

The snipers who killed the gunman
* There’s a lot of inquiry now about whether the Secret Service was totally prepared
* As a witness says he saw gunman on roof and tried to warn police
BBC
A senior adviser to Donald Trump’s campaign, Stephen Moore told the BBC World Service programme, ‘Weekend’ that there are questions about how prepared the Secret Service was.

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“I got a text from one of my associates saying that Trump had been shot and my heart just sank, and I was afraid to ask the question ‘is he going to be alright?’” Moore says.
“It appeared from the video that he’d only been grazed by this bullet but what’s so frightening to all of us is that if that bullet had been one inch further towards his head this would have been an assassination.”
Moore adds that “certainly Trump needs more protection – there’s a lot of inquiry now about whether the Secret Service was totally prepared”.
Meanwhile, a witness Gary O’Donoghue spoke with the BBC moments after the incident, saying he and others with him saw the gunman on roof and tried to warn police before the shooting happened.
“We were telling the police, we were pointing at him for the Secret Service,” he told the BBC’s reporter at the scene, adding that the police seemed not to consider their alert.
After the gunshots, a man in a white shirt and read baseball cap can be seen collapsing. He doubles over and seems to fall into the people in front of him.
This happens around a second before the next shot, and more than two seconds before anyone else reacts. Whilst it is impossible to be certain, it seems highly likely that this man was hit by the first bullet.

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A report by Financial Times says law enforcement became aware of the shooter only after shots were fired, according to an initial assessment and asked at a news conference if the incident marked a failure of security, FBI agent Kevin Rojek said it was too early to make any determination.
But he added that it was “surprising” the perpetrator was able to fire several shots and Rojek also declined to comment on the shooter’s motive or the type of weapon used.
After being briefed of the incident, President Joe Biden said this “cannot allow to be happening. You cannot be like this, we cannot condone this.”
The apparent attempt on Trump’s life is the first time in decades that a current or former president has been a victim in a shooting. It comes less than four months before the presidential election in November, and ahead of the Republican National Convention next week, when Trump is set to formally accept his party’s nomination for president.
Trump’s campaign said after the shooting that he still “looks forward to joining [supporters] at the convention”.
US politics has been plagued in recent years by deep divisions and heightened political rhetoric, with sporadic eruptions of violence over the past four years including the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters.
Some Republicans were quick to attribute blame for the incident on Biden’s political rhetoric.
JD Vance, the Republican Ohio Senator and potential Trump running mate, said the “central premise of the Biden campaign” was that Trump was “an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination,” he said.
US attorney-general Merrick Garland said the justice department would “bring every available resource to bear” in the investigation, which the FBI said in a separate statement it would lead.
Mike Johnson, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, wrote on X that the House would “conduct a full investigation” and subpoena the Secret Service director and other federal officials to testify before congressional committees “ASAP”.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, said in a statement that he was “horrified by what happened”, adding: “Political violence has no place in our country.”
Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, and former President Barack Obama were among those who echoed that sentiment, with Hakeem Jeffries, the top US House Democrat, saying he was “thankful for the decisive law enforcement response”.—Reporting for Financial Times by Steff Chávez and James Politi, Lauren Fedor, Colby Smith; editing by Maravi Express

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