US Secret Service were suspiciously slow in protecting Trump – psyop veteran

"The Secret Service were remarkably - if not suspiciously - slow in their protecting of [former] President [Trump], similar to how they were slow in protecting President John F Kennedy when he was shot in Texas," former US Army psychological warfare officer and State Department counterterrorism analyst Scott Bennett told Sputnik.

"Most suspicious was that in the case of Trump, the Secret Service did not respond to reports of a shooter crawling with a gun on the roof nearby as eye witnesses have reported," the pundit continued.

A flurry of theories, ranging from Trump staging his assassination attempt, to President Biden ordering the hit on a political rival, has popped up following the incident. Republicans and Democrats are pointing the finger at each other.

"In the process of this assassination attempt, the shooter has unified, inspired and emboldened the Republican conservatives, and the moderate (patriot) voting bloc in America, to stand with Trump; and villainized and demonized all those politicians, media, and other groups that dislike or vilify him," the expert noted.

As Trump emerges a "superhero" in the eyes of his base, one may expect the Republican's victory in November, Bennett forecasted. He does not rule out civil war-like political clashes between the Democrats and the GOP on the eve of the election.

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📹 Watch Russian pilots drop FAB-3000 bombs on Ukrainian Armed Forces' relocation sites

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❗️Russia's Vostok Battlegroup liberated Urozhaynoye in the Donetsk People's Republic and are clearing and demining it, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported.

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🇷🇺🪖 More statements from the Russian Defense Ministry’s briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️Russia's Zapad Battlegroup defeated eight enemy brigades, resulting in up to 520 Ukrainian militants and an ammunition depot lost;

▪️Russia's Tsentr Battlegroup repelled six counterattacks by enemy assault units, with Ukrainian losses reaching up to 300 militants;

▪️Russia's Dnepr Battlegroup destroyed an Israeli-made RADA RPS-42 airborne radar system and four field ammunition depots;

▪️Russia's Sever Battlegroup defeated eight Ukrainian brigades, resulting in up to 150 enemy militants lost;

▪️Ukrainian losses in the area of the Yug Battlegroup reached up to 450 militants, two armored personnel carriers, and six ammunition depots;

▪️Air defenses shot down 33 drones and ten HIMARS rockets.

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It was obvious that Trump's life was in danger, Kremlin spokesman says

"After numerous attempts to eliminate candidate Trump from the political arena: using first legal instruments, courts, prosecutors, attempts to politically discredit and compromise the candidate - it was obvious to all outside observers that his life was in danger," Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Other statements by Dmitry Peskov on the Trump assassination attempt:

🔸 Russia expresses condolences to the family of the bystander who died as part of the attempt, wishes a speedy recovery to those injured;

🔸 Moscow does not think that the attempt to eliminate Trump was organized by the current US government;

🔸 Repeatedly in the history of the USA there have been examples of domestic violence in the course of political struggle;

🔸 A style of using force in finding solutions has emerged in the US domestic arena;

🔸 The atmosphere created by the current US administration around Trump provoked the attack on him;

🔸 Russia has always condemned any manifestation of violence in the course of political struggle;

🔸 The US elections are their business, Russia is not going to interfere.

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📹 Trump was saved by a head movement he made during the shot

This can be seen in the footage of the assassination attempt made from a different angle. The bullet grazed Trump's ear.

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Republican lawmakers react to Trump rally shooting

The vast majority of congressional Republicans offered prayers and support for former President Donald Trump in the hours following what the FBI called an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday evening.

About 30 directly blamed President Biden, the Democratic Party, or members of the media for allegedly inciting the attack, even as Biden said “everybody must condemn” political violence in public remarks from Rehoboth Beach, Del.

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that [former] President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), a potential Trump running mate, wrote on X. “That rhetoric led directly to [former] President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

More than a dozen lawmakers used their official government social media accounts to cast blame for the shooting on Biden or other Trump critics.

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'Trump’s life was saved by a miracle, not by his security' — Russian Spetsnaz veteran

It appears that the people responsible for Trump’s safety dropped the ball judging by the circumstances of the recent assassination attempt, Alexey Filatov, retired lieutenant colonel of the Russian Federal Security Service and veteran counterterrorism specialist, told Sputnik.

While Trump’s security at the rally was provided by three groups – his bodyguards, local police and the Secret Service – it appears that there was no proper communication between them, Filatov, who previously interacted US security services personnel, notes.

Meanwhile, the perpetrator managed to somehow get on a rooftop only about 150 yards (137 meters) away from Trump, a distance where it is “fairly easy” to hit a target the size of a human head using “not even a sniper rifle but a usual automatic rifle with good sights,” Filatov remarks.

“It would be safe to say that the security performed extremely poorly,” he says, noting that for some reason, law enforcement and security personnel did not bother to secure all nearby rooftops in the vicinity.

