House Oversight Chairman James Comer tore into the Secret Service for its failures in leadership that led to multiple assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump.
In an exclusive interview that aired Friday on the John Solomon Reports podcast, Comer explained, "They don't have a money problem. They have a leadership problem and it's going to take more than new leadership. It's going to take a whole new culture at the Secret Service to protect whoever the President is in the future."
Americans looked on in horror when Trump was shot at a rally in Pennsylvania and immediately it became clear that the Secret Service had dropped the ball in an egregious manner.
The shooter was allowed to climb on top of a building a couple of hundred yards from Trump's stage with a scoped rifle. In terms of rifles, a couple hundred yards is nothing, and considering there was a counter-sniper team at the rally, there was no excuse for the Secret Service to miss the shooter.
There are only two answers that explain the failures of July 13th; either the Secret Service was grossly incompetent and leadership must be cleaned out or there was a conspiracy involving the Secret Service to allow an assassin to take a shot at Trump.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), who sits on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations echoed Comer's observation about the Secret Service.
Johnson stated, "They have plenty of resources, plenty of personnel. What they have is bad management, and unfortunately, we can't get to the bottom of who's responsible for making the decisions that were such spectacular failures in terms of protecting President Trump."
Leadership made decisions that directly contributed to putting Trump's life in danger.
What's worse, the Secret Service's leadership woes have been an ongoing problem for years that have only been brought into the view of the public thanks to a presidential candidate almost being killed.
Comer went on to say, "What we learned from our hearing in the Oversight Committee with Kimberly Cheadle, the former disgraced head of the Secret Service, is we have an agency tasked with protecting the president and the presidential candidates, and they're not up to the up to the job. They're ill-prepared."
Once again, the question becomes are those in charge of the Secret Service genuinely incompetent or are they purposely leaving the door open for a shooter to change American history?
The Secret Service failed to use drone technology to surveil the site of Trump's rally in Pennsylvania which would have spotted Trump's assassin long before he had a chance to take shots at Trump.
The Secret Service also failed to use drones to scout out the golf course where the 2nd assassin was preparing to take shots at Trump last week. There is now a pattern of repeated failures to use existing cheap technology to enhance the Secret Service's ability to protect Trump.
Thankfully, an agent saw the 2nd assassin before Trump came into view and engaged the assassin leading to a police chase and his eventual arrest.
There is still much work to be done to clean up the Secret Service and at this point, Cheadle's resignation is likely not going to be the last if the Secret Service is going to improve its culture and capability.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
In another instance of "rules for thee but not for me," Kamala Harris, on record as wanting to ban all of whatever she describes as "assault" weapons, on record as calling for mandatory gun confiscations, on record as demanding her right to walk into any home to check whether legal gun owners are storing their equipment properly, now has threatened to shoot anyone who breaks into her home.
"If somebody breaks into my house, they're getting shot," she stated. "Sorry, probably shouldn't have said that! Ha ha ha!"
The Gateway Pundit turned blunt, "Gun Control Hypocrite Kamala Harris Admits on Live TV That She and Walz Are Gun Owners and She Would Shoot Intruders, Then Regrets Saying It.
Her comment came in an interview with entertainer Oprah Winfrey, and the "unscripted moment laid bare her duplicity."
The report said, "The hypocrisy is glaring. Here is a woman who has championed gun control measures for years, pushing for an assault weapons ban, mandatory gun buyback programs, and tighter restrictions on law-abiding gun owners—yet she is quick to admit she would use her firearm."
The report continued, "For many, Harris's sudden revelation about owning a gun, followed by her admission that she would shoot an intruder, is the ultimate example of liberal hypocrisy. How can someone so vehemently advocate for gun control while simultaneously enjoying the protection of a firearm?"
She's long insisted that she wants to edit the Second Amendment so that only certain guns, those she defines as not being "assault" weapons, should be allowed. She's on record multiple times with that agenda, as it's become a mantra for her.
