by Sharon Rondeau
(Jul. 14, 2024) — Late Saturday night former U.S. Secret Service agent Dan Bongino issued an “emergency” broadcast in which he described the near-fatal shots fired at 45th president and 2024 presumptive Republican nominee Donald J. Trump at a late-afternoon rally in Butler, PA on Saturday.
“I warned this would happen…” reads the caption to the video, the essence of which The Post & Email recounted in its earlier coverage of the assassination attempt.
Bongino began his commentary with invoking his faith in God and Jesus Christ and asking listeners to “pray for our nation.”
“We are now, tragically and sadly, living through a moment in history, and certainly not a proud one,” he said.
“The Bongino Rule,” he continued, “definitely applies here. We don’t know a lot…unfortunately, there’s some commentary out there now…that’s just totally, completely inaccurate.”
He said many had already asked him, “How could this possibly happen?” in light of the “secure perimeter” assumed to have been established prior to the event.
“This is obviously an abysmal failure,” he opined. “There’s no excusing that at this point…Whatever happened in there should not have happened…The protectee comes first at all times.”
He qualified his remarks with what was then known. “It appears to be a firearm at this point. We don’t know that…we will obviously get some forensics.”
He acknowledged a local station reported one fatality from the shots fired, which was later confirmed by the Associated Press, Fox News and other outlets.
“President Trump appears to be OK,” he said, while acknowledging that during his Secret Service training, he was instructed that “everybody thought Reagan was OK until he started gurgling blood” after the assassination attempt by John Hinckley, Jr. in 1981.
In June 2022, Hinckley, who was found “not guilty by reason of insanity” and served no prison time, was granted full freedom of movement after having spent many years in a mental institution. He eventually was granted permission to reside with his mother until her death in 2021.
In an October 2022 interview with Piers Morgan, Hinckley accepted responsibility for the 2014 death of Reagan’s press secretary, James Brady, who incurred a brain injury from the first bullet fired from his gun on March 30, 1981. Two others, Secret Service agent Timothy J. McCarthy and Metropolitan Police Officer Thomas Delahanty, were also injured.
McCarthy reportedly fully recovered, but Delahanty suffered permanent damage to his left arm from a bullet which landed in his neck.
Bongino said he was asked “hypothetically” how a would-be assassin would secrete a weapon into an event past a magnetometer. “The way it’s happened in the past, sometimes is they bury these things,” [sic] he responded, qualifying it by stating he was not claiming it to be the method used on Saturday. “Don’t assume this firearm is an all-metal device; however, there had to be some rounds,” he said. “…How the magnetometers were bypassed — because it appears to have come from within the event, although again, again, that’s not conclusive at this point — how this weapon bypassed the magnetometers is going to be the big question. It’s an apocalyptic security failure.”
“What you’re witnesses today, ladies and gentlemen, with me, your friend, right now,…is actual living history, and it’s important we get it right.” he said.
He said it would have been “an oddity” if the shots came from “outside the perimeter.”
At 9:08 a.m. Sunday, Bongino was a guest on “Fox & Friends” during which he termed Secret Service Director Kimberly A. Cheatle a “failure.” Shortly thereafter, the connection with Bongino was broken.
At 9:17, he returned to the broadcast, cautioning Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmo to “be careful” with his comments regarding additional security measures the Trump campaign reportedly requested and did not receive. On “X” Saturday night, Guglielmo denied the claim.
In response, Bongino called upon Guglielmi to “resign today.”
“Was there aerial support — drones, helicopters?” Bongino asked by way of example. “There’s only one entity that saved Donald Trump’s life there last night…that’s Donald Trump,” he said. “Can you imagine what would have happened if Donald Trump didn’t duck?…He saved his own life…the evacuation did not go right…”
“The failure here is absolutely catastrophic,” he told the three co-hosts. “I can tell you and absolutely confirm…there have been repeated requests to…increase the security around Donald Trump…”
He rejected the claim that the Secret Service is employing the latest and best technology and that Saturday night’s event was a success.
“Why weren’t there more resources?” Fox & Friends co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy asked.
“The Secret Service was more concerned about protective service around Donald Trump…,” Bongino responded, in part, citing Trump’s customary “red tie,” suggesting the agency’s priorities are misdirected. “Not a single excuse should be made; not a single excuse should be attempted…if this is the best technology you have,…this was an apocalyptic security failure.”