Trump names who he thinks is behind assassination attempt, admits Biden's edge in one area — leaves interviewers in stitches



Former President Donald Trump gave a wide-ranging interview on the massively popular "Flagrant" podcast, where he provided some new insight into who he believes might be behind the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Co-host Akaash Singh of the "Flagrant" podcast — which has nearly 1.7 million subscribers and 415,000,000 total views on YouTube — asked Trump who he believed was behind the assassination attempt in July.

Trump explained his strategy when giving nicknames to his adversaries.

"I hate answering it," Trump said of the question, "because I don't want to give any false identities. I don't want to do anything having to do with creating something that isn't there."

Trump advised that President Joe Biden should be extremely stern with assassination attempts on American politicians by other countries.

Trump said if Biden were "a real president," he should issue a warning to all foreign powers that the U.S. would "bomb that country to oblivion" if there is an assassination attempt against an American president.

"If they do it, the country will be blown to smithereens, the entire country will be blown to smithereens," Trump said. "That's a really bad threat as a country."

"Iran has an open threat out for me," Trump noted.

Trump pointed out that China is not happy with him for the tariffs he imposed on the country.

Trump concluded, "I think Iran would be the one."

Trump claimed to have been nearing a deal during his presidency in which the U.S., China, and Russia would denuclearize.

"We were close to a deal for getting rid of nuclear weapons," Trump said. "It would be so good."

"It's too powerful," he declared of nuclear weapons. "It's too much."

Regarding negotiating with powerful foreign leaders, Trump said, "I get along with pretty much everybody. Actually, the tougher they were the better I did with them — that's a good thing, not a bad thing because the other ones are easy to handle."

Trump said he got along well with Chinese President Xi Jinping, except when the coronavirus pandemic happened.

"But when COVID came, I was not happy with him," Trump said of Xi. "Because it came out of the labs — accidentally, I believe."

Trump conceded that Biden has an edge over him in one area.

"He has one ability that I don't have — he sleeps," Trump said, which left the interviews in stitches.

"This guy goes on a beach, he lays on one of those 6-ounce chairs. They weigh 6 ounces. They weigh very little, and he can’t lift it," Trump joked. "They're meant for children, young people, and old people."

Trump continued to lampoon Biden and his frequent beach vacations, "Somebody convinced him he looks good in a bathing suit. When you’re 82, typically bathing suits don’t make you look great. You're not going to be enhanced. It's just one of those things."

"He has an ability to fall asleep while on camera," Trump told "Flagrant" host and comedian Andrew Schulz. "He can lie down, and in minutes, he's stone-cold out."

Trump said he has launched a lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize Board for awarding writers at the New York Times and the Washington Post with Pulitzer Awards in 2018 for their Russiagate coverage that has since been refuted.

"They've got themselves a big problem now," he said. "And the suit's moving along — and I think we're going to win that suit easily."

Trump said his legal team wrote a letter to the Pulitzer Prize Board that read: "We demand that you take back the Pulitzer Prizes, we demand an apology."

Trump explained his strategy when giving nicknames to his adversaries.

He said nicknames need to be easy to say because "you can't stutter it through when you use it."

"When you put the names together you've got to be able to pewwwm. You've got to be able to put it out there," Trump stated.

Schulz asked what happened to former Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump replied, "He couldn't cross the line of doing what was right, in my opinion."

Trump said he thinks Pence is a "good man" and the duo had a good working relationship for "99.9%" of the administration.

Schulz asked Trump what he would like his legacy to be and what he thinks it will be.

Trump responded, "What I would like my legacy to be is the same as the term MAGA — Make America Great Again — I'm going to make this country great again."

"I want to make America great again. I want to make it so great that people won't question it," Trump proclaimed.

In August, Schulz described Trump as a "very enticing candidate."

"He’s very enticing. He’s incredibly enticing, and I think that he’s enticing because I think the Democrats have utterly failed to inspire us in any way, shape, or form," Schulz stated during an episode of "The Brilliant Idiots" podcast.

