How did the Secret Service miss the Trump shooter?

Thomas Matthew Crooks, the twenty-year-old shot dead by a Secret Service sniper following the attempt on former president Trump’s life at Butler, Pennsylvania, had donated $15 to ActBlue, a political action committee which raises money for Democratic causes. State voter records also show that Crooks was a registered Republican. Either way, it is too early to be certain of his motive.

At a news conference on Sunday, FBI special agent Kevin Rojek said it was ‘surprising’ that the shooter was able to open fire

What we do know is that since 9/11, domestic terror plots have outstripped the threat from al-Qaeda and ISIS in the US, accounting for more than half the deaths. Government data reveals that incidents of domestic terrorism increased by 357 percent between 2013 and 2021. Most of that threat is from the far right. Right-wing extremists perpetrated two-thirds of the attacks and plots in the United States in 2019 and over 90 percent between January 1 and May 8, 2020, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies at Georgetown University.

That has changed in recent years. Analysis in 2022 showed that anarchists, anti-fascists, and associated extremists had risen to 40 percent of the attacks and plots, although many of these were based around protests. Nevertheless, violent far-right incidents were significantly more likely to be lethal. They are better armed and more likely to kill, whether seeking to attack politicians or soft targets.

On January 8, 2011, Democratic Representative Gabby Gifford survived a shooting at an event outside the Safeway supermarket in Casas Adobes, Arizona, in which six others were killed. On October 28, 2022, Paul Pelosi, husband of the Democrat House speaker Nancy Pelosi, was attacked with a hammer at the couple’s home in Pacific Heights, San Francisco, and left with a fractured skull. Nine people were killed at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina in June 2015, and ten were killed at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in May 2022. 

Overnight, more information about Crooks has emerged. He has been described as a “loner” who was bullied at school for wearing hunting clothing. He had been rejected from the school’s rifle club on account of being a “bad shooter” and was known for being quiet but intelligent, winning an award with the National Maths and Science Initiative Star Award in 2022. His profile seems to fit that of the American school shooter or lone wolf attacker.

What is clear is that the US Secret Service failed in its task to protect a former president. The Secret Service is charged with the personal protection of politicians and visiting dignitaries, leaving the terrorism investigations to the police, FBI and CIA.

The Secret Service is usually rigorous in its preparations. Leaders around the world have become used to the demands of the Secret Service, who insist on flying in the president’s armored limousine, nicknamed the “Beast,” and are allowed to be armed as they accompany him under blue light convoy into their cities, sometimes hanging out of the back of their vehicles.

Indoor events are easier to control with body searches and metal detectors. Outdoor events require sharpshooters on rooftops, one of whom appears to have killed Thomas Crooks. The location of the latest shooting was far from the most complicated — it was overlooked by no more than a few barns, let alone a crowded urban setting. There were a limited number of vantage points on neighboring properties and they all could have been searched and, importantly, researched, during the event.

Those searches with sniffer dogs, looking at “voids” where explosives could be planted, and checking for vantage points are a key aspect of protective security around dignitaries. Other questions have been raised about the event, such as the large American flag that flew above the stage. Those who have visited shooting ranges will notice that flags are often present, as a way of helping shooters work out wind direction and speed. That flag may well have proved helpful to his would-be assassin. Luckily for Trump, Crooks was not as good a shot as Lee Harvey Oswald, a former US Marine, who shot from around 265 feet at the Book Depository in Dallas, Texas. Last weekend’s attempt was made from around 425 feet. 

Sadly for his victim in the crowd, a self-loading rifle can get off several shots. Anyone in the background easily becomes collateral damage. At a news conference on Sunday, FBI special agent Kevin Rojek said it was “surprising” that the shooter was able to open fire before the Secret Service killed him. The BBC reported that rally attendees had spotted the shooter minutes before he started firing, yet the security services failed to heed their warnings. 

The director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, has been summoned to testify before the US House of Representatives on July 22. Questions will also be asked of the FBI about how much they knew of Crooks. “There are many questions and Americans demand answers,” Representative James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement. Some of those question will be answered in the coming days. They are unlikely to reflect well on the Secret Service.

This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.