Let me quote one more thing from the new episode of "The Daily" podcast, "The Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump."
The reporter Glenn Thrush talked about the forthcoming investigation of the security provided to Trump:
I think this is going to be regarded as one of the darkest days in the history of the Secret Service. Now, all of us who have covered the White House have traveled with agents — tremendously high level of professionalism. And the job is difficult, bordering on impossible at times, but allowing someone to have a clear firing line to a major presidential candidate in the middle of this kind of highly polarized environment is frankly inconceivable.
That seems to demand a link to the "inconceivable" montage from "The Princess Bride" — the one that ends with "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
Allowing the clear firing line is not inconceivable. In fact, nothing is inconceivable after it happens. But maybe it was inconceivable before it happened. Yet even then, I think it was only inconceivable to those who chastely excluded ugly thoughts from their lovely mind. Knowing that it happened, now you can't turn away. You must find the additional elements to the story that make it make sense.
Thrush adds that "the FBI and folks at the Department of Justice were fairly unvarnished in private, in their criticism of the way that the Secret Service planned this." We need "a significant investigation." Obviously. Who can be trusted? I'll bet we never learn what really happened — why the Secret Service did not secure that rooftop.
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95 comments:
A search for any social media activity made by Thomas Matthew Crooks reveals nothing!
Not only has no activity been uncovered, but I can't even find stories pointing out that no activity has been uncovered.
Did this 20 yr old have no social media fingerprints? Did the major media look for this, and if so, report the remarkable lack of findings? Or was his activity scrubbed before his identity was made public?
This is very puzzling.
The cover up by the various alphabet agencies will be an epic ass-covering, finger-pointing, blame-storming orgy of bureaucratic in-fighting. There has already been some preliminary finger pointing aimed at the local police. Choose your popcorn wisely.
What is inconceivable to me is that me would find out that the Secret Service - under orders - allowed the rooftop to be available to the shooter. And that we would find out who gave the orders.
They are government employees. Lower your expectations. Any findings will be hidden from the public.
The Wall Street Journal:
The Secret Service told CNN that the agency didn’t sweep the Pennsylvania building where the gunman shot Donald Trump, and instead relied on local law enforcement. CNN said a spokesman said the agency instead relied on local law enforcement to secure the building.
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/trump-biden-election-2024-rnc/card/secret-service-didn-t-sweep-building-where-gunman-shot-trump-Kif4Lsd71nvhnceRf9zz
And DEI hires to boot.
"tremendously high level of professionalism"
Not anymore, apparently. I kept see comments about the actions of the three agents at the side of the SUV they trundled Trump into, and have finally seen it for myself (sorry I don't have a link, but the video is out there if you go searching). They panicked. The one agent couldn't even holster her gun. It's scary if that's what the SS has become.
They are government employees, lower your expectations.
I think the odds of the public ever getting a fair and truthful accounting of the events in PA are less than the odds of myself becoming the King of England. Every agency will be pointing fingers at other agencies and if anyone is 'held accountable' it will be some poor mid-level smuck at best.
As to the would be assassin having no discernable presence on social media, I find that impossible. also, the authorities saying they cannot access his phone - horse hocky. The agencies that can track down every utterance and post of everyone that was at the capital on J-6 cannot break into a 20 year old's iphone? Nonsense.
Is the DHS throttling resources to protective details? Kennedy is raw dogging his own security after Biden's appointees denied him. Lots of reports that requests for additional resources were denied by the director of the USSS. Also reports that Jill Biden's travel to PA to campaign limited the resources available. I can't even read the news without sounding like a conspiracy theorist.
And FYI to the Boomers and Gen Xers one here (and I am one), there is a social media called Discord. Discord has voice, video, or text, and it's popular for creating closed communities, it is nonpublic and not searchable. Reports are that the shooter had a discord but the FBI is having trouble unlocking his phone.
Did this 20 yr old have no social media fingerprints?
Were his fingerprints removed Prior to the attempt because the handlers knew there would be a scramble to find it once his identity was discovered, and it WOULD be discovered. Why wait until after to start the cleanup process when you know in advance it would need to be done?
It's what I would do if I were part of a bigger plan.