Schulz told his co-host Charlamagne tha God, "I think that it’s nice to see somebody that is bucking the system especially when the systems, you feel, have left you down."

You can watch the entire "Flagrant" podcast interview with Donald Trump here.

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Trump security, sniper teams show heavy presence in NYC during meeting with Ukraine's Zelenskyy



The presence of Secret Service snipers was abundantly clear in Manhattan as Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Trump Tower.

Trump's command of the press room made most of the headlines on Friday, however on-the-ground footage from large outlets and independent photographers showed an increase in Secret Service presence that has clearly been needed since the first attempt on Trump's life.

"Under heavy security, Zelensky arrives for meeting with Donald Trump in NY," Brazilian outlet Metropoles wrote on X. The outlet's footage showed a sniper team on top of the Gucci store marquee next to Trump Tower.

A single sniper was also shown across the street about 30-40 feet up on another landing.

Secret Service agents were pictured on the ground in front of Trump Tower, alongside several NYPD units crowding the street with barriers and concealed white tents.

Another page showed at least one other sniper team inspecting nearby buildings with binoculars.

Following Trump nearly being killed with a sniper's bullet in Butler, Pennsylvania, it was revealed that Secret Service command had repeatedly denied requests by Trump's security team for extra personnel at his public appearances.

According to the Guardian, this included requests for more security equipment and agents to screen rally attendees.

A recent report from the BBC estimated about 80 security personnel are likely assigned to Trump at any one time. This is in contrast to a sitting president and vice president, who have about 300 personnel assigned to them.

These totals reportedly include all staff, meaning they are not all agents.

'It takes two to tango.'

Trump and Zelenskyy enter Trump TowerPhoto by Alex Kent/Getty Images

Trump's public messages with President Zelenskyy were consistently asking for peace in the region. He stated that he and Zelenskyy "have a good relationship" but added that he also has a "very good relationship with President Putin.”

In front of press members, Zelenskyy asserted, "I hope we have more good relations with us."

"It takes two to tango," Trump replied, referring to both sides of the Russia-Ukraine war.

In another message to reporters, the two politicians stated that the war in Europe "should have never happened."

Trump commended Ukraine's "great weather" along with its structures and "great everything" that may never be achieved again due to the death and destruction.

Zelenskyy concluded by asking Trump to visit his military installations in Ukraine.

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FBI TARGETS whistleblowers — but MISSES would-be assassins



Not one, but two would-be assassins were able to fly below the FBI’s radar before they attempted to take Donald Trump’s life — and within just a few months of each other.

Blaze Media investigative journalist Steve Baker is attempting to uncover how this happened, and he’s not exactly pleased with what he’s finding.

“Joe Hanneman and I are digging into this as deeply as we possibly can with all of the sources that we have connected to the various agencies, and nobody believes that this particular individual was there by accident or that he got lucky about where he was,” Baker tells Jill Savage and Matthew Peterson of “Blaze News Tonight.”

Not only is Baker digging, but whistleblowers have been coming forward to voice their concerns about the security measures taken to protect the former president.

In a post on X, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) revealed a letter from one of these whistleblowers accusing acting Director Rowe of cutting the manpower of the Secret Service countersurveillance division by 20% without informing Congress.

“Even more concerning, the whistleblower claims that some of the officers had flagged security lapses before the attempt, that’ll be the first assassination attempt, on Donald Trump instead of addressing those concerns,” Savage notes.

In addition, the FBI seems to be paying more attention to the whistleblowers than to who may be going after the president.

Suspended Special Agent Garret O’Boyle is one of those whistleblowers who has risked it all to warn Americans.

“Garret is one of those guys who made the choice, the honorable choice, to stand up to the agency when they were imposing upon him the unfair and unconstitutional requirements related to the COVID regimens. Vaccines, lockdowns, isolation, things of that nature,” Baker explains. “He became a whistleblower, and he did it all correctly.”

