So much for my plans to post light video content today.
Given the flood of news stories, blog posts and videos, I wasn’t sure I had a good angle on the assassination attempt against Donald Trump by (according to police reports) 20 year old Thomas Matthew Crooks, one that would do anything to enlighten my readers that hadn’t already been done before.
But Russo-Ukrainian War YouTuber Suchomimus put up a video that I think admirably elucidates spatial awareness of the attempted assassination:
Takeaways:
Sky News has an overview and footage of the shooting at about 2:30 in:
Like every other dramatic shooting event, a lot of the initial information (including the shooter’s name) was wrong.
Beyond this, there’s a lot of noise (a registered Republican who donated to Act Blue and wore a Demolition Ranch t-shirt?) that I don’t want to try untangling at this late hour.
Maybe more after I’ve slept…
Tags: 2024 Presidential Race, assassination, Crime, Donald Trump, Elections, Pennsylvania, Secret Service, Sky News, Suchomimus, Thomas Matthew Crooks, Trump Assassination Attempt, video
None of this makes any sense, but we’ll see what comes out.
Antifa comrades register as Grand Old Politburo but vote CPUSA.
Secret Service did deny Trump campaign’s request for more protection 5 days ago. This is either incompetence or malice. I’m leaning towards both.
I suspect it’s going to be a really really really really stupid thing to put progressive yard signs right out on their front lawns. I think people are going to start paying attention to which have them and who lives there for a rainy day, and if not they damn well better.
That “analysis” craters on the fact that other people were killed and injured. The shooter emptied/nearly emptied a 10-round mag before the SS took him out. My opinion is that the SS was there to be Jack Ruby and do clean up after the wet work.
Bethel Park is a very Republican area at the southern edge of Allegheny County. There are so few Democrats that the Democratic Party did not even field a candidate in the 40th House of Representatives district in which the shooter lives, in the April 2024 primaries.
Many very partisan Democrats in closed primary states register as Republicans in these Republican dominated areas so they can spoil the outcomes of Republican primaries. They think of themselves as genius strategists.
The more I’m seeing, the less I believe any of the protestations about “the authorities” non-involvement in this.
Consider the question of just how unlikely it is that some rando 20-yo would be able to get onto the one roof that the Secret Service protective detail left unsecured and unwatched…? This one time. What are the odds, eh?
The last time I was around a Presidential security detail controlled event, the Secret Service had every rooftop surrounding the site locked down, under observation, and they were so thorough about checking people off-site that I got an agent in my face for eating my lunch in my car that just happened to be parked facing the venue where it was happening.
The idea that the shooter could somehow have meandered his way through the usual security blanket surrounding these events, to get to where he could take those shots? Ludicrous. The paranoia I experienced first-hand was, ohbytheway, on a military base where you could pretty much count on everyone being on the President’s side. I can’t imagine that they were more paranoid and cautious there than they would have been at a civilian venue…
Something stinks to high heaven about this whole thing, and I don’t know what it is.
The other question here is the “dog that didn’t bark in the night”. Stats-wise, how ‘effing unlikely is it that this was the first and only time that the Trump security detail has left a hole in the perimeter like this? I mean, OK… Say that this is the only time they’ve ever left one of these gaping holes; how is it that someone, just this one time, managed to find it and exploit it? Is that not rather, shall we say, coincidental?
In order for this to be believable, then there must have been hundreds of other opportunities afforded random 20-yo shooters, who just didn’t manage to wend their way through the epically half-ass security cordon, no?
I’m not buying any of this, and at the moment, given the literal picture-perfect optics captured by none other than the New York Times, I’d even be willing to entertain the idea that Trump and/or his handlers are behind this, staging a show for the rubes… Highly ‘effing unlikely, but… Jesus, what are the odds of all this? That perfectly framed picture with the flag over his left shoulder? How unlikely is it that such a thing would “just happen”?
I’m working through my old stats handbook, and I’l be damned if I can even begin to put numbers on this being a chain of coincidental/accidental actions leading to all these events.
Of course, if you go back and look, the chain of events that saw to the deaths of Franz Ferdinand and his wife were ridiculously unlikely, as well. How the hell do these things manage to culminate from such huge laundry lists of “Improbable…”?
