The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | July 17th, 2024: Secret Service Failures & Hamas's War Crimes

Episode Date: July 17, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:    Calls are growing for the director of the U.S. Secret Service to resign over the security failures that allowed a shooter to come within a hair of taking former President Donald Trump’s life at a rally on Saturday. More than nine months after the savage 7 October attacks on Israel by Hamas terrorists, a leading human rights organization has finally determined that the militants committed numerous war crimes on that tragic day. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin.  Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's Wednesday, 17 July. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. First, calls are growing for the director of the U.S. Secret Service to resign over the security failures that allowed a shooter to come within a hair of taking former President Trump's life at a rally on Saturday, while killing one rally attendee and seriously injuring others. Also, more than nine months after the Savage 7 October attacks on Israel by Hamas terrorists, a leading human rights organization has finally determined, oh, they finally determined, that the militants committed numerous war crimes on that tragic day. Apparently then, nine months is the amount of time that it takes a human rights organization to determine and confirm the obvious. Hmm, didn't know that. But first, our afternoon spotlight. I want to begin with our continued

coverage of the attempted assassination of former President Trump as pressure builds on the Secret Service Director to resign over the myriad security failures at Saturday's rally in Pennsylvania. Now, as we discussed on this morning's PDB, the shooter largely remains an enigma. He's a ghost on social media, and investigators, well, they've struggled to find any reasonable motives. What is clear, however, is that the U.S. Secret Service failed to properly secure the the rally and communicate with local authorities in a display of, let's call it, negligence that is equal parts shocking, bewildering, and incomprehensible. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheedel is in the hot seat over these failures with calls for her resignation mounting.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, you'll remember that he himself was a survivor of a politically motivated shooting, was one of the latest to demand that the director vacate her. position. He was particularly critical of her botched public response in the aftermath. The lawmaker said that more than 72 hours after the shooting, he and his colleagues have still not received answers from Secret Service leadership to quote, basic questions, and that's according to Politico. Cheeto did not make herself available to the press in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, forcing members of local law enforcement in Butler County, Pennsylvania to conduct a press conference where they faced questions that they were frankly not equipped to answer.

Scalise said, quote, I think the Secret Service head should have been out publicly right away. Oh, you think so, of course. That's just Crisis Communications 101. You had the local law enforcement giving a press conference, Scalise said, frankly, being asked questions that the head of the service should have been asked, end quote. Now, House Speaker Mike Johnson, he joined Scalice on Wednesday in calling for Cheel to step down, while also announcing the formation of a bipartisan task force to investigate the attempted assassination. And there is nothing that Washington, D.C. loves more than a bipartisan task force or an investigation. Cheedle, for her part, has said she has no plans to leave her post.

Uh-uh, not going anywhere. She sounds just like President Biden. In an interview earlier this week with ABC News, Cheetle acknowledged the security failures, oh, and said the buck stops with her. but also refused to resign. So apparently the buck doesn't stop with her. It only takes a brief pause with her until she and her boss, and that would be DHS Secretary Mayorkas, can figure out who to actually drop the buck on. As we touched on yesterday, she also gave a completely bizarre explanation that is already being widely mocked for why no secret service agents were posted on the roof in question. She claimed that,

while they had identified the roof as security vulnerability, given that it was only 148 yards from the stage with line of sight, the sloped roof of this building, I can't even say this with a straight face. She said that the sloped roof presented dangers to her agents. And so officials opted instead to station the team of Pennsylvania law enforcement inside the building with no rooftop visibility, but with access to the coffee maker. Apparently, aside from making DEI initiatives, one of Cheathel's top priorities since becoming a director, Cheathel also has taken it upon herself to be an expert on OSHA standards for sloped roofs. Now, I haven't read the government's sloped roof guidelines myself, but I feel like the rooftop in question

didn't pose as big a threat as, say, the president or presidential candidate, it's being shot. Hmm. I've said it before, which means, of course, I'm about to say it again, and I'm sure I'll say it in the future. But Cheatel should resign if for no other reason than her sloped roof excuse is the single stupidest, most embarrassing, dumbass's statement,

