The US director of national security said on Monday that the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a political rally over the weekend was a security “failure” that could not be allowed to happen again.
“When I say that something like this cannot happen, we are talking about a failure,” he told Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said: “We will look, through an independent review, at how this happened, why it happened, and we will make recommendations and conclusions to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. I couldn’t be clearer.”
Mayorkas told ABC News in another interview that it should not have been possible for the gunman, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, to fire up to eight bullets from a high-powered assault weapon at Trump as he did from the roof of a nearby business.
The suspect’s vantage point was about 150 metres from where the former president was speaking on Saturday night in the small community of Butler, Pennsylvania, in the eastern United States.
“A direct line of sight like that to the former president should not occur,” Mayorkas said.
A bullet pierced Trump’s right ear and blood ran down his face as his Secret Service detail surrounded him and carried him to safety. One bystander was killed, while two others were seriously injured and are hospitalized. A Secret Service sniper killed Crooks.
Trump was not seriously injured in the attack, but he could easily have died. He is expected to be officially endorsed by his fellow Republicans at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this week as the party’s presidential nominee. the national elections of November 5 against the current Democrat, President Joe Biden.
Mayorkas said it was not yet clear which organization – “outside the government” – would lead the independent review of the security breach at the political rally, but that it would begin “as quickly as possible.”
The Secret Service, the principal security agency for current and former U.S. presidents, is part of the Department of Homeland Security, which Mayorkas heads. He said the results of the investigation and recommendations would be made public.
“We need to act quickly and urgently because this is a security imperative,” Mayorkas said.
Despite the acknowledged security breach, Mayorkas expressed his support at a White House press conference to the Secret Service and Kimberly Cheatle, its director.
“I have 100% confidence in the director of the United States Secret Service,” Mayorkas said. “I have 100% confidence in the United States Secret Service.”
Biden on Monday ordered protection Secret Service personnel for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent presidential candidate in the November election who is trailing far behind Trump and Biden in national polls. Kennedy’s uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1963, and his father, Robert F. Kennedy, was killed while campaigning for president in 1968.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the nation’s top criminal investigation agency, said it was still searching for a motive behind Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump, the worst attack on a U.S. president or presidential candidate in more than four decades. The FBI said it was investigating the case as possible domestic terrorism, but that the probe was still in its early stages.
The FBI said its technical specialists successfully gained access to Crooks’ phone and continued to analyze his electronic devices. It said a search of Crooks’ residence and vehicle had been completed.
The investigative agency said it had conducted nearly 100 interviews with law enforcement officers, protest attendees and other witnesses and that interviews were continuing.
Some people at the rally said they screamed frantically at police when they saw the gunman on the roof of the nearby building, but that he began shooting at Trump moments later.
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