1: Guy would have turned 21 in September
2: Gave to Act Blue on day of Biden’s inauguration, when he was 17
3: Registered at or before 18th birthday as a Republican. PA is a closed Primary State, so by doing so this meant he could vote against Trump in the 2024 Primary
4: His last vote, however, was the 2022 GE
5: According to Susan Crabtree of Real Clear Investigations, her sources are telling her that the SS has a “don’t shoot until the person you are watching has shot” ROE
6: Like many others, it completely violates my mental model of the world for the SS to have no security covering the only roof in 150 yards of the protectee. The incompetence level there is astronomical
My conclusion: the shooter was a left winger who believed that Trump is “literally Hitler” and a “threat to democracy”, and decided to “do something” about it.
But I still have no conclusion as to how the SS could possibly be so incompetent as to not stop the guy before he shot Trump
The tell here is Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer Kimberly A. Cheatle’s refusal to provide RFK, Jr. with any protection, despite his tragic family history.
The Deep State wants both Trump and RFK, Jr. dead.
“([A] registered Republican who donated to Act Blue…”
“Many very partisan Democrats in closed primary states register as Republicans in these Republican dominated areas so they can spoil the outcomes of Republican primaries.”
As much as it grieves me to admit it, 10×25 is right for once. The shooter registered Republican so he could vote against Trump’s endorsed candidate in the Republican primary. Evidently, this twisted snake has been hating on The Donald for years.
Kirk,
Been wondering about that myself. Ever have a job that required X amount of people but only have a fraction x? I keep hearing about resource issues on Trump’s detail. Considering the size of USSS (it’s pretty small) and the political leanings the top management, I can’t imagine it’s plum detail to be on and I bet it’s resourced at close to the minimum the risk assessment would allow. I keep looking at the size of the area that had to covered. To really cover that would require sizable amount of people on both perimeter management crowd control. When people ask why wasn’t that building covered, I find myself asking what hole would have been created by plugging that one?
I bet the MLCOA was someone getting inside the perimeter with a concealed pistol and the MDCOA was someone getting an explosive in. Snipers on nearby rooftops were probably left to the counter sniper team. Once again, probably not enough of them to watch all POIs all the time so they were left scanning. That left the whole this guy managed to get in. That’s just my guess
Now contemplate all of the event gates that had to be open in order for the shooter to get to where he got, in order to make the shot.
The venue is not in his backyard. He’d have had to have pretty accurate and detailed personal knowledge of those buildings whose roof he crawled on. Where did the ladder he used come from? Did he bring it himself?
I’ve actually seen one of the checklists that security details use, and one of the things that they do during the initial site assessments are things like check for unsecured ladders and so forth on site, along with things like whether or not the roof accesses even exist. They also go up onto roofs to gauge sight lines and all the rest of the things a shooter would need to know.
So, how’d this kid from an upper-middle class family with no real background in this sort of thing manage to evade attention to get where he got shot? I find the whole trail of events (as revealed so far) to be far too conveniently in this kid’s favor to do what he did, and it’s also highly suspicious that the security detail and Trump did what they did.
I still can’t get around what a picture-perfect photo op this turned out to be for Trump. OK, yeah… Random chance does turn in people’s favor. Sometimes. But, this? That image of Trump raising his fist and saying “Fight!” is iconography that a PR flack could only dream of in his wildest imaginings, and THAT JUST HAPPENED. And, by the New York Times…
I’m not saying anyone anywhere planned this, but… For all of the events making this possible to have “just happened”? WTF? What are the odds?
I wish I could assign some values to the variables that had to line up, like “Just how many holes has the Trump security detail been leaving in their perimeters…”, because for this one guy to have gotten through just this one time…? That argues rather forcefully that they have been leaving a lot of them, that weren’t taken advantage of.
I mean, OK… I could see maybe if this venue was in the kid’s backyard. It’s an hour north of his home, and granted, there’s a strong likelihood that he’d have been familiar with the fair venue, but that glass plant he was crawling on top of? WTF? How’d he know about that, and how’d he know that the place wouldn’t be swarming with security and Secret Service agents?
I ain’t kidding you about them keeping an eye on things waaaaay out of the immediate area for these things. I was parked, facing the airfield where the President was supposed to be coming in, and all I was doing was watching the airfield while I ate my lunch. I had a Secret Service agent and an MP tapping at my window, wanting to know what the hell I was doing… Something like 3/4″ mile away (straight line) from the actual site, with an airfield perimeter fence between me and the damn venue that Bush was speaking at.
