“Big Failure” – The Time

The recent attack on Donald Trump, in which the former president was injured in the ear, represents “the greatest failure in decades” for the US Secret Service. The director of the agency, Kimberly Cheatle, said this during a hearing before the House of Representatives Oversight Committee. “We will do everything we can to ensure that an incident like this never happens again,” she said, offering her condolences to the family of Corey Comperatore, who died after being hit by bullets fired by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks at Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The US Secret Service, on the day of the attack on Donald Trump, identified the assailant, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, as a “suspicious person”, but not as a “threat”. This was stated by the director of the agency, Kimberly Cheatle, during a hearing in Congress, after the representative Jamie Raskin asked why Trump was allowed to go on stage anyway, after the authorities were warned about a suspicious person in the crowd.

The director explained that for the agency, a threat and a person with suspicious behavior are two different things. “If the information we had would have indicated a threat, the former president would never have been allowed on stage: that’s how we operate,” she said, adding that those who act suspiciously are usually identified and subjected to further screening, to rule out any threat.