Shots fired at Trump during rally

Bottom line is trump should not have been on stage for this dumbass to take a shot at him.

 

Weird place to hold a rally. Kind of like the outdoor Jersey shore event. There can be plenty of extra law enforcement if the campaign is willing to pay for it. It's not free for an ex president. Wouldn't think money should be an issue, but then El Paso is still waiting for the $500,000 and change owed from 2019 by DJT campaign.

 

So. The gunman on the day of the shooting:

• Trained at his gun club where he had a membership
• Bought 50 rounds of ammo at a local gun store
• Went to Home Depot to get a ladder

That was basically his prior 24 hours.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/15/us/thomas-crooks-trump-rally-shooting-invs?cid=ios_app

 

Do we know who's pushing DEI in our military and SS?

 

What does that even mean?

 

Agreed as he shouldn't have won the primary

 

In reference to the video in post 744. Whose decision is it to place incapable members on a SS team simply because of their gender?

 

It’s a valid point, and that guys analysis came off totally reasonable (and interestingly, his “expert opinion” came to the same conclusion this non-expert did with even less angles and footage, but the additional analysis is still interesting). Ultimately the actual report will have much more detail. Even though he appears knowledgeable, it’s still piecing together media shots and speculative information.

As far as the DEI point, Trump must be like 6’3” and 300 pounds. Not sure it’s realistic to have an entire security detail of secret service that is 6’3. What if the President were 6’6” in height? I’m sure there are 5’-9 males in secret service which would create similar potential vulnerability. Is there an official height requirement? Has there ever been?

It’s true someone that is 5’6” female occupies even less space in the shield, but I would point out that the person being protected should be ducking and keeping their head down as well. They aren’t just standing upright, or at least they shouldn’t be. Trump was standing upright and heard on mic asking for his shoes for crying out loud. That seemed crazy to me as well, but as that same video discussed they may have had the message “shooter down”. I still don’t think any of that was totally “by the book”. I’m not saying it isn’t something to think about, but maybe we are overstating the impact of having a shorter woman in the mix if they kept the protectorate down and surrounded more tightly/properly? That also had literally nothing to do with the actual failure here, it’s more of an aside.

 

I don't think there is a hard line on "this height good, this height bad", but it's pretty clear that when we are talking incoming shots where inches can and do matter, anyone in the close protective detail who is significantly smaller than the VIP increases the risk significantly, and the smaller they are, the bigger that vulnerability is. Yes, you want the VIP to get down, but getting down and moving fast can be in conflict with each other also. It's a dynamic situation and ultimately about minimizing risks. A smaller person on close protective detail for a larger person is a knowable and identifiable risk.

 

said this earlier. If you watch any sport athletes at all levels are much bigger stronger and faster than 20 years ago, yet the presidents detail has gotten a foot shorter and 45 lbs fatter. With not only slower reaction time but the reactions of half the detail was The exact opposite ( personal safety) vs job description. Half that detail would be riding the bus home under my leadership and that’s just the beginning. It’s reallllly difficult to not think it’s purposeful as its so easily identifiable and mitigated.

 

This is part of the whole reason this thing stinks to high heaven.

Any reasonable person who has been shot at would want to get to full safety ASAP. Not pause for several seconds for a photo op that photographers were moved into place for before the shots were fired. Instead we have agents not properly guarding him or moving him to a vehicle because t-shirts needed to be printed with an image.

 

is it your contention this was pre planned for a photo op ?

 

The preponderance of the evidence would lead me to think not. However, I have lingering doubts. Blood on his ear but not on his white dress shirt collar? Photographers moved to that spot in advance? No fear by Trump of the situation to the point where he doesn't head to safety? Shooter allowed to operate freely though security forces saw him?

Some things about this don't make sense.

 

No one is stupid enough to ask someone to please shoot them in the ear with a rifle from 150 yards away because it will make a badass picture, in large part because the margin of error is too small and the consequences of a mistake are too large (Trump was literally a fraction of an inch from being killed).

And if you think photographers being in front of the stage at a presidential rally is somehow suspicious, I’m gonna guess you haven’t been to many political rallies.

 

As ridiculous as it is to suggest that Biden or some federal law enforcement recruited this bozo to kill Trump, it's even more ridiculous to suggest that Trump recruited this guy to just graze his ear from 450 feet away

 

I understand you wouldn’t want to surround a 6’3 person with 4’ circus midgets, leaving them wholly exposed.

Im also aware “security” often tends to be larger dudes. Bouncer at a nightclub, for example.

Of course having more large dudes provides more “surface area” in the protective shield. That’s just common sense really.

It’s moreso that I think it unlikely an adversary could exploit that in a group of varying heights, and if they were in position to exploit that gap, then the issues are much bigger. Like I said, if they have a rule that you need to be 6’2” or something, this would make sense. But all these same issues exist for shorter men, which plainly exist in secret service, and i don’t see anyone talking about sidelining the shorter men, it’s straight to “DEI” and diversity hires because of the women.

 

I contend that human meat shields are of last resort when all other planning has failed so you don’t recruit on that. If they have physical tests needed, like firemen where you have to carry certain weights, then so be it. This rush to vilify people (not by you) for something not even their fault when the break down obviously occurred much earlier is annoying.

 

That's why I said it's hard to believe. However, Trump could have fake bloodied his own ear when he first touched it.

There is no reason to give Trump any benefit of the doubt with anything fishy he gets involved with.

 

Yeah, in my mind it is less of a "DEI bad" in this case and more that women tend to be of shorter stature and less physically capable and this is a job with bona fide physical characteristics and requirements that statistically few women would meet. IMO, you shouldn't station a 5'9" person on inner security detail of a 6'3" VIP regardless of their sex.

 

Human meat shields are absolutely a last resort. That said, once bullets start flying they are the first line response of a personal security for a VIP the level of a former president. Should this shooter have been more competent and/or in a location that was harder to pinpoint once the bullets started flying, smaller meat shields could absolutely have been an issue. It's not a moral statement about anyone's desire or skill do to the job, it's just part of the immutable physics of the job. Same reason you wouldn't let Trey Smack jump in at left tackle even if he really wanted to and had the technique of blocking a DE down to textbook perfect. Mertz would get destroyed.