The Plot to Kill Trump (Newsnation Special)

Jul 25, 2024

Former President Donald Trump was the target of an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally on July 13. The FBI said that the attempted assassin was Thomas Crooks, a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man. The Secret Service shot and killed him seconds after Trump was shot. The attack was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.The law enforcement failures didn’t just begin on July 13, the day of Donald Trump’s now infamous rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. They began weeks before, with what sources say, was a flawed plan by the United States Secret Service (USSS). A source tells NewsNation the building that the gunman climbed atop to shoot the former president was supposed to be secured by local police. There was even a star on the plan, explicitly indicating it was the local police department that was responsible for securing the building — despite it being so close to where the president was speaking.