Does the lack of curiosity by the press seem natural? Has the stone-walling by government officials effectively squelched profitable discussion of last Saturday’s shooting of former president and current candidate Donald John Trump? Brett Weinstein notes the general lack of interest in facts by the “news media”:
Am I missing something, or has the usual series of post-shooting press conferences simply not materialized? It seems we don’t even know the basics. How many of these questions have a satisfactory/confirmed answer? Beyond ‘AR-15’ what weapon, exactly? How was it equipped? What type of ammunition, exactly? How many shots? How many unfired rounds left in the magazine? In the backpack? How many people were hit/grazed? Who are they and what are their injuries. What are President Trump’s injuries? How many fired rounds have been recovered? From where? Is the venue still an active crime scene, and if so, why was the roof being washed? What was the presumptive shooter doing over the several days prior? What was the transmitter for? What else was in the car? Was the shooter in contact with anyone by phone or other device while at the rally? Was the water tower covered? If so, how? If not, why not? Feel free to provide any answers you think we have official confirmation of. And please suggest other questions that should be readily answerable.
Brett Weinstein, X.com, July 19, 2024.
Speaking of the water tower, as Dr. Weinstein was, a mobile something/someone was caught on video on said tower:
Despite so many questions unasked and unanswered, revelations are bursting forth. According to Senator Josh Hawley (R‑Mo.), we have learned something about the make-up of Trump’s security team in Butler: it wasn’t really filled to the brim with trained Secret Service agents!
“Whistleblowers who have direct knowledge of the event have approached my office. According to the allegations, the July 13 rally was considered to be a ‘loose’ security event. For example, detection canines were not used to monitor entry and detect threats in the usual manner. Individuals without proper designations were able to gain access to backstage areas. Department personnel did not appropriately police the security buffer around the podium and were also not stationed at regular intervals around the event’s security perimeter,” Hawley wrote in a letter sent Friday to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“In addition, whistleblower allegations suggest the majority of DHS officials were not in fact USSS agents but instead drawn from the department’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). This is especially concerning given that HSI agents were unfamiliar with standard protocols typically used at these types of events, according to the allegations.”
Michael Flores, “Whistleblowers Bombshell! Untrained Security weren’t even Secret Service!” Substack, July 19, 2024.
On Monday, Paul Jacob concluded his column on the assassination attempt with these words:
Heads must roll at Secret Service. (Figuratively.) A new and beefed-up detail should be protecting Trump. And it is past time for RFK, Jr., to be granted Secret Service protection as well.
I don’t say this often but … spend the money!
Paul Jacob, “Serious Times,” July 15, 2024.
Well, Biden did finally grant RFK, Jr., a Secret Service detail, almost immediately after the Butler, Pennsylvania, event. But is there cooperation with the congressional investigation also immediately started?
Rep. James Comer, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, has issued a subpoena to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle compelling her to appear before the committee on Monday for what is scheduled to be the first congressional hearing into the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
Comer said initially that the Secret Service committed to her attendance but that Homeland Security officials appear to have intervened and there has been no “meaningful updates or information” shared with the committee.
Comer said the “lack of transparency and failure to cooperate” with the committee called into question Cheatle’s ability to lead the Secret Service and necessitates the subpoena.
Rebecca Santana, Associated Press, “House committee subpoenas Secret Service director to testify on Trump assassination attempt,” PBS News, July 17, 2024.
Multiple investigations have been started, but how much investigating will actually go on, and what the purpose of these investigations really is, could be open to questioning:
The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general also said Wednesday it has opened an investigation into the Secret Service’s handling of security for Trump on the day a gunman tried to assassinate him at his Pennsylvania rally.
In a brief notice posted to the inspector general’s website, the agency said the objective of the probe is to “Evaluate the United States Secret Service’s (Secret Service) process for securing former President Trump’s July 13, 2024 campaign event.”
There was no date given for when the investigation was launched. The notice was among a long list of ongoing cases that the inspector general’s office is pursuing.
Biden already had directed an independent review of the security at the rally.
The shooting has raised questions about how the gunman was able to climb onto a roof with a clear line of sight to the former president, who said he was shot in the ear.
Ibid.
Notice two things about that last paragraph.
- The focus is on one gunman, not multiple gunmen. This is a repeat of the Warren Commission focus.
- A mid-week report still treats President Trump’s injury not as a matter of fact but as a matter of testimony: Trump was not “shot in the ear,” but, instead, “said he was shot in the ear.”
1 reply on “Incurious?”
Well, the Redacted video spun its wheels for a while, then told me that it would start in 30 seconds, then did nothing for about another half-minute, and then a pair of shaved apes began prologuing. I quit.