The shooting of former President Donald Trump on Saturday has raised pressing security concerns heading into the main swing of electoral campaigning for November's elections.
Trump was attending a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, when he was shot in his right ear at around 6:15 p.m. local time. Security agents quickly surrounded Trump, who was seen with his face covered in blood and repeatedly calling on the crowd to "fight" as he was rushed off the stage.
One rally attendee was killed and two others were critically injured, according to the Secret Service, which neutralized and killed the shooter.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, has been identified as "the subject involved in the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump," the FBI said early on Sunday.
The Republican front-runner was taken to hospital and has since been released to his home in New Jersey. His campaign team said the former president still intends to travel to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, which gets underway on Monday.
Speculation online quickly questioned how a shooter could evade security personnel at the event before firing at and hitting the former president.
Mike Johnson, speaker of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, said in a statement on Saturday that the Director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, and "other appropriate officials" from the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) would "appear for a hearing before our committees ASAP."
The House Oversight Committee said in a post to X that it had "invited" Cheatle to "testify at a hearing" on July 22.
"Americans demand answers about the assassination attempt of President Trump," the committee, steered by Kentucky Republican Representative James Comer, added in a statement.
Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesperson for the Secret Service, said, "The former president, and the current president, are commonly subject to threats," adding: "The U. S. Secret Service takes threats seriously, and it takes actions based on those threats as warranted."
"The U.S. Secret Service is constantly evaluating the very dynamic threat environment and responding to it in the fulfillment of its responsibilities.
"While we can't get into specifics, the U.S. Secret Service adds additional resources for all campaign cycles, including manpower and a variety of protective technology. This addition of resources happens for all election cycles and is part of our candidate nominee operations section, also known as CNOS."
Referring to reports circulating online that claimed the Trump campaign and requested and been denied additional security by the Department for Homeland Security or the Secret Service, Guglielmi said this was "absolutely false."
"In fact, recently the U.S. Secret Service added protective resources and capabilities to the former president's security detail," Guglielmi added.
The FBI is leading the investigation into the former president's shooting, working alongside the Secret Service. Pennsylvania State Police is heading the investigation into the shooting of the other victims, said Pennsylvania Governor, Josh Shapiro.
"You could literally see him with a rifle," an eyewitness, named as Greg Smith, told the BBC. He said that he and other rally attendees had notified Secret Service agents, and that the man had been positioned on a nearby roof for several minutes after "bear crawling" before shots rang out.
One account, posting to X, described what it called "major security lapses in the security plan."
Billionaire Elon Musk, who endorsed Trump's presidential bid following the shooting, called for the Secret Service's leadership to "resign," saying in a post to X: "Extreme incompetence or it was deliberate."
Joseph LaSorsa, a former Secret Service agent, said there would be a "massive realignment" and an "intensive review" following the incident.
"This cannot happen," he said in remarks reported by Reuters.
FBI Special Agent Kevin Rojek, who is in charge of the agency's Pittsburgh office, said it was "surprising" that the shooter had been able to fire so many shots.
Lieutenant Colonel George Bivens, of the Pennsylvania State Police, said the shooter had fired from outside the secured perimeter, adding: "It is incredibly difficult to have a venue open to the public and to secure that against any possible threat against a very determined attacker."
Trump said in a statement published on Truth Social that he wished to thank the Secret Service and other law enforcement bodies for their "rapid response on the shooting."
"I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear," he said. "I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin."
Update 7/14/2024 at 4:45 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
Update 7/14/2024 at 9:25 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
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