According to Crabtree, the potential lack of drones and the “DEI” protocols at the Secret Service contributed to the failure, but the biggest reason Trump’s life was put in danger is because rules of engagement prohibit snipers from engaging until the assassin shoots first.

Here’s the full report from Crabtree:

Here’s my reporting on why the Secret Service did not shoot until AFTER the shooter engaged and some context about the House Republicans’ investigation already underway (months before Trump’s assassination attempt) into whether the agency’s DEI policies are affecting its readiness.

The blowback against the Secret Service started within the hour of the assassination attempt and continued even after Trump and other credited the agency with saving Trump’s life by quickly killing a shooter crawling across a nearby rooftop.

But a source within the Secret Service community tells RealClearPolitics that the agency rules of engagement in this situation are to wait until the president is fired upon to return fire.

“You want to take a shot then find out the guy was holding a telescope?” the source suggested. “The Secret Service is by nature reactive…and you better be right when you do react or you’re f—–d.”

The Secret Service protocol requires that a counter sniper aware of a potential shooter to radio directly to intelligence division team to respond and investigate. In this case, the investigation may have been cut short by the shooter firing his weapon, so the counter sniper then fired as quickly as possible in return.

The source praised the counter sniper who acquired the target and responded within three seconds, calling their performance “incredible.”

“The counter snipers are highly trained and extremely accurate,” he said.

Others with law enforcement and military backgrounds want to know whether the Secret Service utilized drones, i.e. small unmanned aircraft systems, to provide detailed situational awareness. If the agency did not use drones, why not, these experts ask. The use of drones has been a controversial issue within the agency since at least 2016. Implementing drones would have provided detailed line-of-site analysis and aerial surveillance that would have easily identified the rooftop as a potential threat area.

“The USSS has access to all the best imagery and elevation data,” the military expert told RCP. “I’m not saying they didn’t [use drones], but it’s an open question.”

The once vaunted Secret Service lost some of its former respect after a string of fence-jumping incidents and other security lapses came to light during the Obama administration. At the beginning of the Trump administration, a senior special agent in the Secret Service came under fire for suggesting in a Facebook post that she wouldn’t “take a bullet” for Trump. Kerry O’Grady, the former agent in question, was placed on administrative leave but was allowed to retire with full benefits, which outraged many in the Secret Service community.

The agency, more recently, has come under scrutiny for its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, after a female agency attached to Vice President Kamala Harris’s protective detail and identified as Michelle Herczeg, had an apparent mental breakdown and physically attacked her senior officers at Joint Base Andrews before a trip. An agency spokesman called the issue a “medical incident,” but other members of the Secret Service launched a petition over the agency’s diversity, equity and inclusion hiring and vetting policies during the Biden administration, as first reported by RCP.

In addition, after the attempted assassination of Trump Saturday night, conservatives blasted Rep. Bennie Thompson, the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, for earlier this year introducing a bill co-sponsored by several other Democrats that would have denied Service Service protection to Trump if he were convicted of a felony. The measure never gained traction in the GOP-controlled House.

After the attempted assassination, which killed one innocent spectator and injured at least two others, Thompson tweeted that he is “glad that the former president is safe” and is “gratefully for law enforcement’s fast response.”

Here’s my reporting on why the Secret Service did not shoot until AFTER the shooter engaged and some context about the House Republicans’ investigation already underway (months before Trump’s assassination attempt) into whether the agency’s DEI policies are affecting its…

— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) July 14, 2024

What we just witnessed is truly, truly horrible.  No matter how you plan to vote, we should all be united in denouncing political violence.

For years, many of our political leaders and many in the mainstream media have been using extremely inflammatory language to denounce Donald Trump, and this has caused emotions to run extremely high.

It was only a matter of time before all of that inflammatory language inspired someone to commit an act of great violence.

The following are 8 things that we know about the man that shot Trump…

#1 It is being reported that the shooter is a 20-year-old male named Thomas Matthew Crooks…

Authorities have identified the gunman involved in the attack against former US President Donald Trump on Saturday as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed by Secret Service agents at the scene after the shooting.

The FBI named Crooks in a statement early Sunday morning, identifying him as a resident of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania – about 35 miles south of Butler, where Trump was holding his rally.

Crooks fired on Trump while perched on a nearby building rooftop outside the rally’s security perimeter, before being killed by the Secret Service, according to law enforcement officials.

Just like John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald, Thomas Matthew Crooks has three names.

Is that just some sort of bizarre coincidence?

#2 We are being told that Crooks used “an AR-style rifle” to shoot at Trump…

Law enforcement sources told CBS News that Crooks, from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, had been armed with ‘an AR-style rifle’.

There are some that are claiming that this was a highly advanced rifle that was extremely expensive.  I have not been able to find any official verification of this yet.