It was the ultimate clusterfuck.
Scott Adams just spoke about this failure putting a stake in the heart of DEI.
It's a start, but liberals are tenacious and they love doling out unearned merit.
'A search for any social media activity made by Thomas Matthew Crooks reveals nothing!'
I'm sure it has all been wiped.
And they wonder WHY there are so many "conspiracy theories"??
Does Cheatle still have a job? C’mon Joe. Be decisive! This is your time to fire someone.
'The one agent couldn't even holster her gun.'
She was also short and extremely overweight.
But quotas, etc...
And I bet they don’t fire Kimberly Cheatle.
Of course it is conceivable! ANYTHING is conceivable when the entire country is at stake! Do YOU want to be the one that could have saved [our] Democracy but didn't? The one the failed to act, to take the appropriate action to take to save us all from Hitler!?!?
What happened was what the DNC/MSM/left has been working toward for the last 8+ years. The only amazing thing is that it took "them" this long to actually make the attempt (at least as far as we know, there may have been earlier attempts that were covered up).
>Nothing is inconceivable after it happens. What is the thought you don't want to think that would make it conceivable?<
Here's one: The Secret Service is a part of the Deep State.
Here's another: Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her own bodyguards.
If it is inconceivable, they are in the wrong job. They absolutely constantly need to be able to fight the natural human tendency "to see what you expect to see."
It is inconceivable to me that Biden didn't forthwith order Secret Service protection be granted to RFK Jr......I don't think this Crooks character is part of some conspiracy, but there are many thousands of such disaffected young men in America who sit alone and softly whisper their grievances to the dark.....I myself was a fairly alienated young men who had lots of dark thoughts. I never once had any thoughts about shooting up my school or killing somebody important, but it was a different erao back then, and we didn't have access to shooter games where you could play at mass murder.....Anyway, I don't worry about a conspiracy so much as a copy cat. Shooting up your school is an outlandish and improbable act, but look at how much it happens. I came of age in the sixties when leaders were shot and killed with fair regularity by assorted idiots. I hope we don't have to live through such an age again.
I think this is going to be regarded as one of the darkest days in the history of the Secret Service. Now, all of us who have covered the White House have traveled with agents — tremendously high level of professionalism. And the job is difficult, bordering on impossible at times, but allowing someone to have a clear firing line to a major presidential candidate in the middle of this kind of highly polarized environment is frankly inconceivable.
Pretty sure something similar happened about 60 years or so back. Except in that instance we lost a President. Glenn Thrush is a self absorbed moron.
It couldn't have been inconceivable before it happened because that's what they're paid to figure out and even I, who know nothing about threat assessment, know that you have to lock down and secure all vantage points within range of the target.
This isn't Charles Whitman conning his way into a building at the University of Texas to get to the observation deck 39 floors up and then picking off a bunch of people walking around below before law enforcement was able to take him out. This shooter walked in during the event holding his rifle, crawled up the side of the building, set up his weapon, scared off a curious police officer and then fired.
A highly respected GOP outside lawyer needs to do this investigation. Robert Hur comes to mind. We can't trust Garland or Wray.
Once again, in this podcast, only Republicans are named as instigators of violent speech. Grotesque.
“A highly respected GOP outside lawyer needs to do this investigation.”
Ed Meese.
Occasionally I ponder what might have happened had the attempt been successful. Can you imagine the reverberations?
It's by the grace of God that it didn't go off as planned.
Only two possible explanations for why that rooftop was not secured.
1) They purposefully didn't want to secure it or,
2) DEI incompetence has taken over the Secret Service
Let's hope it's #2. That can be corrected.
There are few things more conceivable than the idea of someone trying to assassinate a major political figure. If it was unconceivable, why would we pay so much for security services? Frankly, I think one of the most outlandish things is how much the US pays for Presidential protection. Let's not react by pointing out all the holes in the USSS that results in them getting an even bigger budget thus making US Presidential travel even that much more expensive.