She said, during an interview, "I feel very strongly that it is consistent with the Second Amendment and your right to own a gun to also say we need an assault weapons ban. They're literally tools of war."
"So which is it, Kamala? Are you the gun owner ready to defend your home by force, or the crusader for disarming Americans in the name of 'safety'?" the Gateway Pundit asked.
The Daily Mail described Harris' comments as a "shocking threat."
"'If somebody breaks into my house, they're getting shot,' she said, before showing off her trademark cackle," the report said.
The National Rifle Association called her a "walking contradiction."
WND had reported only this week how she was being accused of previewing her demands for totalitarianism, regarding guns.
WND already had reported on her proclamation that any time they wanted, police could walk into a home and check whether the resident was doing what they wanted with his or her guns.
Now Tucker Carlson commented: "This is openly totalitarian. If we don't resist this, we're done."
Social media commenters responded with:
"This is the most insane thing shes every said… AND THAT'S SAYING A LOT."
"Kamala Harris literally said they will be doing a gun confiscation. What's it going to take for everyone to realize these people are straight up communists and they are coming for our guns, our free speech and all our constitutional rights. Democrats are domestic terrorists."
"This is a red line they are crossing."
A report from Shore News Network explained, "As San Francisco's district attorney, Kamala Harris made headlines in 2007 when she told legal gun owners that authorities could 'walk into' their homes to inspect whether they were storing firearms properly, under a law she helped draft. During a press conference in May of that year, Harris explained, 'Just because you legally possess a gun in the sanctity of your locked home doesn't mean that we're not going to walk into that home and check to see if you're being responsible and safe.'"
The report pointed out, "Now, legal gun owners across America are waiting to see if she would enact a federal law that allows police to enter any legal gun owner's home at any time, to perform a gun safety inspection."
It pointed out Harris has worked on developing penalties for gun owners who don't store their firearms as she wants.
"The bill also included broader gun control measures, such as requiring gun distributors to submit an inventory to the police chief every six months and banning the possession of guns in public housing, even if they were legally owned."
Those issues already are law in San Francisco, the report noted.
Harris also has talked about taking action against gun owners by executive order, and not waiting for Congress to make such actions legal.
Former President Donald Trump suffered and survived the second attempted assassination earlier this week, forcing the former president to be rushed from the scene and secret service to step in.
U.S. officials apparently did little with the warnings from Americans who had contact with Ryan Wesley Routh, the suspect in an alleged botched assassination attempt on Trump. Their worry was prompted by Routh's odd behavior in Ukraine, as Breitbart News reported.
On Sunday, as former president Donald Trump was playing golf at Trump National Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, Routh, 58, was apprehended for being a trespasser armed with a weapon. On Monday, Routh faced federal charges of being a felon in possession of a handgun.
A self-published book in which Routh urged the terrorist-supporting government of Iran to murder Donald Trump was one of many "red flags" that adorned Routh's record.
Among his long list of criminal charges, he was found in possession of a "weapon of mass destruction" in the year 2002.
This was a firearm that had been unlawfully modified to fire in a fully automatic manner.
Routh was a fervent and unwavering supporter of the Ukrainian people. Almost immediately after the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022, he arrived there, looking to help.
His first intention was to offer himself as a foreign recruit for the Ukrainian military, but after the Ukrainian government rejected his offer of service, he went on to recruit other individuals.
Chelsea Walsh, a nurse, informed the Wall Street Journal on Monday that she encountered Routh on multiple occasions in Kyiv and determined that he was “among the most dangerous Americans she met during her month-and-a-half-long stint in Ukraine.”
Walsh was so concerned by Routh's actions that she claims she informed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) about him upon her return to the United States. She provided the Central Prosecutor's Bureau (CPB) with a notebook in which she detailed the behavior of more than a dozen foreign nationals in Ukraine.
