Elections

BREAKING: DHS Inspector General Opens Investigation Into Secret Service Failure at Trump Rally Shooting

Published

5 months ago

July 17, 2024

Breaking Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general said it opened an investigation into the Secret Service’s failure to prevent the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump at Saturday’s Butler, Pennsylvania rally.

Although no specific date was given for when the investigation was launched, according to a short notice posted to the inspector general’s website, the objective of the probe is to “Evaluate the United States Secret Service’s (Secret Service) process for securing former President Trump’s July 13, 2024 campaign event.”

National Review reports DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI director Christopher Wray, are reportedly set to testify behind closed doors on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. The House Homeland Security Committee invited all three federal officials to testify at a public hearing next Tuesday, and Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle will face congressional committees next week to testify publicly on the matter. Cheatle is expected to testify at a House Oversight Committee hearing next Monday.

House Oversight chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) will subpoena Cheatle, a spokesperson for the panel previously told National Review. The subpoena is designed “to head off any attempt by DHS to backtrack on her appearance,” the spokesperson said, after DHS “took over communications” with the committee and refused to confirm a briefing time that was previously scheduled for Tuesday.

The House Intelligence Committee and Senate Homeland Security Committeeare also spearheading investigations into law enforcement’s security failures at Trump’s campaign event over the weekend.

Despite facing widespread criticism and calls to resign, Cheatle is refusing to step down from her role, arguing that Secret Service was responsible for securing the inner perimeter and local police officers were responsible for securing the outer perimeter, where the building that Crooks shot from was located.

Additionally, Cheatle excused her agency’s failed to secure the rooftop where the shooter positioned himself, by saying in an ABC News interview on Monday that the building “has a sloped roof, at its highest point,” citing safety concerns for the agents.

“And so, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” she said. “And so, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.”

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Elections

Canada Beefs up Border Security After Trump Threatened Sweeping Tariffs

Published

2 days ago

December 3, 2024

Sara Carter Staff

In November, president-elect Donald Trump announced on social media that he would impose a 25% tariff on all products from Canada and Mexico if they do not take an active role in containing illegal immigration as well as the level of illicit drugs entering into the United States.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, after which the Canadian government vowed to secure the border. “We got, I think, a mutual understanding of what they’re concerned about in terms of border security,” Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc, who accompanied Trudeau at Mar-a-Largo, said of the meeting in an interview with Canadian media. “All of their concerns are shared by Canadians and by the government of Canada.”

“We talked about the security posture currently at the border that we believe to be effective, and we also discussed additional measures and visible measures that we’re going to put in place over the coming weeks,” LeBlanc continued. “And we also established, Rosemary, a personal series of rapport that I think will continue to allow us to make that case.”

The Daily Caller News Foundation reports the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is preparing to beef up its immigration enforcement capabilities by hiring more staff, adding more vehicles and creating more processing facilities, in the chance that there is an immigration surge sparked by Trump’s presidential election victory. The moves are a change in direction from Trudeau’s public declaration in January 2017 that Canada was a “welcoming” country and that “diversity is our strength” just days after Trump was sworn into office the first time.

The Daily Caller notes the differences in response from the Canadian government verses Mexico’s:

Trudeau’s recent overtures largely differ from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has indicated she is not willing to bend the knee to Trump’s tariff threats. The Mexican leader in November said “there will be a response in kind” to any tariff levied on Mexican goods going into the U.S., and she appeared to deny the president-elect’s claims that she agreed to do more to beef up border security in a recent phone call.