I think the best questions being asked is "how did the 20-year-old loner know about the vulnerability and was so easily able to exploit it?" He didn't just need a rifle. He needed to know where the event was, know where the available high ground was, make it through a perimeter of heightened security, make it through normal barriers put in place to prevent roof access, and have time to aim and pull the trigger. Oswalt was a trained sniper that used all his skills. Hinckley was just the wrong guy at the right place. Crooks had sharp shooting training, which isn't inconceivable, but how did he conceive of where to take the shot and others did not? To be fair, as I write this conceiving of where to take the shot, that is actually something that modern first-person shooter video games would help one figure out. Again, let's not be so reactive that people latch on to solutions that are not helpful.
It's the way Wallace Shawn says it and the way he plays The Sicilian that really bumps the humor up. What a great movie. He and Mandy Patinkin are so good. In fact it's just cock full of killer cameos and great characters. I've been trying to get my brother and his wife to watch it because they like to quote classic movie lines at me and they've never seen Princess Bride. Maybe tonight.
"He's only almost dead."
"Prepare to die!" (condensed version)
"Twoo wuv."
Biden promises an "independent investigation". Now why would the country need an "independent investigation"? Could it be that no sentient being would trust the existing administration and agencies in the swamp? Ya think?
There are always people--in blog comments, on TV, and in person--who say the equivalent of: "Yes, the LEADERSHIP in the agencies is politicized, but rank and file FBI, CIA, Secret Service, agents are the salt of the earth, the very bravest, most honest, most trustworthy people you'll ever find, willing to sacrifice their lives to protect us."
I think if someone from the rank and file doesn't stop forward to say who gave the order not to secure the rooftop, we can safely conclude that the "good rank and file agents" is no longer the case--if it ever was.
I still want to know how the shooter knew that he could get away with bringing a rifle to this rally and that there would be an unguarded roof for him to climb on.
Looking at the shooter, it seems unlikely that this particular individual was recruited by someone in an agency to carry out this job.
But if you think about how a "let's get Trump assassinated" plot might work if you couldn't have obvious high-level involvement and you didn't want a lot of people involved, you'd have someone embedded in the Secret Service whose job was to make sure there was one unguarded rooftop at each Trump rally. Then you'd pass the word to one of your embeds with the Antifa paramilitaries that "there's going to be one unguarded roof at each Trump rally," and let those embeds pick the person they give that information to.
All you'd need for such a plot is someone embedded in Trump's Secret Service detail. Such a person might even have volunteered for it: look at the texts between the FBI agents Sztrok and that rat-faced woman: do you doubt that one of them would hesitate to do something like this?
Sadly, it is not 'inconceivable' that a couple mid-level people have gotten themselves sufficiently worked up on hyperbole (or that they realize that there is a chance of them getting prosecuted for what they've been doing to Americans) to do something like this.
If you disagree, please tell me what evidence I am overlooking that implies that the people who work for the Federal Law Enforcement have any integrity at all? Not just assumptions, but actual evidence, like agents resigning in disgust and blowing the whistle on abuses of their fellow citizens?
Blogger William said...
It is inconceivable to me that Biden didn't forthwith order Secret Service protection be granted to RFK Jr.
Yes. That should have been part of his "address from the Oval Office", and his lack of providing it should be the talk of the town, just as the talk and efforts to strip such protection from Trump came immediate to mind.
Based on all the Biden era snafus with NO finding o fault and certainly no firings....
The results of the investigation will be released in the same time frame as the Kennedy assassination.
I keed, I keed (I think). In any event the FBI is already saying no comment - active investigation.
One thing for sure, no hard results before November.
SS did not ask local LEO ?
There are many commenters here and elsewhere wondering many things about this. So I'll just say it.
What if they wanted Trump to be killed? What if a small(ish) cabal of people within the Government, were told to stand down on certain things, to let this or that go. Or were told that they had something taken care of, when they knew they had purposely left some things not taken care of? What if the most surprised people on Saturday were the people who were behind it and expected some closure on their project?
Look, folks. It's either that or it's just pure massive incompetence. One or the other.
Somehow hearing the FBI is investigating does not make me feel better about any of it. It would have once. A long time ago. But not now, not today, not after all they've already had their hands in.
Does RFK Jr still not have SS protection? God forbid if RFK Jr was shot and killed. Trump truly might then win 50 states and DC. I mean that, not hyperbole.
