‘Preventable’ mistakes led to first Trump assassination attempt: House report

The House bipartisan task force investigating the assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump released a report Monday revealing “stunning” and “preventable” security failures that took place ahead of the July 13 rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania.

The report details the lack of coordination, communication, and planning at “several pivotal moments” between the U.S. Secret Service and local law enforcement prior to the rally, as well as the security risks that were overlooked. As a result, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to fire shots at the former president from an exposed rooftop positioned just 150 yards from the rally stage, killing an attendee and injuring two others.

‘There were security failures on multiple fronts.’

“Put simply, the evidence obtained by the Task Force to date shows the tragic and shocking events of July 13 were preventable and should not have happened,” the report reads.

The report reiterated the Secret Service’s negligence leading up to the rally, confirming that there was no joint meeting between the federal, state, and local agencies to coordinate security the day of the event. The task force also found that the agency identified several security risks outside the perimeter but failed to actually secure them.

As a result of these failures, Crooks was spotted by multiple attendees, flagged as suspicious by Secret Service agents, and identified by a local counter-sniper over an hour before he fired shots at Trump.

“In the days leading up to the rally, it was not a single mistake that allowed Crooks to outmaneuver one of our country’s most elite group of security professionals,” Chairman Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) said in the report. “There were security failures on multiple fronts.”

Then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testified before Congress on July 22, less than two weeks after the assassination attempt in Butler, receiving bipartisan scrutiny from lawmakers. The day after her evasive testimony, Cheatle resigned from her post.

Just two months after the Butler rally shooting, Trump survived a second assassination attempt.

58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh was apprehended on Sept. 24 after a Secret Service agent allegedly spotted his rifle and scope poking out of the bushes at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Routh was later charged with attempting to assassinate Trump.

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