Former president and GOP nominee Donald Trump was the center of an assassination attempt one month ago—and there are still many unanswered questions.
Notably, the country is still wondering how the young shooter managed to get within shooting distance of the stage and was not apprehended when first spotted as a suspicious person. Trump miraculously survived the July 13 shooting, walking away with an ear injury while two rally attendees were seriously wounded, and another killed by more bullets.
The former president said in an interview on August 12 that law enforcement had shown bravery and competency during the disastrous campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. But then he gave voice to what Americans have been thinking for the past month: what happened to result in such a drastic lack of communication between federal and local authorities and why was he allowed on stage after Thomas Crooks was spotted?
In the interview, Trump said there was too little “coordination” between law enforcement agencies—including the Secret Service, which has taken the heat for the attack—and noted that the building where the shooter was located “should have been covered.” The former president also pointed out that he would have expected to be asked to “wait” 10 or 20 minutes to take the stage, until the situation was more fully understood and potential risks eliminated.
Trump said that a postponement of the speech start “happens often” for less dangerous things like weather and that the spotting of the shooter was the “perfect time” for the same protocol to be in place. Crooks, age 20, was shot dead by the Secret Service on the nearby rooftop. His semiautomatic rifle and other explosives were uncovered on the scene, in his car, and at his house.
According to Kimberly Cheatle, the since resigned director of the Secret Service, the assassination attempt is the agency’s “most significant operational failure” in years. She told the House Oversight Committee on July 22 that she is “full[y] responsible” for the “security lapse.” Despite taking broad accountability for the catastrophe, Cheatle did not provide much insight into what happened on that day.
Other questions that remain unanswered one month after the shooting include whether the building where Crooks was located had been secured by the time he opened fire. Cheatle previously said that the slope of the roof had inhibited placing an agent there, citing safety concerns.
But Chrisopher Paris, the head of the Pennsylvania State Police, later testified that the limited security was the result of failed communication between state, local, and federal law enforcement. This leads to another question of which agency is to blame for the shooting—local police or the Secret Service?
Additionally, Christopher Wray of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) informed lawmakers that the agency has yet to satisfy the country’s curiosity surrounding the motive Crooks had to kill Trump. As of yet, the agency has discovered that Crooks was registered for the rally by July 6 and had Googled the distance from which Lee Harvey Oswald fatally shot John F. Kennedy in 1963.