#3 Apparently the “AR-style rifle” was originally purchased by the father of Crooks…

Two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that investigators believe the weapon was bought by the father of Thomas Matthew Crooks, who’s been identified as the shooter, at least six months ago.

#4 The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Crooks also had “explosive devices” in his vehicle…

Authorities found explosive devices in the car of the man who officials say tried to assassinate former President Trump, according to people briefed on the investigation.

The car, which Thomas Matthew Crooks drove, was parked near the Trump rally in Butler, PA, on Saturday.

Police received multiple reports of suspicious packages around near where the shooter was, authorities said, prompting them to dispatch bomb technicians.

#5 Crooks was employed at a nearby nursing home and he successfully passed a background check when he applied…

Crooks worked as a dietary aid, a job that generally involves food preparation, at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation, less than a mile from his home. In a statement provided to USA TODAY on Sunday, Marcie Grimm, the facility’s administrator, said she was “shocked and saddened to learn of his involvement.”

“Thomas Matthew Crooks performed his job without concern and his background check was clean,” Grimm said. “We are fully cooperating with law enforcement officials at this time. Due to the ongoing investigation, we cannot comment further on any specifics. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Former President Trump and the victims impacted by this terrible tragedy. We condemn all acts of violence.”

Preparing food at a nursing home is kind of a dead end job for a 20-year-old that is just starting out in life.  This may have fed into any feelings of desperation and depression that he was feeling.

#6 Crooks was a registered Republican, but his only political donation was to a group “working to increase voter turnout for Democrats”…

Crooks is registered to vote as a Republican in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, according to county voter records. His voter registration status has been active since 2021.

Federal Election Commission records show that in January 2021, Crooks made a $15 donation to the Progressive Turnout Project, a group working to increase voter turnout for Democrats.

#7 His uncle was interviewed by the Daily Mail, and he said that Crooks and his family were “very private” people…

Crooks’ uncle Mark Crooks told DailyMail.com he hadn’t seen the gunman or his parents in years, and described them as ‘very private’.

‘I haven’t seen that part of my family in years,’ he said. ‘Honestly it’s been so long I don’t think much about them

‘It’s a shame. The kid is like a stranger to me. They’re private and they don’t reach out to anybody any time.’

To me, this is an incredibly important detail.

He could have had very serious emotional problems that nobody knew about in advance.

Also, those that are detached from society are the easiest to set up if someone was inclined to do that.

Following the shooting, many liberals were extremely upset that Crooks missed his target.

For example, one young woman posted a video that rapidly went viral in which she very loudly expressed her displeasure that Trump was still alive…

‘We were a second away, we were a centimeter away from half of the problem being gone and you missed,’ Celeste, who goes by cele2t3, screamed in a TikTok video.

Driving in a car, Celeste shared her initial reaction to hearing the sudden news.

‘I just found out about this sh**, it just happened, I haven’t even had a second to process.

She screams at the top of her lungs: ‘You’re telling me somebody finally had the ba**s to bring a “pew pew” and it missed?!’

Yes, there are really people out there that think like this.

In fact, a field director for Mississippi Congressman Bennie G. Thompson was quickly fired after she suggested that Crooks should have gotten some shooting lessons before making his attempt…

Marsaw, 61, the president and vice president of a local NAACP in Natchez, Mississippi, has since deleted the post and her account, but screenshots have been reposted across social media.

She shared: ‘I don’t condone violence but please get some shooting lessons so you don’t miss next time ooops that wasn’t me talking.’

In a follow up post, she said: ‘That’s what your hate speech got you!!’

Marsaw has since been fired from her position. ‘I was made aware of a post made by a staff member and she is no longer in my employment,’ Thompson said.

From this point forward, Trump will need to be very careful.

I think that it is probably just a matter of time before someone else tries again.

In my entire lifetime, no politician has been hated as much as Donald Trump.

I don’t understand why the left hates him so much, but they do.

For a very long time, I have been warning that this would be the most chaotic election season in our history, and over the last few weeks things have certainly gotten really crazy.

But we still have more than three months to go until election day.

Unfortunately, I think that there will be a lot more twists and turns before this thing is over.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

As News Nation reported, Crooks pointed his firearm at the police officer to force him to retreat.

According to NY Post:

After rallygoers spotted Crooks on the roof of a manufacturing plant just 130 yards from the stage where Trump was speaking just after 6 p.m. Tuesday, police were notified and one officer climbed a ladder to investigate, law enforcement officials said on the condition of anonymity.

There the officer encountered Crooks, who pointed his AR-style rifle at them.

The officer then backed down the ladder, and Crooks immediately took aim and loosed eight shots at the former president – grazing him in the ear, killing one bystander in the rally crowd, and gravely wounding two others.

If the report is true, it could explain why the Secret Service snipers held their fire until after Crooks took his shots.

This is a developing story and will be updated when more information is available.