I have waited a few days before writing anything about the assassination attempt. Too much furor and too many bad guesses and conspiracy theories are flying around. Did the Secret Service fail? Well yeah. They had a very public failure to protect. I have always liked the USSS and worked with them often. I worked many protective service details in 30 years with the GOV, so I know the hardships, the risks and the work that goes in on those long hour high stress many movement details. The Service’s policy of zero tolerance for mistakes always impressed me. They have to succeed every day at numerous locations around the world with a variety of protectees and missions and are supposed to be the best in the world at this job.
Here are a few thoughts I put down about issues I have been thinking about after a 20-year-old untrained kid who smuggled a rifle in and beat all the security measures that day and missed killing President Trump by the mere turn of his head.
1. The press and social media will get most of the initial stories wrong. After any large event don’t believe what you are being shown is the actual truth- or even half-truths no matter what the media says. Half-baked halfwits get to say any damn thing they want- and are never held accountable for their errors. Case in point-the shooting happened on a Saturday afternoon-a worldwide news story. On Sunday morning MSN was still showing the headline “Former President Startled by Loud Noise.” Abject morons. Story of the year and 16 or so hours later they did not bother to rewrite their initial tag line. Some of the best coverage I saw was from the BBC- always surprising to me they are more trustworthy and less biased than American TV. (They were the network featuring the redhead redneck holding a beer while being interviewed about seeing the shooter on the roof. Next week he may be on local Channel 6 describing what the tornado sounded like or what the UFO people did to him.)
2. Talking heads are worthless. They are filling live TV time with their limited opinions and the anchorpeople nod their heads like they are listening to the Oracle of Delphi. I need to get one of those jobs talking shit from my den about stuff I don’t know anything about. Better than an inaccurate weatherman who never gets held accountable either. I saw a former assistant undersecretary to some DC agency pontificating at length about how Secret Service works. Seriously? If you never stood around guarding a dignitary and risking your life for others, then STFU.
3. Any idiot with a TV and a keyboard can post asinine ideas, conspiracy theories and completely bent ideas-another case in point, look at me typing away about my thoughts on it! Realize some absolute crap is being made up and published and treated like it is real. Did you see any of the BS posted about how the sniper watched they assassin for minutes prior to the elimination shot? Keyboard commandos pretending to have inside info said the sniper could not get the Green Light to shoot the guy from command post. It’s all made up- looks real, but it just isn’t true.
Another post on FB claims to be from the Counter Sniper himself airing his frustration and how he got fired for shooting without permission. Get this. Every Secret Service Agent is a federal agent and is fully authorized to use deadly force to save lives, just like any other policeman in America. They don’t have to get a Green Light from anybody, and if you count the seconds from first shot to last it is scant seconds. Counter Sniper made a fabulous shot through the bad guy’s left eye in about 5 seconds after he opened fire. Federal Agents and more to the point, the newly minted most famous Secret Service Counter Sniper is not airing grievances on Facebook.
All the woulda and coulda and “why didn’t he”, or “why didn’t they”, are issues for real investigations not Hot Pocket Munchers up too late on the Internet- and certainly not tried in the court of talking head TV. Every policeman and agent at every event is there to protect the dignitary and the public and put their own life at risk to do so. USSS in particular have it as a core function of their job. If you have a job or ever had a job…or would someday like to have a job, you might be serious about it- but not like this job. It’s about protecting the life of the president, past presidents, VP, first lady and their families. They are serious 24/7.
4. Speaking of which, did you hear the one about how some local cop climbed the ladder, saw the bad guy with the rifle then retreated? Look this is social media sensation created, had no names, photos or witnesses to attribute it to. Facebook crap, posted and left to fester by trolls. Again, you can believe me on this, any lawman assigned to protect the former president would have blown that kid out of his cheap tennis shoes if he so much as laid eyes on him. Gunning a bad guy with a rifle at a rally would require a couple of muscles and very little mental processing.
5. The Counter Sniper should have done something different. Take your pick of internet expert ideas. (Thank God the former internet Chairborne Commandos can quit saying how to win in Ukraine and can focus on something else they no nothing about.) Here we are a few days later and learn the angle of the sniper perch vs the bad guy roof may have impeded line of sight. Yes, that can happen. It’s the real world- it doesn’t always go your way. You and I weren’t there and saying what he and the spotter should have seen- just doesn’t take in all the factors in play which we are not privy too. (And now that the FBI has claimed “Domestic Terrorism” they will shut the lid on the details the case will run for years and very little will leak out. BTDT.)
