Post New

It got worse when the head of the Secret Service started talking. You can't make this up:

https://x.com/brithume/status/1813255524386816398?...

That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there's a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn't want to put somebody up on a sloped roof".

Goodness gracious. One needs only look at the photos of where the SS snipers where vs. where the shooter was:

https://x.com/C4CEO/status/1813241185206517851?ref...

Slopey vs. not slopey.

Geez.

Slopey vs. not slopey

No, just sloppy.

It gets even worse. The building the shooter crawled on top of? The Secret Service had a counter sniper team inside.

WTF?

Give it a week or so. We'll have a lot clearer picture then. The media is still pouncing on every little tidbit without really putting the pieces together.

As a side note, they are using the shooter's full three names. I got it from a movie, but it seems like whenever an assassin fails, they only use first/last name. When they are successful, they use the middle name, too.

The Secret Service had a counter sniper team inside.

My understanding is that was a local police sniper team. And they were inside because, unlike the Secret Service, they had a problem with safety on sloped roofs. There's also some claims that one of these buildings was being used as sort of a security headquarters for the event.

But there's inconsistencies with even that. What I heard is that this mystery sniper team was on the second floor of a building. The building that the shooter was on doesn't seem to have a second floor - or at least no second floor windows. But a building behind the shooter's building DOES have windows on a second floor. And those windows have a good view of the roof where the shooter set up.

So where was this sniper team? Better yet, where were all of the sniper locations? Publicly, we only know about one - the one on top of the building behind the stage.

The reality here is that this is a former President and a current Presidential candidate. While those people get secret service protection, they do not get the same number of assets that the sitting President gets. And it's probably an order of magnitude less.

Secret Service personnel are quite stretched at this moment in time. They're handling Biden's current needs. They're preparing for the convention in Milwaukee. I'm not sure if Trump had another rally planned after Butler and before the convention. If so, there's more personnel there. There's the advance planning for Chicago in a couple of weeks. There's simply a lot going on at the moment.

In aviation, there's the "swiss cheese" model of safety. It all starts with the premise that you know that people are human and mistakes will be made. There are holes in the cheese. You can't avoid that. So you have multiple layers of protection to maintain safety. You use multiple "slices of cheese" so that an error at one point has a good likelihood of being spotted and corrected at a different point. The holes in the swiss cheese don't line up. It's only when there are multiple failures that the holes do line up and something bad happens.

That's very likely what happened here. It's going to be multiple errors, multiple holes in the security plan that aligned and let a shooter get through. The Secret Service has a lot on their plate at this time. They always have to rely on local police for some part of the security plan. There needs to be clear and quick lines of communication between the different agencies (Secret Service, state police, and city or county police in this specific situation). There needs to be pre-event training - where different people and agencies will be, what their uniforms look like, who is responsible for what, who to contact in the different agencies. There needs to be communication of last minute changes - the snipers will be here and not there, state police are manning this sniper post and not the secret service, things like that. None of these things should be problem on their own, but when you get a couple of them at the same time, the odds for a simple error becoming a big problem increase.

Like I said very early on, it's going to take a thorough investigation to find the real sources of the problem. Yes, plural. It's not going to be any one specific thing. We want to be able to quickly point a finger and blame this person or that organization. But life is complex and rarely are such simple answers to complicated questions correct or useful. Firing people or blaming organizations right now is not going to do anything other than appease our lust for revenge and retribution. If we want to make future events safer, we must dig into the complexity and find the chain of events that led to a shooter actually firing off multiple rounds.

--Peter

It's going to be multiple errors, multiple holes in the security plan that aligned and let a shooter get through.

Folks are in "wait and see" mode, but we already know the Secret Service fouled this up for one very simple reason:

If you think someone's going to fire a rifle at the President, then take away all shooting angles or block the view.

This roof was only 130 yards away and it wasn't secured...just a monumental fail. We're lucky this doof was evidently the only person in the country *not* able to hit a human-sized target from that close with that many rounds fired.