“It’s one of the most abominable stories of what the government will do against one of their own, because if they’ll do it against him, they’ll do it against us,” he adds.


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Blackwater founder TORCHES Secret Service for second Trump shooting: 'The definition of insanity'



Last Sunday, we saw another attempt on Donald Trump’s life — this time at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the former president was enjoying a last-minute game of golf.

As the Secret Service was scouting the area a few holes ahead of Trump, one eagle-eyed agent noticed the barrel of a rifle sticking out of the bushes. The agent fired, and the suspected gunman, a man named Ryan Wesley Routh, fled in his SUV but was detained shortly after. He remains in custody.

Retired U.S. Navy SEAL and founder of Blackwater Erik Prince joins Jill Savage and the “Blaze News Tonight” panel to shed light on what he deems another catastrophic failure on the part of the Secret Service.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

“It happened again because nothing has changed,” says Prince.

Not only has “[nobody] been fired from the Secret Service,” but the left’s “rhetoric” has also remained the same.

“The apocryphal claims that Donald Trump is Hitler and that he must be eliminated; he must be stopped at all costs; that he's a threat to democracy — that opens the intellectual can of worms for every left-wing screwball to say, ‘I'm going to be the savior of the left, and I'm gonna kill Donald Trump,”’ says Prince, adding that “that’s exactly what [Routh] was doing.”

“He went from being the savior of Afghan refugees to the hero of Ukraine … and he took on this last crusade” because “he was supercharged by the left’s vile rhetoric,” he explains.

Further, “the Secret Service has done nothing different since Butler, Pennsylvania,” which Prince says is a prime example of “the definition of insanity” — “to do the same thing again and again and expect a different result.”

This is why he argues that Florida law enforcement should head the investigation instead of the feds.

“The state of Florida must take the lead in this investigation; don't turn him over to the feds; keep his electronics. Sure, the feds can interview him, but let state law enforcement be present, because I don't have any confidence in the FBI Miami office to do this investigation,” Prince told Jill.

“The special agent in charge there, before he was nominated to that post, had to scrub, had to delete his social media history because he was so vilely anti-Trump, and this is the same FBI office that did the bogus raid on Mar-a-Lago on this documents case, so if you think he's going to do an honest job at digging into leftist conspiracy to kill President Trump, no way,” he continues. “The state of Florida must step up and do their part.”

“Do you really believe that [Routh] was there in that place at that time by accident, or was he tipped off? Was he tipped off by the Secret Service, by HSI local law enforcement? Or is there a mole inside of the Trump White House or the Trump administration?” asks investigative journalist and Blaze Media correspondent Steve Baker.

To hear Prince’s response, watch the clip above.

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Trump dodges another assassination attempt: Secret Service under fire for security failures



The second attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump in two months has laid bare the reality his security is still not being based on a threat matrix reflective of the dangers he faces, experts say.

After Thomas Matthew Crooks fired eight shots at Trump and a rally crowd in Butler Township, Pa., on July 13, security professionals opined that the U.S. Secret Service treated him much differently than President Joe Biden, even though his threat profile was considerably higher than that of the sitting president.

As a result, many experts and observers predicted another assassination attempt would be carried out in the coming weeks or months.

That came true around 1:30 p.m. Sept. 15 when the Secret Service spotted a rifle poking out of the bushes at the edge of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla.

'They have to move to a threat-based protective model.'

An agent opened fire on what turned out to be a sniper’s nest on the public side of the fence near the sixth green, causing alleged would-be assassin Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, to flee the area, the FBI and Secret Service said.

Routh was arrested about 45 minutes later in nearby Martin County, Fla.

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said the gunman never had line of sight to former President Trump. The Secret Service discovered Routh trying to hide himself “in the wood line,” Rowe said.

“The protective methodologies of the Secret Service were effective yesterday,” Rowe said, citing a “layered approach” that had agents out ahead of Trump on the course. However, he said his department needs to shift away from being in a reactive mode into using a “readiness model.”