Protective Service is a gamble, every time you run one-hopefully making it too hard to come take a shot. That Counter Sniper Team engaged and eliminated a shooter in scant seconds- heroes. Shot of a lifetime by some of the best snipers in the world. You or I could not qualify for the job I don’t care if you can hit a 200-yard bullseye. They are all prior Tier One military agency professionals who pick up a second career with the Secret Service…and they deploy daily or weekly working to prevent the very bad day we hope never comes true. Heros.
6. The bad guy was a bad shot. He did not make the high school rifle team, his gun was crap, etc etc. The sonofabitch came within 2 inches of changing world history and would have made the head shot if Trump had not turned his head at that moment. Miracle. The shots were hurried, and still killed one spectator and wounded two people besides Trump, but he almost pulled it off. I saw a blurry zoomed picture of the rifle on the rooftop. Seemed to have a small optic on it. A 5.56 or .223 is very accurate and within the 130-50 meters the press is claiming, it could have worked. With a sighted in rifle that should have been a chip shot. We will never know why he missed or if his lack of ability, excitement, humidity or down slope angle contributed…but he was not a bad shot. He beat the security posture and sent deadly rounds down range. Good he didn’t try center mass, or maybe he did. We will never know, but we all know he came within an ears width of murdering the former president.
7. I listen to insiders during these big events. Dan Bongino is a radio host who is a former Secret Service Agent. He had a lot to say on Monday following the shooting, and he was very critical of the Service. He has been on the ground working details and is still in contact with agents on the job and the information he says he received was disturbing at best. I worked with the Secret Service many times and always enjoyed the agents and their mission in my 30 years with the Fed, so I would cut them some slack, but the former agent/talk show guy does not. Listening to the long list of information he said he got from other agents, it struck me how agencies certainly do change over time, and post-Obama era politics has gotten so deeply imbedded in the entire government like never before. Word that the agents assigned to the Trump detail have been having problems getting support help for the former president who also just happens to be current candidate for next president is stunning. Apparently, more assets have been diverted over to First Lady Jill Biden away from the Trump detail. Is it politics which created some of this shooting scenario? Lack of assets on the ground…and in the sky. Where was the plan for any aerial coverage? Did not have to be a helo. Could just be a drone-any school kid can fly one. RFK Jr has been complaining for months he can’t get Secret Service protection and he is a candidate for president. Yesterday he got protection.
8. I liked the Russian comment-they said they did not believe the White House sponsored this assassination attempt, but they certainly fostered an environment conducive and supportive of anything-goes to eliminate Trump. Kind of like they want to Prosecute Trump for creating the condition to commit Treason or Tearing off Mattress Tags to incite INSURRECTION on Jan 6th.
Continued persecution and prosecution against this political opponent have been non-stop during the Biden administrations era of failed policies. As of late they have also been shouting from the rooftops and in every media sound byte “If Trump wins it will be the end of democracy as we know it” …and Biden said something to the effect five days ago how Trump should be put in the” bullseye.” Enough is too much. The Dems have had the Hate Express going on for too long and it has come back to them and to us. Constitutional note: if you have a failed administration voted out of office…that is the very definition of democracy, not the end of democracy. Just the end of your party control.
9. The Secret Service has suffered huge losses of face in the last year, from not being able to figure out who left bag of cocaine in the White House, to a female agent attacking a supervisor and then having a DEI appointed Director more worried about pronouns and minority quotas than protection. She grew up in the Service, then was head of security for Pepsi and then came back to the GOV as Director of USSS. One news story said she waived a female agent trainees’ failure at basic school to separate innocents and gunmen training to ensure female hiring quotas were not impacted. Did it happen? I don’t personally know, but I have seen similar in my time with the government plenty of times. Congress is apparently enraged by this security failure and is calling the Director to testify ASAP, and many are calling for her head. Your whole agency is dedicated to protection, and in this case the assassination was not prevented by anything your people did on the ground that day. There are Leaders and there are Managers. Time to resign or wait to be fired.