The reality here is that this is a former President and a current Presidential candidate. While those people get secret service protection, they do not get the same number of assets that the sitting President gets. And it's probably an order of magnitude less.

Secret Service personnel are quite stretched at this moment in time. They're handling Biden's current needs. They're preparing for the convention in Milwaukee. I'm not sure if Trump had another rally planned after Butler and before the convention. If so, there's more personnel there. There's the advance planning for Chicago in a couple of weeks. There's simply a lot going on at the moment.

-----------------------

Risks of murder and life-threatening injuries from gun violence are posed to EVERY American citizen EVERY day by laws which have crippled the ability to keep obscenely destructive weapons out of non-military hands. Forty plus years of propaganda about wasteful and incompetent government has likely resulted in salary pools for law enforcement at all levels failing to keep up with population growth much less the huge uptick in the threat of violence. At the same time, we are now roughly twenty years into a public experiment in social-media induced depression, paranoia and psychosis at the same time the same anti-government sentiments have also failed to adequately fund mental health care costs in the country.

If the Secret Service is already operationally challenged at protecting its non-election-season protectees (President & family, VP and family, Speaker, a few others...), then adding one or two alternate Presidential candidates seems bound to come at the expense of THE principle protectee. Add to that additional cash draw the fact that the Presidential candidate and ex-President CONSISTENTLY flits between THREE OR FOUR homes that all require continual protection of the premises and the staffing and funding problem gets far worse.

Add to that the fact that the same candidate who is particularly inflammatory in his public appearances also has a consistent tendency over three different elections (2016, 2020 and now 2024) of not paying local communities for extra police protection requested not just for the candidate but campaign staff and the public at each appearance and the situation becomes far more dangerous -- for the candidate and those attending his rallies. In the 2020 campaign, at least fourteen different cities were owed money by the Trump campaign for security services. Trump argued those are the responsiblity of the Secret Service. WRONG. The Secret Service only protects the President and a small bubble of family and Presidential staff around the President. The CAMPAIGN still must foot the bills needed to pay for protective measures for the campaign staff and the public at large.

My understanding of the responsibilties and the actual events that allowed this shooting to occur is that:

* Secret Service is top dog regarding arrangements safeguarding its protectee
* Pennsylvania State Police, local county police and local city police assisted
* the shooter had not camped out on the roof for hours...
* the shooter scaled the roof maybe 5-10 minutes before the scheduled start
* people outside the secured perimeter saw the shooter appear on the roof IMMEDIATELY
* they tried to notify "police" within earshot IMMEDIATELY to no avail
* the building used by the shooter was an interior huddle point for police working the event
* the shooter's presence was either tipped by the noise of him on the metal roof...
* ...or someone nearby outside the building seeing him climb up
* the first officer who ATTEMPTED to scale the roof didn't do so in a way that prepared him to fire upon seeing the shooter so HE had to retreat
* that gave the shooter probably 20-40 extra seconds to take his shot

There is video of numerous citizens attending the rally and standing outside the secured part of the venue yelling at nearby policemen and pointing to the shooter first coming into view on the roof and trying to stay low rather than walking upright on the roof. Again, timestamps are not clear but those videos appear to be at least 15-20 seconds before the shooter was in position to fire.

What ISN'T clear is the level of radio communication and synchronization avialable to all police forces present. Once someone saw a man scale a ROOF, that should have triggered an update to all snipers (police or Secret Service) that an unexplained breach had taken place and the protectee should not come out in public.

I haven't seen any tick-tock or record of radio communication between officers that confirmed that the snipers began targeting the shooter by being informed of his presence.
So far, it appears as though they simply heard his gunfire, searched the horizon to find him for about 4-5 seconds then took their shots.