That’s the sort of nutso paranoia I’m used to seeing from these Secret Service operations. Hell, they went so far as to have the units with Arms Rooms inside the airfield turn in all their keys to ensure nobody had weapons accessible…
And, Joe Rando 20-yo just prances well inside what should have been the security cordon, this one time they didn’t have someone watching that roof?
All I can say is that I find this whole thing highly unlikely and extremely suspicious.
“Say that this is the only time they’ve ever left one of these gaping holes; how is it that someone, just this one time, managed to find it and exploit it? Is that not rather, shall we say, coincidental?”
Coincidental?! No, it is *damning*.
Kirk, EVERY report I’ve seen on this has stated the building was OUTSIDE the perimeter. The shooter didn’t have to go through any gates, submit to any screening or jump through any hoops
One of the data points lurking in the background here is that Cheatle was once on Biden’s detail; she was a Secret Service agent before she went to Pepsi. After Biden “won” in 2000, what I’m seeing reported is that she was brought back to run the Secret Service for him…
Rather… Interesting, no?
Oh yeah, which makes me guess he got about the minimum detail an normal ex president would get…. not one that regularly holds rallies with 10’s of thousands of people
Kevin, the security perimeter is not what you think it is.
They layer these things; there’s an inner perimeter, and then there’s another outer one where they’re supposed to ensure that nobody has sightlines onto the venue. If there are overlooking rooves, they put teams out to ensure nobody is doing just what this shooter did. I’ve seen the setups for urban areas, and they’ll go so far as to put overwatch teams up on buildings all along the motorcade routes, just to make sure nobody can oversee the route and shoot at it.
Typically, they go so far as to include some really extreme possibilities, too… Like, someone stealing and using an anti-tank rocket launcher like a Javelin or a TOW. The security cordon there at Fort Lewis had them putting vetted MP elements on the high ground surrounding the airfield, just in case.
Data point for what to expect in the near-term future:
https://nypost.com/2024/07/12/us-news/milwaukee-approved-every-rnc-protest-request-vetting-no-one-with-the-list-including-the-chinese-communist-party/
“The idea that the shooter could somehow have meandered his way through the usual security blanket surrounding these events, to get to where he could take those shots? Ludicrous.”
Such treachery is as old as the Kings of ancient Israel. King David fatally stripped Uriah the Hittite of his reinforcements so that the husband of Bathsheba would not discover David had impregnated her. Is the Deep State beyond suspicion of orchestrating an analogous event?
In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”
So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died. 2 Samuel 11:14-17
Oh I know that and it’s ideal if you have the people to pull it off. The fact that they are admitting this was outside the perimeter even with local LE assistance is telling me Trump’s detail is short staffed as F***. They either don’t have enough for a good advance team or they don’t have for the full coverage or … *shudder* … both
“I still can’t get around what a picture-perfect photo op this turned out to be for Trump. OK, yeah… Random chance does turn in people’s favor. Sometimes. But, this? That image of Trump raising his fist and saying “Fight!” is iconography that a PR flack could only dream of in his wildest imaginings, and THAT JUST HAPPENED. And, by the New York Times…”
An abundance of American flags behind the dais at political rallies is de rigueur these days.
You have watched Trump for 8 years. Would you expect anything other than a scowl and a raised fist under these circumstances?
Do you remember the expression on Trump’s face when Michael Steven Sandford attempted to grab the pistol of a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer providing security in the Mystère Theater with the intention of shooting Trump as Trump was speaking there on June 17, 2016. Trump was not removed from the stage, but a famous photograph showed his pugnacious scowl along with a raised fist. This photograph was widely used against him politically – to portray him as a fascist – through the end of the 2020 campaign.
Apparently, you missed the point I was making about the image getting captured and disseminated, in the first place. By the New York Times, no less.
Lieni Reifenstahl would have cheerfully slit someone’s throat for the opportunity to create such a masterpiece of political iconography. As would Sergei Eisenstein or John Ford. That shot is perfectly composed, perfectly framed, and utterly iconic for Trump.
What are the odds? I’ll buy a couple of coincidences along the way, but the whole bloody sequence of them to create this?
