Attempted Trump Assassination
BY Herschel Smith
5 months, 1 week ago
What a mess, but a lot of things learned in the process.
First of all, the SS is utterly incompetent – or intentionally and willfully negiligent.
this BBC interview with a guy outside the security perimeter who claims he saw the shooter before he fired is absolutely wild pic.twitter.com/vJpKZTxSAe
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) July 13, 2024
This BBC reporter is blind, and out-reported anyone in the U.S. media on the event. Here is a similar account.
Another eye witness says that he told law officers there was a man on the roof climbing between multiple rooftops and they did absolutely nothing to stop him until it was too late! WTF!
We need an investigation into the Trump assassination attempt immediately!“I saw a guy on… pic.twitter.com/qAvDFJpwoy
— Green Lives Matter (@Ultrafrog17) July 14, 2024
So it’s obvious that there was adequate indication that something bad was going wrong. But it gets worse.
A local police officer saw the gunman on the rooftop during former President Donald Trump’s Pennsylvania rally on Saturday but was unable to engage him, Butler County Sheriff Michael T. Slupe told CNN’s Pamela Brown on Sunday.
Slupe said that Butler Township officers received calls about a suspicious person outside the perimeter of the rally and went looking to find that person. The initial calls did not indicate the suspicious person had a gun, he said.
During the search for the suspicious person, officers with township police discovered that the gunman was on the roof, and one local officer hoisted another to get up to the ledge. The shooter turned around, saw the officer peering over and pointed his gun at him. The officer let go of the ledge to “take cover” and save his own life.
The title of that report was “Local officer tried to stop gunman on the roof but was unable to engage him.” Of course, that’s a lie. He didn’t try to engage the shooter, he took cover like all cowards do. Why does a man like that even have the job of police officer?
Next up, the SS has said they knew there was a shooter on the roof but couldn’t engage him.
Here’s my reporting on why the Secret Service did not shoot until AFTER the shooter engaged and some context about the House Republicans’ investigation already underway (months before Trump’s assassination attempt) into whether the agency’s DEI policies are affecting its…
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) July 14, 2024
For the record, I don’t believe that, but they know that they must do something to answer the obvious question “If the counter sniper was able to engage the shooter so quickly, why wasn’t he able to see the shooter before he started shooting?” And the answer is yes he was able to, and he didn’t, and their excuse is ROE.
Again, I think that’s a lie. I don’t think the SS has to wait on anything at all to protect the president or presidential candidates. Prove me wrong.
UPDATE:
Just now saw a contrary report to the one linked above that said the cop who got to the top of the agricultural building climbed a ladder just like the shooter. If that’s true, there is no excuse for not engaging the shooter.
The SS agents can’t even reholster their weapons.
Absolute humiliation for this gaggle of female Secret Service Agents.
Look at the disorder:
– Can’t holster weapons
– Gear falling to the ground
– Erratic, fearful movements
– No show of force, composureDEI Secret Service make Presidents LESS Safepic.twitter.com/o6HcHzxEUw
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 14, 2024
Finally, we’re being lampooned around the world.
Finally, I’ll point out that the guys at reddit/Firearms did the ballistics work. The local airport showed wind to be at 8 MPH. At 130 yards, the drift at that distance would have been 1.4 inches. If the shooter had brought a Kestrel and knew how to use it (as well as mounted a relatively cheap optic rather than used iron sights) and used a holdoff of about 1.5 MOA, Trump would be dead now.
This is a failure of epic proportions.
I still want to know what equipment the counter sniper was using. I suspect a nice AR-10 in 6.5CM, Seekins Precision, DD or Barrett, with Night Force, Leupold or US Optics glass, mounted on a tripod.
Not that this matters to any great degree. I’m just interested.
UPDATE #2:
It appears that the SS is claiming that they were responsible for the inner security perimeter and the state police was responsible for everything outside the security perimeter. There were four sniper teams at the rally, two SS and two state police.
