What’s beautiful is that thanks to the Interwebs and X, they can’t hide this stuff anymore.
We are unleashing the power of thousands of autistic guys with time on their hands to dig in deep and uncover the lies and deceptions. https://t.co/AGqViv1WrG
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) January 23, 2025
Trump Suspends Security Clearance of 51 Officials Who Protected Hunter’s Laptop.
President Donald Trump signed so many executive orders that I forgot to write about this one.
Trump revoked the security clearances of the 51 intel officials who claimed Hunter Biden’s laptop “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
These people did everything they could to ensure former President Joe Biden defeated Trump in 2020.
Once Biden won, though, no one could contain the truth: The laptop belonged to Hunter, and everything on it belonged to him.
Well, all 51 of the officials refused to apologize for their letter. The officials helped themselves by crafting the letter to make it easy to shed any responsibility.
They said they had suspicions about it coming from Russia, but they never provided confirmation.
They no longer have security clearances. The list includes James Clapper, Leon Panetta, Jeremy Bash (ex-husband of CNN’s Dana Bash), John Bolton, and John Brennan.
Section 1. Purpose. In the closing weeks of the 2020 Presidential campaign, at least 51 former intelligence officials coordinated with the Biden campaign to issue a letter discrediting the reporting that President Joseph R. Biden’s son had abandoned his laptop at a computer repair business. Signatories of the letter falsely suggested that the news story was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
Before being issued, the letter was sent to the CIA Prepublication Classification Review Board, the body typically assigned to formally evaluate the sensitive nature of documents prior to publication. Senior CIA officials were made aware of the contents of the letter, and multiple signatories held clearances at the time and maintained ongoing contractual relationships with the CIA.
Federal policymakers must be able to rely on analysis conducted by the Intelligence Community and be confident that it is accurate, crafted with professionalism, and free from politically motivated engineering to affect political outcomes in the United States. The signatories willfully weaponized the gravitas of the Intelligence Community to manipulate the political process and undermine our democratic institutions.
This fabrication of the imprimatur of the Intelligence Community to suppress information essential to the American people during a Presidential election is an egregious breach of trust reminiscent of a third world country. And now the faith of Americans in all other patriotic intelligence professionals who are sworn to protect the Nation has been imperiled.
National security is also damaged by the publication of classified information. Former National Security Advisor John R. Bolton published a memoir for monetary gain after he was terminated from his White House position in 2019. The book was rife with sensitive information drawn from his time in government. The memoir’s reckless treatment of sensitive information undermined the ability of future presidents to request and obtain candid advice on matters of national security from their staff. Publication also created a grave risk that classified material was publicly exposed.
To remedy these abuses of the public trust, this Order directs the revocation of any active or current security clearances held by: (i) the former intelligence officials who engaged in misleading and inappropriate political coordination with the 2020 Biden presidential campaign; and (ii) John R. Bolton.
Lawmakers Introduce Measure Outlawing Federal Gun Registry
The threat of gun registration has long been a concern for U.S. gun owners, and for a very good reason: registration always leads to confiscation. Now, two U.S. lawmakers have introduced legislation to prevent any potential gun registration schemes in the future.
On January 16, U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, introduced the “No Retaining Every Gun In a System that Restricts Your (REGISTRY) Rights Act.” Although its name is somewhat awkward, this legislation is commendable as it would prevent the U.S. government from establishing a federal firearms registry.
Among other things, the act would require the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to eliminate all existing firearm transaction records, permit federal firearms licensees (FFLs) to destroy transaction records upon going out of business and prevent the ATF from establishing or maintaining a firearms registry in the future.
The weaponized ATF’s overreach in implementing several new final rules under the Biden Administration was the impetus for the introduction of the measure.
“The ATF’s excessive overreach has gone unchecked for too long,” Sen. Risch said in a press release announcing the legislation. “Idaho’s law-abiding gun owners should not be subject to an already illegal federal firearms registry. The Second Amendment is not conditional to a list of guns in circulation and their owners. All law-abiding Americans have the undeniable right to keep and bear arms. My No REGISTRY Rights Act will safeguard this essential liberty for generations to come.”
Rep. Cloud, the measure’s sponsor in the U.S. House of Representatives, said that Americans’ right to keep and bear arms should not be subject to a government inventory.