And, don’t get me wrong: I am not accusing or suggesting that anyone deliberately all of this, but the sheer improbability of it all just leaves me in awe. People are going to be attributing all this to “divine providence” and whatever other ridiculous causative agencies you can imagine before long, and it’s just so damn unlikely. Lay the sequence out in your head; all the interlocking things that had to occur just so, and the timing. This is Sarajevo, 1914 all over again, in terms of the ridiculous coincidences and perfection of timing.
@Kevin,
I think it’s a likely a little bit of Column “A”, some of Column “B”, and sheer bloody anti-fortuitousness, to coin a term. By rights, this nutter should have been spotted when he parked his car and started walking towards the roof access.
He was not. Which argues a lot of things are very, very wrong with Trump’s security. I’d expect his private security firm to be doing a better job than this, and I think he’s nuts if he is relying on the Secret Service that is run by a Biden appointee.
The whole thing here is just insane, in terms of the sheer improbabilities involved. A rational world would have had the shooter sitting in a police cruiser, attempting to explain what the hell he was doing with a rifle within a mile of Trump. The fact that he somehow managed to get onto what should have been a secured roof…? And, then take shots without anyone doing anything effective to stop him?
We’re living in crazy times. Someone turned the improbability dial up to 11 or 12, and here we are.
Just found my digital copy of the Trump Mystère Theater ‘fascist’ photo taken immediately after the Michael Steven Sandford assassination attempt.
It is a straight frontal shot with two raised fists, two flags in the background, and a very pugnacious scowl on Trump’s face. The only element missing is Trump’s blood.
The photographer in Butler probably had his camera on automatic and you are seeing one of maybe 200 images captured. Not a coincidence, just a fleeting image captured by a smart, experienced photographer who knew he was capturing history.
@kirk
Kinda what Ibwas saying. I’ve seen so much systemic incompetence amongst the highest levels, I don’t even consider situational incompetence. Most agencies are basically immediately outside their depth in anything beyond “normal”. In fact, they are so sure that “abnormal” will never happen, they don’t plan or prepare for it.
@10x25mm
The digital age has really made this easy by eliminating the cost of pushing the button. Take a 100 pics of the same 5 secs and the odds of one being “perfect” is pretty high
The Daily Caller just posted a short piece on Evan Vucci, the Pulitzer Prize winning AP photojournalist who captured the photographs of a bloodied Trump, surrounded by agents of the United States Secret Service, and raising his fist to rally the shaken crowd.
Luck, intuition, effort, and experience – in equal parts:
https://dailycaller.com/2024/07/14/associated-press-photojournalist-evan-vucci-donald-trump-butler-pennsylvania-assassination-attempt-photographs/
Watch the live rally video from Fox. After security dogpiles him, you can see photographers maneuvering around the ends of the platform, trying to get angles as if they were in the endzone chasing the receiver who just won the game in OT. That behavior is normal for them, and they use cameras that take a rapid series of bursts every time they push the trigger (one photographer caught a blurry line that was an actual bullet that was stretched out as it moved across the frame while the shutter was open). Add in the fact that political rallies–especially those aimed towards the patriotic–are festooned in flags, and the juxtaposition is unsurprising.
As far as “staged”, no. That’s an insane conspiracy theory (although I expect the left to run with it). Those were clearly live rounds, as evidenced by the bystander casualties. There’s no way that gun had an MOA small enough to guarantee that the round that clipped Trump wouldn’t “miss” its aim point and hit him in the skull. There’s no way Trump would roll the dice on that kind of odds. Our nation just threw boxcars multiple times in a row (or, if you prefer, “There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children, and the United States of America”).
Conspiracy theories that this was a hit directed from above… I can’t say that it’s impossible, but this feels far too amateurish (and almost certainly suicidal, which indeed proved the case) for that. Now, passive-aggressive conspiratorial actions like shorting Trump’s protective detail (and denying it to RFK entirely) seem far more likely to me. The heads of the bureaucracies in charge of protection are exactly the sort of people to do that sort of thing purely out of spite and to score woke points with their social class. As for the shooter, the media and social pressure has been all about “Will no one rid me of this troublesome candidate?” for years, now. It may not be legally actionable, but a large chunk of people all bear a small degree of guilt over that (most will never admit that, of course).
We’ve concluded for some time that the major institutions of this country are dishonest, and some of them even incompetent.
Should the Secret Service really be the exception?