Without seeing the results of a competent investigation, this information isn't enough to certify what happened. However, it APPEARS as though the Secret Service, state, county and local officers assigned to the event were

a) insufficient in number to cover the venue
b) didn't demonstrate use of a consistent, rehearsed go/no-go protocol for declaring the venue safe or declaring it "tainted" by an unknown person reaching a point of EXTREME tactical risk to the protectee and the public
c) didn't adequately engage the shooter at the point his position and threat became known
d) didn't do a very good job protecting Trump AFTER he was shot

The officer who attempted to scale the roof to "confront" the shooter should have done so prepared to shoot the second he gained sight of the shooter. Or, he probably just should have fired a shot into the air to attract the attention of other snipers to that direction to let them do their thing. All officers working the event should have had the situational awareness that THAT building was a high risk structure if an "uncontrolled person" suddenly appeared on it. Had the shooter shot at HIM, THAT would have been enough noise to attract the snipers on the other building to then take him out or at least supress his fire and trigger other Secret Service from bringing Trump to the dais.

The officers that allowed Trump to get back up while surrounding him for protection were likely told the shooter had been neutralized but that's not the same as knowing the ENTIRE VENUE was re-secured. They had NO WAY of knowing there weren't other shooters at that time. Their decision to move him in an upright stance while surrounding HIM to protect HIM did NOTHING to protect all of the people still in the stands that might have been shot had another shooter been available. Keeping Trump BEHIND / BELOW the dais and the armor protection hidden behind all of the decorative bunting would have been a safer strategy for EVERYONE at risk.

It seems clear that law enforcement officials at every level need better communiction tools for large scale events. If only we had the technology... A way of equiping every officer with some sort of wireless communication device... That implemented some sort of instant "panic button" signal... A signal that, once sent by anyone carrying a device, would instantly signal a CODE RED condition on every other device of every other officer... If only officers could be trained that if they see that signal, KEEP THE PROTECTEE under cover and stop the event.

But instead, America blew BILLIONS of dollars over the last twenty three years buying automatic weapons, Humvees, and other "tough-guy" military surplus to hand to local LEOs so they could intimidate the public while still failing to storm a school while children are being slaughtered.


WTH

we already know the Secret Service fouled this up for one very simple reason

No, we don't. The Secret Service may have done everything right. Identify the risk. Take steps to mitigate the risk - secure the building, observe the roof, put snipers in place. But the Secret Service doesn't have the manpower to do all of this themselves. They must rely on local assistance. Maybe it was the locals who screwed up. Is that the fault of the Feds?

This is what the investigation is for. To figure out what went wrong. You want to jump to conclusions, but life just isn't that simple.

--Peter

No, we don't.

Yes, we do. That rood was an obvious place to cover in any public event. It wasn't.
There were local cops *inside* the building, but nobody thought to put somebody on the roof because it was too steep. Or something.

You want to jump to conclusions, but life just isn't that simple.

This is such an obvious and egregious F up there's no going back from it in terms of the careers of those responsible. Yes, sometimes life just is that simple when the stakes are high enough. Go ask any Naval Officer how little it takes sometimes to halt a promising career in its tracks.

That rood was an obvious place to cover in any public event. It wasn't.

But we don't know WHY that roof wasn't covered. I can't imagine that it wasn't identified as a risk, but if it wasn't, that's on the Secret Service advance team. If it was identified, and officers were assigned to maintain a perimeter around that building but failed, that's on those officers.

And that's just two of many possible scenarios. The job here isn't to just take out our anger by firing random people. We need to know which people to hold accountable, then we hold them accountable. I also want to know what happened, and I'm not saying there was no F up here. There obviously was. We need to know what the F up was and who is responsible.

You are making lots of assumptions in your accusations, assumptions that may or may not prove to be true. There are multiple ways to make that roof secure. We don't yet know how that roof was supposed to be secured. You - nor I nor anyone else blathering on the internet - have any idea of what the plan was around this event. Only a few people know that information, and they're not talking to the public. They're talking to the FBI.

