What happened The US Secret Service increased security around Donald Trump prior to last weekend's assassination attempt in response to a separate plot by Iran to kill the former president.
Who said what Details of the potential Iranian operation were obtained through "human source intelligence", a US national security official told CBS.Â
Though there is no suggestion that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the shooter who fired at Trump at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania last Saturday was in any way connected to the Iran plot, the existence of the threat from a hostile foreign intelligence agency "raises new questions about the security lapses", said CNN.
Trump has "faced threats from Tehran" since ordering the drone strike assassination of Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Quds force, in Iraq in 2020, said the BBC.
The Iranian mission at the United Nations denied the allegations, calling them "unsubstantiated and malicious", but added that Trump was "a criminal who must be prosecuted and punished in a court of law".
What next? Joe Biden has called for an "independent review" of the security planning for Trump's 13 July rally. The Secret Service is "facing intense questions over the security perimeter at the rally", said The New York Times. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has said she will "participate fully" with investigations into her agency's failings.
But voices on the right, including Fox News columnist David Marcus, have said Biden must go further than the security review, calling for Cheatle to be fired from her post. |