“An incident like this should not happen,” Mayorkas told CNN. “When I say something like this should not happen, we are talking regarding a failure.” Mayorkas was specifically asked whether he believes a failure on the part of the Secret Service was responsible for the assassination attempt.
Massive criticism of the Secret Service
The Secret Service is facing massive criticism following the attack. The agency is responsible for protecting the current and former presidents and is under Mayorkas’s ministry. Mayorkas promised an independent and thorough investigation to clarify how the attack on Trump during a campaign speech in the US state of Pennsylvania on Saturday might have happened. He said recommendations for security measures would then be made on this basis.
Donald Trump, for his part, praised the Secret Service in an interview with the New York Post for doing a “fantastic job”. The former president was referring to the speed and precision with which the security service shot the suspected perpetrator in the attempted assassination attempt on him.
How did the shooter get onto the roof unnoticed?
Above all, experts are asking how the perpetrator, armed with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle, was able to get unnoticed onto the factory roof in Butler, Pennsylvania, from where he fired the shots at Trump during his campaign appearance on Saturday. Trump suffered a minor injury to his ear. The building where the suspected shooter was located was outside the security zone set up by the Secret Service for Trump’s campaign rally.
However, the building is only 150 meters away from the spot where the podium was erected for Trump. And from its roof there was a clear view in the direction of the former president.
“The shooter was outside the Secret Service zone. What kind of zone is that?” asks Richard Painter, a White House employee under former President George W. Bush and now a law professor at the University of Minnesota. He sees an “egregious security failure” and calls for a detailed investigation.
Memories of the Kennedy assassination
If a roof is within gun range of a president or presidential candidate, “it’s the Secret Service that should be on that roof,” Painter says. “Have they ever heard of the Texas Book Depository?” That’s the building in Dallas, Texas, from which assassin Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John F. Kennedy with a rifle in 1963.
Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger is also astonished that the suspected shooter was able to get onto the factory roof. As Goldinger told MSNBC, there were even security guards in the factory building.
The Secret Service is also under pressure from eyewitness reports. They said they saw the armed man on the roof and alerted security forces. However, they did not react. A local police officer did follow up on the witnesses’ reports – at least that’s what Butler County Police Chief Michael Slupe said.
Who was responsible for the control?
The police officer climbed up to the roof. The shooter pointed his gun at the officer, who then dropped from the edge of the roof to the ground, Slupe told the Washington Post. The police officer retreated “because he didn’t want to be killed.” The shooter then opened fire in Trump’s direction.
According to the Washington Post, local police were responsible for controlling the area, which borders the Secret Service security zone. An investigation is now underway to determine whether there was a breakdown in communication between the Secret Service and the Butler police, a senior agency official told the newspaper.
The security lapses in Butler are expected to be investigated by Congress in Washington. Shortly following the attack, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Trump’s Republican colleague Mike Johnson, called Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas. He asked the minister “some specific questions,” Johnson reported on NBC News. Among other things, he asked whether surveillance drones had been used. Drones should have spotted the shooter on the roof, Johnson said. But he did not receive an answer from the minister.