The Secret Service blamed local police for failing to secure the rooftop from which gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump, insisting it was outside of the perimeter the federal agency was tasked with protecting.
Instead, securing and patrolling the factory grounds of AGR International Inc. — located about 130 yards from the stage where Trump was speaking Saturday — was the responsibility of local Pennsylvania police, Secret Service representative Anthony Gugliemi said, according the New York Times.
The Secret Service was only tasked with covering the grounds where Trump’s rally took place, with local police being recruited to assist with those efforts and secure the area outside of the rally.
But neighbors living near Butler Farm Show Grounds told The Post they were never visited by any law enforcement agencies — local or federal — in the days before or during the rally.
You should fully expect the SS to testify that way before Congress. They will point the finger of blame at the state police, and the state police will point the finger of blame at the SS for failing to communicate rules of engagement sufficient to stop the threat.
On July 14, 2024 at 9:37 pm, PGF said:
I believe the counter sniper may have been PA State Police and not SS.
On July 14, 2024 at 9:56 pm, Herschel Smith said:
He was. See UPDATE #2. I had always claimed to those around me that those counter snipers who took out the shooter weren’t SS.
On July 15, 2024 at 4:26 am, Plague Monk said:
I* thought this article from Second City Cop was interesting, and infuriating:
http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/2024/07/this-is-fbi.html
As a result of some stupidity on my part several months ago, my ammo budget has dropped in order to pay my medical bills. Otherwise, I would be stocking up on various calibers…
On July 15, 2024 at 7:53 am, JoeFour said:
Excellent summary and commentary, Captain Smith! Thanks!
On July 15, 2024 at 8:26 am, dad29 said:
Another report indicates that there was only ONE ‘senior’ SS guy on that site; all the rest were “rentals” from other offices. Why? Because Trump’s team had been 7 days a week for quite some time and secured time off. The ‘senior’ will probably take the fall and the failure to secure the rooftop will be assigned to the local LEO’s.
And the FBI will bury the whole damn thing.
On July 15, 2024 at 10:07 am, 41mag said:
Look to past events the SS has held control over… 2016 rallys etc.
What was the perimeter then controlled by SS?
My guess is the SS had a much larger area under their control and this is all fake & gay posturing to avoid blame and loss of confidence.
On July 15, 2024 at 10:08 am, 41mag said:
For the record, the combined area controlled by both local & feds during Trumps 2016 rallys was MUCH larger based on eyewitness accounts of friends that attended.
On July 15, 2024 at 12:20 pm, JB said:
THE USSS BEARS ALL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE PROTECTING THE LIFE OF THE PRESIDENT. THEIR ABDICATION OF RESPONSIBILITY BY BLAMING LOCAL POLICE ONLY REINFORCES THEIR INCOMPETENCE.
REPORTS THAT THE USSS ROE REQUIRE THE COUNTER SNIPER RECIEVE APPROVAL FROM SUPERIORS TO ENGAGE THE SHOOTER IF TRUE, SOUNDS TO THE SAME AS THE ROE DICTATED TO THE MARINE SNIPERS AT ABBYGATE.
THE COMMON THREAD HERE IS THE COMMUNIST BIDEN REGIME.
YES IM SHOUTING. IM PISSED.
On July 15, 2024 at 12:46 pm, Georgiaboy said:
It is important to note that the pattern of behavior of the present regime and its supporters and enablers is to blame incompetence – or infirmity due to age, in Biden’s case – for “mistakes” which arguably were nothing of the kind, i.e., were acts of intent.
The communists have already declared war upon their opponents – traditional Americans – and are now using the Chi-Com playbook of “Unrestricted Warfare,” right in the open. Anything/everything which can be made into a weapon is being used as such. However, the regime needs to maintain, at least for now, some semblance of plausible deniability.
This is the reason they need ready-made rationalizations and excuses close at hand. Whether it is the competency crisis due to DEI or inter-agency screw-ups, or some other reason, in this way the illusion of normality can be maintained as long as the MSM propaganda machine continues to fool enough of the population with their smoke-and-mirrors and other magic tricks.