Overnight, Reuters posted 16 images from the burst sequence taken by their photographer, Brendan McDermid. They are from a higher level than AP photographer Evan Vucci’s shots, but some of McDermid’s images are almost as compelling:
https://www.reuters.com/pictures/frame-by-frame-trump-survives-assassination-attempt-2024-07-14/
The Trump ‘fascist’ image taken by David Becker of Reuters immediately after the Michael Steven Sandford assassination attempt in the Mystère Theater on June 17, 2016 leads this (unrelated) NBC post:
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/donald-trump-ruining-workplace-morale-n790171?cid=public-rss_20170810
Most of the other posts of this image and their associated inflammatory articles have been scrubbed over that last 36 hours.
“Highly ‘effing unlikely, but… Jesus, what are the odds of all this? That perfectly framed picture with the flag over his left shoulder? How unlikely is it that such a thing would just ‘happen’?”
It’s just one of those “ridiculously causative agencies” that is upholding the universe and directing all events toward the ultimate end that He has decreed from the beginning of time.
“Cheatle was once on Biden’s detail; she was a Secret Service agent.”
How exciting! She got to see Joe swim around the pool sans clothing. Kimberly and Ashley ought to get together and compare notes on the Naked Emperor.
@ Big D: “Watch the live rally video from Fox (& etc…).”
I nominate you as thread winner for Most Lucid and Concise Analysis.
That perfectly framed picture with the flag over his left shoulder? How unlikely is it that such a thing would “just happen”?
No unlikely at all.
First, let’s cover the perfectly framed picture. Also noted by others, the photographers are put in a location to get the perfect picture of the candidate speaking in front of the best patriotic background possible. That is why two cranes where there holding the flag above and behind Trump, so that it was in view of the photographers. That was planned and staged as it is for every political rally by any competent campaign team.
Second, the threat of assassination is so prevalent that until this year, every candidate is provided a security detail to protect them. If it was unlikely to occur, then why the hell do we spend so much money to protect these politicians? Alas, it is very likely. And mistakes get made in the swiss cheese of barriers put in place to protect the candidates. This one was a rather ridiculous weakness in barriers that some 20-year-old could spot the vulnerability and exploit it. That is the low probability event that occurred.
The rest is why the photographers are there. They have plenty of pictures of Trump standing at a lectern with a flag behind him. They are there to capture something different, and if they missed the chance of a lifetime to get that picture, then shame on them. That one picture pays for all that expensive glass, time attending the events, and training. They damn well better get that picture. The photographers were the most competent professionals in attendance at that rally.
Another shot at The Donald goes wide of it’s mark. Judge Cannon ruled that Jack Smith’s appointment as Special Prosecutor violates the Appointments Clause of the US Constitution.
Thus ends the sooper seekrit stolen documents case.
Dr. Jill Biden was campaigning in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at an Italian Sons and Daughters of America event, at the exact same time President Trump was holding the Butler, PA rally. VP Harris was campaigning in Philadelphia.
Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer Kimberly A. Cheatle stripped President Trump of A Team Secret Service protection and gave these assets to Dr. Jill’s and VP Harris’ protective units. The SS at Dr. Jill’s event outnumbered the attendees. Trump was left with scant F Troop protection.
This is how the Deep State kills their enemies.
Susan Crabtree, RealClearPolitics’ national political correspondent, posted an article today which details the shabby Secret Service protection given to Trump on the 13th by Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer Kimberly A. Cheatle:
Secret Service in Crisis: Inflexible Protocols, Security Lapses in Spotlight
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2024/07/15/secret_service_in_crisis_inflexible_protocols_security_lapses_in_spotlight_151265.html
I’m way late here, but yesterday I found video of Crooks saying “I hate Republicans and I hate Donald Trump.”
That would seem pretty newsworthy. Got a link to that?
“This is how the Deep State kills their enemies.”
Kudos. This better aligns with Occam’s Razor than the countervailing false flag conspiracy, hyper-improbability narrative being bruited here.
Malthus said:
“Kudos. This better aligns with Occam’s Razor than the countervailing false flag conspiracy, hyper-improbability narrative being bruited here.”
Make no mistake… I’m not “bruiting” anything about a conspiracy theory, merely pointing the sheer improbability of this string of events.
