The head of the US Secret Service says the reason they did not secure the roof of a building 150 yards from Donald Trump is because it had a sloped roof that presented a danger to members of the service. Instead, they put sniper teams inside the building upon which the assassin would position himself. Inside the building, police peered out of windows while the assassin operated just above them. Incredible!
Were the officers inside the building local cops or Secret Service people? Who was in charge of securing the perimeter?
We have no special insight into what went on inside the Secret Service and rely on press reports like you do. But we know more than a little about firearms and can use both our eyes and simple logic.
Several things are quite clear: The Director of the Secret Service is either a fool or a liar, and we suspect the latter because she is a veteran of the service, now the director, and should know the capability of her people. Then again, she is likely both.
The roof is not as sloped as the one the counter-snipers used to kill the assassin. Why was one roof deemed hazardous and the other not? Since when do snipers seek approval for safety inspections before taking their positions?
Trained snipers operate from helicopters, in the mountains of Afghanistan, the deserts of Iraq, and the jungles of Viet Nam. That roof presented no particular risk for trained Secret Service personnel.
A 20-year-old without special training was able to climb up on the roof and from there made a comfortable perch from which he attempted to kill Donald Trump. His wanderings raised concern a full half hour before the actual shooting. He could have been detained and questioned even before he got on a “sloped roof.”
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After the assassin was shot, his body lay still and did not slide off the roof. It was not sloped enough that even a dead body could remain static. The pitch of the roof is maybe 10-15 degrees. You could likely safely play Pickle Ball on that roof.
After the assassin is shot, we see photos of police personnel standing without difficulty over the dead body of the assassin. They had no problems standing with the slope of the roof.
The “roof excuse” is such a poor explanation, that it forms its own slippery slope into conspiracy thinking.
The reader should appreciate that it does not require special training to make the above observations. If you have been following the news, you likely have seen everything we just described. But perhaps you have not put it all together.
Once again, our officials ask us to believe their words rather than our own eyes.
Besides the issue of the “slope of the roof,” questions now surface about why Trump’s security detail had been reduced. This is particularly odd since the government is now telling us they had credible intelligence of an Iranian plot to kill the former President. If that is true, and it has come from official sources, it seems beyond odd to respond to that increased threat by reducing his security detail.
It appears resources were diverted for a hasty trip by the First Lady to Philadelphia. What was the event?
Video of some of the Secret Service personnel, show confusion, and poor training. One video, taken as the ex-President enters “the beast,” an armored vehicle, shows agents unable to holster their weapons and pointing them randomly toward the crowd.
We can understand they were shaken. But trained people are…trained. They have practiced unholstering, shooting, and rehostering thousands of times until it is instinctual. Perhaps it is because most of the female agents were seriously overweight, it changed the angle of the holster or made it difficult to see the holster over the roll of fat. If so, one wonders why such agents, whether they be male or female, can remain on the force and be assigned to a high-priority individual. Either get better holsters or get in shape. Or get some additional training.
This has all the marks of DEI hiring practices. The agency wanted female agents, capable or not.
A comical video making the rounds on X, narrated by a David Attenborough-like voiceover, calls it a “fusion between the Blues Brothers and Rosie O’Donnell.” That is a very perceptive and funny description of the odd choreography one sees among the three female agents. While funny, it is also terribly tragic.
When asked about whether he had spoken to his Director of Secret Service, President Biden said he had talked to “him.” But his Director is a “her.” He too, is either lying or demented.
More details are coming out about the shooter walking around with a range finder and acting suspiciously. So suspiciously, the assassin was flagged and even photographed by law enforcement, and the images were distributed to other police officers. This was all occurring minutes before the shooting.
A rangefinder looks like a handheld monocular or binocular and is used to calculate distance. Knowing the distance helps a shooter know if any ballistic adjustments need to be made to his rifle-mounted scope to account for bullet drop depending on the midrange trajectory of the caliber you are shooting. Reports are that police identified it as a range finder. It would seem that would be an obvious problem in such a situation. Here is a man close to the ex-president needing to calculate the range. What for, to get a selfie?
Finally, having been around firearms for more than 60 years, a 150-yard headshot from a prone or braced position is not technically difficult. Counter sniper fire came quite quickly after the assassin began to shoot. That means the counter-sniper team had to know the assassin’s location to quickly put him in their sights. Why then did they not take pre-emptive action? You have a man with a scoped rifle seen with a rangefinder close to a former President lying prone on an adjacent rooftop. What communication (they all wear communications headgear) went on between the counter snipers and their superiors? Why delay shooting until AFTER the assassin got his shots off?
If counter-snipers could see an armed man on a roof, even if they hesitated to take the shot because of confusion, why was Trump not removed from the stage and put in a safe area until the oddity of an armed man on a roof had been addressed?
We are admittedly early in the process, and what we know so far makes no sense at all. Either it is gross incompetence at all levels, or they wanted the shooter to get off his shots and then kill him so he could not talk. That is a dark and uncomfortable thought to have, but it has to be considered.
Yes, an investigation is underway and we hope Congress will become involved. At this stage, the FBI has zero credibility with the American public, and now, sadly, neither does the Secret Service.