Writ large, this is all part-and-parcel of 5GW – fifth-generation warfare – also called information warfare. The focal point or in the original German, schwerpunkt, is control of the narrative.
One other point deserves mention. Back in 2014 or so, hidden in the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual package of legislation which funds the military and national defense for that fiscal year – was some language inserted by the Obama regime, legalizing heretofore prohibited types of domestic psychological warfare and information ops – including propaganda aimed at the American people.
In other words, prior to that time, it was illegal for the government to create or disseminate propaganda or other psychological warfare tools for use domestically, against the American public. As outlandish and amazing as it now seems, it is legal for units of the U.S. military to engage in psychological warfare and information ops against the very people who fund them, namely the American public. And that is precisely what is happening.
On July 15, 2024 at 1:11 pm, JB said:
Boys and Goils. We have been living living in a Cold Civil War. It began the moment Obama announced his candidacy for president. It just went Hot with the assassination attempt on Trump. Most of us have ample stores and plans in place. Its time to revist those plans and modify them as needed. I am reminded of the Marxist run cities that have decided to swear in illegals for law enforcement jobs and issue them weapons. Those illegals will be obedient to the Deep State and the traitor Myorkas. I really believe we are headed into Revolution War of 2025.
On July 15, 2024 at 5:03 pm, DaveK said:
So you think the LEO who got hoisted up, clung to the edge of a rooftop, and then let go and dropped to the ground was a coward???? You’d better get a grip, because all he would have accomplished by trying to bring a pistol to bear was to get shot. If you are clinging to the edge of a rooftop, you pretty well have to do it with both hands, and that means both “empty” hands. You think he’s going to be able to hold on with one hand, retrieve his pistol from its holster, and then make a carefully aimed shot at the perp? Yeah, there are possibly a handful of skilled rock-climbers who just MIGHT be able to pull something like that off, but to expect that of even the best of the LEOs is narrow-minded, petty, and in this case cruel.
So, no, the LEO wasn’t able to neutralize the shooter, but it is very likely he forced the shooter to rush his shots (they came immediately after the LEO dropped to the ground), and he may well be responsible that Trump survived the attack.
Your rush to judgement without knowing facts is, to put it mildly, unseemly.
On July 15, 2024 at 5:38 pm, Forbes said:
Secret Service pawning off security to others just means no one is in charge–no one is ultimately responsible. Any high ground vantage point must be secured–or obstacle screens put in place to deny visibility. Those screens should be used–if, as the SS indicates, the high ground was outside their task. Basic precautions were not taken.
On July 15, 2024 at 5:52 pm, Isolden said:
So, when they raided Trump’s home, they had a shoot to kill order.
But when they saw an assassin they could not shoot to kill?
The fix is in, boys.
On July 15, 2024 at 6:17 pm, MARK said:
I am not going to criticize a law enforcement officer who ducked when an AR-15 was pointed at him. They are not required to needlessly sacrifice their lives. They probably have wives and children. So that criticism is uncalled for.
But, the idea that the best firing position in the entire area was completely unsecured is damning to many levels.
Here is something I thought about. If I was thinking about assassinating someone (I am not), I would assume that if I crawled up on a rooftop within 200 yards of a protected person like Trump that I would not survive 10 seconds up there without some party of the protecting group blowing my fool head off.
On July 15, 2024 at 9:56 pm, TMLutas said:
The advance team coming through should have set the dividing lines on a local overhead map and gotten the locals to sign off on the demarcation lines and any overlap zones. If agreement on who is responsible for where is not standard practice, that’s awful.
On July 15, 2024 at 10:51 pm, john844 said:
OBVIOUSLY this was an inside [fbi/mossad/cia/secret service] job. Helen Keller can see that.