10. The Secret Service made the situation worse by letting out an announcement stating local officers should have found the shooter or prevented the shooter from acting. This went viral this week, and the Fraternal Order of Police blasted back in their own press release about how unfair such a thing was to say and especially so during a campaign election season. Any public event staffed by Secret Service presence has state and local police in huge manpower supporting roles and the FOP said the USSS was going to need cooperation for the campaign season but may not get it if the USSS could not be trusted. Any Secret Service agent will freely admit they could not pull off protection details without heavy cooperation and support from local police. Why let your PR person try to blame shift in public? Those words hurt.
11. Oh, and speaking of more bad PR, apparently the Director of the Service today said the reason they did not have anyone on the shooter’s roof was it was sloped, and no one would want to be on that sloped kind of roof…. yeah, just like 99% of every other roof in the world, and a whole lot like the sloped roof the Counter Sniper team sat on. Who said better to say nothing and be thought a fool instead of opening your mouth and confirming it? The Service needs to stop talking to the media and take their lumps with Congress.
12. Lastly, the female agents on the detail are getting heat. I was very impressed with the agent with her hair up in a bun. She was right in the scrum on stage. Bent her arm up in the air to add additional coverage because she was short and got under Trump’s armpit walking him off. Her sister agent is getting lambasted all over the internet. You know the one who could not get her gun back in the holster four times in a row, so she just kept it out a while longer. Not great gun handling at best. On the other hand, being more fair, she was having the worst work day of her life and I am pretty sure from the expression on her face her blood pressure was maxed out and fine motor skills go to shit with that much BP and stress going on. Some keyboard experts pointed out the many short female agents were so much shorter than the 6’3” Trump he was still at risk being moved by short people! Funny. At the RNC Convention today he had tall agents. Maybe the internet is good for something after all.
Thoughts on the Attempted Assassination
ByMichael Keleher
Jul 16, 2024
22 thoughts on “Thoughts on the Attempted Assassination”
Comments are closed.
“According to CBS News, the Secret Service’s rate of departure was 48% in 2022. This high turnover rate may result in part from the long hours and stressful work conditions that have plagued the agency for years. The Washington Post reported that, in 2015, the Secret Service ranked last among federal law enforcement agencies in the influential “Best Places to Work in the Federal Government,” published by the Partnership for Public Service.”
Prolly one of those jobs you couldn’t “work from home.”
THE 48% TURNOVER RATE MAY BE MISLEADING. My Concealed Carry instructor was ex-USSS/current Illinois State Police. .. told us you sign on for a 2-yr stint with the USSS. That would put the turnover rate @ 50% per yr assuming everyone completes the 2 yrs. So, 48% is right there. And yes, he said it was very stressful. But JC people! you are guarding some of the biggest names on Earth! What else would you expect? It’s kinda like they say: FIGURES DON’T LIE, BUT LIARS SURE DO KNOW HOW TO FIGURE! A story like that makes for a GREAT NEWS STORY THAT SELLS! And for the news person, you gotta sell or you don’t eat! And oh yeah, Michael, haven’t you heard? CBS ain’t so much NEWS as it is “FAKE NEWS”! And the WASHINGTON POST IS RIGHT THERE WITH IT! Some might say you are a few yrs behind the times to even mention these 2 clown outlets as news. Trump, among others, has been talkin’ ’bout it for like nine years! JC! We have met the enemy & it is us!
Stan I spent 30 years with the GOV as a U.S. Special Agent and never heard of any contractors with the USSS. Special Agents and Uniform Division are all career federal employees. It is a grueling job, especially during election years.
You are dead right on CBS and WP. Years back I listened to G. Gordon Liddy on the radio and he cracked me up saying back in D.C. they said CNN stood for “Certainly Not the News!”
Michael, .. appreciate the comeback. Yep. Washington Compost as Mark Levin calls it; and Clinton News Network or Communist News Network. .. big fan of GG Liddy. The man paid a huge price for doing what was considered by many to be an attempt to solve a legitimate national security problem. And that was to find out who the mole was within Nixon’s inner circle that was leaking national security secrets. But the liberal democrats wanted Nixon (or any Republican for that matter) hung even if it meant national security be damned, or @ least that’s how it was explained to me by my graduate-level public administration prof. So, I guess I learn something new every day: my ISP instructor said he’d worked USSS under a 2-yr contract. Now you are saying that is not how it works. .. prbly gonna be a li’l more cautious on expressing my opinions going forward. Life’s a learning experience. Thanks.