“You could say that this terrorist act or, shall we say, assassination attempt, it was successful. Donald Trump’s life was saved by a miracle rather than by his security,” Filatov adds.

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'If you try to stop WWIII, they will try to kill you': US influencer on Trump and Fico assassination attempts

Jackson Hinkle, the US blogger who made the post on X, did not specify who he meant exactly by "they."

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Donald Trump's team allegedly sent a request to the US Secret Service for additional protection, but it was not granted, the New York Post has reported, citing sources. The service denies these allegations.

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📹 Pennsylvania Congressman Mike Kelly commented that the USA has become a third world country in response to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

"Look, if you don't want to vote for him, don't vote for him. There's no reason for anything like this to happen, especially not in America, not in the cradle of freedom," the politician said.

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🔥 Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber attacks a Ukrainian deployment point with a three-ton high-explosive bomb

The strike was carried out with the FAB-3000 aerial bomb that carried a universal planning and correction module. According to the results, the target was hit.

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Trump’s life saved by shooter’s lack of professionalism — Russian anti-terror unit veteran

"I don’t believe that it was a professional sniper, because for a professional sniper, 100 or 110 meters [from the roof to Trump] is not a [large] distance," Sergei Goncharov, president of the Association of Veterans of the Alpha Anti-Terror Unit and member of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) advisory council, tells Sputnik.

"He hit Trump's ear and is now confirmed to have killed two people. That is, at least, it seems to me that this criminal was not a professional, and he acted precisely from his own considerations, which will probably now be sorted out and discussed all over the world," the Spetsnaz veteran continues.

"The division in American society that now exists regarding Trump and Biden [has reached such strength] that I do not rule out that these police officers did not like Trump, and therefore they did not care about the situation that was pointed out to them," Goncharov speculates.

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Phone call between Trump and Biden was "short and respectful," CNN writes, citing sources

A source briefed on President Joe Biden’s call to former President Donald Trump after the assassination attempt on Saturday night described the conversation as “good,” noting that it was “short and respectful.”

Aside from Saturday’s call, the two men hadn't spoken directly in years, only interacting through moderators during last month’s CNN debate.

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World powers condemn assassination attempt against Donald Trump

The attempt on US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s life during a July 13 campaign rally in Pennsylvania evoked a wave of condemnation from world leaders.

▪️US President Joe Biden said there is no place in the US for this kind of violence and that he is “grateful” that Trump is safe;

▪️Following numerous attempts to eliminate Trump from “political arena,” it was “obvious to all outside observers that his life was in danger,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov who stated that Russia condemns “any manifestations of violence during the political struggle.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also remarked that the money US allocates to arm Ukraine should probably be spent “to finance the American police and other services which should ensure law and order within the United States”;

▪️China’s President Xi Jinping has expressed his sympathies to Trump, with Beijing voicing its concerns over the shooting;

▪️NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has condemned the attack on Trump, saying that he is “shocked” by the shooting. “I wish him a speedy recovery and my thoughts are with those affected,” he said;

▪️EC head Ursula von der Leyen said she is shocked by the shooting and wished Trump a speedy recovery;

▪️Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wrote in a social media post on X that his “thoughts and prayers” are with Trump “in these dark hours;”

▪️Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu stated on X that he "was shocked by the apparent attack" on Trump, and "prays for his safety and speedy recovery."

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Explosive devices found in the car of the suspected gunman in Donald Trump's assassination attempt, according to The Wall Street Journal

Authorities discovered explosive devices in the car of the man accused of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump, according to sources briefed on the investigation.

The car, driven by Thomas Matthew Crooks, was parked near the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, the sources said.

Police received multiple reports of suspicious packages near the shooter's location, prompting them to dispatch bomb technicians. Investigators continued to secure the scene well into the night. They also searched Crooks’s home and spoke with his family.

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Responsibility for attempted killing of Trump could lie with top Democrats

The overarching responsibility for the attempted assassination lies with the Democratic Party leadership and the Biden administration, according to Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of the Center for European and International Studies.

"The Democratic establishment… has been convincing American society over the last year and a half, at least, that Donald Trump's return to power would mean an end to American democracy and transformation of the United States into a fascist dictatorship, and that Donald Trump constitutes the major threat to the United States at large," Suslov told Sputnik.

Suslov believes that the Secret Service's failure to protect the Republican frontrunner stems from the US establishment's hostility towards Trump, whose election odds are continuing to rise. He doesn't rule out that the special services' negligence to the emerging threat was deliberate.

"The deep state, the intelligence community, and the special services in the United States are, of course, not interested in Trump's presidential victory," he said.

"They consider a second Trump administration… as a threat to themselves. And since Biden is definitely losing, and since the Democratic Party is disorganized, and there is an internal struggle and chaos within the Democratic camp… Trump's electoral chances are very, very high and continue to grow," Suslov concluded.

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🔥 A Russian Iskander crew destroyed a German-made IRIS-T air defense system in the Dnepropetrovsk region.

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