Think back to murdering Ashli Babbitt and try to we're say rule of law society
"Does Cheatle still have a job? C’mon Joe. Be decisive! This is your time to fire someone."
Well, if she knows too much he can't.
The cluster fuck by the SS trying to get Trump in the car looked like a replay the Key stone Kops. The DEI influence is strong here. That Director should go back to Pepsi.
mongo said...
“What is inconceivable to me is that me would find out that the Secret Service - under orders - allowed the rooftop to be available to the shooter. And that we would find out who gave the orders.”
“Mistakes were made.”
People are talking about the lack of securing the rooftop, which I understand. Let's agree that is an unforgiveable error. But also, it's obvious incompetence and there are finger pointing that SS relied upon local police to do it, so, ok, something egregious fell between the cracks.
What I'm struggling to understand is the FOUR snipers, overwatch, and more who somehow failed to spot a male in dark clothing crawling across a white roof on a bright day with a rifle, for 2 minutes, with members of the crowd shouting and pointing, until AFTER he fired a shot.
THAT is what to me is inconceivable. Those snipers and overwatch (Drones?) are basically doing nothing but non-stop scanning of crowds and key threat positions. Because even if a building is secured, even if an agent is posted there, they can still be overcome - so snipers are supposed to continually scan all the elevated line of sight positions to make sure they remain secure.
I'm not going down the conspiracy theory route, but to me incompetence alone does not explain how this happened. Too many people, too long a period of time. Did someone radio that this person was SUPPOSED to be there? IDK.
“A highly respected GOP outside lawyer needs to do this investigation.”
Congress should be demanding this today.
My heart sank yesterday at Biden's address with Garland and Mayokas standing at his side.
Prof M Drout,
"a couple mid-level people have gotten themselves sufficiently worked up on hyperbole"
Certainly it's possible. We've seen that happen with the FISA warrants, Peter Strzok, etc. Seems more likely that it is the sheer incompetence of the leadership of this administration, and the Democratic party at large, and the fact that eventually that will work its way down through the ranks.
Inconceivable that we will find out who was responsible, and if we do, that any negative consequences will accrue.
During the last twenty (60 or 70?) or so years, who has ever been held accountable for any of the monumental governmental screw ups who wasn't Trump or Trump adjacent.
BTW, Judge Cannon today dismissed the documents case on the grounds that Special Counsel Jack Smith was not legally or constitutionally appointed. Ninty three page order sets it all out.
The system failure is obvious: The Secret Service relied upon local law enforcement to secure the perimeter, and when the perimeter was breached there was no way for local law enforcement to communicate directly with Secret Service snipers (shades of communication failure on 9/11 due to equipment incompatibility). Two full minutes elapsed between the breach and the shooting, which was an eternity.
For those spinning conspiracy theories, the idea the Secret Service plotted with rural Pennsylvania law enforcement is dopey even by Althouse commenter standards.
"Looking at the shooter, it seems unlikely that this particular individual was recruited by someone in an agency to carry out this job."
A professional would have been too obvious. OTOH, you let a kid do it and figure, if it works it works.
Michael K said:
“That Director should go back to Pepsi.”
What do you have against Pepsi?
Blogger Temujin said...
There are many commenters here and elsewhere wondering many things about this. So I'll just say it.
What if they wanted Trump to be killed? What if a small(ish) cabal of people within the Government, were told to stand down on certain things, to let this or that go.
You mean the type of people hoping that even Biden would just go away for the good of the party? The type of people that know if Biden were to also unfortunately die in office (of natural causes of course), then he would be regaled as a heroic President that stood up to a bully former-President, but that would then open the door for announcing a new top of the ticket (and make Kamala Harris the first woman US President).
Further, it is entirely apathy and disinterest in doing the job that created the vulnerability that was able to be exploited. It is how a sexual predator was allowed to continue to assault members of the US women's gymnastic team. It is how murderers and rapist enter our country from foreign countries where they committed other such crimes. It is how abusers are let out of PR bonds to commit more crimes. It is how protestors arrested after illegally occupying a building are released without prosecution.
Is it really inconceivable that disinterest in actual policing resulted in random violence being something that doesn't appear random?