Let the investigation play out. Then we can hold the right people accountable.

--Peter

But we don't know WHY that roof wasn't covered.

The head of the Secret Service said it wasn't covered because the slope was too great. Which is a bogus answer.

The head of the Secret Service said it wasn't covered because the slope was too great.

That’s not what she said and you know it.

Besides, it’s not necessary to have someone actually on the roof to secure it.

—Peter

This roof was only 130 yards away and it wasn't secured...just a monumental fail. - Dope

==================

But as the Secret Service Director pointed out, that roof was on a slope and we couldn't take the risk of having a sniper cling to such a precarious position. Video shows the assassin belly crawling up what had to be at least a ten degree slope, maybe even 15. Dangerous stuff.

But as the Secret Service Director pointed out, that roof was on a slope and we couldn't take the risk of having a sniper cling to such a precarious position.

She never called it a "precarious position". She merely cited safety concerns. There are always safety concerns when putting people on a roof. ANY roof - even a flat one. Heck, professional roofers who work on roofs for a living take safety precautions, often with ropes and harnesses. They don't trust themselves not to misstep and injure themselves. And as I said to the Dope, there are other ways to keep the roof secure. You don't have to put someone on it.

What we need to know is what the plan was to keep that roof (and others in the complex there) secure, and who was responsible for executing that plan. Then we can hold the right people accountable, and not some random folks who may have been there but had nothing to do with that particular roof.

--Peter

She never called it a "precarious position". She merely cited safety concerns.

-------------

That she would say such a gentle slope is a safety concern tells me so is so detached she hasn't seen the video of the veritable spiderman clinging to that rooftop.

That she would say such a gentle slope is a safety concern tells me so is so detached she hasn't seen the video of the veritable spiderman clinging to that rooftop.

It was a baffling comment, especially considering how much steeper the pitch of the roof where the other snipers were perched was.

With all the speculation hereabouts, I offer this (gift) article in the Washington Post, which is the best I have seen thus far. It has several drawings showing the sight lines of both the shooter and the Secret Service snipers, along with other relevant details. It also includes things like: the building the shooter was on was outside the perimeter zone controlled by the Secret Service and was left to the management of local police. (In hindsight, obviously a mistake.)

I also learned that the “sloped roof” the shooter was on was actually a pitched roof, and he clambered up the side that was invisible from the snipers’ positions. Their view of that building was also hampered by trees, though it wasn’t totally obscured.

And there is a citizen video of the guy crab walking up the slope of the building towards the peak just a few seconds before he opened fire.

It’s the best explanation I have found thus far, and it’s here:

https://wapo.st/3Lwyt6k

That she would say such a gentle slope is a safety concern tells me so is so detached she hasn't seen the video of the veritable spiderman clinging to that rooftop.

It was a baffling comment, especially considering how much steeper the pitch of the roof where the other snipers were perched was.

Secret service isn't afraid of the steep slopes, the local police units evaluated the slope the sniper was on. I think she took their evaluation, YMMV.

That she would say such a gentle slope is a safety concern tells me so is so detached she hasn't seen the video of the veritable spiderman clinging to that rooftop.

I think you considerably underestimate the head of the Secret Service. She knows very well what is going on. She's seen all of the videos we have (and perhaps more). She knows exactly how steep the roof in question is. Which is not very steep at all.

There are two things she's doing here. Most importantly, she's talking in subdued tones because the investigation is ongoing. She is not going to lay out all of the information she knows in a public forum. She's not going to jump to conclusions, but instead she's letting the FBI do their job and come to conclusions. Second, she's not going to throw others under the bus prematurely. This could easily be a failure of a local police organization. Maintaining the security of that building complex was delegated to the state or local police agencies. She's protecting fellow law enforcement as long as she can.

I've tried to do the same, but obviously subtlety isn't something you or Dope understand. So I'll be blunt.

