The Secret Service relied on local police to fill out significant parts of its specialized protective units at Saturday's Trump rally in Pennsylvania, The Washington Post reported.
The heavily armed counterassault team, which provided cover as Donald Trump's detail whisked away the former president following a failed assassination attempt, and the countersniper teams that ultimately killed the alleged shooter included local police, the Post reported.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was shot in the ear during a failed assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, early Saturday evening.
A 20-year-old suspect was shot and killed by the Secret Service seconds after he allegedly fired shots toward a stage where Trump was speaking. One rally attendee died, and two other spectators were critically injured.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee on Saturday invited U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify on July 22 following the shooting.
"Americans demand answers about the assassination attempt of President Trump," the panel said in a statement on social media.
On Sunday, the U.S. Secret Service denied that Trump was refused additional requested security resources before the assassination attempt.
"The assertion that a member of the former President's security team requested additional security resources that the U.S. Secret Service or the Department of Homeland Security rebuffed is absolutely false," Anthony Guglielmi, the service's communications chief, said in a statement. "In fact, recently the U.S. Secret Service added protective resources and capabilities to the former President's security detail."
Former U.S. Navy SEAL Rob O'Neill told Newsmax that criticism of the Secret Service in response to the assassination attempt on Trump isn't entirely fair.
O'Neill said that had the countersniper missed the shot at the suspect, he would have been thinking, "I'm going to prison." This after rally witnesses say they first noticed the shooter on top of a nearby building and tried to point him out to law enforcement.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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