“The Second Amendment is a cornerstone of individual liberty, and no administration—Republican or Democrat—should have the ability to compile a list of law-abiding gun owners,” Cloud said. “The Biden administration’s backdoor attempts to create a federal firearms registry are a clear threat to Americans’ privacy and constitutional freedoms. The No REGISTRY Rights Act will dismantle the ATF’s existing database and ensure such a registry can never be implemented.”
In April 2022, the Biden Administration issued a final rule requiring that FFLs retain all firearm transaction records indefinitely. Since 1984, federal regulations have permitted FFLs to discard records older than 20 years, as the “time-to-crime”—the interval between a firearm’s last known legal sale and its use in a crime—rarely exceeds two decades.
Risch and Cloud were joined in introducing the No REGISTRY Rights Act by Republican U.S. senators Mike Crapo of Idaho, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy of Montana, Roger Marshall of Kansas), Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi and 47 members of the House of Representatives.
Without a repeal of, or a court finding that, the underpinning laws that empower the bureaucraps, another agency will simply take over enforcement. A new director, like a Brandon Herrera or Blake Masters would have the opportunity to gut the bureau from the inside out.
President Trump should help destroy the ATF
It’s time to end the ATF before they kill another law-abiding American.
by Lee Williams
President Donald Trump’s election victory was made possible by millions of gun owners who are still angry about the treatment they received from Joe Biden and his antigun ilk in the ATF.
Biden and whoever was actually calling the shots targeted legitimate gun owners and gun dealers like it was cool—like it was a game. Biden even allowed these illegitimate forces to establish an antigun office right inside his White House. They met regularly with senior members of the antigun industry.
This civil rights abuse was totally ignored by the mainstream media because the “journalists” themselves were all antigun and totally on board with Team Biden.
The ATF has a long and blood-soaked history. In addition to the more than 80 lives lost at Waco—which includes 20 children—a Deputy U.S. Marshal and Randy Weaver’s wife and son were killed during ATF’s Ruby Ridge fiasco. The ATF’s “Fast and Furious” scheme resulted in the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and hundreds of Mexican nationals, who were killed by the weapons ATF allowed to walk straight into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels. The ATF has never fully addressed or apologized for these needless deaths that its agents caused.
Nowadays, there are scores of examples of ATF crews laughing and joking with each other as they tear apart the homes of law-abiding folks who had done nothing wrong. The latest was Mark “Choppa” Manley, who along with his wife and children is lucky to have survived an early morning ATF search warrant that found nothing wrong. All of Manly’s firearms were legal and complied with both state and federal law.
Thankfully, Manley recognized that armed ATF agents were taking tactical positions outside his home and put down his handgun right before they beat down his front door, threw two flashbang grenades and stormed inside. Bryan Malinowski never had that opportunity. The Arkansas airport director assumed that criminals had entered his home during the early morning hours of March 19, 2024. Malinowski grabbed a pistol and fired several rounds. ATF shot and killed the 53-year-old, who had absolutely zero prior criminal history.
For decades, the gun community has talked about dumping the ATF, but the agency still exists, and its unlawful and deadly actions continue to this day. Under Biden, the agency actually got much worse.
Their deadly and loathsome raids add further proof that the ATF can never be trusted again. It has become more dangerous than the criminals it allegedly tries to target. Thankfully, Congress has a bill in the works to dump the agency. Representatives Eric Burlison (R-MO-07) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO-04) recently introduced H.R. 221, legislation that is simple and succinct: “The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is hereby abolished.”
According to its FY2022 budget, the ATF had around 5,000 employees, a little more than half were armed special agents. The rest were Industry Operations Investigators, who make life hell for gun shop owners, and other clerical and professional staff. They operated on a budget of $1.5 billion taxpayer dollars.
Years ago, there were ATF agents who supported guns and our gun rights—older agents who didn’t let their administrators push them into breaking the law. But after four years of Biden and his chosen joke of an ATF director, these agents are mostly gone. They were replaced by younger antigun bureaucrats.
If President Trump truly wants to take historic action, he will help end the ATF immediately, before another American is needlessly shot and killed, which is guaranteed to happen.