Rowe said “increased assets” ordered by President Joe Biden — including countersniper teams, counter-assault teams, and counter-surveillance agents — “were in place yesterday.”

At a news conference hours after the attempted assassination, however, the local sheriff confirmed Trump is not getting top-tier protection but only what the Secret Service deems “possible.”

“At this level that he is at right now, he’s not the sitting president,” Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said. “If he was, we would have had this entire golf course surrounded.”

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw addresses a news conference Sept. 16, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla.Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

“No, he’s a former President who was struck by an assassin’s bullet two months ago, and who Iran and others continue to plot against,” said U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). “Two attempts in a little over 60 days. Horrendous and unacceptable.”

United States Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said the Secret Service still has not answered even basic questions about the Butler assassination case and now faces new scrutiny.

“Yesterday's would-be Trump assassin was on the golf course for 12 hours before Secret Service ID'd him,” Hawley wrote on X. “The Butler shooter was on site long before he took his first shot. This is a dangerous pattern. Secret Service needs to tell us what's going on. And what they're doing to stop it.”

Martin County Sheriff William Snyder, whose deputies helped take Routh into custody at 2:14 p.m. Sept. 15, said Routh has no known ties to the county.

“I think we’re finding out he’s not from this area, which raises the bigger question, how does a guy from not here get all the way to Trump International, realize that the president, the former president of the United States is golfing and is able to get a rifle in that vicinity?”

The Secret Service has not been using the correct mindset when it comes to Trump’s security, one expert said.

“We’re in a situation where the threats against him are going to be higher than almost anyone, and they are still treating him like a third-rate protective responsibility,” said Tristan Leavitt, president of Empower Oversight, an educational organization dedicated to government accountability.

'The fact that the guy got away is troubling, that they weren't able to put effective fire on him.'

“They have to move to a threat-based protective model,” Leavitt said during an August Heritage Foundation forum on the Secret Service.

Jeffrey Veltri, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami Field Office, said the bureau received a tip in 2019 about Routh being a felon in possession of a firearm but was not able to substantiate the tip.

Routh was convicted in 2002 of possessing a fully automatic machine gun in Guilford County, N.C., court records show.

The 2019 tip was passed by the FBI to authorities in Hawaii, where Routh was living at the time, Veltri said.

Routh has a long criminal record in North Carolina. In addition to the gun felony, he has arrests for hit-and-run, obstructing police, multiple counts of possession of stolen goods, carrying a concealed weapon, driving on a revoked license, and multiple other motor-vehicle violations.

In his 2002 gun case, Routh fled from police after being pulled over on a traffic stop, then holed up in his roofing business keeping police at bay for three hours, according to a local newspaper account at the time.

According to North Carolina court records, Routh did not serve even one night in jail for his many convictions.

Trump's suspected would-be assassin in 2002 wielded a fully automatic machine gun in 3-hour standoff with police: Reportwww.theblaze.com

Erik Prince, founder of the private security firm Blackwater, said it’s crucial that the state of Florida conduct its own comprehensive investigation.

“We have a federal system, and states have a lot more rights and a lot more power than they assert,” Prince said on "The Glenn Beck Program."

“And this is a perfect opportunity for the governor of Florida to say, ‘Enough. This nonsense stops on my watch.' And they’re going to do what they should do, a very thorough proctology, and especially dig into Routh’s electronics, anyone he’s in contact with over the last six days, six months, to figure out what the hell stimulated this guy to try this.”

Prince said he was “very troubled” that Routh was able to escape after being fired upon.

“There [are] two ballistic plates affixed to the fence — so obviously he was expecting counter fire — and his GoPro attached. Trophy hunting. He was going to be a hero of the left,” Prince said. “I am very troubled. I'm glad the Secret Service saw him first and engaged, but there [were] four rounds fired. The fact that the guy got away is troubling, that they weren't able to put effective fire on him.”

