US Secret Service faces scrutiny

The US Secret Service was under intense scrutiny yesterday after a gunman managed to evade its agents and open fire on former president Donald Trump at a political rally, with Republican leaders vowing swift investigations and President Joe Biden calling for an independent review.
The gunman, a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man, injured Trump and killed a rally attendee from a rooftop perch around 140m from the stage where the former president was speaking in Butler, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, officials said.
Trump, 78, who like other former presidents has lifetime protection by the Secret Service, was swarmed by agents who then rushed him away. Agents killed the shooter, identified by the FBI as Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, and an AR-15-style semiautomatic was recovered near his body, officials said.
Trump says a bullet hit his upper right ear but that he is otherwise doing well and would travel to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he will receive his party’s presidential nomination.
Mike Johnson, speaker of the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives, said panels in the chamber will call officials from the Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI for hearings.
“The American people deserve to know the truth,” Johnson said.
The House oversight panel called Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify on July 22.
The Secret Service, tasked with protecting current and former presidents, is part of the Department of Homeland Security. The department’s Office of the Inspector General is responsible for conducting oversight of Secret Service operations.
A spokesman for the inspector general’s office did not respond to questions about whether it would launch its own inquiry. The FBI said in a statement following the shooting that it would be the lead federal law enforcement agency in the investigation into the shooting.
In a statement, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the agency had “added protective resources (and) technology (and) capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo.”
Guglielmi denied accusations that the agency had rebuffed requests for more security resources from Trump’s team.
In televised remarks, Biden, 81, said that Trump, as a former president who is the Republicans’ nominee for president in the November 5 election, already receives a heightened level of security.
“I’ve been consistent in my direction of the Secret Service to provide him with every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure his continued safety,” Biden, a Democrat, said.
Yesterday, Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres said that he and Republican Congressman Mike Lawler are planning to introduce a bill that would call for enhanced security for all presidential candidates.
Paul Eckloff, a former Secret Service agent who retired in 2020, said agents would have surveyed all the rooftops with a line of sight ahead of time.


Shocked Melania decries ‘monster’

Former first lady Melania Trump said yesterday that a gunman who opened fire at a Donald Trump rally was a “monster,” as she condemned the assassination attempt in which the Republican presidential candidate was injured. “A monster who recognised my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to ring out Donald’s passion — his laughter, ingenuity, love of music, and inspiration,” Melania said in a statement shared on X.
“When I watched that violent bullet strike my husband, Donald, I realised my life, and Barron’s life, were on the brink of devastating change,” she said, referencing to the couple’s 18-year-old son.
“I am grateful to the brave secret service agents and law enforcement officials who risked their own lives to protect my husband,” Melenia said.
Melania said she offered her “sincerest sympathy” to the families of the victims, saying: “Your need to summon your inner strength for such a terrible reason saddens me.” Melania, 54, has barely engaged with her husband’s White House campaign, failing to appear at a single Trump rally and rarely joins him in public. She has also remained largely absent during the former president’s multiple court appearances in recent months to fight legal cases against him and as he cranks up his 2024 election campaign.


Crooks: the suspected rally shooter

The FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania as the suspect in the attempted assassination of former US president Donald Trump at a campaign rally.
The suspect was shot and killed by the Secret Service seconds after he allegedly fired shots toward a stage where Trump was speaking on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania. The suspected gunman was acting alone and used an AR-style rifle purchased legally to shoot at the former president, FBI officials said yesterday, adding that they had no indications of any mental health issues with the suspect.
The FBI officials, in a call with reporters, said the investigation was at an early stage and that they had not yet identified an ideology associated with the suspect. They said finding the motive behind the shooting was one of their priorities.
The gun used in the attempted assassination was an “AR-style 556 rifle” that was purchased legally, FBI Special Agent Kevin Rojek told reporters yesterday. Authorities believe the semi-automatic weapon was bought by the shooter’s father, but do not yet know how he accessed the weapon or whether he took it without his father’s knowledge, the FBI said.
One rally attendee died and two other spectators were critically injured. State voter records show that Crooks was a registered Republican. The upcoming November 5 election in which Trump is challenging President Joe Biden would have been the first time Crooks had been old enough to vote in a presidential race.
When Crooks was 17, he made a $15 donation to ActBlue, a political action committee that raises money for left-leaning and Democratic politicians, according to a 2021 Federal Election Commission filing. The donation was earmarked for the Progressive Turnout Project, a national group that rallies Democrats to vote. The groups did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, 53, told CNN that he was trying to figure out what happened and would wait until he spoke to law enforcement before speaking about his son.
In Bethel Park, about an hour away from where the shooting occurred, the streets surrounding the Crooks’s home were blocked off by law enforcement authorities. Mary and Stanley Priselac were standing on the porch of their nearby brick ranch-style home, trying to process the events of the last day and the spotlight now on their typically quiet residential neighbourhood.
“Nothing happens on the street, everybody kind of minds their own business,” said Stanley Priselac, 72. “Everybody is kind of shocked, surprised, some dismay.”