'Secret Service said no': Whistleblower highlights decision made night before Trump shot
A whistleblower says the Secret Service denied offers for drone surveillance at the Pennsylvania rally where former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated, according to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO.)
Law enforcement officials' offers of drone security were repeatedly turned down the night before the Butler, Pa., rally on July 13, Hawley said in a letter to Homeland Security department secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
"This means that the technology was both available to [the Secret Service] and able to be deployed to secure the site," Hawley wrote. "Secret Service said no."
Hawley slammed the Secret Services' alleged decision and demanded Mayorkas explain his department's "staggering security failures" in a Congressional hearing next week.
"It is hard to understand why USSS would decline to use drones when they were offered," Hawley wrote, "particularly given the fact USSS permitted the shooter to overfly the rally area with his own drone mere hours before event."
Raw Story reached out to the Homeland Security press office for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
Hawley's letter spread across social media and was quickly picked up by Laura Loomer, a white supremacist conspiracy theorist with personal ties to Trump.
"INSIDE JOB," Loomer wrote. "Looks like Secret Service and @SecMayorkas wanted President Trump to be assassinated!"
Her message was liked and shared on X more than 10,000 times.
Such theories have coursed through social media since news broke that Thomas Crooks, 20, had fired an AR-style rifle at the former president and rally attendees, fatally shooting firefighter Corey Comperatore.
Mayorkas has called these theories "preposterous" and "dangerous," warning they may only propagate the political violence that such theorists claim to condemn.
"We have to tamp down the rhetoric in this country," Mayorkas said.