This Gun Store Owner Just Forced the ATF to Reverse an Anti-Gun ‘Zero Tolerance’ Policy
Score another victory for gun rights. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has reversed its “zero tolerance” policy created under the Biden administration to infringe on the right to keep and bear arms.
The policy allowed the ATF to revoke the licenses of firearms dealers who make common clerical errors on their paperwork. Several small gun shops have been forced out of business because of the rule.
Michael Cargill, owner of Central Texas Gun Works, joined with the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) in a lawsuit against the White House over the unconstitutional measure. The Biden administration capitulated before the lawsuit could be decided in the courts and reverted back to the previous policy, which only allows the ATF to revoke licenses for “willful” offenses, not small clerical errors, according to a press release issued by the TPPF.
ncoming National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told Breitbart News exclusively that every intelligence official from the various departments and agencies across the federal government currently detailed to the National Security Council (NSC) at the White House under outgoing President Joe Biden will be expected to vacate the premises by 12:01 p.m. Eastern on Inauguration Day when President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated again.
Waltz, in a phone interview earlier this week, told Breitbart News that he is making sure everyone understands that it’s “crystal clear what the agenda is.”
“Everybody is going to resign at 12:01 on January 20,” Waltz said. “We’re working through our process to get everybody their clearances and through the transition process now. Our folks know who we want out in the agencies, we’re putting those requests in, and in terms of the detailees they’re all going to go back.”
The way the NSC works is the National Security Advisor oversees a team of political appointees from the president who oversee a wide range of what are called “detailees”—people who work at the various agencies and departments across the federal government who are assigned, or detailed, to work at the White House for a period of time on the NSC in a portfolio in which they demonstrate expertise. These career intelligence officials come from places as wide-ranging as the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, the Pentagon, and other law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and report up to the political appointees atop each major portfolio in the NSC. The NSC has various issue-specific portfolios like counterterrorism and cyber policy as well as regional portfolios focused on things like the western hemisphere or the Middle East or Europe or Asia. The detailees then help coordinate back to the various agencies and departments so the whole federal government executes on the decisions that the president makes.
One of the major problems Trump faced in his first term came from inside the NSC with some of these detailees, as the person who spearheaded the first impeachment of Trump—Alexander Vindman—was one such person. Waltz told Breitbart News that he is taking very serious steps to ensure that there are no more Vindmans. From this point forward, he said, anyone who gets a detailee position on the NSC will be on board with the president’s agenda.
“You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.”
—Thomas Sowell.
Those 60 engines sent yesterday to the Cali fires are not on the fire lines…yet.https://t.co/FmQ9jYQc8C
Those 60 engines sent yesterday to the Cali fires are not on the fire lines…yet.
https://opb.org/article/2025/01/08/oregon-sending-crews-help-battle-los-angeles-area-wildfires/
They’ve been ordered to submit to a DOT inspection in Sacramento that’s scheduled for 4:30 pm today.
If they clear the inspection, they’ll THEN be able to drive 400 miles to Pacific Palisades.
Talk about “looking a gift horse in the mouth.”
Then, on the way home, they get inspected again, and if they get red tagged, it’s “fix it before you can return.”
Does liberal stupidity know no bounds?
(I’m still waiting for a return call from
@OSFM
to explain this nonsense)
(@LarsLarsonShow) January 9, 2025
If the underlying laws and regulations are not also dealt with, the enforcement of them will simply fall to another bunch of bureaucraps.
Otherwise, it’s just another example of Political Kabuki Theater.
Rep. Lauren Boebert Introduces Bill to Abolish the ATF
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R) has introduced legislation to abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
The bill is H.R. 129 and it comes at a point when Republicans are just weeks away from holding the House, Senate and White House.
Newsweek noted Boebert’s push to do away with the agency is the latest in line of Republican pushes to see the agency undone.
For example, in November 2024, Rep. Eric Burlison (R) called for the agency to be abolished as well.
On November 25, 2024, Breitbart News reported that Burlison told FOX News the ATF is “a disaster.”
He said, “For several decades they’ve been a disaster agency [which has] been violating the Second Amendment.”