Routh was the most prominent individual on the list, as she was identified as engaging in "predatory behavior."
Walsh stated that she initially considered Routh to be "eccentric, but not dangerous." However, she later revised her assessment after maintaining a consistent relationship with him, particularly in light of his repeated references to assassinating world leaders.
According to Sarah Adams, a former CIA officer and American with experience in Ukraine, Routh earned a reputation among aid organizations as a "fraudster" and "whack job."
Routh frequently asserted that he was recruiting foreign combatants as an agent of the Ukrainian government, among other disturbing behaviors, when in reality, this was not the case.
The Mississippi Supreme Court has been called on to weigh in on a heavy decision, taking the ultimate step to ensure the safety of residents and at the same time, setting a potential standard for future appeals.
The death row inmate's most recent request for post-conviction relief was rejected by the Mississippi Supreme Court, as local news reported. He was convicted in 1992 of the murders of two students at Mississippi State University.
The murders of Tiffany Miller and Jon Steckler led to the 1994 conviction of 56-year-old Willie Jerome Manning for capital murder.
The inmate's attorneys have repeatedly attempted to overturn the conviction, citing "newly discovered firearms evidence" and a witness who has subsequently recanted his testimony against Manning as the basis for their most recent case.
In December 1992, Earl Jordan, who was Manning's cousin and had previously served a prison term with him, informed the authorities that Manning had admitted to killing the students from Mississippi State.
Finally, in 2023, Jordan recanted his testimony and claimed he made it up to get his own sentence lowered.
The top court challenged the submission of documents by Manning's counsel, stating that "newly discovered and developed firearms identification evidence" has emerged, even though the pistol used to murder Steckler and Miller has not been located.
As a result, the appeal that Manning filed was rejected by the state supreme court, which voted 5-4 against it.
“Petitioner has had more than a full measure of justice. Tiffany Miller and Jon Steckler have not. Their families have not. The citizens of Mississippi have not,” a portion of the majority opinion written by Justice Michael Randolph reads.
“It is, therefore, ordered that Willie Jerome Manning is denied leave to proceed in the circuit court with his claim of newly discovered evidence based on Earl Jordan’s recantation. It is further ordered that all other claims for relief set forth in Willie Jerome Manning’s motion for leave to file successive petitions for post-conviction relief are denied.”
According to reports, Steckler and Miller were murdered in rural Oktibbeha County before being shot and left. Pat Station Road was the scene of where Steckler's lifeless body was eventually found, and the investigation into his murder began.
His wounds seemed to be the consequence of a low-speed car crash and gunshot wounds. On his way to the hospital, he passed away.
But Miller was discovered dead in a wooded area close to Steckler's corpse.
She was allegedly raped after suffering multiple gunshot wounds to the face and a beating. After attempting to sell victim possessions, Manning was caught and charged with the murders of the two. A jury swiftly found him guilty of capital murder.
The high court had previously agreed to delay Manning's execution date until he challenged his conviction, but their most recent decision could now set the stage for the state to execute the inmate.
“Today the Court perverts its function as an appellate court and makes factual determinations that belong squarely within the purview of the circuit court judge,” Justice Jim Kitchens wrote in dissent to the majority opinion’s most recent decision to deny Manning’s petition for post-conviction relief.
“This Court has held explicitly that ‘when an important witness to a crime recants his testimony and offers a reason for having given false testimony at trial, the defendant/petitioner is entitled to an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the witness lied at trial or on his affidavit.'”
The defense team representing Manning will maintain their demand for a new trial. The prisoner continues to insist on his innocence even now.
Former Secretary of State and failed rival to former President Donald Trump Hillary Clinton is effectively blaming Trump for two assassination attempts on him in July and on Sunday, saying that he should try to "calm the waters" to avoid further attempts on his life.
“This is such a terrible thing to happen twice in our country in a relatively short period of time, and it’s frightening to see violence being threatened and used in a political campaign,” Clinton told Katie Couric during a Monday interview.