I don't even know if that's a word, ever uttered by a security professional. However, there are apparently plenty of other reasons to insist on her resignation besides her dumbass explanation. Now, the controversy and contradictions continue to build. Case in point. Cheedle explained that they positioned local law enforcement inside the building in question instead of on that incredibly dangerous Everest-like rooftop. Well, today, law enforcement officials from Butler County there in Pennsylvania are saying that their only responsibility at the event was traffic coordination and that the area

where the building is located was under Secret Service control, not under the responsibility, as had been stated by the Secret Service of local police. Secret Service leadership have obviously come under fire for shifting blame in the aftermath of the shooting, initially claiming again that the area of the shooting was under the jurisdiction of the local law enforcement. On Tuesday, Butler County District Attorney Ronald Goldinger condemned efforts to point the finger at state and local authorities, saying, quote, the buck stops at the top. Well, he's not wrong, except I think Cheetah is still confused about what the buck stops here means. The Secret Service is the primary element at these events, okay? They can request support and task out certain activities to local and state authorities,

but the overall planning, the decision-making, the command and control, well, that rests with the Secret Service. You don't point the finger and say, well, that's their problem. While we wait to see if the Biden administration will hold Cheatel accountable, what are the odds of that? Congress is taking matters into their own hands. Republican House Oversight Committee Chairman, James Comer plans to subpoena Cheedel to testify at the panel's planned hearing regarding the assassination attempt, and that will be on the 22nd of July. The director promised earlier this week to fully cooperate with any oversight actions from Congress. Well, that's very big of her, but the subpoena is meant to ensure that she can't backtrack on her appearance before the committee,

and that's according to an exclusive report from Axios. A spokesman for Comer said, quote, Director Cheedell must answer to Congress and the American people about the historic failure that occurred on her watch, end quote. Now, lawmakers have obviously grown frustrated over the lack of information coming out of the Biden administration. Multiple attempts to secure briefings for their committees have reportedly been postponed due to repeated scheduling changes by the Department of Homeland Security, DHS, which, of course, oversees the Secret Service. Speaking of DHS, the Department's Inspector General opened a formal investigation into the Secret Services handling of the rally on Wednesday. Oh, there are going to be so many investigations and committees and

bipartisan task forces. All right, coming up after the break, a leading human rights organization has determined that Hamas militants committed numerous war crimes during the brutal 7 October attacks against Israel. Apparently, that was a difficult conclusion for them to come to. I'll be right back. How many discounts does USAA auto insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi-vehicle discount. Safe driver discount? New vehicle discount. Storage discount.

How many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit usaa.com slash auto discounts. Restrictions apply. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. As if we needed more evidence of the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7th, a human rights watch report found that Hamas-led armed group, committed numerous war crimes during their attack on southern Israel. I think we all understood that intuitively.

The 236-page report released on Wednesday detailed the attack as directed against a civilian population with the intentional killing of civilians and taking hostages as central aims of the planned assault. The assault involved Hamas' military wing, and that's the Qasom Brigades, and at least four other Palestinian armed groups, resulting in the deaths of 1,200 people in Israel and the taking of more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli authorities. Now, H.R.W., Human Rights Watch, has deemed these actions

to meet the international legal definitions for crimes against humanity and war crimes. HRW's investigation revealed several dozen cases of serious violations of international humanitarian law by Palestinian armed groups at most civilian attack sites on 7 October. They interviewed 144 people, including 94 Israeli and other nationals, who witnessed the assault. They also analyzed over roughly 280 photographs and videos, most of which were taken by the terrorists themselves during the attacks. The report detailed Palestinian fighters committed summary killings, hostage-taking, murder, and subjected people to cruel and inhuman treatment.

Additionally, the report identified gender-based violence. Now, while HRW says they couldn't independently verify claims of sexual violence, they referenced a United Nations Envoy's report, which found, quote, reasonable grounds to believe such acts occurred. In a nine-page response, Hamas asserted that the Qasam Brigades, not the Hamas political movement, planned the attack and instructed fighters not to target civilians. Oh, really? so they had ground rules for their brutality.

HRW dismissed this response is false, concluding that the intentional killing and hostage taking of civilians was planned and coordinated. Hamas called for the report's retraction. Yes, you heard me right. The terrorist organization, guilty of the medieval attacks on 7 October, is claiming that they instructed their fighters not to target civilians,

and they're insisting that human rights watch retract their report and their contact. condemnations. HRW, again human rights watch, called for the immediate release of approximately 120 hostages and bodies still held in Gaza and urged all parties to adhere to international law and seek a ceasefire. Now as a side note, the International Criminal Court, the ICC, the prosecutor there has applied for arrest warrants for Hamas leaders. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Wednesday, 17 July. If you have any questions or comments for me, please. Reach out to me at PDB at thefirstTV.com.

And remember, to listen to the show ad-free, it is very simple. Become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting PDB premium.com. Couldn't be easier. I'm Mike Baker. And I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, well, you know the drill. Stay informed. Stay safe.

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