president Donald Trump at an election rally in Pennsylvania on July 13.

A young gunman shot at Trump, 78, when he was addressing an election rally in Butler. Trump escaped the assassination attempt, as a bullet flew within a millimetre of him and one of them hit his right ear.

“The Secret Service takes full responsibility for the tragic events of July 13th. This was a mission failure. The sole responsibility of our agency is to make sure our protectees are never put in danger. We fell short of that in Butler. And I’m working to make sure that this failure does not happen again,” Acting Director of the US Secret Service, Ronald Rowe, told reporters at a news conference here.

The main role of Secret Service is to protect the President, the former presidents and their family members. Presidential nominees also get protection of the secret service.

Rowe said that the Secret Service will continue to cooperate with pending oversight investigations of the July 13 failure being done now by Congress, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General, and the independent review directed by President Joe Biden.

“I am not waiting for the completion of those reports, and I’ve directed the Secret Service to take immediate steps to ensure our protectees are indeed safe. I am committed to pursuing accountability for the Secret Service’s failure in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“But let me be clear. If policy violations by Secret Service personnel are identified by the agency’s Mission Assurance Review, those individuals will be held accountable. They will be held accountable to our fair and thorough disciplinary process,” he said.

Giving the sequence of events of July 13, Rowe said at 5.30 pm, Trump arrived at the campaign rally via Secret Service motorcade, and at that time, he met with supporters in a secure backstage area within the protective site.

At 5.45 pm, a local Butler County Emergency Services Unit counter sniper team member texted the Secret Service counter sniper team leader about a suspicious person and sent two photos of the individual, later identified as the assailant.

At 5.53 pm, the Secret Service counter sniper team leader texted the Secret Service counter sniper teams that local law enforcement was looking for a suspicious individual outside of the perimeter lurking around the AGR building.

At this time, Secret Service personnel were operating with the knowledge that local law enforcement was working on an issue of a suspicious individual.

At 6 pm, former President Trump took the stage to begin remarks.

“Based on what I know right now, neither the Secret Service counter-sniper teams nor members of the former president’s security detail had any knowledge that there was a man on the roof of the AGR building with a firearm. It is my understanding that personnel were not aware the assailant had a firearm until they heard gunshots,” he said.

“At 6.11 pm, a member of the former President Trump’s protective detail contacted their Pittsburgh field office counterpart to inquire about the radio update that there was an issue local law enforcement was looking into near the perimeter.

“At 6.11 pm, the assailant’s first volley of three shots was fired, and within three seconds, the former president’s detail rushed the stage and covered Trump, shielding him with their own bodies,” Rowe said giving the timeline of the failed assassination bid on July 13.

“The fourth-through-eight shots took place over the next several seconds. Fifteen and a half seconds after the assailant’s first shot, a Secret Service counter sniper fired a single round that neutralised the assailant,” he said.

Rowe told reporters that this was a failure.

“We should have had better protection for the protectee. We should have had better coverage on that roof line. We should have had at least some other set of eyes from the Secret Service point of view covering that. That building was very close to that outer perimeter, and we should have had more of a presence,” he said.

“This was a Secret Service failure. That roof line should have been covered. We should have had better eyes on that,” he added. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

U.S. Secret Service personnel and other law enforcement officials escort Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump after he was shot at during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., on July 13, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has appointed a bipartisan, independent panel to review this month’s assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, officials said Sunday.

The panel members will have “extensive law enforcement and security experience to conduct a 45-day independent review of the planning for and actions taken by the U.S. Secret Service and state and local authorities before, during, and after the rally, and the U.S. Secret Service governing policies and procedures,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

Also read: ‘Nobody mentioned it’: Trump says he received no warnings before assassination attempt

The first people named to the panel are former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; Frances Townsend, former Homeland Security adviser to President George W. Bush; Mark Filip, a former federal judge and deputy attorney general to President George W. Bush; and David Mitchell, former Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security for the state of Delaware. Additional experts could be asked to join the group in the coming days, the statement said.

Editorial | Dodging bullets: On an assassination bid and U.S. politics

The panel will have 45 days to review the policies and procedures of the Secret Service before, during and after the rally on July 13 where a gunman fired at Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“We formed this bipartisan group to quickly identify improvements the U.S. Secret Service can implement to enhance their work. We must all work together to ensure events like July 13 do not happen again,” members of the independent review panel said in a joint statement.

Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle said she welcomes the review. “I look forward to the panel examining what happened and providing recommendations to help ensure it will never happen again,” she said in a statement. “The U.S. Secret Service is continuing to take steps to review our actions internally and remain committed to working quickly and transparently with other investigations, including those by Congress, FBI and the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General.”

Ms. Cheatle is set to testify on July 22 before the House Oversight Committee.

Republican Presidential nominee and former President Donald J. Trump attends a public campaign at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan on July 20, 2024. This is also Trump’s first public rally since he was shot in an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on July 13
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Donald Trump said on July 20 nobody warned him of a problem in the lead-up to the former president’s rally in Pennsylvania last week when a would-be assassin shot him in the ear.

“Nobody mentioned it, nobody said there was a problem. I would’ve waited for 15, they could’ve said let’s wait for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 5 minutes, something. Nobody said,” Mr. Trump told Fox News in an interview. “I think that was a mistake,” he added. “How did somebody get on that roof? And why wasn’t he reported?”

The Washington Post on Saturday reported that top officials at the U.S. Secret Service repeatedly rejected requests from Mr. Trump’s security detail for more manpower and gear at events before the attempted assassination. The agency, which is responsible for Mr. Trump’s protection, denied these requests, saying at times that it lacked resources, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Secret Service did not immediately respond outside regular office hours to a Reuters request for comment.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is set to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee on July 22 for a hearing related to the shooting at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania last week.

Washington:

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has agreed to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee on July 22 for a hearing related to the shooting of former President Donald Trump at a rally, the panel said on Wednesday.

WHY IT IS IMPORTANT

Security at the Republican presidential candidate’s rally in Pennsylvania has been under scrutiny after the former president was shot on Saturday at the event. The FBI said it was probing the shooting as an assassination attempt.

The shooting has raised serious concerns about how the suspect was able to access a nearby rooftop with a direct line of sight to where Trump was speaking.

Trump has since said he was doing well and has appeared at the Republican National Convention this week but the shooting left his face streaked with blood after his right ear was hit. A rally attendee was killed in the shooting, two others were wounded and the suspect is dead.

KEY QUOTES

“Americans demand and deserve answers from Director Cheatle about the attempted assassination of President Trump and the Secret Service’s egregious failures,” the Republican-led House oversight panel said on Wednesday, adding Cheatle agreed to comply with a subpoena issued by the committee’s chair.

“The hearing will take place as scheduled on Monday, July 22,” the panel added.

CONTEXT

Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden, who will face Republican Trump in November’s election, said on Sunday he had ordered an independent review, and Republican lawmakers in Congress have also vowed swift investigations.

Cheatle said on Monday the Trump rally shooting was “unacceptable” and that she would not resign her post. Top Republicans in the U.S. Congress called on Wednesday for her to resign.

The Secret Service is responsible for protecting presidents and former presidents.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)