Amid a fiery national debate over political violence and free speech, the Secret Service faces one of its biggest tests yet in securing Charlie Kirk’s massive funeral in Arizona this weekend.
Charlie Kirk, a lifelong advocate for free speech, the leader of the nation’s preeminent conservative youth organization, and a beloved confidant of the first family, was fatally shot Wednesday afternoon while speaking with students at Utah Valley University.
The last presidential debate was not even halfway over when Donald Trump accused his opponent of a careless kind of rhetoric that nearly got him killed: “I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me.”
The second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump while he was golfing at one of his Florida courses on Sunday is forcing the United States Secret Service to further tighten security around the Republican presidential nominee and to reevaluate just how much Trump should be venturing out – whether he should continue to golf and participate in other outdoor activities, according to multiple sources in the Secret Service community.
Inflexible Secret Service protocols, overworked special agents, and a decision against deploying more counter snipers to President Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania all contributed to creating the opening for a gunman to wound Trump, kill a bystander, and seriously injure two others, according to several sources in the Secret Service community.