The ATF issued numerous rules during the Biden/Harris administration, one of which criminalized owners of legally purchased AR-pistol stabilizer braces. Another one of the ATF’s rules declared that 80 percent complete firearm frames are firearms and therefore can only be acquired via background checks. Yet another ATF rule circumvented Congress via new regulations against private gun sales.
On January 2, 2024, Breitbart News pointed out that Biden’s ATF director, Steven Dettelbach, tendered his resignation effective January 18, 2025, two days before Trump retakes the White House.
Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms chairman Alan Gottlieb cheered the resignation, saying, “That’s one less person Trump will have to fire after he takes office, and it is one less gun prohibition lobbyist on the government payroll.”
Americans Increasingly Worried About Uncle Sam Being Big Brother
There’s an intersection between the Second Amendment and anything that has to do with government overreach. If we look at the countless ways the federal government has failed on public safety policy and the execution of its duties, the body count is high. That’s both literal and figurative. Those who exercise the Second Amendment have everything to be worried about when it comes to our own government spying in on them. To progressives, gun owners are essentially an enemy of the state. A recent Rasmussen Reports® survey found that Americans are worried about domestic spying.
Voter concerns about domestic surveillance have not decreased, as the nation prepares for a new administration under President-elect Donald Trump.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 71% of Likely U.S. Voters are concerned about the U.S. government spying on American citizens, including 40% who are Very Concerned. Only 25% aren’t concerned about domestic spying. These findings are only slightly changed from January 2021, when Joe Biden was President-elect. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Forty-five percent (45%) expect government spying on U.S. citizens to increase in the new Trump administration, compared to 32% who think such surveillance will decrease and 15% who expect it to stay about the same. Four years ago, 40% believed spying would increase under Biden.
The phraseology of how voter concerns on spying have not decreased with a President-elect Trump sitting in the bullpen is interesting. How conservatives versus liberals feel about the potential for the government to peek into our lives perhaps is where the story is.
Wisconsin Rule Banning Guns While Fishing is Reeled In
Anglers in Wisconsin can now legally carry firearms while fishing, following a recent decision by the state’s Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules. The Republican-controlled committee voted 8-2 on Dec. 17 to temporarily repeal a long-standing Department of Natural Resources (DNR) rule that prohibited guns “that might be used for the purpose of fishing.” The DNR has indicated it will permanently repeal the rule as part of a lawsuit settlement, mostly because it just stupid.
The rule’s repeal stems from a lawsuit filed by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on behalf of Sheboygan Falls resident Travis Kobs. The lawsuit argued the regulation was unconstitutional, effectively creating a blanket firearm ban on state waterways.
DNR attorney Chandra Harvey explained to the committee that the rule, dating back to at least the 1950s, was originally designed to prevent the illegal shooting of fish. However, the passage of Wisconsin’s concealed carry law in 2011 brought the rule into conflict with state statutes protecting the right to carry firearms.
The committee’s decision was not without controversy. Democratic Senators Kelda Roys of Madison and Chris Larson of Milwaukee voted against the repeal, citing concerns over increased gun access, a seemingly blanket argument by Democrats on any committee.
“I think there are still good reasons why we should not have more guns in more places, especially given recent events in my district,” Roys said.
Larson questioned whether the DNR had issued any citations under the rule. Harvey confirmed that no citations had been issued for carrying guns while fishing, prompting Republican Senator Steve Nass of Whitewater to remark, “Nobody’s pulling their pistol out to shoot fish. So, hallelujah.”
The DNR will likely permanently repeal the firearm restriction for anglers, marking a significant shift away from a law that effectively served no purpose and never even needed to be enforced. On a side note for those looking how to properly carry while fishing GunfightersINC, which makes holsters, even has an article on how to fish while carrying and what holsters are best.
I too prefer Brandon Herrera, foul mouth notwithstanding, but we’ve yet to see an actual nomination, so…..
Take That! Court Tells Biden Admin to Quit Selling Border Wall Materials
Joe Biden is thankfully on his way out, but as he prepares to evacuate the Oval Office and head back to the Delaware beach, he keeps throwing out obstacles for incoming President-elect Donald Trump.
In one of the Biden administration’s more craven moves, they’ve been busy selling off equipment and supplies for the border wall that Trump promised during his first term, which Joe ended when he took office.