I’ve been at these things, before: All y’all saying “Oh, the photographers are always there, recording things…”. Bullshit. They’re usually locked down in press-pool like arrangements, and if they tried moving from their designated zones, then they’d get their asses shot. That’s a part of the security perimeter… Suborned news media has always been a risk factor.
Remember what happened to Ahmed Shah Massoud, there before 9/11? Every single ‘effing security plan for VIP events like this that I’ve seen in the past had the press down as a potential threat, and they were typically viewed as potential hostiles… To the point that they were briefed that “…if something happens and you move around, we will shoot you…”
Now, you’re telling me that it “just happened” that they were not immediately corralled and were not viewed as potential threats, so were allowed to jockey around and “get good shots”? If you can aim a goddamn camera, you can aim a gun, or something concealed in a camera that is actually a weapon. The fact that they weren’t on the ground with someone covering them with a weapon points to yet another security lapse… “Getting good shots of the event…” Listen to yourselves: The fact these images even exist indicates a rather massive security breach, and a failure to plan.
If I were the guy actually looking to take out a VIP, I’d have a layered attack, with multiple assailants ready to go, taking advantage of the chaos. Put a rifleman up on a roof, have him shoot, engender panic, have people in the press pool with “cameras” that aren’t, and have a guy or two in suicide vests waiting for the panicked security people to hustle the VIP out of the venue, whereupon the suicide vest guys could get closer than normal to said VIP…
Every one of those cameramen getting those “amazing photos” should have been viewed as potential threats and taken the f*ck out. If Trump’s security was competent, which it manifestly was not.
This is straight-up Keystone Cops bullshit, and the fact that he a.) survived it, and b.) the chain of events produced those images is borderline miraculous.
I am, by nature, suspicious of “miracles”. I’ve never seen one, never been around one, and I don’t believe in them. Most of you just don’t get how ‘effing bizarre all of this is…
At the very least, someone “let” this happen; by all security protocols for VIP events that I’m familiar with, and I have seen and reviewed the OPORD for a military-supported one of these, that press pool should not have been able to do what it did. Not for a former president running for office…
Now, I’ll grant you that this is an unusual case: I don’t believe we’ve had a former president run for the Presidency again without also being the current incumbent in the modern era, but you have to ask why the Secret Service is treating Trump like he’s a superannuated former president like Jimmy Carter, going to a Habitat for Humanity event, rather than the almost-certain nominee for the Republican Party former President.
That factor aside, someone turned off the security and allowed this to happen…
As an aside… If you’re an actual citizen of a republic, vice being a mere resident?
You ought rightly be highly suspicious when things eventuate which turn your leadership into deified symbols. If you look at a sequence of events that produce such things, you ought to be looking at those events with a very jaundiced and highly critical eye, if only to keep the bastards involved honest.
I honestly don’t like Donald Trump; I think he’s an extreme outlier on the extrovert scale, a shameless self-promoter, and a consummate salesman. I automatically do not trust people that I perceive having those characteristics; I would not, willingly, associate with Trump socially out of anything other than curiosity. I voted for him in 2016 not because I wanted him as President; I thought he’d do a shitty job, but a less shitty job than Hillary.
I have to acknowledge and admit that I was wrong; he was a much better president than I expected, even with all of his too-trusting of the establishment errors like picking people the inner party “suggested” to him. I voted for him willingly in 2020; I still think he should have won, and I believe he was frauded out of office.
That’s there on the surface; from what evidence I have, I’ll vote for him again.
But…
I see crap like this, what happened in Pennsylvania? I see that, and I feel manipulated. I’m not the trusting kid I was in 1980, when I argued for Ronald Reagan as candidate in high school; I’m not the credulous young soldier that was actually able to vote for him for the first time in 1984, either.
Trust; but, verify. If events are manifesting which seemingly “immanentize the eschaton”, you ought rightly make damn certain that they actually are.
And, to fully validate Godwin’s Law, here: I would point out that unsuccessful assassination events have often been a key part of the mythology surrounding these people we elevate to these positions: Teddy Roosevelt, for example? Adolf Hitler, whose history of “missed assassin opportunities” was near-legendary? And, which I suspect was likely at least partially staged/fabricated by his handlers and sycophants?
Surviving an assassination tends to lend a lot of credibility to a leader; it also tends to make them think that they’re unquestionably doing God’s good work, and that they’re thus infallible.