Former FBI Special Agent Steve Friend, a whistleblower who testified before the House Judiciary Committee in May 2023, said he’s troubled that the man in charge of the FBI’s West Palm Beach assassination case is a well-known Trump-hater.

Cellphone data uncovers would-be assassin's disturbing determination to attack Trump — until Secret Service opened fireRyan Wesley Routh's arrest shown on police bodycam.

Friend said Special Agent In Charge Veltri was previously deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Security Division, which he said has targeted whistleblowers for expulsion from the bureau.

“And from that post, he actually said that whistleblowers that they were looking to purge from the ranks were people who were military veterans — because he thought that they were disloyal — as well as people who attended regular religious worship ceremonies and opposed the coronavirus vaccine,” Friend said on "The Glenn Beck Program."

FBI Director Christopher Wray, Deputy Director Paul Abbate, and former Executive Assistant Director Jen Moore told Veltri to clean his Facebook profile “of all the anti-Trump vitriol that he publicly put out there” before he could accept a promotion to head the FBI Miami office, Friend said.

Prince echoed those concerns.

“And to think that this [is] the Miami office of the FBI, the same office that raided Mar-a-Lago on a bogus documents case where the new special agent in charge, [a] whistleblower said that the FBI told him to delete his social media history because it was so virulently anti-Trump,” Prince said. “If we think that FBI office is going to do an honest job of investigating, I have severe doubts.”

Several officials said there needs to be an investigation of possible leaks inside the Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security, and even the Trump campaign itself to determine how Routh knew 12 hours in advance Trump would be on the golf course.

Others asked how an active mercenary recruiting for soldiers to fight the war in Ukraine was not under FBI watch.

Jeff Clark, assistant attorney general under President Trump, blamed the Biden-Harris administration for the ongoing risk to the former president.

“Protocol is just a fancy French word for rules of thumb,” Clark wrote on X. “The thing about rules of thumb is that they can be changed as circumstances demand. And they should certainly have changed after the first assassination attempt on Trump in Butler."

“Joe Biden and Kamala could easily give the Secret Service surge resources and the flexibility to harden the protocol,” Clark said. “So it’s their fault President Trump isn’t being adequately protected.”

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This Reaction to Trump Assassination Is a New Low with Co-Host Vivek Ramaswamy

This Reaction to Trump Assassination Is a New Low with Co-Host Vivek Ramaswamy

Cellphone data uncovers would-be assassin's disturbing determination to attack Trump — until Secret Service opened fire



Alleged would-be assassin Ryan Wesley Routh was located along the fence line where he made his sniper’s nest nearly 12 hours before a Secret Service agent fired at him from inside the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., a criminal complaint said.

Routh, 58, a native of Greensboro, N.C., who has also lived in Kaaawa, Hawaii, was charged in a federal criminal complaint with single counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Those charges carry potential prison time of 15 and five years, respectively.

Routh made a 10-minute appearance in federal court in West Palm Beach, where charges were read to him. An arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 30. A detention hearing will be held Sept. 23, according to the court docket.

The FBI is investigating the incident as the second attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump since July 13.

A probable-cause affidavit filed by the FBI said Routh first appeared along the fence line outside Trump International at 1:59 a.m. Sept. 15, based on geolocation data from Routh’s T-Mobile cell phone. He left that location at 1:31 p.m. when the Secret Service fired in his direction after an agent spotted a rifle poking out of the chain-link fence, the complaint said.

Routh fled the scene, leaving behind an SKS-style 7.62x39 caliber rifle, a GoPro camera, backpacks containing anti-ballistic plates, and a plastic bag filled with food, police said.

A witness saw Routh run away from the fence line and get into a Nissan SUV, which left the area at a high rate of speed, the criminal complaint said. The vehicle had license plates belonging to a stolen white 2012 Ford truck.

Officers from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and the Martin County Sheriff’s Office located the Nissan traveling north on I-95 and initiated a traffic stop at 2:14 p.m., the criminal complaint said.