But I gotta ask, is it realistic to think that even the US Congress, let alone “We the People,” will get much of the story on what happened that allowed some punk to shoot four (including the probable 47th president of the US) while killing one in Butler, PA last Saturday? Sure, I could see that Director Cheatle may be put out to dry, but won’t the SS/FBI/DOJ hide most of the facts from just about everyone? Isn’t it more realistic to figure that the true security failures will be hidden forever? It would seem to me that unless you have actual on-the-ground agents willing to sacrifice their careers & risk criminal prosecution in outing those responsible, the top brass will never allow ANYONE outside their sphere to learn what went down, 07 13 24.
Big…strong…physically capable…athletic…intelligent…experienced…cool under fire…MEN! is what is needed in law enforcement. It is NOT lady’s work. There is a reason they call it MAN HANDLEING. When you put a smaller, weaker, less physically capable, less athletic, not cool under fire person to do a job that takes everything you don’t have you are needlessly compromising the entire mission. .. simple as that. And yeah, all these wannabes will put USSS on their resume. .. will simply leave out that they were INCAPABLE of doing the job.
But the question remains: if the counter-snipers were able to neutralize the threat AFTER 3 people had been wounded & 1 killed, why didn’t they neutralize the threat BEFORE? We’ve all seen the video. .. looked like the 2 counter-snipers had the snotty-nosed kid in their sights all along, yet allowed him to kill & wound before engaging. .. bad look for the whole bunch!
Have to agree. Anyone who has watched episodes of Cops where female cops have to physically engage with perps has seen how generally incapable they are when it comes to that. It gets to the point of endangering the lives of their fellow officers.
In the first paragraph, did you mean to write “they had a very public figure to protect?”
I read, or heard, that the cop was hoisted up to look on the roof, rather than climbing a ladder. If true, that would have made it hard, or not possible, for him to access his gun. But then if true, why didn’t he just use the ladder that the shooter used?
You mentioned he killed two people. Did another one die?
Say what you will about the women agents, they just did not exude confidence in their capabilities.
I was in error- the shooter hit Trump, killed one spectator and wounded two others out of 8 bullets fired.
Today heard they confirmed a policeman was boosted up to the roof and was hanging by his fingertips and looked at the bad guy who pointed rifle at him so the policeman rightly dropped out of line of sight….and they locals were all over the radio and text messages to warn everyone. All the info rolling in today made me shake my head at the size of this screw up. Saw the Director ambushed by Senators at the RNC along with a camera man just drilling her with questions she would not comment on- U.S. Senators. Pretty sure Congress has contacted a taxidermist to stuff and mount her carcass…
An item #6 thought: Considering the inexperience of the shooter, did the wind also play a part in the outcome equation? (I’ve repressed my other item thoughts for now – too wordy.)
could make carpenter levels mandatory to preclude injury, & grab-bars
Have wondered and heard questions concerning aerial surveillance, as in drones, not being utilized. Drones are used everywhere, are getting to be reasonable in cost even in this “Biden-flation” economy and with the GPS positioning systems are relatively simple to operate and monitor for just the kind of surveillance required for this situation. Female agents could be utilized for this type of surveillance, easily.
The shooter would have been 10 or 11 years old while the propaganda spread by the Marxist-democRATS started demonizing and denigrating Trump and would have been brought up to believe all the hatred inflicted towards President Trump and anyone that supported Trump’s agenda and the “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” movement, the shooter is now a “martyr” and “hero” to those very Marxist-democRATS and their hateful followers.
Pray for America and thank the good Lord for Trump’s “turn of the head” that saved his life, by wanting to display to those assembled, the massive border invasion statistics chart.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Photo of “shooter” is a look-alike for Adam Lanza of Sandy Hook fame! What are the odds; nature or nurture???
