Donald Trump was swarmed by Secret Service agents and rushed off stage.

AP
Donald Trump was swarmed by Secret Service agents and rushed off stage as possible shots were heard during at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.

There appeared to be blood on his right ear as he was being taken off stage.

• The Secret Service is assessing the incident, and have not confirmed it was actual shots. The blood seen on Trump's right ear could be from him being t

 

Your post is incomplete.

 

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-rushed-off-stage-disturbance-pennsylvania-rally/story?id=111913361

 

Those must be the worst Secret Service Agents, ever. That was so weird. He was allowed to stand on stage with his head exposed for a long time.

 

According to an attendee, they told police that they saw a guy with a rifle, but they did nothing, and Trump was allowed to speak. I tried to tell you all that intelligence standards for police are too low, and they eliminate applicants with high IQs. This reminds me that a couple of officers from the Uvalde mass shooting were charged with child abandonment and endangerment.

 

My friends say that something is wrong with this picture.

There should have been drones flying. The SS snipers should have had the highest ground. They should have used infra red detectors to identify all sniper like positions; anyone unaccounted for should have proactively taken out.

Was this a warning??

The head shot looks like it was spot on and perhaps missed intentionally or due to "windage".

Very sad for our country. Very sad.

 

The Secret Service snipers behind Trump flinched when they heard the gunshots. It looks like they couldn't locate the shooter quickly. Three audience members were shot. The security was terrible. The Secret Service has a no fail mission, and they failed in multiple ways. Even the agents on the ground took too long to get to Trump.

 

Speaking from first-hand experience, the Secret Service is not at all what it is cracked up to be.

How could they allow a line-of-sight shot at the podium from a place accessible to someone who didn't attend the event (i.e. go through security)? If that's their level of security, any rando could take a pop at anyone they're "protecting" at an outdoor event.

This is inexcusable. When asked about it, the FBI said, essentially, "It's not on us--that's the Secret Service's role." They're alone on this one, and it doesn't look good.

 

You are right Rich. A guy managed a good position and almost took his head off. Questions will be raised.

 

A witness has described the unfathomable security lapse that led up to the apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a rally Saturday evening, saying he repeatedly tried to alert cops to the existence of a rifle-wielding man on a rooftop just outside the event.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/gunman-crawled-nearby-roof-shooting-005656429.html
The witness, identified only as Greg, told BBC that he was having a party outside the rally and was planning to walk up through a nearby field and listen to Trump when he started speaking. But as he was walking up, about five minutes into Trump’s speech, “We noticed a guy bear-crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50 feet away from us.”

The man clearly had a rifle, Greg said, so he started trying to alert nearby cops and Secret Service agents who were stationed on the ground and on the roof of a barn.

 

There's a lot of confusion all over social media because people are stupid and blind. The shooter was 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. There are people creating fake social media accounts with pictures of the wrong men, and they're trying to make the shooter out to be Antifa. We don't know yet what his political beliefs were. He was a registered Republican, but Pennsylvania is a closed primary state. He could have registered as a Republican to vote in the Republican primary.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/fbi-identifies-thomas-matthew-crooks-subject-involved-trump-rally-shooting-2024-07-14/

 

Rubbish. I was a police officer in California (Bruce and I have corresponded over the years and he knows who I am), and they hired me with the full knowledge that I had a uni degree and was a member of Mensa. I’ve taken my PhD since retiring (as did my old academy and beat partner, as I just found out the other day). I was hardly atypical, either. Later in my career I was involved in hiring, selection, and academy training. While we recruited people who proved very successful from all kinds of backgrounds, we deliberately sought out intelligent candidates and recruited a number of people who were already successful from the tech industry, people with law degrees, etc.

I’m sure that there have been misguided agencies that thought they shouldn’t hire intelligent candidates (and no doubt you’ll find some article that documents such a case) but blasé claims that that is a universal standard is not the mark of a good researcher. You’ve made it clear that you don’t like cops, which is absolutely your right, but stop spouting generalizations based on your bias.

 

I usually stay out of political threads, but that’s complete bullshit.

The agency I recently retired from had a nearly 100% rate of officers with college degrees (literally, there was one…ONE officer out of 200+ who had just a HS diploma), around 75% had Master’s degrees, and several had J.D.’s.

 

Law enforcement recovered an AR-style rifle at the scene, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Investigators believe the weapon was bought by the father at least six months ago, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.
The officials said federal agents were still working to understand when and how Thomas Crooks obtained the gun.
Authorities identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, but have yet to establish a motive for the shooting. Crooks was "neutralized" by the Secret Service.
Law enforcement has surrounded the Bethel Park home of suspected gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, per reporters at the scene. According to USA Today, the three-bedroom brick house has been owned by the suspect's parents, the road leading to the residence was shut down on Sunday morning and some neighbors were reportedly evacuated from the area in the middle of the night. Per CBS News, one neighbor said police made them vacate their home with "no warning," citing “an emergency.”
Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek labeled the shooting an assassination attempt Saturday night.

 

Degreeinfo is a community. As such, people disagree, sometimes by a lot. But it does no one any good to start off a rebuttal with statements like these.

 

I also seem to recall over the years several anecdotes about police officers buying fake degrees to secure pay raises.

 

Everyone can hate on the Secret Service and the short comings but I looked up what they get paid.

GL-07 Level: $49,508
GL-09 Level: $55,214
GS-11 Level: $64,009

The GL-07 Level requires a bachelors, GL-09 requires a masters, and GS-11 requires a doctorate…there are other criteria that one can have but it is too long to list.

How are we going to pay such low wages for some of the most important positions…

 

You were in liberal California.

 

That means nothing. You don't need an IQ above 110 to earn a degree. I've worked with college-educated agents who were idiots. Plus, there were local police who failed to act, and local and state agencies tend to have lower standards than federal agencies. Last time someone did a study, only 1/3 of police officers in the U.S. had a bachelor's degree or higher.

Are we really going to argue that it was smart for law enforcement to not check that roof? A former president was almost killed. If the average IQ for a police officer is 103, imagine how many police officers have IQs below 100.

 

You only need a degree if you don't have qualifying experience. Those are base wages without locality pay.

A bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university with superior academic achievement (S.A.A.) which is based on class standing, grade-point average, or honor society membership (for more information on S.A.A. please click here);

OR at least one full year of graduate level education (i.e., 18 semester hours);

OR at least 1 year of specialized experience in, or related to, the investigative methods, protective methods, and law enforcement techniques that provide the specific competencies to successfully perform the position's duties. Experience also includes exercising initiative; attention to detail; judgment in collecting, assembling and developing facts, evidence or other pertinent data; the ability to analyze and evaluate data or evidence to arrive at sound conclusions including applying new information; and the ability to partner with or lead others in the accomplishment of mission activities.