“Routh was asked if he knew why he was being stopped; he responded in the affirmative,” wrote Special Agent Mark A. Thomas of the FBI’s West Palm Beach Resident Agency.

Routh was convicted in December 2002 on a North Carolina charge of possession of a weapon of mass death and destruction, a Class F felony. Police have said the weapon in question was a fully automatic machine gun.

Man with gun barricades self inside business www.newspapers.com

Greensboro Police stopped Routh about 10 p.m. on Dec. 15, 2002, for a traffic violation. Police said he put his hand on a firearm before driving away and barricading himself at United Roofing. Routh was arrested after a three-hour standoff, according to a Dec. 17, 2002, article in the Greensboro News & Record.

In March 2010, Routh was convicted in North Carolina of multiple felony counts for possession of stolen goods, the FBI said.

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Suspected would-be Trump assassin's social media accounts apparently repeat left-wing alarmism: 'DEMOCRACY is on the ballot'



The X profile apparently belonging to Ryan Routh, who police say is the man who prepared to shoot former President Donald Trump on Sunday, shows his support for President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Ukraine in the war against Russia's invasion.

"You should visit the victims in the hospital of the trump rally victims and attend the funeral of the fireman that died; Trump certainly never would. SHOW THE WORLD WHAT REAL LEADERS DO," Routh apparently told Biden on X after the first attempted assassination in July.

"You and Biden should visit the injured people in the hospital from the Trump rally and attend the funeral of the murdered fireman. Trump will never do anything for them....show the world what compassion and humanity is all about," Routh's alleged account similarly told Harris that same day.

Routh also apparently posted about how "DEMOCRACY is on the ballot" this election, which has been a common phrase and sentiment from Democrats this year.

— (@)

Meta deleted Routh's reported Facebook account shortly after law enforcement confirmed him to be the primary suspect.

— (@)

As the Blaze previously reported, law enforcement sources reportedly said that an AK-47 has been recovered along the tree line at Trump's golf course in West Palm Beach.

"President Trump is safe following gunshots in his vicinity. No further details at this time," read a statement from Steven Cheung, the communications director for the Trump campaign.

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Sen. Blumenthal makes telling admission about forthcoming report on attempted Trump assassination



Following a closed-door meeting Thursday with acting U.S. Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) provided a chilling indication that the truth about the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump will leave the American public "shocked, astonished, and appalled."

Days after Trump was shot in Pennsylvania by an ActBlue donor who allegedly shared pro-Biden content online, U.S. Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) announced that the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee was launching a bipartisan investigation into the security failures that led to bloodletting that occurred on July 13.

In the months since, members of the committee have conducted transcribed interviews with officials linked to the Butler rally.

Committee member Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) indicated this week, "There are more questions than answers at this point in our bipartisan Senate investigation of July 13th. We will continue to press the Secret Service and FBI for witnesses and documents."

'We are going to absolutely insist on the truth.'

Johnson noted further that the committee will issue a preliminary report in the "very near future."

Rowe gave members of both the House and Senate an update Thursday, which appears to have vexed some lawmakers.

Johnson referenced "some frustration that was voiced, I think, with Acting Director Rowe," reported the New York Post.

The briefing also appears to have left Blumenthal with the impression that the committee's forthcoming report will create serious waves. The Connecticut Democrat said that Americans will be shocked by what the report will say about "the failures of the Secret Service in this assassination attempt of a former president."

"But I think they also ought to be appalled and astonished by the failure of the Department of Homeland Security to be more forthcoming, to be as candid and frank as it should be to them in terms of providing information," added Blumenthal. "We are going to absolutely insist on the truth and the whole truth in documents and testimony."

When pressed about what he learned at the closed-door meeting, Blumenthal would not go into specifics. However, he reiterated that the report "will absolutely shock the American people — it should — about the lapses and lags in the protection of his supporters that day and the breakdown of communication."