Until they’re not.
Frankly, going by the history of it? You wouldn’t be entirely crazy to say that if someone survives an assassination, then they ought to be observed carefully for signs of incipient megalomania, and then gently sidelined if that manifests. You can’t blame someone for surviving an attempt on their life and being a bit chuffed about it all, but… It can take you a lot of bad places. There are reasons we try to keep Medal of Honor recipients out of combat after they are recognized for their heroism: One factor is that they tend to push themselves to keep “deserving it”, but the other is that they also have a slight tendency towards sometimes thinking they’re God-touched, and immune to consequence…
Just saying. Beware of things that set leaders up on pedestals for worship; there are reasons that Roman leaders being “triumphed” had a designated slave whispering in their ear about their mortality all the while they were being paraded through Rome…
“‘Oh, the photographers are always there, recording things…’. Bullshit. They’re usually locked down in press-pool like arrangements, and if they tried moving from their designated zones, then they’d get their asses shot.”
Nice “always there” straw man, Kirk. Except this time we can clearly see reporters with cameras at the foot of the podium pressing against the railing to get a better angle for their pictures.
So am I to believe the evidence of my own eyes or trust your extensive experience as a self-anointed security expert to evaluate the event for me?
Malthus, have you ever seen a presidential security plan, or been around an event like that to know what is “normal”?
I have. The raw order laid out precisely what the limits were for the press pool, where they had to stay, and they were instructed that no matter what happened, they had to stay within the set boundaries for the press pool. They were emphatically NOT allowed to just move around and do whatever they damn well felt like.
Friend of mine was part of of those press pools; they were one of the Army PAO photographers for the base newspaper/PAO operation. She was briefed by the Secret Service that if “something happened”, they were absolutely not to be doing what those guys in PA had to be doing to get those photos, which was just move. The Secret Service agent doing the briefing for the press at that event was pretty clear about what the consequences for that crap would be, which was that they would shoot anyone and anything that presented as just a potential additional threat, once something happened. The briefing was clear: If there was an “incident”, stand still, remain in place, and don’t do a damn thing until and unless the President was out of the area and the Secret Service detail called the “all-clear”. One of the civilian media types raised their little hand during the briefing my friend and informant was at, said something to the effect that he was there as a representative of the press and would damn well do what he pleased to “get the story”, and the Secret Service agent just looked at him flatly and said “And then we’ll shoot you because you are making it look like you’re involved…” Which shut the guy up, to say the least.
No idea if that was the standard for every Presidential event, but that was the one that I saw and have personal knowledge of.
Frankly, if you’re in charge of the security, and you don’t see those guys waving press credentials and a camera around as potential threats… You need a new job. Use of fraudulent media credentials and even suborned media figures is a known terrorist TTP, and something you’re trained to consider in every security setting.
The fact that you had those photographers running around the way they were represents a pretty damning indictment on the people running Trump’s security detail, and that’s a fact. If you were one of the reaction squad, and you saw someone maneuvering around to “get a shot” with a camera, that’s the exact same thing that a person maneuvering to get a clear weapon shot would be doing, as well… And, if you don’t react to that? You’re not doing your job.
Frankly, the fact that there wasn’t “collateral damage” on those photographer types is a clear indicator of lax security. That movement should have been treated as though they were part of the attack, and dealt with appropriately. Which means, eliminated as a threat. Someone starts shooting at one of these VIP events, you stay right the hell where you are, and don’t move a damn muscle until and unless said VIP is out of the area, because to do anything else is to highlight yourself for attention by the security element.
Of course, if you’re a f*cking idiot, go right on ahead and try to “record for posterity”. I’m sure there won’t be any consequences for confusing and stressing out the guys with guns standing around the VIP…
“‘Oh, the photographers are always there, recording things…’. Bullshit. They’re usually locked down in press-pool like arrangements, and if they tried moving from their designated zones, then they’d get their asses shot.”
1: The video of the photographers moving around is available, I saw it yesterday on Twitter, just floating through my timeline.
2: The SS Agents were busy dogpiling on the President, finally getting around to shooting the would=be assassin, and looking for others. Sure, they’re going to dump a bunch of shots at photographers at the podium
Just take the L. Trump got lucky by turning his head at JUST the right time, and then he responded well.
