Jim Hulings, the Butler County GOP Chair, had just recently been elected to his volunteer position. On Saturday, he found himself in the VIP section of the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when shots rang out during the most recent presidential assassination attempt.
“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,” he said.
“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 continued.
“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,” Hulings said.
“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,” he continued.
Hulings said he felt the security at the event was “bizarre” because it closely searched and inspected some in the crowd, but let others in with no security whatsoever.
Hulings said he could not see the normal detachments of snipers 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,” he said.
Hulings explains that Trump rallies usually have two entrances: one for general admission and another for expedited entry, which is typically reserved for elected officials and other VIPs.
Both groups undergo the same security screenings, including metal detectors and pat-downs, to ensure no dangerous items are brought in that could threaten the President or attendees.
However, Hulings reports that in Butler, Pennsylvania, security allowed at least hundreds of General Admission attendees to enter without any screening.
“They found a money clip in my pocket that I didn’t even know I had,” Hulings said.
“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,” he continued.
The U.S. Secret Service has faced the bulk of public criticism for their handling of security in Butler.
Many have blamed the agency for creating a situation where a potential shooter could target the President. However, Hulings and others said that the security failures were more systemic and not solely the fault of the Secret Service.
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