WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SHOOTING?

Let's assign blame where it belongs

Kimberly Cheatle, the Director of the U.S. Secret Service, has resigned pursuant to requests or demands from members of both the Republican and Democratic Parties following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Cheatle is taking the rap but hardly deserves the fault for the incident. Clearly, someone failed to cover the building from which the shooter took aim. Presumably Cheatle was in her office in Washington and had assigned responsibility for coverage of Trump to some agent in the field. That agent reportedly gave charge for coverage of the building area to local police – who failed to fulfill the duty assigned to them.

Cheatle apparently was aware that the SS was understaffed and underfunded and had requested addition funds for the SS to hire more officers. That request was denied, probably by the House Leader who has now held the SS responsible for its failure. So, it seems to me that the problem goes right back to the House and that it is the House that is responsible for the failure to prevent the gunman from gaining access.

Assigning blame against the disenabled functionaries for gross acts like this isn’t uncommon – but it happens too often. Maybe Congress should look to blaming itself – or at least, the members who denied the requested funding – for the gross mistakes of others.