It happened. Get over it. And stop showing your a$$
Kirk, I don’t disagree that the press probably *should* have been locked down… but it’s already been well-established that USSS has been deeply unserious for well over a decade now, with incident after incident bubbling up into the press (and how many more were successfully covered up?). Add to that the current DEI initiative and the politicization of assignments based on the Administration’s dislike of opposing candidates, and you have a chain where half the links or more are weak… in an environment where the left has been dumping fertilizer and drenching it in diesel for decades. At that point, it doesn’t take a top-down conspiracy to set off a conflagration, any more than Gavrilo Princip was secretly directed to start WWI.
As for miracles? Well, we can’t rely on them to always save the day, given that history is full of terrible events; in the end, we mostly must “help ourselves” and pray that that is enough. However, history is chock full of improbable events. And I take on faith alone that miracles *do* exist. So, whether this was an improbable happenstance or a bona fide miracle? I cannot determine which is true, and I’m o.k. with not knowing the answer, at least in this life. Best to set that question aside (and give thanks for any help that might have been provided!) and proceed forward with the world as it exists today.
Greg, what I am telling you all is that that is emphatically NOT supposed to happen during one of these things.
VIP security is supposed to be an interlocking affair, looking for equally interlocking attacks; if this had been a serious attack made by serious people, Trump would have died to either a secondary shooter in the crowd/press, or someone wearing a suicide vest or something as those amateur-hour agents were trying to get him to his vehicle.
The fact that those photos exist at all is a testament to the lax security at this event. Jesus H. Christ… I’m telling you what the level of security was for a presidential event was, circa the mid-2000s, and for those photographers to be moving around after shots were fired? Would. NOT. Have. Happened.
Think about it: You’re a Secret Service agent, tasked with covering the inner security detail with the President while they get him to the evacuation vehicle or safe location; you see people moving around, jockeying for position… What should you be doing, pray tell? Are you going to rely on that person being an honest member of the press, seeking to “record for posterity”, or are you going to treat them as a potential threat, and eliminate it?
I don’t know what the hell the scene looked like from the perspective of those outer-ring security guys, but… From the video I’ve seen from the crowd’s perspective, I can’t see how those people with cameras that were “moving with purpose” weren’t singled out and identified with “threat”.
You expect and account for people running away (which there wasn’t a lot of…) and trying to get down and out of the line of sight for the shooter. But, you see someone trying to get a line of sight on the protectee…? Even if they have a camera, that could just be camouflage, and how long does it take to draw a weapon from concealment…?
There’s a reason they tell these guys to remain where they were supposed to, within the designated press areas. Put yourself in the position of the guy with the gun doing security: How the hell do you know those are “good guys” out there on the ground, moving to “get the angle”?
The fact that those pictures exist at all, and that the photographers didn’t have a really bad day trying to get them? That’s just an indictment of the whole shambolic enterprise surrounding the security at this event. And, an indicator about what was going on in the background… Jesus Christ on a crutch, you have a picture there of a presumed Secret Service agent taking cover behind the President, like she’s more important than he is. What does that tell you about all of this? Remember a few years back, when that one agent actually came out and said she wouldn’t put herself in between Trump and a bullet…? That happened, back during the early years of his administration. I’d love to know what happened to her… Probably deputy director, these days. The security there in PA sure looked like she was.
Oh, for gawd’s sake, Kirk. Do you have ANY evidence whatsoever that the press pool wasn’t exactly where they were supposed to be and doing anything other than exactly what their job is? With literally THOUSANDS of pictures snapped by how many photographers with their state of the art equipment that takes shots faster than many video cameras, what are the odds that one can be cropped to be perfect? Pretty damned good, actually.
Republicans should demand a full-court, blue-ribbon J13 commission (with that name).
Will it lead to truth, or improvement? Maybe, accidentally.
What it will do is demonstrate that they care about what happened – that it’s important enough for this level of response. That would be a small step in assuaging the concerns of the public.
Greg, what I am telling you all is that that is emphatically NOT supposed to happen during one of these things.
VIP security is supposed to be an interlocking affair, looking for equally interlocking attacks; if this had been a serious attack made by serious people, Trump would have died to either a secondary shooter in the crowd/press, or someone wearing a suicide vest or something as those amateur-hour agents were trying to get him to his vehicle.
So, what you’re telling us is that the DEI SS under Biden sucks.
This is not new information