It has been only days now since the attempt to assassinate President Donald Trump. This on a bright, sunny day at a fair ground field in Butler, Pennsylvania. The attempt failed by millimeters when Trump turned his head ever so slightly to view a graph on a large video screen. The bullet grazed the right side of his head and wounded part of his right ear. Had he not turned that very small degree, the bullet would have shattered the right rear of his skull causing instant death. The course of the world would have changed.
As I write, the Republican National Convention has just ended. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are now the official Republican nominees for President and Vice President of the United States of America.
We were watching on TV the rally at Butler. We saw everything. I literally could not write anything until now. The shock and resulting anxiety took over. We came within fractions of an inch of watching in real time the murder of Donald Trump.
And now there remains scores of questions about how this attempt on Trump’s life was allowed to happen. Clearly, the Secret Service had catastrophic failure. The agents immediately around Trump did their job in shielding Trump, then getting him off the stage and into a vehicle off to a hospital. But even with those actions, there were failures clearly evident to anyone.
The video shows the Secret Service is as victim to DEI (Diversity/Equity/Inclusion) as any federal agency. In particular, there were two female agents who, at best, were not qualified to be part of the immediate presidential protection unit. There was one who could not get her handgun back in to the holster. She, too, was clearly significantly overweight. There was a second that seemed more concerned about losing her sunglasses, but that is not the worst of it. She looked to be about 5’4” tall. There is no way she could shield Trump who is over 6’ tall. Anyone with brains would conclude body guards protecting anyone need to be at least as big and tall as the one being protected. In Trump’s case, this says men.
So, many, many questions are unanswered. Congress has said there will be an aggressive investigation of the whole assassination attempt incident. Those responsible for the inexcusable failure must be held accountable. This includes the Director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle; the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas; and even the President himself, President Joe Biden. And there can be no place for DEI when it comes to security protection the responsibility of the Secret Service. The stakes are simply too high.