Sigh, no resignation. Joe, you are running out of time to show some cojones…
A search for any social media activity made by Thomas Matthew Crooks reveals nothing! Not only has no activity been uncovered, but I can't even find stories pointing out that no activity has been uncovered.
Not quite true.
The Associated Press, citing law enforcement sources, reported the rifle was purchased by Matthew Crooks at least six months ago.
Seven months ago, a Gmail account using the name Matthew Crooks posted a review for a licensed gun reseller in Nevada called CashMyGuns.com. The reviewer praised the business as "the easiest way to get rid of unwanted firearms" and recommended it to others.
Multiple data brokers connected that Gmail account to a person named Matthew B. Crooks. Information in the Google profile aligns with Matthew Crooks' geographic location, showing other reviews for businesses in the Pittsburgh area, including in Bethel Park, where public records and neighbors’ interviews show the Crooks family lives.
Inconceivable! I'm the only one that went down that road so far.
“significant” in bureaucracy world usually means time-consuming. Right now we’re operating in real-time. Start at the bottom. Ask each agent if it was their job to secure the building. Ask a few simple questions. Move up the chain of command quickly. Time is of the essence. If the process did not start on Saturday night, there is a serious problem.
What made the use of "inconceivable" in The Princess Bride so amusing is Vizzini was using the word wrong, but not because he did not understand the definition. He had far too high opinion of himself. Everything he declared to be "inconceivable" was, in fact, inconceivable to him, but quite conceivable to almost anyone else, including his henchmen who were supposed to be his intellectual inferiors. Good stuff.
Not securing that obvious gunman location at the Trump rally is inconceivable for the Secret Service. That's Secret Service 101. If you cannot figure that out, you should not have been hired. It would be like a mathematics professor who does not know how to do long division, or a journalist who is illiterate. As I have stressed many times, this is an existential crisis. If the Secret Service cannot do the most basic stuff, its continuing existence is brought into serious question.
To me, it comes down to whether the Secret Service knew that local police had spotted someone on the roof who reportedly had a gun. Did the local police wait to tell the Secret Service because they didn’t know for sure what the person was doing and had sent someone to climb up and find out? Was the Secret Service told in time to get Trump off the stage but waited for further clarification? Was there no way for the local police to timely communicate what was happening?
What is the protocol for ambiguous threats? We don’t see many situations where the Secret Service goes into protect mode for something that turns out to be nothing. Are they trained to hold back until they are sure?
in the remake of Condor, they have Bob Balaban, who is not so much a comic actor, play a nearly demonic Company supergrade, Ruell Abbott, his scheme is like the one in the film,
upscaled to the third power,
Leland said: "Is it really inconceivable that disinterest in actual policing resulted in random violence being something that doesn't appear random?"
No. We live in an era of a staggering drop in standards in all facets of American life, from service in local retail operations to your Federal Government. Our populace is less focused on getting the job right, employees are rarely trained properly- if at all, and we now hire based on things like skin color, vagina count, or simply because the biz or operation was so mismanaged, they are scrambling for any breathing bodies to fill slots.
So, no- it is not inconceivable that disinterest, or lack of ability caused this. It's highly likely. And the easy way to prove this is to let out as much information as possible, as quickly as possible, so that questions that linger do not fester.
stop pretending you cover all the high ground and you preempt this problem, but there is someone of a parallel with the 7th Cavalry in Danang Valley, they had 1/3 of the manpower deployed,
If the top rated personal security group in the world, that would be the Secret Service, subcontracts partial security to local law enforcement, it is mandatory the SS reviews their plans, locations of armed snipers, all buildings where any long range rifle may connect. For the SS to pass the buck is typical government accountability. No one will get fired.
Remember the goal is 30% female SS agents, being short, overweight, and firearms incompetent is not a detriment.
I didn't trust the FIB, CIA, DNS et al before, it's worse now.
As noted above, local law enforcement were relied upon to clear the area (taking that at face value).
It's not realistic to require the Secret Service to do everything; they have to rely on other departments and agencies to do their job.
However, are you relying on a department which has had training barely a step above mall security guard, which is employing based on quotas and whatever they can get?