Both President Joe Biden and Democrat presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris have repeatedly called Trump a "threat to democracy" and used other similar rhetoric, but Clinton chose to blame the victim for the violence against him.
“If he were really a leader, he should be doing what he can to calm the waters, not try to just continue to throw red meat out there to get people riled up," she said.
In Clinton's opinion, Trump is only an effective politician because he “keeps people agitated. He keeps people angry. He keeps people upset.”
“I think it helps to have some sense of history and to know that in many society’s political systems, people who have an ability to connect with the fears, and the insecurities, and the anger and the hatreds of people in their society are very effective demagogues,” Clinton said.
“I think what he has done is to open that door to that in our country,” she said, ignoring the rhetoric from the other side that has been completely overblown in how it describes Trump.
As if her comments about Trump haven't called her judgment into question enough, she went on to say that Harris has run a "near-perfect" campaign.
She considers herself as having passed the torch to Harris, who could now accomplish the goal Clinton had to become the first woman president, during her DNC speech last month.
"As the first woman major-party nominee in American history, Clinton said she “wasn’t sure how I would feel when another woman would be so close to breaking that glass ceiling – and I was thrilled,” she said.
“It’s not just breaking through the glass ceiling; it’s about what’s on the other side of the glass ceiling," she said.
Clinton was a failure of a candidate.
She and Harris have that in common even if they manage to fool almost half of the electorate.
No doubt, Harris is saying "no thanks" to that torch being passed, if she knows what's good for her.
The FBI is now investigating a second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, this time at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“The FBI has responded to West Palm Beach Florida and is investigating what appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump,” the agency said in a statement on Sunday.
The attempt was announced earlier on Sunday that Trump was safe after shots were fired two holes away from where he was playing.
“President Trump is safe following gunshots in his vicinity,” Trump campaign Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a statement. “No further details at this time.”
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 15, 2024
Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. later said on his X account that a suspect had been arrested and an AK-47 was found in the bushes.
Later reports said that the shots fired were by a Secret Service agent who spotted suspect Ryan Wesley Routh in the bushes.
Routh had allegedly lain in wait for Trump for 12 hours with food and water.
So far, Routh has been charged with gun crimes, but more serious crimes could be forthcoming as the investigation continues.
The new attempt was just over two months after Trump was shot in the ear at a Butler, Pennsylvania rally.
The shot only grazed his ear, but it was less than an inch from a fatal shot to the head. Trump turned his head at the last second and avoided the kill shot.
The new attempt by Routh shows more of a motive, with Routh having posted negatively on Facebook about Trump and expressing a desire to fight the Russians in Ukraine.
Routh donated money to Act Blue, a Democrat super PAC.
Secret Service failures were blamed for the first attempt, while the second attempt was blamed on not being able to see into the bushes where the shooter was hiding.
Despite the claims of the media talking heads, former President Donald Trump came out ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris following the ABC presidential debate and he's killed any notion of a rematch.
While the media claimed that Harris crushed Trump, Harris knew she lost and this was illustrated by the fact that she immediately called on Trump to do another debate, although not on Fox News.
Trump originally wanted three debates with President Joe Biden with the third one set to take place on Fox News but Harris refused that plan.
Now Harris is desperate for a rematch especially as Americans have ruminated over the debate and processed the three vs. one travesty that the nation witnessed on ABC.
Trump stood tall even as both moderators openly supported Harris and "fact-checked" Trump while ignoring Harris's numerous blatant lies. Harris knows her performance will only age badly and wants another shot to boost her campaign and Democrat voters.
At this point, Trump has gotten everything he can get out of the debates and knows that another debate will only serve as a platform for Harris to motivate Democrat voters. In a post to Truth Social, Trump emphatically stated that “THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!."