Blaze News investigative reporter Steve Baker, who has dug deep into what happened July 13 along with reporter Joe Hanneman, cast doubt on whether the committee report will be as explosive as Blumenthal has suggested.

"Honestly, beyond the 'shock' of unprecedented incompetence by the USSS, I don't know what else they will have to show. Maybe the 'insinuation' of 'deliberate incompetence'?" said Baker. "Beyond that insinuation, I seriously doubt they will provide evidence of a conspiracy behind the assassination attempt."

"Blaze News' own expert sources are convinced there are specific signs of professional 'grooming' behind the actions of Thomas Crooks, but Crooks' groomers are part of a very small group. Likely no more than three operatives. No more than five people 'in the know,'" continued Baker. "These are the kind of operatives who will never talk. They themselves will likely believe they were doing the business of 'God and Country' in saving us from the 'democracy-destroying authoritarianism' of a second Trump administration."

As for reports out of Congress, Baker suggested that "we will only ever hear more statements and more questions about the gross 'failures' and 'incompetencies.' It will die there, short of some miraculous revelation or the emergence of an unlikely whistleblower from within our intelligence community."

The report may prove toothless; however, more officials involved in the July 13 Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, may soon be out of work.

The Post noted that when asked whether more people should resign, Blumenthal replied, "Unquestionably and indisputably, there needs to be more accountability. People need to be held responsible."

"Without accountability, this kind of failure and lapse will happen again because there needs to be that sense that someone is the point person," added the Connecticut Democrat.

Sen. Paul told reporters after the briefing, "I think the people in charge of security that day shouldn't be doing it again."

Kimberly Cheatle resigned in disgrace as Secret Service director, despite initially signaling she intended to remain in the role, and a handful of agents were reportedly put on leave weeks later.

USSS Assistant Director Michael Plati is also stepping down.

A spokesman for Plati told Fox News this week, "Mike has been discussing this for more than a year. He's retiring on the date of his 27-year anniversary working for the Secret Service. He approached Acting Director [Ronald] Rowe about his retirement last month, before the DNC. He wasn't asked to retire or resign, and anyone saying otherwise is lying."

The Secret Service similarly suggested Plati "was not asked to resign or retire by anyone."

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Melania Trump on assassination attempt: 'Definitely more to this story'



Former first lady Melania Trump wants to know why law enforcement did not arrest would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks before he opened fire on former President Donald J. Trump at the July 13 campaign rally in Butler Township, Pennsylvania.

“The attempt to end my husband’s life was a horrible, distressing experience,” the former first lady said in a video posted Sept. 10 on X. “Now, the silence around it feels heavy."

“I cannot help but wonder, why didn’t law enforcement officials arrest the shooter before the speech?” Mrs. Trump continued. “There is definitely more to this story, and we need to uncover the truth.”

In the nearly two months since the Butler shooting, the assassination attempt has slipped from the headlines as nearly a dozen federal and state investigations churn away with sporadic public updates.

The U.S. House-appointed Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump is gathering records from local and state authorities. The task force recently asked the Butler County coroner and the Allegheny County medical examiner for a copy of the autopsy done on Crooks, who was killed by a Secret Service sniper after he fired eight shots into the crowd.

The task force has also asked for transcribed interviews with local law enforcement and for a slew of documents from the Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security, and local officials on the security planning for the July 13 event.

Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs investigators have been conducting transcribed interviews with officials involved in the Butler rally.

The FBI’s updated timeline says that Crooks, 20, accessed the roof of the American Glass Research complex at 6:05 p.m., then made his way south across several buildings in the complex before selecting a shooting perch. He opened fire at 6:11:32 p.m.

A Pennsylvania state trooper posted under a nearby water tower spotted Crooks at 6:08 p.m. and put out a radio dispatch warning, “There’s someone on the roof.” The Secret Service never heard that broadcast because it had no shared communications system with state and local police.

Specially programmed radios set up for the Secret Service were not only never used but never even picked up by Secret Service officials, according to local law enforcement sources and U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).

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