Secret Service faces questions after Trump assassination attempt
The Secret Service is facing questions after former US President Donald Trump was shot at during a rally in Pennsylvania.
Trump, who is now “doing well”, says he was shot in the ear as he stood in front of crowds at a fairground in Butler.
One bystander was killed in the shooting and two others were critically injured, according to a Secret Service spokesman.
The Director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, has been summoned to testify before the US House of Representatives on 22 July by the Oversight Committee – the main investigative board of the US House of Representatives.
At a news conference on Sunday, FBI special agent Kevin Rojek said it was “surprising” that the shooter, who has been named as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to open fire before the Secret Service killed him.
An investigation into the attempted assassination, which is already under way, involves the FBI, the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security.
“Americans demand answers about the assassination attempt of President Trump,” the Oversight Committee said in a statement on social media.
Trump was quickly bundled off stage and into a waiting vehicle after shots were fired just a few minutes into his speech at 18:11 local time on Saturday.
Blood could be seen near the former president’s ear as he raised his fist to the crowd.
In a post to his Truth Social network, Trump said a bullet pierced the “upper part” of his right ear.
“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” Trump wrote.
“Much bleeding took place, so I realised then what was happening.”
The FBI said it is treating the incident as an assassination attempt on Trump and it is an “active and ongoing investigation”.
The suspect was shot dead at the scene by a US Secret Service sniper, said the agency’s spokesperson, Anthony Guglielmi.
He added that the one bystander killed in the shooting, and the two others critically injured, were all male. Their identities have not been released.
Law enforcement sources told CBS News that Crooks had been armed with “an AR-style rifle” and had fired from a building a few hundred metres from the venue.
Special Agent Kevin Rojek said Crooks had not been carrying ID and that investigators used DNA to identify him.
They have yet to identify a motive for the assassination attempt, he added.
State voter records show that Crooks was a registered Republican, according to US media reports.
He is also reported to have donated $15 to a liberal campaign group in 2021.
A senior adviser to Donald Trump’s campaign said there are questions about how prepared the Secret Service was.
Speaking to the BBC World Service, Stephen Moore called it a “scary day”.
“Certainly Trump needs more protection – there’s a lot of inquiry now about whether the Secret Service was totally prepared,” Mr Moore said.
However, Mr Guglielmi says there is an “untrue assertion” circulating that someone on Trump’s security team had requested extra security “resources” and that request was “rebuffed”.
“This is absolutely false. In fact, we added protective resources and technology and capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo,” Mr Guglielmi said.
You can read the full article on the BBC here...
