Many questions remain unanswered in the wake of the failed assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. One of those questions is whether some on the security team at the Trump rally on Saturday were actually U.S. Secret Service agents.
Along with that report, the director of the Secret Service is coming under fire from several Republican senators. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee) and Sen. John Barrasso (Montana) are demanding the firing of Director Kimberly Cheatle after she refused to answer questions during a confrontation at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week.
Ken Valentine served 24 years with the Secret Service, including 10 years with the Presidential Protection detail. He says the reactive part of what happened that day was truly heroic.
"The men and women who protect President Trump … reacted quickly. They covered the former president and they got him down under cover. That's the name of the game when you're reacting," he tells AFN. "They did it fast; they did it very well. I believe [they did it] heroically because bullets were still in the air – and then they evacuated."
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"At the end of the day, the Secret Service is responsible. The security plan [for the Trump rally] was drawn up and everyone agreed to it, but you still have to take ownership for that – and if it doesn't go well, then it's on you. "That's something that Secret Service lives with day in and day out. I did it for 24 years and [July 13] was no exception …. You have to step up and address those issues and then let the investigation play out. But there's going to be issues and corrections and probably some heads rolling." Ken Valentine |
But Valentine, who retired in 2020, says the prevention aspect of their mission clearly did not work.
"It's difficult not to use the word 'failure' when your protectee – the person who you've been given the mission and the privilege and the responsibility of protecting – leaves the stage bleeding from a gunshot wound," he states.
As for the future of Cheatle, Valentine points out the USSS director is a political appointee.
"That's the nature of the business – and so I think the politicians are going to call for her to step down or to be removed; and I think they've got every right to ask for that," he argues. "My question really is about priorities and what I see in the Secret Service are some failures that need to be addressed."
Another GOP senator – Josh Hawley of Missouri – has written a letter to the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the USSS, seeking a response to whistleblower allegations that the security team assigned that day to protect Trump were, in fact, "HSI* agents [who] were unfamiliar with standard protocols typically used at these types of events."
Among those standard security protocols reportedly not followed in Butler, PA, were: the use of canines and magnetometers to monitor and detect threats; proper designation for individuals who were able to gain access to backstage areas; sufficient time spent to physically survey the rally site beforehand; and appropriate stationing of agents around the podium where Trump stood to deliver his speech.
No lack of conspiracy theories
Unsurprisingly, conspiracy theories have sprung up surrounding the assassination attempt of Donald Trump. For example: Was there a second shooter in a nearby water tower taking aim at the former president? Was an FBI field officer in the stands behind the president giving would-be assassin Thomas Crooks directions? Why did the Secret Service not keep Trump off the stage when they had eyes on a suspicious character? Did Crooks have an offshore bank account at the same time Iran had threatened to assassinate Donald Trump?
U.S. Congressman Mike Waltz (R-Florida) is alleging that last one, pointing out that in fact Crooks had three offshore accounts. Pentagon analyst Col. (ret) Bob Maginnis contends that's highly unusual for a 20-year-old individual.
"I can certainly believe that there are many overseas entities that would like to have a conduit in the United States to employ for the purpose of doing nefarious activities that might include assassination of political leaders," he states.
Why wasn't the roof where Crooks set up guarded? "What I've heard is that the local police apparently confronted the shooter who was on the building and backed down – which doesn't really make a lot of sense," says Maginnis.
And as Senator Josh Hawley asked: Why were most of the majority of agents at the rally Homeland Security Investigators rather than more highly trained Secret Service personnel?
Maginnis suggests that may have been "a tactical planning error of a certain magnitude" that he suspects could result in a "pass-the-buck sort of environment."
And he wouldn't go so far as to suggest it was an inside job. "There's no question that they've been biased in the application of our laws to favor … their own ilk. However, is that possible? I would like to believe not," Maginnis concludes.
* Homeland Security Investigations, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Editor's note: Ken Valentine is a professed Christian and author of "Cheating Death: Three-Time Presidential Secret Service Agent Lives to Tell You How."
Sidebar and Maginnis comments added after story was originally posted.
