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Task force report shows massive need for change

On Tuesday, the House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump released a 180-page report assessing events surrounding two situations in which Trump was threatened during the runup to the Nov. 5 presidential election — one in Butler County on July 13 and another at a golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Sept. 15. The report includes 37 recommendations.

The task force, led by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, has spent the last five months examining the days leading up to President-elect Donald Trump’s rally at the Butler Farm Show grounds in July, as well as the actions of the 20-year-old would-be assassin and the investigative aftermath of the shooting that grazed Trump’s ear, seriously wounded two spectators and killed a third man, Corey Comperatore of Buffalo Township.

The report also encompasses a thwarted assassination attempt two months later, when a man hiding in shrubbery was found aiming a rifle at a member of Trump’s security detail at Trump International Golf Club, where Trump was golfing. The man fled and later was captured.

The report’s recommendations include some shockingly obvious ones, such as having a complete operational plan and ensuring line-of-sight vulnerabilities are noted and dealt with.

The report gives a picture of the Secret Service as an agency that failed to follow basic procedures and didn’t share information that could have improved safety. In short, it makes it seem as if an assassination attempt such as the one that occurred July 13 was bound to happen.

As the report notes multiple times, protecting the President of the United States and other politicians and dignitaries is a job where you can’t fail. But because of multiple structural issues, the agency did fail.

A man was killed, and an entire nation was given a glimpse at the specter of political violence.

Congress and the Secret Service both must act on the report and do everything possible to ensure the safety of those under Secret Service protection the No. 1 priority.

— JK

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