Well, take this Christmas present, Joe and Co:
The Biden administration on Friday said it would stop selling off materials slated to be used to build a border wall ahead of the incoming Trump administration, which has promised to bring back tougher efforts to combat illegal immigration.
The Biden administration confirmed to a court that it will agree to a court order preventing it from disposing of any further border wall materials over the next 30 days, allowing President-elect Trump to use those materials, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said.
Trump hailed the victory on Saturday:
Meanwhile, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton let his feelings be known on Friday:
This follows our major victory forcing Biden to build the wall, and we will hold his Administration accountable for illegally subverting our Nation’s border security until their very last day in power, especially where their actions are clearly motivated by a desire to thwart President-elect Trump’s immigration agenda.
Why Did the ATF Raid Baltimore Gun Rights Advocate Mark ‘Choppa’ Manley’s House?
This is how the federal agency that’s charged with regulating firearms conducts its business. According to the Washington Times, “ATF agents announced themselves to Mark ‘Choppa’ Manley and his family by tossing a flashbang into his living room and ordering everyone out at gunpoint during the predawn search days before Thanksgiving.”
Manley, who is described as a gun rights advocate and lives in Baltimore, thinks the raid by agents in battle rattle was an attempt to send a message to other black gun owners.
“I do feel like I was targeted. I do feel like the amount of guns I have made me a target and [put] me on their radar,” Mr. Manley told The Times. “Especially being a minority from the inner city.”
It isn’t really clear what the feds were looking for in the raid. They spent hours tossing Manley’s home, checking gun serial numbers, and ultimately confiscating his phone. But no one was charged or arrested and no guns were confiscated.
Harassment has been a hallmark of the ATF since the Biden administration launched its war on legal gun ownership not long after it took office. And the agency is, of course, refusing to comment on the case.
Mr. Manley’s growing profile put him in a league of gun owners, dealers and advocates who have either been monitored, approached or, arguably, harassed by the ATF in recent years.
Was ATF acting on bad information? Were they trying to provoke Manley into breaking the law? Whatever their motivation, the raid could have gone much, much worse. It wasn’t long ago that ATF decided that an early morning raid on the home of Bryan Malinowski was preferable to stopping him on his way to or from his place of work. Malinowski thought it was a home invasion, armed himself, and the ATF’s finest shot and killed him.
[Gun rights advocate Maj] Toure said the raid at Mr. Manley’s home was likely done in hopes of provoking the advocate into doing something criminal. At the very least, he said the ATF is putting on a “poker face” to try and intimidate Mr. Manley from organizing gun owners in the future.
“What’s happening is they’re trying to scare people — bluff them — into thinking ‘I better not do this. I better be quiet about it.’” Mr. Toure said. “The wrong party here is the ATF. Not the Constitution, not the Bill of Rights, not the American people that are safe and responsible firearms owners.”
January 20th can’t get here soon enough.
Meanwhile, they were able to track down every single J6 at the Capitol.
The fbi is corrupt. pic.twitter.com/nmRAMac5g8
— Sassafrass84 (@Sassafrass_84) December 26, 2024
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaha
Gasp*
Aaaahhhhahahahahahahahahahhahah pic.twitter.com/DwqlNocNOu
— Psyware (@Psy_ware) December 16, 2024
The day after Patel is confirmed as FBI Director should be ‘epic’.
BLUF
He fears Patel will trample over civil liberties? That’s rich, Patel points out, as it was “gangster” McCabe who signed one of the illegal FISA warrants to spy on Page.
Report reveals that FBI spied on its likely new director, Kash Patel.
It’s going to be awkward at FBI headquarters next month when President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the bureau likely takes over.
According to a new government watchdog report, the FBI spied on its prospective new boss, Kash Patel.
Patel has promised to “clean house” at the Hoover Building, and hold all those who “abused their power” during the Russiagate “witch hunt” accountable.
He might start with the officials and agents who secretly vacuumed up his phone records and emails starting in late 2017, when he led a House Intelligence Committee investigation into the FBI’s reliance on Hillary Clinton’s false opposition research to surveil a Trump campaign official as a supposed “Russian agent.”
