Former Secret Service special agent Richard Staropoli weighs in on new details about President Donald Trump's second assassination attempt on'The Story.' The Secret Service has ushered in a series of changes to beef up its security measures in the aftermath of the July 2024 assassination attempt against President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania – including suspending six of its agents due to their response to the crisis. Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn disclosed the suspensions Wednesday in an interview with CBS News, and said the consequences ranged from 10 days to 42 days of unpaid leave. Additionally, he said the agents would return to restricted roles following the suspension, and said the agency was "laser focused on fixing the root cause of the problem." "Secret Service is totally accountable for Butler," Quinn told CBS. "Butler was an operational failure and we are focused today on ensuring that it never happens again."

Ken Gray, a former FBI agent and military analyst, told Fox News Digital he does not believe the New Jersey drone sightings are hobbyists, though it's unclear at this stage if they are a threat or not. New Jersey authorities have insisted that sightings of SUV-size drones for the past several weeks do not present a threat to public safety, but military analysts say the lack of clear answers from the government points to a larger problem. These large drones have been spotted over the skies of the Garden State with smaller, more rapidly maneuverable drones, resembling what's referred to as "drone motherships" that have been deployed in Ukraine, Russia and China, Fox News contributor Brett Velicovich said. The motherships launch smaller drones, which do not have the necessary range-antennas to carry them a further distance. That suggests, according to Velicovich, that a foreign adversary could be at play in New Jersey.

Video of Spot strutting around the property has gone viral on TikTok - where reactions range from calling them cool and cute, to creepy - and become fodder for jokes on American late night television. But its mission is no laughing matter. "Safeguarding the president-elect is a top priority," said Anthony Guglielmi, US Secret Service chief of communications, in a statement to the BBC. In the months leading up to the US presidential election, Trump was the target of two apparent assassination attempts. The first took place at a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania and the other occurred at the Mar-a-Lago golf course in September.

A Pennsylvania police officer on Thursday told lawmakers that a local operator's bullet ultimately stopped failed assassination attempt shooter Thomas Crooks before the U.S. Secret Service fatally shot him. Edward Lenz's testimony came Thursday morning during a hearing before the House Trump Assassination Attempt Task Force, which has been tasked with investigating the July 13 shooting of former President Donald Trump, the first of two recent assassination attempts against him. "Across the two counter assault teams, the quick reaction force, three sniper teams and support personnel, we provided total manpower of 44 persons, exceeding the number requested by the Secret Service," Lenz, a commander with the Butler County Emergency Services Unit (ESU), said in his opening remarks. "At no point during the planning process was Butler County ESU asked to secure the AGR complex, nor the perimeter surrounding that area. At no point during the planning process was Butler ESU asked to deploy a sniper team to the roof of the AGR complex."

A preliminary report on the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Trump from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs ripped into newly revealed missteps that went into the Secret Service's planning and execution of security at the event during which a spectator was killed, two others were seriously wounded and the GOP candidate was struck on the ear. Among the key failures, an agent inexperienced with drone equipment called a toll-free tech support hotline for help after a request ahead of time for additional unmanned assets was denied, according to a preliminary summary of findings made public Wednesday. According to the committee, he had just an hour of informal training with the device. "Multiple foreseeable and preventable planning and operational failures by USSS contributed to [Thomas] Crooks' ability to carry out the assassination attempt of former President Trump on July 13," the preliminary report read. "These included unclear roles and responsibilities, insufficient coordination with state and local law enforcement, the lack of effective communications, and inoperable C-UAS systems, among many others."

Fox News' Chad Pergram previews the Senate's Tuesday hearing with acting U.S. Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate as lawmakers continue investigating the security lapses at Trump's Butler rally. Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe, Jr. admitted to the Senate on Tuesday that the assassination attempt against former President Trump was "a failure of the Secret Service," and not local law enforcement. Rowe's admission was the most direct assignment of guilt by the Secret Service and investigators since the July 13 shooting. The acting director appeared before the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees on Tuesday alongside FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate. Rowe detailed the failure of a drone detection system that was supposed to be online before shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks conducted his own reconnaissance the day of the rally.

BETHAL PARK, Penn – The U.S. Secret Service had availability to use drones and chose not to at the fateful Pennsylvania rally that spiraled into an assassination attempt against former President Trump, Rep. Michael Guest said. Guest, R-Miss., told Fox News Digital that elected officials were briefed that no counter-drone use from the Secret Service or the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) was used in preparation for and during the Butler, Pennsylvania, campaign rally on July 13. The Republican said the PSP revealed it did have the availability of drones but that no requests were made. "The Secret Service was responsible for the operational plan," he said. "And they made the decision to not only not fly drones that day but to not station law enforcement on top of a water tower."

PITTSBURGH – Local law enforcement repeatedly offered to provide drone coverage in the sky above former President Donald Trump's July 13 campaign rally – where he survived a failed assassination attempt – but was rebuffed by the U.S. Secret Service, according to Sen. Josh Hawley, citing a new whistleblower. "According to one whistleblower, the night before the rally, U.S. Secret Service repeatedly denied offers from a local law enforcement partner to utilize drone technology to secure the rally," Hawley, a Missouri Republican and member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. "This means that the technology was both available to USSS and able to be deployed to secure the site. WHISTLEBLOWER REVEALS WHY TRUMP RALLY OFFICER ASSIGNED TO SHOOTER'S PERCH MOVED Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. FBI Director Christopher Wray, whose agency has taken a lead role in the investigation, confirmed during a congressional hearing this week that the would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, flew a drone of his own overhead before Trump took the stage.

The U.S. Secret Service (USSS) should have "one set of standards," according to Republican Oklahoma Rep. Josh Brecheen. Brecheen introduced a bill on Tuesday called the Secret Service Readiness Act that aims to create "a uniform fitness standard for Secret Service special agents and uniformed division officers" after the assassination attempt that wounded former President Trump at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. "We believe that there ought to be one set of standards for Secret Service agents. There shouldn't be multiple different ways you can qualify based upon your sex or your political beliefs. If people who are being protected by [the] Secret Service – if they want the opportunity to let those who can't meet full historic standards on their details, let them handle it. Don't force it upon everybody else and potentially make them more vulnerable to an assassination attempt. There should be one set of standards."

Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy has the latest on the president's speech at the U.S. on'Special Report' Federal law enforcement agencies in the Biden administration are reportedly purchasing surveillance drones from China that have previously been labeled a potential national security threat by the Pentagon. The U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have recently acquired surveillance drones from the Shenzhen-based company DJI, around the same time the Defense Department deemed products from the Chinese company to be a potential national security threat, according to an Axios report. DOBRIANSKY AND RUNDE: CHINA'S POWER INSIDE THE UN IS GROWING RAPIDLY AND US MUST UP ITS GAME Procurement records show that the Secret Service bought eight DJI drones on July 26 just three days after the Defense Department issued a statement warning about possible threats posed by the company's products. Around the same time, records show that the FBI bought 19 drones from DJI. DJI is one of the most popular drone manufacturers in the industry, and the company requires those who purchase their products to download proprietary software and provide to users their own mapping databases that have the potential to be monitored remotely. Concerns about the company's products being used to advance China's interests have been longstanding and include a 2017 statement from the Department of Homeland Security that claimed with "moderate confidence" that DJI was "providing U.S. critical infrastructure and law enforcement data to the Chinese government."