Blogger Earnest Prole said...
For those spinning conspiracy theories, the idea the Secret Service plotted with rural Pennsylvania law enforcement is dopey even by Althouse commenter standards.
Who provided that theory before the Prole just did? I don't think anyone in Althouse commentariat suggested that the Secret Service plotted with local law enforcement to allow an assassination attempt. I know a Democrat Strategist suggested such a staging by the Trump campaign, but who within the Althouse community, besides the Prole troll, is suggesting it?
The issue is if "The system failure is obvious", why was such an observation allowed and not acted upon? That's not a conspiracy theory. It is the root cause of such momentous failures as the loss of Challenger and Columbia. If you observe a systemic failure, it is righteous to ask why it happened and was allowed to be systemic. It is the one part of CRT that has merit, if you believe the notion that racism is systemic. It is why most of the Althouse commentariat noted that if keep calling Trump "literally Hitler", then someone might act as if Trump is Hitler. It doesn't mean racism is systemic or Trump is Hitler. It means people casually making these claims are creating a system that will result in violent acts like this. When you normalize deviance, bad things happen.
They can't find out who's cocaine was found in the White House but this they'll figure out.
stlcdr said:
“It's not realistic to require the Secret Service to do everything; they have to rely on other departments and agencies to do their job.”
It is realistic. To ask every single local police force (large or small) to know how to protect Presidential candidates is unrealistic.
why isn't it realistic, in a city like Dallas with multiple highrises, along a long standing parade route, possibly, but in a small venue like Butler,
When I was a manufacturing management our mantra was: "Delegate don't abdicate". Secret Service take note.
I've been involved in the planning/hosting of a half-dozen or so presidential visits/events (two US/RVN summit meetings, one speaking appearance in a college basketball arena, one honored guest appearance at a 100 person private dinner and several visits to US space program facilities. My role in matters of security has never exceeded keeping my mouth shut.
Some security lockdowns are relatively easy and some are really complicated and hard. What happened on Saturday was WAY down on the easy-to-prevent scale.
Complete failure in planning and execution. I have no idea whether security protocols have changed but the culture and leadership have gone off the rails.
It is unthinkable that the SS simply handed-off buildings and rooftops with shooting positions to the local cops. A deadly "inclusion" decision, that.
The SS Director should be on "leave, pending investigation", at the least. And the GOP Congress should have already formed a fact-finding committee.
AAaaarrgh!!!!!!
"Blogger GatorNavy said...
The cover up by the various alphabet agencies will be an epic ass-covering, finger-pointing, blame-storming orgy of bureaucratic in-fighting. There has already been some preliminary finger pointing aimed at the local police. Choose your popcorn wisely."
Beat me to it. Yep, it has already reached epic proportions. The LEO have leaked they had the guy in their sights for 45 seconds and the Secret Service would not give them permission to engage. The ss responded by saying they weren't in charge, the LEO did not need their permission.
Rocco said,
“Mistakes were made.” People will be blamed.
I can't ascribe to conspiracy what can equally be ascribed to incompetence. Incompetence usually wins.
My theory is they screwed up, biggly. End of conspiracy.
PROTECTION of the president is the reason for their existence.
The roof was NOT secured.
"Explanation" be damned.
It is THEIR responsibility.
Their fault.
Now that the “inconceivable” has been dispensed with, if another attempt is successful, it cannot be said it was inconceivable again. Make the inconceivable, inconceivable again.
Something happened somewhere...
We need "a significant investigation." Obviously. Who can be trusted?
I hear Jack Smith's calendar is free.
The LEO have leaked they had the guy in their sights for 45 seconds and the Secret Service would not give them permission to engage. The SS responded by saying they weren't in charge, the LEO did not need their permission.
OK but everyone in the police and SS details is wearing a radio headset or earpiece, and there are well established protocols for protecting the principal from even questionable or theoretical threats. Why did they let Trump stand and talk for 45 seconds after someone saw a guy on a roof with a rifle only 140 yards away from him and called in to report it? He should have been taken to ground and dogpiled by his whole detail within five seconds.
The family of the guy that was killed ought to be suing the shit out of everyone involved. Discovery will be interesting too.
