Support truly
independent journalism
Secret Service snipers were positioned outside a rally for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in Wisconsin, the first major outdoor presidential campaign event since a gunman opened fire on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania last month.
Secret Service agents were positioned outside the Harris-Walz rally in Eau Claire on Wednesday, where the vice president and her running mate, other Democratic officials and musician Bon Iver appeared before 12,000 people at an outdoor event space.
Last week, acting Secret Service director Ronald Rowe said that both the Republican and Democratic candidates will have similar “counter sniper coverage moving forward.”
“Our campaign cadence now has obviously picked up, and we’re going to put all the resources out there to address any challenges that we have,” Rowe said from Washington on Friday.
Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania marked the first time that a Secret Service counter sniper had been assigned to one of Trump’s events, according to Rowe.
That counter sniper fired a single fatal shot at the 20-year-old gunman who had fired eight rounds from an AR-15 style rifle while on a rooftop outside the rally’s security perimeter.
The gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, struck Trump’s right ear, killed one rally attendee, and critically injured two others.
While the Butler rally marked the first time that Secret Service had deployed a counter sniper to Trump’s Secret Service detail, other law enforcement agencies have provided similar coverage at other campaign events, which are typically closely coordinated between Secret Service personnel and state and local police.
Secret Service officials have repeatedly urged the former president to stop holding outdoor rallies, but Rowe told reporters last week that it’s “on the Secret Service to make sure we create a safe environment.”
“It’s on us to figure out what we gotta do to mitigate that,” he said.
In an all-caps post on Truth Social on July 27, Trump said he will “continue to do outdoor rallies, and Secret Service has agreed to substantially step up their operation.”
“They are very capable of doing so,” he added. “No one can ever be allowed to stop or impede free speech or gathering!!!”
