Trump's safety during assassination attempt was up to Homeland Security agents with webinar training, says Josh Hawley

Gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks instilled a state of terror on July 13 with morbid plans of assassinating former President Donald Trump at his Butler, Pennsylvania, rally. Nearly two months later, bombshells continue the chatter, keeping the interest in this narrative more alive than ever.

Senator Josh Hawley further fanned the fire on Tuesday evening in an interview on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” saying that whistleblowers shared an unprecedented piece of information about the day in Butler that left 50-year-old fire chief Corey Comperatore dead and two other attendees injured.

Whistleblowers allege Trump's security detail for Butler rally was “woefully unprepared”: Sen Josh Hawley

While questioning the preparedness of those entrusted with the Republican presidential candidate's safety at the event, the Missouri lawmaker claimed that most agents assigned to protect Trump on July 13 had minimal training. Hawley added that instead of a great number of Secret Service agents taking charge that day, most personnel on Trump's detail were Homeland Security agents who merely received “a two-hour, online webinar” before the rally.

“And I'm told that half the time, the sounds to the webinar didn't even work,” Hawley continued.

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Scoffing at the “absolutely outrageous” information purportedly dished out by unspecified whistleblowers, Hawley went on, “So think about this: the former president of the US… is sent out on stage, most of the people there are not trained, they're not qualified. They only got a webinar training, and even that didn't work.”

The politician also foregrounded that the Homeland Security agents put on the case did not regularly tend to such events and were reportedly taken off other investigations, including child exploitation cases, to stand in line to protect Trump.

Senator Josh Hawley's letter to the Secret Service acting director in light of the whistleblower's claims

On September 3, the Trump ally also addressed these allegations in a letter to the Secret Service's acting director, Ronald Rowe, amid the ongoing controversy and investigations.

Sharing the letter on X, formerly Twitter, the Missouri Republican penned, “When Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents partner with the Secret Service, they should be properly trained. New whistleblower allegations contend this isn't happening and that HSI agents reasoned to candidate details—including former President Trump's—are woefully unprepared for the job.”

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Hawley quoted the whistleblower: “Imagine 1,000 people logging onto Microsoft Teams at the same time after being informed at the last minute that everyone needed to login individually. Once it got rolling, the Secret Service instructor couldn't figure out how to get the audio working on the prerecorded videos... All told, they restarted the videos approximately six times... The content was not helpful.”

As is already known, the former president narrowly escaped death in July when Crooks, perched atop a nearby rooftop, opened fire ahead of the Republican National Convention. The Republican nominee was left with a bloody ear. 20-year-old Crooks, on the other hand, was eventually shot down by a Secret Service sniper.

However, even before the Secret Service stepped in to take action, a Butler SWAT team initiated the counter-attack against Crooks by damaging his rifle, US Representative Clay Higgins recently said.

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