CBS News
Trump returns to Butler, PA for a rally tomorrow. Here’s how the Secret Service will secure the event.
When former president Donald Trump takes the stage once again tomorrow in Butler, Pennsylvania, the security apparatus around the GOP nominee will look starkly different from the day of the first assassination attempt against him, when he took cover behind his podium as a gunman opened fire.
Secret Service and the second Butler rally
U.S. Secret Service personnel will be stationed both inside and outside of the secure perimeter. That area includes the roof of a glass company warehouse where investigators say 20-year-old Thomas Crooks fired off eight rounds on July 13, grazing Trump’s ear, killing one attendee and injuring two others.
“Since the attempted assassination of former President Trump on July 13, the U.S. Secret Service has made comprehensive changes and enhancements to our communications capabilities, resourcing, and protective operations,” U.S. Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement. “Today, the former President is receiving heightened protection and we take the responsibility to ensure his safety and security very seriously.”
Federal law enforcement and local police began planning for Trump’s return to Butler roughly two weeks ago, multiple law enforcement officials told CBS News. The first in-person planning meeting with local law enforcement took place earlier this week, on Monday.
“Regarding the October 5 event in Butler, we are coordinating closely with the Pennsylvania State Police as well as local law enforcement in and around Butler Township,” Guglielmi added. “We are also leveraging other federal security resources to expand personnel and technology.”
Those federal resources will include agents from the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations, who will stand post inside and outside the security perimeter. TSA agents will be working the magnetometers along the perimeter of the site, according to law enforcement sources.
And while the 45th president’s security footprint will include more personnel and assets – complete with counter sniper teams, enhanced counter drone technology and counter assault teams – there will also be additional Pennsylvania State Police officers on site, with tactical team members blended alongside U.S. Secret Service teams throughout the event.
Senate report on Secret Service and Trump Butler rally
Last month, an interim Senate report identified planning, communications and security failures in the U.S. Secret Service’s efforts during former President Donald Trump’s July rally that “directly contributed” to the assassination attempt against him.
The joint investigation of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations indicated that several Secret Service officials experienced chronic problems with their radios on July 13. In one notable instance, a Secret Service countersniper was offered a local radio to help with communications through the day, but he didn’t have time to pick it up because he was working on “fixing” his own Secret Service radio. Because of failures of radios on site in Butler, the special agent in charge gave away his radio to a lead advance agent and went without one for the rest of the day, the report said.
Trump’s detail now travels with a radio communications specialist from the U.S. Secret Service’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, whose primary purpose is to share real-time information with Trump’s team, as relayed on all law enforcement radio channels, according to multiple law enforcement sources.
Addressing Butler rally site vulnerabilities
A number of tall buildings lining the perimeter of the Butler Farm Show create line-of-sight vulnerabilities for Trump. The Secret Service is mitigating that threat with stage enhancements, rows of farm vehicles parked around the rally site and bulletproof glass, according to the sources.
Unlike the July 13 rally, members of the U.S. Secret Service, Pennsylvania State Police and Butler County Police will sit together in a unified command post.
Trump in Butler amid assassination threats from Iran
The two attempts on Trump’s life followed the arrest of a Pakistani national with ties to Iran, charged with allegedly plotting a murder-for-hire scheme targeting current and former U.S. officials, including Trump.
Matthew Olsen, head of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, said in an interview with CBS News Thursday that the U.S. government has been “intensely tracking Iranian lethal plotting efforts targeting former and current U.S. government officials – and that includes the former president.”
Olsen added, “I would say that we are very concerned – gravely concerned – about Iranian plotting.”Last month, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence briefed Trump on “real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him.”
“I think we’ve been very, very clear that that is a threat vector that we are extremely concerned about monitoring very closely, working to gain as much information and fidelity on as we possibly can,” a senior DHS official told CBS News in a reporter briefing, Wednesday. “That is a U.S. government wide effort to involve all of our partners across the United States government.”
A Homeland Threat Assessment released by the Department of Homeland Security Wednesday stated that Iran “maintains its intent to kill US government officials it deems responsible for the 2020 death of its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)-Quds Force Commander and designated foreign terrorist Qassem Soleimani,” an action carried out during the Trump administration.
“It is no secret that this is a challenge we are confronting on a daily basis right now,” the DHS senior official added.
Authorities anticipate roughly 25,000-30,000 will be attending the rally Saturday.
Nikole Killion, Daniel Klaidman, Clare Hymes, Michael Kaplan contributed reporting.
Nikole Killion and
contributed to this report.
MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis police arrested a 10-year-old boy for allegedly driving a stolen vehicle near a school playground last month — and it’s not the boy’s first brush with the law, police said.
The Sept. 20 incident was caught on video. The Minneapolis Police Department said it happened at Nellie Stone Johnson School in north Minneapolis when the playground was “crowded.”
“Fortunately, no children on the playground were struck by the driver,” the department said.
Police booked the 10-year-old into the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center Thursday. According to the department, this is at least his third arrest and he is a suspect in a dozen cases ranging from “auto theft to robbery to assault with a dangerous weapon.”
“It is unfathomable that a 10-year-old boy has been involved in this level of criminal activity without effective intervention,” Police Chief Brian O’Hara said. “Prison is not an acceptable option for a 10-year-old boy. But the adults who can stop this behavior going forward must act now to help this child and his family.”
Police said the boy’s family members are cooperating and “have asked for help to keep their son or anyone else from being injured or killed.”
Minneapolis Police
Justice for metro’s youth offenders is complex, daunting issue
On Friday, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office announced criminal charges have been filed against the boy, but couldn’t comment further due to his age.
The office says if a court-appointed psychologist deems any offender, including a child, incompetent to stand trial, and a judge agrees with the recommendation, the case “must be dismissed or suspended, and the child must be released from custody.”
“We are facing an urgent crisis in our community related to a small group of children who are not competent to stand trial in the juvenile justice system, but who cannot safely be at home,” an attorney’s office spokesperson said in a statement.
The office says it “cannot charge or prosecute our way out of this crisis,” and adds it’s working with law enforcement, county and state partners in the hope of creating “out-of-home placements” for young offenders with “complex needs.”
“What we need is clear: residential placements with varying levels of security in our community that are resourced and staffed to be able to accept and successfully treat our youth with complex needs,” the spokesperson wrote. “And we need urgent and immediate action to address this issue now.”
Why the metro’s juvenile facility centers are shuttered
In 2019, two metro facilities for juvenile offenders were closed after being in operation for more than 100 years: Minnetonka’s Hennepin County Home School and St. Paul’s Totem Town.
The closings came after leaders in Hennepin and Ramsey counties decided to move away from the practice of confining child offenders in favor of a new data-driven system emphasizing the use of alternative methods like intensive treatment homes and community- and cultural-specific programs.
Data show since the closures, crimes committed by youths like arson, auto thefts and robberies have increased in the metro between 2019 and 2021.
Critics, like Ramsey County Undersheriff Mike Martin, say the shift away from confinement has backfired.
“We’re failing these kids,” Martin told WCCO in 2022. “The criminal justice system no longer holds them accountable or provides meaningful intervention to them.”
MCF-Moorhead and MCF-Red Wing are two Minnesota juvenile facilities that take in the state’s most violent young offenders. But the rest are mostly sent home after being arrested.
Lisa Clemons, founder and chief executive officer of Minneapolis-based A Mother’s Love Initiative, told WCCO in 2022 that young offenders are emboldened by the lack of consequences.
“They know it’s a revolving door downtown,” Clemons said. “They take full advantage of being juveniles, and we have allowed the lawlessness long enough that they have absolutely no fear.”
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The U.S. military struck more than a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen Friday, going after weapons systems, bases and other equipment belonging to the Iranian-backed rebels, U.S. officials confirmed.
Military aircraft and warships bombed Houthi strongholds at approximately five locations, according to the officials.
Seven strikes hit the airport in Hodeida, a major port city, and the Katheib area, which has a Houthi-controlled military base, Houthi media said. Four more strikes hit the Seiyana area in Sanaa, the capital, and two strikes hit the Dhamar province. The Houthi media office also reported three air raids in Bayda province, southeast of Sanaa.
The strikes came days after the Houthis threatened “escalating military operations” targeting Israel after they apparently shot down a U.S. military drone flying over Yemen. Last week, the group claimed responsibility for an attack targeting American warships.
The rebels fired more than a half dozen ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles and two drones at three U.S. ships that were traveling through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, but all were intercepted by the Navy destroyers, according to several U.S. officials.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet publicly released.
Houthis have targeted more than 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza started last October. They have seized one vessel and sunk two in the campaign that has also killed four sailors.
Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a U.S.-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels.
The group has maintained that they target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the United Kingdom to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.
Liberty Classical Academy sues May Township after expansion plans put on hold
Is Minnesota’s most competitive House seat a swing district or is it trending blue?
Boy, 10, charged after driving stolen car near crowded Minneapolis playground
Liberty Classical Academy sues May Township after expansion plans put on hold
Is Minnesota’s most competitive House seat a swing district or is it trending blue?