Former President Donald Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — where he survived an assassination attempt — was the first time the Secret Service sent a counter-sniper to a Trump event to protect the 45th president, the agency admitted.
“It was the first time Secret Service counter-snipers were deployed to support the former president’s detail,” Secret Service acting director Ronald Rowe revealed during a Friday press briefing.
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“With respect to why they were there in Butler, listen, we evaluate our threat landscape every day, we calibrate based on that threat, we evaluated a threat stream that we have, and we put our Secret Service counter-sniper personnel out there,” Rowe continued.
“And looking back, it was very fortunate that we did,” the Secret Service acting director added. “But the former president [and Trump’s running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH)] will have counter-sniper coverage moving forward.”
Notably, one of the counter-snipers fatally shot would-be presidential assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks after he opened fire on Trump, shooting the 45th president in the ear and killing former Pennsylvania fire chief Corey Comperatore, as well as wounding other rallygoers.
Rowe, however, couldn’t explain why none of the counter-snipers were posted on the nearby building from which the 20-year-old tried to assassinate President Trump.
“This was a Secret Service failure,” he said. “That roof line should have been covered.”
As Breitbart News reported, top officials within the Secret Service have denied requests to increase the security for President Trump over the past two years, according to several sources.
In the past, President Trump’s security detail had been covered by state and local counter-sniper teams,” according to a report by New York Post.
During Trump’s July 13 rally, a member of a local counter-sniper team “texted the Secret Service counter-sniper team leader about a suspicious person,” and sent him two photos of Crooks, Rowe said during Friday’s press briefing.
Rowe also noted that one member of President Trump’s security detail was on the phone with the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh field office, asking, “Hey, what do you know about this?” moments before Crooks fired at Trump.
“Right in the middle of that phone conversation, the shots begin firing,” Rowe said.
A viral video that one the July 13 rally attendees filmed shows an individual running across a roof — the same roof from which Crooks shot President Trump — minutes before the tragedy unfolded.
“We should have had better protection for the protectee,” Rowe admitted. “We should have had better coverage on that roof line. We should have had at least some other set of eyes from the Secret Service point of view, covering that.”
On Monday night, an anonymous Secret Service counter-sniper warned that the agency “SHOULD expect another assassination attempt” in an email to the agency’s Uniformed Division, a source confirmed to New York Post.
Meanwhile, a Secret Service whistleblower recently told Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) that Rowe “personally directed significant cuts to CSD,” which included reducing the division’s manpower by 20 percent.
After a reporter mentioned the whistleblower’s claim that Rowe “personally directed cuts to the Counter Surveillance Division, which led to the threat assessments team failing to perform its duties,” the acting director replied, “What I can tell you is that the Counter Surveillance Division, they do a fantastic job.”
“I know that there’s been allegations that I personally cut or that I denied that request,” Rowe added. “I did not.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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