Roving Periscope: Security concerns prompt Trump to skip outdoor rallies
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Former US President Donald Trump, who survived an assassination attempt on July 13, is planning to stop holding poll campaign rallies outdoors, the media reported on Wednesday.
A 20-year-old man, Thomas Matthew Crooks, opened fire at Donald Trump, which narrowly missed his face and grazed the Republican presidential nominee’s ear. The bullet injured three other rallygoers, killing a 50-year-old volunteer firefighter.
The campaign managers of the Republican contender for the November 2024 presidential election, said campaigning will now be held indoors for security reasons. However, Trump might still appear at smaller outdoor rallies in closed places like stadiums with restricted admissions.
Trump, 78, has already hosted hundreds of outdoor rallies since he announced his presidential campaign. For his fans and supporters, these events have taken on the character of election festivals, complete with parties and vendors selling campaign memorabilia and products, the reports said.
According to The Washington Post, the move to cancel outdoor meetings coincides with the resignation of Kimberly Cheatle, the Director of the US Secret Service on Tuesday after she failed to answer questions from lawmakers.
She was subjected to a hostile grilling by both Democrats and Republicans before a US Congressional committee over apparent security lapses.
Trump’s team informed the Secret Service that the 2024 re-election campaign intended to host big events and would require more resources and security. However, the agency rejected the requests because of a shortage of funding.
An irrepressible Trump, the 45th US President, was hit in the ear in an assassination bid by a gunman at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. After the attack, blood was visible on his cheeks and mouth. Security personnel shot Crooks dead soon after the incident.
Trump, whose team claimed he was “fine,” was attacked shortly as he began his speech. “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” Trump said on his Truth Social account.
On Tuesday, Cheatle quit after an outcry about how the agency failed to protect Trump and avoid the assassination bid. The agency itself is now facing investigations by multiple congressional committees and the internal watchdog of the US Department of Homeland Security.
In an email to staff, she said she takes “full responsibility” for the security lapse. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director,” she wrote.
She also appeared before a US Congressional Committee for a hearing where she admitted that the attempt on Trump’s life was the US Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades.
The US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has appointed a bipartisan, independent panel to probe the assassination attempt.
The panel members will have “extensive law enforcement and security experience to conduct a 45-day independent review of the planning for and actions taken by the US Secret Service and state and local authorities before, during, and after the rally, and the U.S. Secret Service governing policies and procedures,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