I firmly believe that they had two objectives here – one of course was to kill bad orange man. The other was to give them an easy way out of chairman xiden; they need rid of traitor joe in the worst way. After whacking the Donald, they would/will eliminate pedo joe, have it all set up to blame radical rightwing racist White Southern neo nazi antisemitic ‘homophobic’ Christian ultraMAGA gun owning MEN. Then of course, they will cancel elections due to ‘civil unrest’ and begin their planned elimination of not only the aforementioned ‘group{s}’ , but all civil liberties and the attendant wealth confiscation. If We don’t want to go along with all that and finally decide to get off our butts and do something, the invading armies that (((they))) have placed in the country will be activated and the fecal material will clog the air circulation device then…
On July 16, 2024 at 4:52 am, Nosmo said:
RE: Benny Johnson’s appraisal of SS incompetence –
“I don’t know what I should do so I’ll draw my gun…..if I can find it. And if I fumble the re-holster I’ll just look fierce and hang onto it and point it…wherever. Yeah, that’s the ticket.”
“Principal Protection 101: Watch the crowd. But I don’t trust my fellow agents to get the principal in the vehicle so I’ll keep swiveling my head to see what they’re doing instead of watching the crowd.”
“Sunglasses are a critical part of the uniform so I need to hang onto mine and put them back on as soon as possible.”
Unless I missed it in all the different videos, I didn’t see an RDS on any SS handguns. Interesting. I guess they don’t train that stuff at Beltsville, or Proficiency With The Dot is beyond the skill level.
On July 16, 2024 at 7:51 am, Longbow said:
“Why does a man like that even have the job of police officer?”
Because, of course, the Narcissistic little coward WANTS o wield power over his neighbors.
Go back and look at the video of the Boston Marathon “bombing”. Watch the reactions of the police in the immediate vicinity when the device functioned, compared to the actions of the National Guardsmen present that day.
The Guardsmen immediately one to work ripping apart the barricades and tending to the wounded. The cops looked around frantically panicked, not knowing what to do.
On July 16, 2024 at 8:37 am, george 1 said:
Later we will be treated to the FBI’s outline of the lone gunman crime description or something pretty close. Obviously there is no way that this particular kid planned and executed that attack by himself.
The other, now commonplace, situation in America is the demonstrated cowardice and frequently deadly incompetence of law enforcement.
On July 16, 2024 at 8:55 am, Herschel Smith said:
@DaveK,
To answer your question, yes, I think he was a coward.
While you may disengage at first, you duck your head, wait 10 seconds for the shooter to turn his attention away, and then reengage with your pistol. Otherwise, why are you a LEO? What purpose do you serve? At the very minimum you use comms to alert everyone in the area of the threat, including the SS and president’s detail.
We’ll have to wait on the detailed report, which will probably never come or be read by any of us, but why one simply climbs back down the ladder and doesn’t reengage at all is beyond me.
However, this should put an end to the claptrap about “protecting and serving.” When in in Fallujah, my son was under standing “Die in place” orders. So since LEOs aren’t really soldier boys after all, I propose we remove all military equipment and hardware and disband all SWAT teams since no LEO really has to put his family at risk after all according to you.
On July 17, 2024 at 8:45 pm, X said:
“The local airport showed wind to be at 8 MPH. At 130 yards, the drift at that distance would have been 1.4 inches. If the shooter had brought a Kestrel and knew how to use it (as well as mounted a relatively cheap optic rather than used iron sights) and used a holdoff of about 1.5 MOA, Trump would be dead now.”
You’re overthinking it, Hersch. First of all you’re assuming a full-value 8 mph wind, it may have been quarter or eight value from his vantage point.
Second, even if your wind assumption is correct, the difference is still small enough that if you hold hard you can stay within the eight inch or so width of a human head — assuming that he was actually aiming for the head, which he may not have been.
The kid was not a skilled marksman, AFAIK he was not using a sling, bipod, or mat, was on a metal roof, and, let’s fact it, it’s a high-stress shot — you’ve actually decided to kill the president, and you know that you will probably get seen and killed either just before before or shortly after you do it.
Frankly that’s a hell of a lot of mental stress, the fact that the shot was as close as it was to killing Trump under those circumstances instead of a wild miss is kind of incredible.