The Secret Service failed Donald Trump. Congress must investigate

In the wake of colossal failures of advance perimeter security and our best hope for America’s future nearly assassinated, an independent, total and transparent investigation is needed. But for the grace of God and his momentary head-turn Donald Trump still lives, despite 8-year opposition efforts to “eliminate” him. The pump fist, erroneously dubbed defiant, was really a rallying call to freedom-loving Americans that Trump is still ready to fight and make America great again.

Elon Musk asserted: “Extreme incompetence, or deliberate.” Neither is acceptable. Why wasn’t a police-reported suspicious person detained 26 minutes before the shots? Why was the armed gunman allowed to penetrate and perch on an unsecured, adjacent and clear-shot roof? Why did security see and do nothing while spectators pointed out this danger minutes before? How could security so quickly dispatch the killer without having calculated his dangerous location before? Who was he? Why? Who else was involved?

We need independent total transparency with no report redactions, no phone censorship, no evidence tampering, no covered-up communication, no misleading reporting. We must have the unvarnished facts. An internal investigation won’t cut it. Many of us Americans have lost faith in our 3-lettered government agencies. Accordingly, our current DOJ and weaponized FBI won’t easily erase suspicion this was an inside job.

Now is the opportunity to restore faith and trust employing outside experts and an independent, Congress-commissioned investigation. So this doesn’t happen again. May God heal survivors, comfort the grieving family, bless Donald Trump, his family and America.

Tim Bickel

Cedar Rapids