Sen. Dave McCormick stood in the crowd at Butler when the shots rang out.
He just went public with what investigators found buried in Secret Service files.
And it explains why over half of Americans don't believe the official story.
The Bombshell McCormick Just Dropped
A Government Accountability Office report confirmed senior Secret Service officials received classified intelligence about a threat to Trump's life on July 3, 2024.
The rally was July 13.
Those officials never shared the threat information with federal and local law enforcement responsible for securing Butler.
The Secret Service claimed they had "no process" to share classified threats that weren't deemed "imminent."
So the cops and agents staffing the event had no idea they were protecting against an active threat.
Local law enforcement told GAO investigators if they'd known, they "would have requested additional assets."
Instead, a 20-year-old climbed onto a roof less than 150 yards from Trump with an AR-15.
Charlie Kirk Got Answers In Days, Trump Waited A Year
Since Charlie Kirk's assassination on September 10, 2024, investigators moved fast.
Within days, Utah Governor Spencer Cox publicly confirmed alleged gunman Tyler Robinson had been radicalized by "leftist ideology."
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino told Fox Nws that Robinson made threats against Kirk to acquaintances before the shooting.
The investigation into Kirk's murder produced clear answers about ideology, radicalization, and motive almost immediately.
Compare that to Butler.
The FBI took over a year to release basic information about Crooks' digital footprint showing he wrote in August 2020 about using "terrorism style attacks" to assassinate "important people/politicians/military leaders."
Members of Congress said their demands for Crooks information were "stonewalled."
Even after the FBI concluded its investigation in November 2025, massive questions remain unanswered.
You don't stonewall for a year unless you're hiding something.
The Secret Service Director Who Failed Got Promoted
Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testified to Congress that no asset requests were denied for Butler.
Senate investigators proved that was a lie.
They found at least two instances where Secret Service headquarters denied resources for the Butler rally specifically.
Cheatle resigned, but only six personnel faced any discipline at all.
Suspensions ranging from 10 to 42 days without pay, nobody got fired.
And Sean Curran—the top-ranking agent on Trump's detail that day who let a shooter get within 150 yards—got promoted to Secret Service Director.
The guy who ran security at the biggest Secret Service failure in 40 years is now running the entire agency.
The Security Failures That Let Crooks Get His Shot
The security room agent coordinating communications at Butler got assigned that role two days before the rally.
He didn't even know there was a second command post until he overheard Pennsylvania State Police talking about it.
Rallygoers spotted Crooks on the roof with a rangefinder 25 minutes before he opened fire and reported him to Secret Service agents.
Nothing happened.
Trump took the stage anyway.
A Butler County Emergency Service Unit officer shot at Crooks and hit his rifle four seconds after Crooks began firing.
By then Trump's ear was grazed and Corey Comperatore was dead.
Congressional reports found "fragmented communications" because local law enforcement and Secret Service ran separate command posts that didn't talk to each other.
The House task force concluded these weren't isolated failures but reflected "preexisting issues in leadership and training."
McCormick Knows What Transparency Actually Looks Like
McCormick came from Bridgewater Associates, where the corporate culture demanded "radical truth, radical transparency."
That experience gives him a standard most politicians don't have.
"The American people can take the truth," McCormick stated.
"Whether it's about JFK's killing, or whether it's about the Epstein files, or whether it's about the attempt on President Trump's life at Butler—unless it's a matter of national security where something is going to compromise our capacity to protect the American people, more is better."
He's right.
Public opinion polls show over half of Americans believe Crooks didn't act alone.
That's what happens when you withhold information for a year while the guy who botched security gets promoted.
The FBI had Crooks' entire digital history showing violent obsession and radicalization during COVID, knew he used encrypted communication accounts and aliases to buy bomb-making materials, knew he searched "how far was Oswald from Kennedy" the same day he registered for Trump's rally.
Yet somehow this 20-year-old with no social media presence—except wait, he did have social media, the FBI just kept that from Congress initially—got within 150 yards of a former president at a campaign rally.
After senior Secret Service officials got briefed on a threat ten days earlier.
McCormick witnessed the whole thing from the crowd.
He saw how close Crooks got, saw the prominent rooftop position, saw Comperatore die.
"When things aren't fully wrestled to the ground, even if there's legitimate answers, you breed mistrust," he said.
Trump told reporters he was "satisfied" with FBI Director Kash Patel's briefing.
But McCormick's not satisfied.
And after what GAO just revealed about that ten-day warning the Secret Service buried, neither should you.
Sources:
- Josh Christenson, "Sen. Dave McCormick tells Pod Force One he's 'not satisfied' with Trump Butler assassination attempt probes," New York Post, February 11, 2026.
- Senate Judiciary Committee, "Grassley Report Concludes Secret Service Failure to Share Threat Information," United States Senate.
- CBS News, "Secret Service denied multiple requests to bolster Trump's security detail during his 2024 campaign," July 13, 2025.
- Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, "Chairman Rand Paul Releases Final Report Detailing Secret Service Failures," July 14, 2025.
- CNN Politics, "A year after Butler: How a near assassination led to an uneven search for accountability in the Secret Service," July 13, 2025.
- Fox News, "Charlie Kirk suspected assassin had 'leftist ideology' despite Republican family," September 16, 2025.
- PBS News, "Utah Gov. Cox shares more details from investigation into motive of Kirk shooting suspect," September 14, 2025.
