Arizona Democrat demands answers from Secret Service after assassination attempt
Jul 15, 2024, 12:00 PM
Arizona Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego is demanding answers from the director of the Secret Service after the July 13, 2024, attempted assassination on Donald Trump. (Getty Images Photos)
(Getty Images Photos)
PHOENIX — In a letter seeking answers from the Secret Service, U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) called the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump a major security failure.
“This was a security failure at the highest level, not seen since the attempted assassination of President Reagan. This cannot happen, and I demand accountability,” Gallego wrote to U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly A. Cheatle on Sunday.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee in this year’s presidential race, was struck in the ear when a gunman fired during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
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One spectator was killed and two others were injured when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks reportedly fired a rifle from a rooftop about 150 yards from where Trump was speaking. A Secret Service sniper shot and killed Crooks, but not before he got off multiple rounds.
What did Gallego letter to Secret Service director say?
In his letter, Gallego, who is running for Senate this year, demanded answers to the following questions:
• Did the Trump campaign request additional protection or resources for this event? If so, were those resources denied, and why?
• Did the Secret Service detail, separate from President Trump’s campaign team, request additional resources?
• Who approved the security plan for this event?
• Was a proper threat assessment of nearby buildings conducted?
• Did attendees of the event raise any alarms? If so, how were any concerns handled before the attempted assassination?
• Were there any failures in protocol that enabled the shooting? If not, how was President Trump, one of only six living current or former Presidents and a current Major Presidential Candidate, almost assassinated, and what needs to change?
• Will the Secret Service reconsider its denial of protection for Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.?
“I call on all those responsible for the planning, approving, and executing of this failed security plan to be held accountable and to testify before Congress immediately,” the Gallego letter to Secret Service said.