According to a nearly 100-page report by the Justice Department’s inspector general, the FBI subpoenaed the records as part of an investigation it opened to find out whether congressional staffers leaked classified information about its Trump-Russia “collusion” case to the Washington Post and other media.
Working with career prosecutors at Justice, the FBI compelled Google and Apple to turn over the sensitive private information of subjects the FBI identified “between September 2017 and March 2018,” a period when Andrew McCabe was the acting FBI director. (Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions was out of the loop, the report said, having recused himself from the Russia probe.)
The court orders gagged the service providers from notifying Patel and other customers of the intrusion.
As chief counsel, Patel had no idea that the subject of his investigation — the FBI — was collecting his data and increasing the visibility of witnesses he was communicating with, including whistleblowers.
At the time, Patel was demanding to see FBI documents and depose FBI witnesses to find out if the bureau had abused its power in obtaining a FISA warrant to spy on Trump aide Carter Page.
But Patel remained in the dark until 2022, when Google finally was cleared to send him a copy of the subpoena. Outraged, he told me at the time: “The FBI and DOJ subpoenaed my personal records while I caught them doing this to Page back in 2017.”
Navi of Boomhandia
Imagine filing lawsuit against Glock, getting five paragraphs in, and admitting you fundamentally don’t understand how the gun even works.
Holding down the trigger bar will cause a dead trigger – not fire the gun repeatedly. Embarrassing.
BREAKING: I just sued Glock to put the homemade machine gun industry out of business.
The days of an Austrian company putting profits ahead of the safety of American residents and law enforcement officers are over. pic.twitter.com/ExRlzZUM1M
— Attorney General Matt Platkin (@NewJerseyOAG) December 12, 2024
Fundamental misunderstanding continues. The G18 achieves auto fire differently than a G17 with a switch does. The trigger bar isn’t “held down” in either case, though.
If holding down the trigger bar is all that was required, you wouldn’t need a switch at all.
If you uttered the facts in this IG report last year, you were labeled a “conspiracy theorist.” It’s also notable that the IG report came out literally the day after Christopher Wray resigned. https://t.co/7u6T2e4ZjN
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 12, 2024
Trump Assassination Attempt Task Force Determines ‘Failures’ with Secret Service Leadership
On Tuesday, the Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump released its final official report, determining that there were “failures in the planning, execution, and leadership” of the United States Secret Service (USSS) leading up to both attempts on the President-elect’s life.
As reported by Breitbart, the task force’s five-month investigation focused on both the attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13th and the second attempt in West Palm Beach, Florida on September 15th. In the former attempt, President-elect Trump was wounded by gunfire in his right ear, while one rallygoer was killed and two others were critically injured, before the gunman was killed by the Secret Service. In the second attempt, the gunman was spotted by Secret Service and fled before firing a shot, and was arrested later the same day.
“The report text, unanimously approved by the Task Force on December 5, highlights significant failures in the planning, execution, and leadership of the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners,” the task force declared in a press release summarizing its findings. “The Task Force-approved report also proposes 37 actionable recommendations related both to the security failures on July 13 and to overarching structural changes that the Secret Service and Congress must consider to strengthen security measures and prevent similar security failures in the future.”
With regards to the July 13th attempt, the task force’s report noted that, rather than any one singular moment that allowed the gunman to nearly assassinate the then-former president, there had instead been “various failures in planning, execution, and leadership” which created “an environment in which the former President” and the audience at the rally were “exposed to grave danger.”
Almost immediately after the first attempt, the Secret Service faced widespread and bipartisan condemnation for the obvious security failures that allowed the 22-year-old gunman to gain access to a nearby rooftop with an entire rifle in hand. Multiple civilians spotted the armed and suspicious-looking man and tried to point him out to law enforcement, who apparently did nothing in response to these warnings. His motives remain unknown.
By contrast, the response to the second attempt in Florida was much swifter. An agent noticed the barrel of the gunman’s rifle protruding from the bushes at the Trump International Golf Course, where then-candidate Trump was playing a round of golf. The Secret Service opened fire, scaring the gunman away, before he was apprehended later by local law enforcement. The second would-be assassin, Ryan Wesley Routh, had become a fanatical supporter of Ukraine since the start of their war against Russia, and was apparently motivated by what he perceived as insufficient support for Ukraine by former President Trump.
