Secret Service agents failed to take charge of decision-making for security at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally where former President Donald Trump was shot in July, a bipartisan Senate committee revealed in a new report Wednesday, leading to key lapses in preparation and communication that day.
The report, citing interviews with top Secret Service officials and local law enforcement who oversaw the security for the rally, said the failures were “foreseeable, preventable” and found that many of the problems identified by the committee “remain unaddressed” by the Secret Service.
Some of the problems highlighted include the Secret Service failing to set up visual barriers around the rally that may have blocked shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks’ view of Trump, the lack of a plan on how to secure the building the shooter took aim from and the general chaos of communication around the shooter’s movement leading up to the attempt on the former president’s life.
Homeland Security Committee Chairman Sen. Gary Peters told CNN Wednesday morning that his panel heard “a lot of finger-pointing” when they pressed Secret Service agents about who was in charge the day of the rally.
“That should be a very clear answer, and the problem is, there is no answer,” Peters, a Michigan Democrat, said on “CNN News Central.”
“That was astonishing to us. We could not find one point of contact who said, ‘This was the person in charge,’” he added.
Key resource requests were also denied, and some were not even made, the report says.
Secret Service advance agents did not request a surveillance team, which could have helped patrol the rally for approximately 15,000 attendees. First lady Jill Biden, meanwhile, had one assigned to her event roughly an hour away for approximately 410 individuals.
“Overall, the lack of an effective chain of command, which came across clearly when we conducted interviews,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who is leading the subcommittee’s investigation, told reporters Tuesday. “It was almost like an Abbott and Costello farce, with ‘who’s on first?’ finger pointing by all of the different actors.”