The debates serve the purpose of allowing candidates to compare and contrast themselves with their opponents in front of independent voters. Very few Democrat or Republican voters will switch votes based on debates making the real prize the independent voters.
Following Trump's debate on ABC, independent voters seemed to align more closely with Trump than Harris which makes sense considering Harris is the incumbent candidate responsible for the state of the nation today.
Harris's campaign has done everything in their power to portray Harris as a fresh face who can change things but that falls apart considering she has been in the White House for the past three years.
Trump is capturing independent voters who are angry with Harris and the Democrat Party's handling of foreign policy, the border, and the economy. Trump has nothing to gain by giving Harris further oxygen with independent voters.
All of this is terrible news for Harris who has scored big points with leftists and committed Democrat voters for her performance while turning off independents with the obvious collusion between her and ABC moderators.
While Harris lost with independents, the debate did boost Democrat enthusiasm, especially paired with an endorsement from billionaire pop star Taylor Swift. Before the debate, Harris was truly faltering and things were looking bad.
Democrats watched Harris do her typical smug schoolmarm act that they seem to love while Trump was verbally under siege from the moderators and it did wonders in boosting Democrat morale.
However, that morale is already ebbing and Democrats are coming back to the bitter reality that there are months left to go in this election and Harris has no answers for Trump's biggest weapons.
Harris has no answer for the economy, the border, and the multiple wars waging around the world. In fact, she bears responsibility for the issues she claims she can fix, and Trump pointed that out at the end of the debate.
Come November, it's unlikely that Harris's cheap "win" will help her when independent swing voters make their decision on who will lead the nation for the next four years.
A Georgia judge dropped two counts against former President Donald Trump in the Georgia 2020 election interference case on Thursday.
Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee said the two counts fall under federal jurisdiction which is a massive win for Trump's attorneys and could have big implications for Trump's other indictments in New York and Florida.
This decision brings up the total dropped charges against Trump in Georgia to five with eight more to go.
Trump's lawyers responded to Judge McAfee's decisions with a simple statement saying "President Trump and his legal team in Georgia have prevailed once again."
This decision is the latest defeat for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis who brought the indictment against Trump and declined to comment on Judge McAfee's decision to chip away at more of her charges.
The case against Trump brought by Fani Willis was always a politically motivated mess that conservative legal experts predicted would fail in a fair court.
Willis's case has been on pause for months thanks to a massive conflict of interest scandal involving Willis and her "ex-lover" prosecutor Nathan Wade who may not be Willis's ex-lover after all.
The Georgia Court of Appeals is currently reviewing an appeal from Trump on McAfee's ruling allowing Willis to continue prosecuting the case despite having Wade as her lead prosecutor while being in a relationship that created a massive financial conflict of interest.
Willis lied about the relationship when one of Trump's co-defendants sought to have her removed from the case.
Eventually, a mountain of evidence emerged showing that Willis was engaged in an illicit relationship and Willis was forced to choose between staying on the Trump case or Wade resigning as Judge McAfee made it clear both couldn't be on the case.
When Willis brought this indictment against Trump, the goal was to secure a conviction before the 2024 presidential election. However, thanks to her absolute bungling of this already long-shot case, this case won't be concluded until long after the election.
The Georgia Appeals Court will begin hearing arguments to remove Willis in December and must make a ruling by March 2025. This means that Trump will not face a trial until after the election and should he win the election, the case could be outright dismissed.
This indictment against Trump has revealed the power of leftist district attorneys to create dangerous political prosecutions. Willis assembled a grand jury of people who likely hated Trump, put together a legally dubious case that appealed to the jury's uninformed grievances, and got the jury's decision which allowed her to prosecute Trump.
This same method could be duplicated by Republican district attorneys against Democrats. The downside is these cases won't make it past an impartial judge who rules on the law like Judge McAfee has so far.
The New York Supreme Court ruled former President Donald Trump must remain under a gag order until Judge Juan Merchan sees fit to remove it, preventing Trump from speaking about some aspects of his felony conviction for falsifying business records even though there's an election in less than 60 days.
