(ProsperNews.net) – Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., raised concerns about the Secret Service’s ability to protect candidates like former President Donald Trump during an assassination attempt, citing whistleblower claims. Speaking on Jesse Watters Primetime, Hawley revealed that whistleblowers told him the Secret Service is “woefully unprepared” due to poor training, including Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents who were assigned to protective details but received minimal preparation.
According to these claims, HSI agents were only given a two-hour Microsoft Teams webinar, which was pre-recorded and full of technical issues. Whistleblowers described how the instructor struggled to get the audio to work, forcing the session to restart multiple times, making the training ineffective. One whistleblower told Hawley that despite the seriousness of the situation, “the content was not helpful.”
The Secret Service responded, acknowledging the concerns but stating they have provided over 1,500 pages of documentation to Congress and made employees available for interviews as part of ongoing efforts to improve. They emphasized their commitment to learning from the failure to ensure such a mistake never happens again.
However, whistleblowers allege that since the July 13 assassination attempt at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, no improvements have been made to training. HSI agents who worked that event reportedly only received a PowerPoint presentation as preparation. Hawley called the situation a “nightmare,” attributing his knowledge of these issues solely to the whistleblowers coming forward.
In July, the would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, managed to gain access to the rooftop of a building near the rally with an AR-15 rifle. Whistleblowers claim that the site’s lead security agent was inexperienced and incompetent, failing to enforce basic security protocols like ID checks. Most of the agents present that day were not Secret Service but Homeland Security agents.
Hawley blasted the government agency for mishandling security, particularly during such a critical event, and continues to push for answers on how these failures occurred.
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