Suspensions aren’t enough punishment for the US Secret Service agents who failed to secure President Trump’s Pennsylvania rally site ahead of the July 2024 assassination attempt on the then candidate, said the widow of a fire chief killed in the tragedy.
“Suspending them when my husband was killed? You know, that’s not punishment,” Helen Comperatore said as she held back tears in an emotional Saturday interview with “FOX & Friends Weekend.”
Six Secret Service agents, including several from the Pittsburgh field office and one assigned to Trump’s protective detail, were given suspensions of 10 to 45 days for failures that resulted in the July 13, 2024, attempt on Trump’s life.
Corey Comperatore, 50, who served as the fire chief for Buffalo Township, died shielding his daughter from the gunfire that broke out just minutes into Trump’s speech. Two other rally-goers were severely wounded during the assassination attempt, while Trump was miraculously only grazed in the ear by a bullet.
“I’m really right at the beginning where I was back a year ago,” Helen said on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the shooting. “You know, we really haven’t healed that much.”
“We have no answers.”
While noting she is inclined to believe that would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks “acted alone,” Helen demanded more transparency from the Secret Service on the botched Butler security operation.
“I do believe it was Secret Service error,” she said. “I believe that they failed my husband miserably, and I want answers from them.
“I want to sit down with the Secret Service and I want them to tell me everything that happened that day,” Helen demanded. ”I want to know why they failed. I want to know what happened. Why, Butler? Why was that such a failure that day? What was the reason? Why did [Crooks] walk around for an hour without someone grabbing him? Why?”
Two weeks after the failed assassination attempt, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, a 28-year veteran of the agency, resigned in disgrace.
A scathing September Senate report on the assassination attempt determined that “multiple foreseeable and preventable planning and operational failures by [Secret Service] contributed” to Crooks’ ability to carry out the deadly shooting.
“These included unclear roles and responsibilities, insufficient coordination with state and local law enforcement, the lack of effective communications, and inoperable [counter-unmanned aircraft] systems, among many others,” the damning report read.
While she hasn’t heard from Secret Service, Helen noted she did receive a call from FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who walked her through “a lot of what happened that day with Thomas Crooks.
“He was very kind and left me his phone number and said I can call him any time,” she said.
She relives her husband’s death “every day … multiple times a day.”
“He was a wonderful human,” the widow said. “He was just the best dad. He was the best husband. He would help anybody.”
“He would have helped that kid,” Helen said through tears, referring to Crooks.
