Let's Face It: This Was An Abject Security Failure. Again; UPDATE: Johnson Demands, 'Tighten Up'https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2026/04/27/lets-face-it-this-was-another-security-failure-n3814329The Wall Street Journal took an acid look at the Secret Service's preparations for the event, and wonders what the hell they were thinking:
Despite a visible security perimeter and warnings of tight security, guests said they could enter the hotel through checkpoints on the surrounding streets by simply showing a dinner ticket or a copy of an invite to one of several predinner receptions. The tickets were reviewed by staff but weren’t scanned and there were no identification checks, attendees said.
“Upon entering nobody asked to visibly INSPECT my ticket nor asked for my photo identification. All one had to do was flash what appeared to be a ticket and they were fine with that,” said Kari Lake, a former Republican gubernatorial and Senate nominee in Arizona now serving as senior adviser for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, in a social-media post.
On Saturday night, commentators kept talking about the layers of security around the Hilton and wondered how the perp managed to penetrate those. It turned out that Cole Allen didn't have to penetrate anything. He just paid for a hotel room, negating everything but the final magnetometer layer that managed to stop his penetration before Allen reached the ballroom. As the video shows, however, Allen actually beat that layer initially and penetrated past it. Had Allen carried something other than firearms – like a suicide vest, for instance – no one would be suggesting that the Secret Service had prevented anything.
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Shouldn't this have been the most intense security in 30 years? Trump had been the target of two assassination attempts in the past two years. The war in Iran had generated even more threats on his life. This was the first WHCD attended by Trump as president, and also had Vice President J.D. Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson on the dais. This was a moment for stepped-up security, not for resting on laurels.
After two or three prior assassination attempts, WTH is the USSS thinking, if they are at all?! Is this another partisan-infested agency needing to be purged?!