Whoo- saw about four major news stories break today showing the Secret Service Director lied about the now famous too dangerous roof “slope”, about blaming the locals for that area of protection (they pushed back and said Nope. Not our responsibility.), finding out there was supposed to be a Counter Sniper team on that roof supplied by local LE and the SS never checked on it, reports LE saw the shooter acting strange an hour ahead of the program and using a laser range finder, then more reports one of two local CS teams took the first shot at bad guy and then one of the SS CS teams made the headshot- and BTW the picture and video attributed to that USSS sniper team, is the wrong team! They had two teams deployed and the other team took the shot. Then about supper time FOX News had the news the Agent in Charge of the Detail knew they had a threat on the grounds and let Trump walk out any way- contrary to all protocol and the SAC was actually talking to state and local police on the phone about the shooter on the roof when he started shooting!
…and just hours ago the Director said she would not resign. Git. Maybe claim you came down with Covid too.
Agreed, Michael, too many “different” stories, like “someone” is trying to cover their rear end, or, …. place blame for inadequacy on anyone or everyone else. “Too steep a slope” my hairy, white well endowed rear end!!! That slope is less than “handicap standards” (10% or 1″ in 10″) for handicap carts or walking. The “director” is pathetic and needs to be replaced, Jill Bribe-in’s “DEI” hire, definitely, the Bribe-im administration is disgusting!!
Pray for America!!!
It’s not just SS. Check-out KTLA’s recent investigation into LAX’s drug smuggling gateway of the world investigation and learn why – 5 – different governmental agencies policing LAX are not responsible for policing the problem. Is this JUST LAX or likely includes every U.S. airport? Too much federal “compartmentalization” at work? Again we ask, “are there any adults left in our future?”
Have “heard/read” that Jill Bribe-em was to be “in the (same) area” and SS staff was pulled from Trump’s rally and “replaced” with “bodies” from less qualified Dept. of homeland security (a-la A. Mayorkas) that “over-sees” the SS.
This whole “attempted assassination” was the “perfect storm”, not necessarily instigated by the “deep state”, but “allowed” by mismanagement, ineptness, or just plain stupidity and will be covered up by the best gaslighting the democRATS can perpetrate with their evil intents.
The only thing that “went wrong”, according to the hard-core TDS afflicted, was that by God’s dear grace, President Trump turned his head at the perfect moment that saved his life, …..this time.
What is sooo ironic, Trump turned his head to focus on a chart to present to the crowd about the “illegal invasion” graph as perpetrated by the Bribe-em Administration!
Pray for America and the “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” movement! America will not survive another term of the Marxist-democRATS and their agenda!!
Immediately after the attempt, I went to Google Earth, and kept comparing the images until I finally had the entire thing in perspective. They are calling the protection perimeter around Trump the Pacman …as it is a circle, with the mouth of pacman cut out of the place where the assassin was. So I am staring at this with no info on the screen or written down anywhere…. and my 9 year old grandson, who has some experience with guns and hunting, walked up. looked over my shoulder at the Google Map.
He pointed to the precise spot that 20 yr old was lying, and said “poppop…if I was gonna do that I would be right THERE…” putting his finger right where the kid was. Then he said …( a 9 year old kid , mind you)….or I would be up there on that water tower.
A 9 year old kid knew where assassins would be. And the USSS DIDN’T? If my grandson had been in charge, that roof top would NOT have had anyone one it. The water tower would have been secured. It was my grandson that made me look closely at that water tower. It sure SEEMS to have someone up there. When I look using Goolgle earth, that shadow, or whatever it was is not there. So what was it?
RE: females doing Extreme Bodyguarding. My favorite pic of those impotent, ineffective females was the one hiding behind Trump. She is using Trump as a shield against incoming bullets. Ducked WAY down. Somehow she missed the entire purpose of her employment. YOUR body between the incoming bullets ( if any) and the protectee. LMFAO!!!! She was hiding behind the Protectee, using HIM as a shield from incoming bullets.
God help us. I don’t know how many were female, but it looked like at least 4. The one hiding had her hair in a bun. Then there were 3 I saw at the limousine with ponytails.
And let’s not discount the fact that SS agents wear “body armor” of some sort as added protection from incoming rounds, the very reason for them to put their bodies between incoming rounds and the protected.
I loved my mother, and love my sisters but folks, there is NO PLACE for women in (1) protecting the president, (2) the military, (3) law enforcement, (4) firefighting.
NO PLACE. Yes, support staff, secretaries, etc.
I’m no old guy. I’ve had female bosses, instructors, colleagues and classmates my entire life. The glass ceiling was shattered long before my career ever started, but these women must be CULLED from these jobs.
Or the next one will succeed.