There major screw up here is probably the state or local police who were assigned to keep that building complex secure and failed at that job. We already know that security outside of the seating area was delegated to local (state, county, or city) police. The Secret Service does not have sufficient personnel available to handle every aspect of security at even a smallish event like this. This is standard procedure, even for the sitting President. Secret Service makes the overall plan, but delegates parts of the execution of the plan to local assistance.

The building complex was almost certainly identified as a hazard. (If the investigation shows it wasn't, the Secret Service will deserve all of the vitriol being directed their way and I'll be right next to you calling for the top heads to roll.) It was also determined that securing that complex would be delegated to the local assistance. Securing a building or a building complex is fairly basic police work. Post guards, make sure no one enters without authorization. If the event is long enough (and this one probably was) make provisions to rotate the guards and provide breaks for them to keep them alert. Provide instructions on what to look for and whom to contact and when to engage (basic rules of engagement for the event). Not exactly rocket science.

I know you're desperate to blame this on the Secret Service and the Biden administration. Nothing could make a MAGAite happier than that. Unless it included blaming a woman in the process. But I just don't think that's the case here.

--Peter

I've tried to do the same, but obviously subtlety isn't something you or Dope understand.

This should be good.

There major screw up here is probably the state or local police who were assigned to keep that building complex secure and failed at that job. We already know that security outside of the seating area was delegated to local (state, county, or city) police. The Secret Service does not have sufficient personnel available to handle every aspect of security at even a smallish event like this. This is standard procedure, even for the sitting President. Secret Service makes the overall plan, but delegates parts of the execution of the plan to local assistance.

Learn not to contradict yourself in the same paragraph; you'll take fewer L's that way.

In this case, you're correct that the SS make the overall plan...because they're the ones responsible for protecting the dignitary.

They delegate to the locals...but they're in charge. And they left an open rooftop (with a tiny pitch on it) within an easy rifle shot of the guy they're supposed to be protecting. I don't know why you're choosing to die on this particular hill but boy, did you pick a bad one.

Cnn is actually doing a reasonable job for once: https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/16/us/trump-rally-secu...

Sometimes F ups are just that: F ups.

I know you're desperate to blame this on the Secret Service and the Biden administration. Nothing could make a MAGAite happier than that. Unless it included blaming a woman in the process. But I just don't think that's the case here.

You're going to get super tired carrying all this water. But you do you.

There are two things she's doing here. Most importantly, she's talking in subdued tones because the investigation is ongoing. She is not going to lay out all of the information she knows in a public forum. She's not going to jump to conclusions, but instead she's letting the FBI do their job and come to conclusions. Second, she's not going to throw others under the bus prematurely. This could easily be a failure of a local police organization. Maintaining the security of that building complex was delegated to the state or local police agencies. She's protecting fellow law enforcement as long as she can.

I've tried to do the same, but obviously subtlety isn't something you or Dope understand. So I'll be blunt

As you predicted, Dope walks right by these on his way to making a point that everyone knew before we read it. Dope likes to jump, and this time states the obvious. Ah well, you can talk to him, not me.

Ah well, you can talk to him, not me.

I'd rather talk to you. I appreciate intelligent conversation and discussion.

But someone's got to point out the stupid when stupid happens. I'm just taking my turn at it.

--Peter

But someone's got to point out the stupid when stupid happens.

Lulz. You want "civil discourse".
I had high hopes for you at one point.

They delegate to the locals...but they're in charge. And they left an open rooftop (with a tiny pitch on it) within an easy rifle shot of the guy they're supposed to be protecting. - Dope

-------------------

Apart from who is hiding what or spinning the rooftop, there have been other reports of the assassin being noted as a person of interest (or some such) 3 hours before and that his picture was taken in possession of a range-finder. The question is who decided to go ahead and let Trump take the podium when this threat had not yet been run to ground.

