A source familiar with the conversation confirmed to The Tennessee Star that multiple members of the U.S. Senate were prohibited from asking questions during a Wednesday conference call with the U.S. Secret Service in the wake of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
The allegation surfaced after U.S. Senator Mike Lee revealed the Secret Service was “briefing senators” about the attempted assassination “on a conference call,” during which he claimed the federal agency provided “details that aren’t all helpful” and little information about “the failures that led to this tragedy.”
Sean Davis, the co-founder of The Federalist who recently argued the Secret Service “created the conditions” for the assassination attempt to occur, then reported that “multiple senators were prohibited from asking any questions” directed to the federal agency.
Davis listed U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Mike Lee (R-UT) as individuals who were “left in the queue and not allowed to ask questions of the agency they fund and oversee.”
BREAKING: Sources familiar with the call tell me that multiple senators were prohibited from asking any questions of the Secret Service during this call.
Senators Blackburn, Cruz, and Lee, among others, were left in the queue and not allowed to ask questions of the agency they… https://t.co/CIxAlcSgyo
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) July 17, 2024
The Star confirmed from a source familiar with the phone call that Davis’ reporting is accurate, and the senators he named were disallowed from asking questions of the Secret Service.
The confirmation of Davis’ reporting comes after the writer argued on Tuesday that the Secret Service created the conditions for the attack when it “deliberately starved Trump’s security team of the resources it needed,” then declared “the most obvious assassination perch in the entire area” would remain outside the security perimeter, with snipers not allowed on the roof.
Authorities have since identified the would-be assassin as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, who was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper at the rally.
In addition to piercing Trump’s ear with one of his bullets, Crooks killed former fire chief Corey Comperatore, who was shielding his family at the time of his death, and two others were wounded in the attack.
While Secret Service Chief Kimberly Cheatle acknowledged responsibility for the failure to protect Trump lands at her feet, she has thus far refused calls for her resignation, which have come in from different sources, including Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk and former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino.
Cheatle nonetheless pledged the Secret Service will “participate fully” in a third-party investigation of the assassination attempt.
Similarly, though President Joe Biden urged Americans to “cool” their political rhetoric in speeches after the attack, the White House claimed it has “100 percent confidence” in Cheatle’s ability to lead the Secret Service.
– – –
Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
