Jim Hulings, the newly elected Butler County GOP Chair, was thrust into the VIP section of the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania when shots were fired during the nation’s most recent presidential assassination.
“It was the worst moment of my life, to think that President Trump had come here, to Butler, and was being killed in front of us. I just couldn’t believe it.
And that was then matched by the greatest moment possible when Trump emerged, bloody but triumphant, and told us to fight! It was the greatest feeling to see that in person, and thank God they didn’t kill our President,” Hulings said.
“We did not run, they had to tell us to leave,” he added.
“When they opened up (security) at 1:00PM, they let the General Admission people go. We had to go through the checkpoint, we had to go through the magnetometers, and we had to turn over things that weren’t on the list. Umbrellas, chairs. The General Admission… I don’t think there was any security there… We were going through one at a time, they went down 30-40 at a time… I’m thinking… that doesn’t seem very secure to me because they didn’t check those people.”
Hulings commented that he found the security at the event to be “peculiar,” as some people in the crowd were thoroughly searched and inspected while others were allowed in with no security checks at all. He also noted the absence of the usual snipers stationed throughout the rally.
“The security at the event, however, was letting people into the event without any screening and I knew that that was a major security lapse. Someone could have gotten a gun into the event very easily.”
Hulings is explaining that Trump rallies usually have two entry points: general admission and expedited entry, which is typically reserved for elected officials and other VIPs.
Both groups are required to undergo the same security checks, such as metal detectors and pat-downs, in order to prevent any potentially dangerous items from being brought in.
However, Hulings reveals that security at Butler, Pennsylvania allowed in hundreds of general admission attendees without conducting any screening.
“They found a money clip in my pocket that I didn’t even know I had,” said Hulings. But then I saw people in the General Admission line who were being let in without any screening whatsoever. We were at the front of the expedited entry line, and by the time we got through security there were already hundreds who were down there from general admission. They were just letting them all in.”
The U.S. Secret Service has faced significant public criticism for their management of security at Butler.
They have been blamed for allowing a situation to arise in which a potential shooter could take aim at the President.
However, according to Hulings and others interviewed by the Gateway Pundit, the security failures were not solely the responsibility of the Secret Service but rather part of a larger systemic issue.
Hulings and Levi both identified distinct but similar security breaches that facilitated an impermissible “line of sight” to Trump at Butler, setting it apart from other Trump rallies.
This unobstructed view provided a potential opportunity for a sniper to take a clear shot.
According to Levi, previous rallies always had obstructions in place to prevent such long-range assassination attempts.
Hulings mentioned that he has been continuously granting interviews regarding the Trump assassination, noting that media requests began before he even left the scene in his car.
“By the time I was walking up to my car after leaving the rally, I was already getting calls from the New York Times and the New York Post and even People magazine. Later I received multiple calls from CNN, but I let them know very clearly that I would never, ever, speak to them because they are fakenews but I enjoyed that they kept calling so I could keep telling them that.”
