At 6 p.m., former President Trump took the stage to begin his comments.
Washington:
The United States Service acknowledged its failure to protect former President Donald Trump at an election rally in Pennsylvania on July 13.
A young gunman shot Trump, 78, as he spoke at an election rally in Butler. Trump escaped the assassination attempt when a bullet flew within a millimeter of him and one of them hit his right ear.
“The Secret Service assumes full responsibility for the tragic events of July 13. This was a mission failure. Our agency’s sole responsibility is to ensure that our charges are never placed in harm’s way. We fell short of that at Butler. And I am working to ensure that this failure does not happen again,” U.S. Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe told reporters at a news conference here.
The main function of the Secret Service is to protect the President, former presidents and their families. Presidential nominees also receive Secret Service protection.
Rowe said the Secret Service will continue to cooperate with pending oversight investigations into the July 13 failure that are now being done by Congress, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and the independent review headed by President Joe Biden.
“I am not waiting for these reports to be completed and have ordered the Secret Service to take immediate action to ensure that our protectees are truly safe. I am committed to holding myself accountable for the failure of the Secret Service in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“But let me be clear. If policy violations by Secret Service personnel are identified by the agency’s Mission Assurance Review, these individuals will be held accountable. They will be held accountable through our fair and thorough disciplinary process,” he said.
Taking the sequence of events from July 13, Rowe said at 5:30 p.m., Trump arrived at the campaign rally via a Secret Service motorcade and, at that time, met with supporters in a secure backstage area within the protective site.
At 5:45 p.m., a member of the Butler County Emergency Services Unit counter sniper team sent a text message to the Secret Service counter sniper team leader about a suspicious person and sent two photos of the individual, later identified as the aggressor.
At 5:53 p.m., the Secret Service counter-sniper team leader sent a text message to Secret Service counter-sniper teams that local authorities were looking for a suspicious individual outside the perimeter, lurking around the AGR building.
At that time, Secret Service personnel were operating with the knowledge that local authorities were working on the issue of a suspicious individual.
At 6 p.m., former President Trump took the stage to begin his comments.
“Based on what I know at this time, neither the Secret Service counter-sniper teams nor members of the former president’s security team had any knowledge that there was a man on the roof of the AGR building with a firearm. From what I understand, people didn’t know the attacker had a firearm until they heard gunshots,” he said.
“At 6:11 p.m., a member of former President Trump’s protective team contacted his Pittsburgh field office counterpart to ask about the radio update that there was an issue that local authorities were investigating near the perimeter.
“At 6:11 p.m., the attacker’s first volley of three shots was fired, and within three seconds, the former president’s entourage took the stage and covered Trump, shielding him with their own bodies,” Rowe said, giving the timeline of the attempt. failed assassination attempt on July 13th.
“The shots from fourth to eight occurred in the following seconds. Fifteen and a half seconds after the assailant’s first shot, a Secret Service countersniper fired a single shot that neutralized the assailant,” he said.
Rowe told reporters this was a failure.
“We should have had better protection for the protected person. We should have had better coverage on that roof line. We should have at least another set of eyes from a Secret Service perspective to cover this. This building was very close to that outer perimeter and we should have had more presence,” he said.
“This was a failure of the Secret Service. That roof line should have been covered. We should have seen this better,” she added.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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