(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A whistleblower has come forward to alleged that the Secret Service failed to protect “known vulnerabilities” at the West Palm Beach on Sunday, which led to Donald Trump nearly being assassinated—again.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., revealed the whistleblower allegation in a Wednesday letter to Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe. Hawley said the whistleblower has protected Trump at that same golf course where Ryan Routh allegedly attempted to kill Trump.
According to Hawley, the whistleblower told him that there are “known vulnerabilities” in the fence line surrounding Trump’s golf course—places that offer a clear line of sight to the former president and others playing the course.
🚨🚨 NEW – A whistleblower now tells me that Secret Service apparently ignored “known vulnerabilities” surrounding Trump’s golf course, leading to the assassin spending 12 hours in wait
Secret Service must give us answers pic.twitter.com/tkyZCSmeGn
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) September 19, 2024
“As a result, the whistleblower alleges it has been Secret Service protocol to ‘post up’ agents at these vulnerable spots when Trump visits the course. That apparently did not happen on September 15. Instead, the gunman was permitted to remain along or near the fence line for some 12 hours,” Hawley told Rowe.
“It is further unclear from your recent press conference whether agents swept the perimeter of the golf course at any point, or whether drones were used to surveil the fence line. The reality is that the would-be assassin should never have been able to linger around the course for that long undetected.”
At a Monday press conference, Rowe seemed to blame Trump’s last-minute decision to golf on the lack of security preparations.
“The president wasn’t even really supposed to go there,” Rowe said. “It was not on his official schedule.”
Unnamed sources in the federal government are also blaming Trump’s golfing habits for Sunday’s security failure.
“Soon after Donald Trump became president, authorities tried to warn him about the risks posed by golfing at his own courses because of their proximity to public roads. Secret Service agents came armed with unusual evidence: not suspect profiles or spent bullet casings, but simple photographs taken by news crews of him golfing at his private club in Sterling, Va,” the Washington Post reported Monday, citing unnamed sources.
“They reasoned that if photographers with long-range lenses could get the president in their sights while he golfed, so too could potential gunmen, according to former U.S. officials involved in the discussions who, like most others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.”
Trump has not indicated that he will stop golfing. Meanwhile, Hawley told Rowe in his letter that he’s demanding answers “immediately.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
