Nearly two weeks after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, the Secret Service has reportedly advised the Trump campaign to stop holding outdoor rallies and events.
Three people familiar with the issue talked To The Washington Post The Secret Service, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it had told campaign advisers to avoid holding outdoor events that would draw large crowds.
This comes after 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire from the roof of a nearby building during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, hitting Trump with a “penetrating bullet” above his right ear.
Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump speaks on the final day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Thursday, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
The source said the Trump campaign is not currently considering holding an outdoor event and is instead looking at indoor venues such as “basketball arenas or other large spaces” that could accommodate thousands of attendees.
A campaign official, who spoke to the outlet on condition of anonymity, explained that holding the event indoors is safer because “you can control who comes in through a limited number of doors,” but noted that indoor events have capacity limits.
Indoor rallies are expensive, campaign advisers said, but one campaign official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private planning, said they are inherently safer because it’s easier to control who comes through a limited number of doors and there are fewer line-of-sight issues.
“Obviously, indoor venues have limited capacity,” the campaign official added. “It doesn’t have the same impact. There’s something special about attending an outdoor rally.”
Since the assassination attempt on President Trump, the U.S. Secret Service has come under increasing criticism over security lapses during Trump’s rallies.
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle speaks during the Secret Service Wall of Honor ceremony in Laurel, Maryland, May 10, 2024. (DHS Photo by Tia Dufour)
On Monday, former Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle appeared before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, where lawmakers from both parties grilled her, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) questioning why Secret Service security ranges are shorter than the range of an AR-15.
Cheatle was also questioned by Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) about the number of times the Secret Service had been “alerted about suspicious individuals” at the rally and why it wasn’t shut down.
Before the hearing, Cheatle said he had not stationed investigators on Crooks’ roof because of the “safety factors” involved in placing a person on a “sloping roof.”
Cheatle resigned as head of the agency on Tuesday.