"Yes. That should have been part of his "address from the Oval Office", and his lack of providing it should be the talk of the town, just as the talk and efforts to strip such protection from Trump came immediate to mind."
Joe could have ordered protection for Kennedy, and increased protection for Trump, and then added that - since that would stress SS resources - he would reinvent the Rose Garden strategy for the remainder of the campaign. Win-win-win.
The inconceivable "burden" of conception.
It was totally conceivable to at least one person.
I’ve seen screen shots of the shooter’s Instagram account from Saturday. But it’s gone now
The article is on American Thinker by Selwyn Duke
"OK but everyone in the police and SS details is wearing a radio headset or earpiece"
The feds letting the local yokels onto the same frequency? Nope, I'd bet that there was at least two layers of higher to go through before the message got passed.
I expect the investigation will be thorough and conclusive. Just like the investigation of the cocaine in the White House.
Top Men will look into this!
Top. Men.
I don't think anyone in Althouse commentariat suggested that the Secret Service plotted with local law enforcement to allow an assassination attempt.
You’ve nicely amplified my point: It’s a conspiracy theory so dopey, even dopey conspiracy theorists instinctively know it’s crazy.
I read a report stating that a local policeman, warned by spectators, climbed up to the roof where Crooks was, but having his hands full holding onto the edge of the roof he couldn't pull out his gun, so he simply dropped back down to the ground.
This behavior, and the behavior of the sniper units behind Trump, apparently watching Crooks through binoculars, reminds me of the Uvalde police. "Should we do something? What if we do something wrong?" Classic cowardice.
DEI explains it all. Incompetence. The local police were told to cover the building but didn't. No one asked if they'd carried out the assignment. DEI Incompetence.
Local police climbed up on the roof and saw the rifle and dropped down but had no one to tell. DEI Incompetence.
But, anyway, the SS had the assassin in their sights but didn't shoot. They were waiting to see if he shot. Those were the orders. Assassins get to shoot first in the present SS rules. DEI Incompetence. And a good man lies dead. A citizen, a good father, husband, brother - dead due to DEI Incompetence.
Meanwhile Hunter and Jill and Joe were resource sucking with protective large details. Protection from what? Uniquely, no friend or enemy of America wants them dead.
" For the SS to pass the buck is typical government accountability. No one will get fired."
If the SS director had any integrity, firing wouldn't be necessary. A resignation would already have been submitted.
Top. Men.
You gotta respect a man who gets that quote right.
not inconceivable to anyone who worked for the government, where the rules and regulations are more important than reality. The SS said the roof would be checked by local cops who had no expertise in the need for arresting a kid just because he looked suspicious, and of course there was no regulation to say the local cops could alert the experts if confronted with a threat...so he wasn't arrested because human rights. And hey shooting a guy with a rifle on a roof nearby was a no no because hey he hadn't done anything wrong and the rules say only shoot in self defense.
As a doc, I fought Medicare regulators who insisted that we admit a patient with resistant staph infection to our nursing home, knowing that even though the book said we could isolate her, I knew that was not true in reality with a half trained overworked staff. However, Dr Levine obeyed the rules and voila, 20 thousand in Pennsylvania died because he allowed infectious covid patients to be placed back into nursing homes post hospitalization. Because obeying regulations was more important than reality. (but he put her mom into a hotel to keep her safe, so he/she knew the regulations were wrong).
Oliver Stone MUST direct this film.
It does not matter if the local police were in charge of that area. The Secret Service was in charge of the whole event. Every 20-something working as a retail or fast food manager knows to inspect what you expect. The person in charge of overseeing the security of the event should have made sure all of the area was covered by either SS or local police.
There should have been several resignations by now. That Kimberly Cheatle was part of Biden's detail when he was VP makes it look as though she may have been biased and not taken Trump's security as seriously as she should have.
Resignations should have been voluntary, out of shame, but when that didn't happen, Biden should have demanded them.
"Resignations should have been voluntary, out of shame..."
A progressive, feeling shame? I suppose it's possible it's happened somewhere before.
My theory is they screwed up, biggly. End of conspiracy.
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as Trump would say the screw up was yuuge and beatiful
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