Trump was successful in delaying the sentencing on his 34 felony counts until after the election, but doing so may have prolonged the gag order he is currently under even as he looks to run a vigorous campaign in the runup to Election Day.
He was hoping the court would give him relief, but it did not.
“No substantial constitutional question is directly involved,” the court ruled.
Really? What about free and fair elections? How are elections supposed to be fair if one side is allowed to say whatever they want and the other side isn't?
But no, the big bad Orange Man is too dangerous and must be silenced, this thoroughly partisan court has ruled.
Whatever happens, Democrats feel they must prevent the "Threat to Democracy" (Trump) from getting back in office, even if they have to cheat and lie to do it.
Trump is not allowed to say anything about prosecutors in the case or their families because a tiny number of his supporters are insane and made death threats against them (or Democrats did so that Trump supporters would look bad).
Juan Merchan and DA Alvin Bragg are still fair game.
It seems reasonable, but constraining a major party candidate so close to an election could have very serious impacts on said election--and Democrats like those on the New York Supreme Court seem to be banking on that very eventuality.
The entire case was designed to bring Trump down, and when that didn't work, the gag order was the next step.
Maybe the U.S. Supreme Court can right this egregious wrong before the impact can be felt.
With early voting starting any day, though, it seems more and more unlikely.
Democrats managed to deny Trump a second term in 2020 by using media bias and censorship to his advantage. Will they do any less in 2024?
A family's right to speak about their daughter's horrific death was recently preserved after her very preventable death put them in an impossible situation.
A Texas judge blocked an attempt to keep the story of Jocelyn Nungaray’s killing out of the media spotlight as the two Venezuelan migrants accused of murdering her pushed for a gag order on officials and her family, as The Houston Chronicle reported.
Franklin Jose Peña Ramos, age 26, and Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, age 21, who both entered the country illegally at the southern border, have been charged with capital murder. This death and others have been seen as a direct result of the current administration's open border policy.
The charges stem from the fact that they allegedly lured Jocelyn, a 12-year-old girl, under a bridge in June and assaulted her for two hours before strangling her to death and dumping her bound and stripped body through a bayou in Houston.
In the midst of a series of high-profile crimes purportedly associated with illegal migrants, Jocelyn's story rapidly garnered national attention.
Consequently, Peña Ramos' attorney requested a protective order to prevent Houston officials from making "extrajudicial statements" regarding the case, as reported by Fox News, which obtained a copy of the filing.
However, Harris County Judge Josh Hill declined to issue the silence order during a hearing on Wednesday.
“All that we want is a fair trial for our client, we don’t want this process to be politicized, we want a fair jury and we can’t get that with people discussing the case when they don’t have any facts or evidence about it,” Mario Madrid, Martinez Rangel’s attorney, said at the courthouse Wednesday.
According to Fox News, Peña Ramos' legal team made a request for a gag order, in which they accused Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg of making "numerous statements about the case that went beyond the statements of the prosecutor during the probable cause hearing."
They referred to her previous statements, which included statements such as "[M]ake no mistake, this is a horrific crime" and "the immigration system is broken."
In spite of the fact that the case has been the focus of attention from the national media, her family has been vocal in their condemnation of the two individuals who are suspected of killing migrants.
Last month, former President Donald Trump and Jocelyn's family visited the southern border in Arizona.
Alexis, Jocelyn's mother, also testified at a House Judiciary Committee hearing where she denounced the migrant "monsters" who allegedly murdered her daughter.
“Because of the Biden-Harris administration open border policies, catch and release, they were enrolled in the Alternatives to Detention program,” Nungaray said of her daughter’s alleged killers. “This meant that they were released into the United States.”
Republican Senator Ted Cruz was also motivated by Jocelyn's death to introduce legislation that would restrict the release of illegal immigrants from federal detention.