GOP Sen. Josh Hawley released a detailed 22-page report Monday on security failures surrounding former president Donald Trump’s July 13 Butler, Pennsylvania, rally at which the former president was shot and a rallygoer was killed.
The Missouri senator’s report called the Butler security failures the “most stunning breakdown in presidential security since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.” The results of Hawley’s investigation come a day after Trump survived another assassination attempt, this time at his Mar-a-Lago Florida resort.
As part of the investigation, Hawley traveled to Butler and the site of the attempt on Trump’s life “to interview whistleblowers, opened up a whistleblower tip line, and encouraged those with relevant information to tell their stories.” The report reveals several previously unknown details about the July 13 assassination attempt.
“The resulting findings are highly damaging to the credibility of the Secret Service and DHS. They reveal a compounding pattern of negligence, sloppiness, and gross incompetence that goes back years, all of which culminated in an assassination attempt that came inches from succeeding,” the report says.
Hawley’s report alleges that the “Secret Service’s Counter Surveillance Division, which performs threat assessments of event sites, did not perform a typical evaluation of the Butler site and was not present on the day of the rally.”
The report also calls the lead site agent responsible for securing the rally “incompetent.”
“That incompetence led to the placement of items like flags around the Butler stage and catwalk, impairing visibility,” the report states. It added that the “lead agent responsible for the entire Butler visit, including the rally, failed a key examination during their federal law enforcement training to become a Secret Service agent.”
In addition to security problems at the rally site, the hospital that Trump was taken to was also poorly secured in the aftermath of the assassination attempt.
“The hospital site where former President Trump received treatment after the shooting was poorly secured, and the hospital site agent could not answer basic questions about site security,” the report says.
The report comes a day after authorities arrested suspected would-be assassin Ryan Routh, 58, after he allegedly sat in hiding in an attempt to shoot Trump as he played golf on his Mar-a-Lago course on Sunday. Routh allegedly fled the scene after Secret Service agents noticed the barrel of a gun sticking out of a fence and opened fire.
Routh had previously posted about Trump on social media, saying in one comment: “While you were my choice in [2016], I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointment [sic] and it seems you are getting worse and devolving. I will be glad when you gone.”
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