Here are a couple of headlines but caution, neither are Fox News so they should be viewed with the usual skepticism

https://www.msn.com › en-us › news › crime › officer-reported-man-at-trump-rally-with-range-finder-30-mins-before-assassination-attempt-source › ar-BB1q2FnW
Officer reported man at Trump rally with range-finder 30 mins ... - MSN
A local law enforcement officer spotted a suspicious man carrying a range-finder "in or just-outside" the venue well before former President Donald Trump took the stage.


https://www.cbsnews.com › news › sniper-picture-trump-rally-shooter-rangefinder-assassination-attempt
Sniper took picture of Trump rally shooter, saw him use rangefinder ...
1 day ago A sniper from a local tactical team deployed to assist the U.S. Secret Service at former President Donald Trump's rally on Saturday took a picture of the gunman and saw him looking through...

His arms are so tired from carrying the administration’s water he won’t have the strength to click on an any of those.

he won’t have the strength to click on an any of those.

Got that information quite a while ago. It's right in line with what I've been saying.

--Peter

No it isn’t. You’ve been flacking for the administration this entire time.

But now we know:
-He scoped out the venue with a rangefinder
-They had him on their radar and knew he was there 3 hours in advance
-Witnesses saw him climb in the roof
-A cop called it in

…and now we know the Secret Service knew 10 minutes ahead of Trump’s speech that an armed gunman was at the venue.

Plenty of time to evacuate Trump.

I’m beginning to agree with you on one point: No one is THIS incompetent.

…and now we know the Secret Service knew 10 minutes ahead of Trump’s speech that an armed gunman was at the venue.

That's where you're jumping to a conclusion. When he was seen with the rangefinder, he was unarmed. No one saw him with a gun until he was on the roof.

And that's the problem. A guy with a gun - even though legal at some distance away from the event - should draw very close attention. Why didn't the local cops see him wandering around with a gun? Why didn't the local cops see him climb on the roof?

Seems to me that the local cops are the ones with the major screw ups here. The Secret Service's main failure was trusting incompetent local officers. That's still a Secret Service failure, mind you. Perhaps they should have vetted the local police departments a bit better before trusting them to do such basic policing as keeping a building secure.

Let's get back the bigger picture. How do we know all this stuff? It's because an investigation is happening, that's how. And that's all I've been advocating for - let the investigation show what happened instead of making wild accusations unsupported by facts. I've never - NEVER - said the Secret Service or anyone else was not at fault. What I have said is that we don't know who is at fault, so it is premature to fire anyone or ask anyone to resign. Once we fully understand the failures, then we can ask for appropriate action, including firings or resignations.

--Peter

But now we know:
-He scoped out the venue with a rangefinder
-They had him on their radar and knew he was there 3 hours in advance
-Witnesses saw him climb in the roof
-A cop called it in - Dope

===================

Plus this, an officer (local PD I think) associated with the protection detail for that metal building was commenting that the cop who climbed up and spotted the assassin and then fell back to the ground when the assassin pointed his rifle. He said that officer was immediately on the radio, on a standard emergency channel that everyone in the protection detail could monior, clearly stating an armed threat had been observed.

There must have been two or three secret service literally standing next to Trump and not one of them stopped the president and immediately evacuate him from the area. Or could have least said, Mr President we have a security situation that needs to be resolved, Please remain backstage until it is cleared.

I heard on the news today that it should not have taken two minutes to get Trump off that stage and into a vehicle. The report went on to say that the presidents car with him inside sat for another 2 minutes because the motorcade was not quite ready to leave.

Let's get this in before Dope gets out of control with glee.

Just saw some new reporting from ABC. It appears that Crooks was identified as a person of interest about an hour before the shooting. I'm going to slightly discount this information. Not because I don't believe it, but because if you interrupt a protectee's schedule every time a person of interest is identified, your protectee will never do anything. Keep an eye on this person, of course. And perhaps don't let them in to the secured perimeter. But the event goes on.

