One Year and Waiting

One year and waiting by Daniel Gardner, Special to the Gazette

One year ago today we were eating breakfast at the Starkville Café. John came over to talk about politics. He asked what I planned to write that week.

I told him I had been thinking about an assassination attempt. What more could happen? The Left had conspired to do anything to destroy Donald Trump and his candidacy. The only thing they hadn’t done was try to kill him. That was Saturday, July 13, 2024.

Late that afternoon Fox News was covering Trump’s stump speech Live from Butler, Pennsylvania. I watched the former president give his usual talking points with all his usual accoutrements. The large crowd was really into his speech.

Then I barely heard some popping sounds, saw Trump slap at his right ear and drop straight down to his knees. Supporters behind him jumped up in horror as secret service agents swarmed the stage and completely surrounded him.

As Trump was getting up we could see his bloody face. He raised his fist above the agents who were protecting him as they huddled him toward his limousine. Shouting “fight, fight, fight” as blood streaked across his right cheek he showed the crowd he was alive and in a fighting mood.

Thomas Matthew Crooks, was the 20year-old gunman who fired an AR-15 rifle eight times, hitting Trump in his right ear, killing Corey Comperatore, and seriously wounding two other men. Comperatore, his wife and two daughters were sitting in line with the shooter behind Trump. The heroic firefighter died shielding his family. The government has had no answers for his family, and the media has forgotten them.

Crooks had outsmarted a team of secret service agents, other federal law enforcement officers, local and state law enforcement agents, and a large crowd of rally attendees when in broad daylight he climbed to the roof of a building 130 yards from the former president and took a firing position.

Or did he? Fox News recently reported results of an investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), ordered by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), “that the Secret Service received classified intelligence regarding a threat to Trump’s life 10 days before the rally, but failed to share the information with other key agencies. “Once those officials reviewed the intelligence, they could have then requested that personnel within their chain of command be briefed on the specific information. Officials failed to share this information, leaving federal and local law enforcement entities planning and staffing the event unaware of the active threat, including members of the Donald Trump Protective Division.” Grassley said, “The Secret Service’s failure on July 13 was the culmination of years of mismanagement and came after the Biden administration denied requests for enhanced security to protect

President Trump.”

Two days after the assassination attempt, the 2024 Republican National Convention was convened in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. During the convention Candidate Trump honored Comperatore for his heroic sacrifice. Few details about the attempt have come out since then.

President Trump has racked up spectacular wins both foreign and domestically in six months. But one year later the Deep State has kept its secrets hidden. Who is shielding the perpetrators of this murder? Who conspired to assassinate candidate Trump? Why won’t the administration release names and details of those responsible? It’s time for accountability.