The Secret Service detail for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump are reportedly concerned they were given no advance notice about the tracking of the suspicious threat 25 minutes before the would-be assassination attempt July 13.
After Trump himself raised questions about why the Secret Service did not keep him from — or take him off — the stage with the shooter lining up a shot from under an estimated 150 yards, Trump's closest protectors and advisers are complaining about the lack of warning that should have been given as details continue to be revealed, sources told The Washington Post.
"As it relates to communications at the rally, the Secret Service is committed to better understanding what happened before, during, and after the assassination attempt of former President Trump to ensure that never happens again," Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement, responding to the Post's report. "That includes complete cooperation with Congress, the FBI, and other relevant investigations."
There were local countersnipers who labeled the eventual shooter suspicious, Pennsylvania state police Col. Christopher L. Paris told the House Homeland Security Committee this week.
That local detail relayed the "message verbally to the Secret Service" in the security command center but was told to send the message to a cell phone of the Secret Service's "tactical asset," according to Paris.
At the first of Trump's speeches Saturday in Nashville, Tennessee, the Secret Service told Trump to delay as they made certain of the security at the Bitcoin2024 conference.
"Hello, bitcoiners. Thank you very much. Hello, it's good to be with you," Trump lightheartedly said at the outset of a speech that aired live and in its entirety on Newsmax and the free Newsmax2 streaming platform.
"So Secret Service just told me, 'Sir, we would like a little more time.' I said, 'You take all the time you want. You can take two hours, three hours; the hell with the people that have been waiting out here.'
"I'm sure they don't mind either."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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