The next bits are far more disturbing. It seems that Crooks was spotted on the roof 20 minutes before the shooting started. And he was spotted by the Secret Service. That's pretty damning right there. If he isn't dealt with in some way (like having the local police get him off the roof, and probably arrested on trespassing charges as a start), you don't let Trump out on to the stage. There's no passing the buck on that one.

Of course, the reporter then goes on to say that how Crooks got on the roof undetected is still an open question. No, it's not. He WAS detected - at least that's what the reporter said just a couple of sentences previously.

Then there's the local sheriff. He starts by praising his deputies for their work once the shooting stopped. And I'm sure they did do a good job at that point - once the damage is done. There's also a report that the sheriff warned the Secret Service that he didn't have enough officers to cover all of the buildings. Secret Service then asked for a cruiser to be at the building, but that request was denied. This is one of those things that could either be true or it could be some after the fact butt covering. If true, Secret Service should try to bring things to a halt while this problem is worked out. There are multiple ways to deal with the manpower problem - pick one and implement it.

On the other hand, I can certain envision Trump telling Secret Service to stuff it and let the event go on anyway. I'm certain there would have been pressure to keep the event on track and on time. The same could easily be said about spotting Crooks on the roof as noted above. Although knowing both that a building was likely to be unsecured AND that someone was spotted on the roof of the building should be enough for the Secret Service to go into full protection mode and physically stuff the orange moron's butt into the car and get him out in spite of his squealing and complaining.

Now let's think a bit further. We know that there is tremendous pressure from the Trump campaign - and likely from Trump personally - to let the event go on as scheduled. We know back almost 4 years ago as the sitting President that he tried to talk Secret Service into letting people in to his Jan 6 rally without using the metal detectors. (A request that was denied, I'll note. They stood up to him then.) We also know that Trump has a way of getting people to improperly do things for him. His Navy valet in the White House left the Navy and went to work for Trump after his term ended. I seem to recall a Secret Service agent and member of Trump's detail leaving the service during Trump's term and taking a position in the administration. Both of these are highly irregular. It would not surprise me if the current Secret Service detail is similarly affected, letting pressure from Trump and the campaign override their professional judgement. We even see a bit of evidence for this in the evacuation of Trump immediately after the shooting. He wants to get his shoes, and they let him. He wants to raise his angry fist, and they let him. Twice. This is not to shift blame from the Secret Service, but merely to point out the pressure they likely operate under. If they did let Trump influence their professional judgement, that is their responsibility.

With sufficient information now available, I'm ready to start laying some blame on the Secret Service. This does appear to be a failure on their part.

Now I want to know if these kinds of things have been happening at other events. Have their been manpower shortages at other rallies that were left unaddressed? Were there similar security holes that were left open? Is this a pattern or just a one time event? Another question would be what does the turnover on his detail look like? Are agents asking to be reassigned away from his detail? What do some of his former agents have to say about their working conditions? Unfortunately, some of those latter questions are unlikely to be answered since Secret Service also operates under some significant confidentiality rules. They don't talk about those things to outsiders.

We know more today than we did yesterday. There's still more to learn.

--Peter

Let's get this in before Dope gets out of control with glee.

Just get into the habit of typing, “Dope was right, again, dammit”. It’ll save you tons of keystrokes :)

Dope was right, again,

Don’t count on it. Dope is rarely right.

We know more today than we did yesterday. There's still more to learn.

Found out yesterday that this probably wasn’t politically motivated, it was a mental case with a gun. He had googled Trump, Biden, Merrick Garland. He had researched where Trump or Biden would be speaking, so it appears he was just looking for a big target. He had also researched the phrase “major depressive disorder.”

Good thing Taylor Swift didn’t have a concert around there.

https://apple.news/AiU4f1064RQ626uR1HlB4RQ

The Washington Post had a pretty good summary of what is known so far about the attempt, replete with maps and drawings. Today it’s the New York Times’ turn:

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/10000000...

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