Sunday, July 14, 2024, 2:35 PM
The US House of Representatives has summoned the head of the Secret Service and several FBI agents who were present at the Butler rally in Pennsylvania to testify to determine whether there was a security breach during the speech during which Donald Trump was injured by a gunman. A group of legislators, mainly from the Republican wing, has demanded the creation of a commission of inquiry into the shock caused by the fact that a young man armed with a rifle managed to overcome security, climb onto a roof and shoot the former president less than 400 metres from the security cordon.
There is one fact that is certainly revealing. A witness has recounted how he and his companions saw perfectly the movements of the aggressor and how he climbed onto the roof of a shed located about thirty meters from where they were. “We noticed the guy crawling, like a bear, on the roof of the building next to us,” he described to ‘The Telegraph’. According to his version, the individual could be seen “clearly with a rifle” and they pointed at him with their hands for “two or three minutes” while alerting some policemen stationed at the entrance to the rally grounds.
“We said, ‘Hey, man, there’s a guy on the roof with a rifle. ‘” One agent responded, “‘What? ‘” And again the witness replied, “‘Right here on the roof, we can see him from here. ‘” According to the witness, several Secret Service members looked at them and then turned their attention to the roof. Another witness said he saw sudden movements among the security forces snipers.
Moments later, the shots rang out. Weapons experts have calculated from the noise that the shooter, a 20-year-old from a town an hour’s drive from Butler, fired two rounds of gunfire. Between five and eight. The security forces’ snipers returned fire. “They blew his head off. They went up, made sure he was dead, dead, and that was the end of it,” says the first witness, who has assured that everything happened in “three or four minutes” during which he came to think: “Why is Trump still talking and they haven’t taken him off the stage?” The police investigation will now have to determine whether this account is consistent with the facts.
The sequence of the attack is being reviewed by federal agents on Sunday. They have collected numerous testimonies and also have a huge number of video recordings. A sequence showing an individual lying on a roof has been leaked to the media, but there is no confirmation that it was the shooter or a setup.
Hearing in the House
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced this morning that he has already reached out “to the Secret Service to request a briefing.” He has also called the director of the department, Kimberly Cheatle, to appear at a hearing. “My prayers are with President Trump and the victims of the assassination attempt at the Pennsylvania rally. I am grateful to the brave members of the Secret Service who risked their lives to protect President Trump and to the American patriots in the audience who helped others who were injured,” Comer said.
Several Republican leaders have expressed alarm at the apparent ease with which Trump became a target for a gunman. “How safe are our representatives, and even more so a president, who could have had his life taken in the middle of a public event with such ease?” one conservative senator asked online. But critical leaders have praised the Secret Service agents who threw themselves at Trump and shielded him from the bullets with their own bodies.
“The American people deserve to know the truth. We will have Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and other relevant DHS and FBI officials appear before our committees as soon as possible,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican. Kevin Rojek, head of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, which includes Butler, said the feds were currently “assessing” the events, but admitted that it was “surprising” that the gunman was even able to open fire on Trump.
Key questions include the three- or four-minute window of time the attacker allegedly had to aim and pull the trigger – according to public testimony – and how no security observer noticed his presence before the fatal moment. He was supposedly practically in the open and snipers had no trouble locating him as soon as the attack was unleashed.
Thomas Matthew Crooks is an enigma. No one knows what kind of preparation he had undertaken to carry out the attack, but he was skilled enough, or daring enough, to bypass the theoretical security of the rally with the domestic version of an assault rifle loaded on his back. Nor is his aim worthy of praise. The bullet he fired from hundreds of yards was aimed directly at the former president’s head. Trump was speaking at the time about one of his favorite topics, recurring in all his speeches, illegal immigration, and miraculously dodged the projectile by turning his face toward a panel covered in data next to his podium.
“My first thought was, ‘America is under attack,'” a Republican committeeman from Pennsylvania named Corey Check told The Washington Post. “I grabbed the hands of a couple of people I didn’t even know. We said the Lord’s Prayer.”
While the Secret Service ordered them to lie down, the supporters cried, screamed or stoically waited for the danger to pass. The authorities have shown their gratitude to the many attendees who, instead of fleeing the scene, did not hesitate to stay on the premises to help evacuate the children and the elderly.
blood on the shirt
Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said he turned around and saw a person behind him bleeding profusely. His shirt was stained with blood as he was treated. Another spectator in the bleachers behind the stage had a gunshot wound to the head.
Most of the audience focused on Trump as his bodyguards lifted him off the ground. Some immediately thought of a fatal outcome. “I thought I had just seen the president die in front of my eyes,” admitted young Eduardo Vargas. Then the Republican candidate raised his fist and asked his supporters: “Fight.” Nely Randall, a resident of Pennsylvania who declared herself a fervent Trump supporter, breathed a sigh of relief. “There’s my boy,” she exclaimed and raised her fist as well.
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